Bookcast Episode 133: Busy on Purpose: My 2025 Year in Review

In this episode, I’m wrapping up 2025! 

I talk through the books I released this year, how they performed, what I earned across platform (Amazon, wide and Wide and direct sales) and what I learned about my businesst through the year (hint: lean into audio!)

I also share my reading year, including the 172 books I read in 2025, the genres I leaned into, and the standout reads that kept me entertained.  

2025 was a year where I stayed busy on purpose to keep my wits about me, and I’m proud of the work I did.

Topics covered:

• Why I make time every year to review accomplishments and challenges.
• The projects I released in a catalog-building year
• My top seller by units
• Launch of Missing Persons- expanding genres
• Companion novellas, seasonal releases, and catalog expanding projects
• What my books earned in 2025 and where that money came from
• My biggest income category
• Wide sales vs Amazon performance
• My thoughts on Kindle Unlimited as a short-term strategy
• 2025 Goodreads challenge and just HOW did I read that many books in 2025? 
• My top reads of the year, the genres I leaned into and what I avoided
• What staying “busy on purpose” gave me during a demanding year
• A brief look ahead to 2026 and what I’m thinking about next

Mentioned in this episode:

• Grumpy Valentine
• Missing Persons (Young Investigations, Book 1)
• Drinks at Minks
• Calculated Risk
• Decorative Gourd Season
• Layover
• Fifty-Fifty by Steve Cavanagh
• Edge by Tracy Clark
• Fog and Fury by Rachel Howzell Hall
• We Don’t Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry
• Can’t Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan
• Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
• A Devil Went Down To Georgia  by Deb Miller Landau

Transcript

DL White [00:00:00]:
Well, hello and happy Sunday to all of my book pals, my booze and bros of the book, my friends. Hi. Hello. How are you? Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. Seasons greetings, joyous Noel, Happy New Year, all of the good things. Hi, I am here and I am here mostly to wrap up 2025.

DL White [00:00:41]:
It really feels weird. Like I just sat down to open the year and here we are closing out the year in a totally different space and time and state of mind. It's actually very surreal. Like if it sounds like I am sitting on my bed in my bedroom, it's because I am. You guys know how I am. If I don't feel like going down the hall to the quote unquote finger quotes recording studio, which is a closet in my office, I just won't do it. But I did announce to my newsletter and to my substack people and to anyone that would listen that I would be doing a wrap up. And I did that because I don't like to say I'm going to do things and then don't do them.

DL White [00:01:30]:
So I made myself go grab the mic and set up here in my bedroom so I can record this cozy little wrap up. And I do this just because I like to wrap up the year. Because as I'm living I forget that I'm living. And so this allows me to like reach back and experience the whole year in one shot. And I invite you to join me because I think it's fun. But you know. Anyway, welcome back to the podcast. This is the Bookcast, my platform for sharing short fiction and details on life as a self published author of black fiction.

DL White [00:02:12]:
This is episode 133. I can't remember if I said that. Did I say that? I don't know. But anyway, if you like this podcast and you want more of my rambling showing, your support is really very simple. The very best way to support your local independently published author is to buy the books and buy them direct. I mean buy them wherever you like to buy books. But if you want to make a big difference, buy them direct. I offer ebooks and audiobooks.

DL White [00:02:40]:
Most are at better than retail or pay what you want prices at books by dlwhite.comshop. i also offer print editions via my bookshop.org page and I do earn affiliate fees via the that shop. So beware books ordered from Bookshop. Support your local indie bookstore and me as an author, not a billionaire. And I super, super like that. So welcome to the 2025 Year in Review. It's my annual year End check in that I do every year because I like to take a clear look at what I actually did. Not what I meant to do, what I thought about doing and never got around to it.

DL White [00:03:21]:
Not what I wish I'd done, but what actually really happened. And I'm. I' proud of my 2025. It was a rough year for a lot of us, but in a lot of ways it was a very good year for me. A lot of you all know, if you follow me very closely at all, I bought a house this year. I am sitting in my bed in my bedroom in the owner's suite. And so I'm immensely, immensely proud of that. I don't think when I sat down at the end of December that this is where I would be one year later, but here we are.

DL White [00:04:00]:
And for Christmas I gave myself furniture. So I got, I got this little sofa. It's like a two seater because my living room is not very big and both seats recline. So that's great. And then I got a coffee table one with the lift tops. You can kind of lift it up and have yourself like a little table or a desk or whatever and entertainment center and a TV downstairs. And so I also got like one of those Bar Heights tables with just two seats. I don't need like a big dining room table.

DL White [00:04:31]:
There's not enough room really for it anyway. It's a very small space down there. I'm very happy with how it, how it turned out. It's very cozy downstairs. I actually really enjoy hanging out downstairs. I forgot my rug. Got like a really bright multicolored rug. I can't wait to get my, my curtains and drapes up.

DL White [00:04:51]:
And I have two bookcases I picked out that I'm going to order. I might try to get those ordered. And in the new year begins so I can unpack all my books. So I'm quite excited. And then I'm probably going to come back upstairs and work on my bedroom and just get that more, really more super cozy, brighter colors. I'm going to bring some books up here for my little reading nook. I'm probably going to get a different chair. You know, I'm just kind of room by room really improving things and getting things how I want them to be in my house.

DL White [00:05:27]:
The other thing I did this year was I stayed busy on purpose because I knew it was just gonna be a year work wise. It was a year, a really busy one. And so I just really wanted to keep my hands busy and my brain occupied. Occupied, Occupied. So I wasn't doom scrolling or obsessing over whatever. Whatever nonsense was happening out in the world. I watched a lot of great series, I read a lot of great books. I wrote a lot of great books.

DL White [00:05:58]:
So let's talk about them. I did pretty good what I published, what I earned and what I read in 2025. In 2025 I released nine projects. Like I don't, I don't. I. I think I went into some kind of trance. I don't know. I just.

DL White [00:06:17]:
What I wanted to do mostly was write short, have a lot of short stories, little bites of my work out there for people to enjoy that are lower priced as sort of a gateway to my longer works and my series. And so I kind of did that. It was not a rapid release year by any means. It was a catalog building year. I wanted to get to 20 books. I ended up, I think I am at about 25 with all the website exclusives and the newsletter exclusive and the permafreeze. I'm at about 25 and I'm happy. I'm happy right now.

DL White [00:06:59]:
It was a format expansion year. Let me finish what I start year. So walking through the major releases and how they performed. Grumpy Valentine came out in February of 2025 in eBook, print and audio which I self narrated was not my first self narration. I did read the never list for the podcast but it was the first that I produced for me for audio for Sal and I had a ball. I had a blast. I had a really really good time with that. It ended up being my best selling book by units for the whole year.

DL White [00:07:35]:
I sold 57 eBooks, 67 audiobooks for a total of 124 units. What stood out really for here for me was the audio. It actually slightly outperformed the ebook which confirmed something I have been seeing for a while that my readers will listen if I put it out. And because I don't have money to these books professionally produced, I did my own audio. I took my time. I do not sound like Wesley Chabon or Adrenalie Ojo. I did the very best I could and I'm very happy with actually how it turned out. This was a seasonal novella that I hope to pop up every year in February.

DL White [00:08:18]:
I'm very happy it did exactly what I wrote it to do and it was a really fun, fun project. If you haven't read Grumpy Valentine I implore you to pick it up. Booksbydlwhite.com grumpyvalentine it's available in ebook Print and Audio Missing Persons Young Investigations Book one was a big release for me because it's the potential start of a new series and I branched off into a whole different sort of a different genre still romance, but I called this a romantic mystery. It hinges a bit on thriller and suspense, but it doesn't get too deep into that. It was my first like jumping but with both feet in foray into something that's more than romance or women's fiction. I sold 93 ebooks across Amazon and Direct and then for a brand new series without rapid release, without ku, without heavy ads, I feel very good about it. This book really has legs. It's absolutely getting audio at some point in 2026.

DL White [00:09:29]:
It's honestly my highest priority audio project going into 2026. I just know it's it's not lengthy, but it's full length and that takes a minute to really get down in audio, but it's on my list Drinks at Minx is a Ruby's companion novella that came out in March. I wrote it to the 10th anniversary edition of Brunch at Ruby's, which I put out in in hardcover for the first time. And then I updated the paperback and the audio. All of the art. It got professionally edited, which I know so many people are happy about since I used to always get emails about that book. I sold 42 ebooks and 14 audiobooks for a total of 56 units. This was actually just an extra dessert project, so it did exactly what a companion novella should do.

DL White [00:10:30]:
Deepens the Ruby's world. It serves existing readers with a little bit of an update on the characters and it just was something out there that's a little bit of a. What did they call it? I forget what they call it, but like a sleeper. Like a something that earns without pressure. I wrote calculated risk in 2024 and I released it in 2025 in print, ebook and audio. I sold so far nine ebook copies and 10 audiobook copies for the most part. That book has been in Kindle Unlimited since September. It just.

DL White [00:11:13]:
I needed a place to until 2026. Today's December 28th and it's supposed to come out tonight around like I guess midnight Pacific and so then it will immediately go wide. I have already updated the COVID on this book. I need to redo the print cover and re release that. But in ebook and audio the COVID has already been updated and I'm. I'm very excited. It was not really meant to be a big sales driver. It was a free book actually a long time then it was a placeholder and the numbers kind of reflect that.

DL White [00:11:52]:
Audio though, did kind of half the work here, which again reinforces how important audio is for me. I apologize for all the cuts that I know I'm going to have to make. My body decides like right when the mic opens to be doing the most Decorative Gourd Season is an ebook only seasonal novella. I sold 20 copies of that. This is not an audio candidate. It's not a long term earner. It's just kind of a timing and like reader bonus book. The same with Layover.

DL White [00:12:23]:
It's another ebook only release. I sold 21 ebook copies of that in the same category as Decorative Gourd Season. It's a seasonal Low overhead, low intention. Just for fun, you know. Not everything has to be a juggernaut, but I did. I always want to release something festive for the season. I loved Leo and Decorative Gourd Season. Both of them are written very quickly, not really very high stakes.

DL White [00:12:51]:
I didn't even have them professionally edited. I try to save my editor coins for the longer project books and so I just kind of put those out just for fun to write short and to have, you know, continually have something coming out. So of course I also released the brunch at Ruby's 10th anniversary edition in hardback as I said, also hardback and then updated the art and the editing. Clover was a limited wide now website exclusive that I released in March around St. Patrick's Day and Baking Bad was an ebook only website exclusive. I was really just practicing my thriller suspense mystery chops by just putting out something very small with low stakes, low overhead. Just kind of to practice kind of infrastructure and control projects. I just wanted them to add to my catalog.

DL White [00:13:51]:
Not really to bring any kind of volume or revenue. But I am glad they exist. They are out there. So let's talk about the earnings. Talk about what all the books did. In total My books earned $4,578.64 in 2025. That's probably the most I have made in quite some time. I will ch up to three in person events this year as well as honestly just having a lot more available to purchase this year.

DL White [00:14:26]:
The breakdown is 1200 thereabouts on Amazon, 1400 wide basically non Amazon purchases and then about 1900 through direct sales pre orders on Viventi and then purchases via Square for in person sales. And those are all gonna be print. Those are all gonna be print sales. So a few things that stand out for me immediately. Direct sales were my largest income Category, whether it was through book funnel or through in person sales. I'm definitely making money by selling direct. That is money straight from you to me. And that tells me that my audience will show up when I give them the opportunity.

DL White [00:15:15]:
So I'm definitely going to do a few in person events. I'll be at Black Romance Book Fest and I have one other event in June that has not been announced. I have an event in March that I'm speaking at. I don't have any details on it yet and I don't know if it's open to the public. And of course, if Kinfolk lit, formerly known as Black Book Bash comes back in the fall, I'm gonna be all over that. I try to do a lot of events because I don't, I don't typically like to travel for them because I won't make my. I won't make any. I won't make them money back.

DL White [00:15:54]:
I'm not doing any love next year. That's in Nashville. Not even attending next year. So I like to be strategic about where I'm going to sell my books. I like to, I like them to be local because I make the most money. But I do also stay on site. So that does take, you know, a little bit away. But.

DL White [00:16:15]:
But that's also like tax deductible. So anyway, direct sales are my largest income category wide. Definitely out earned Amazon for me this year. So my goal of continually cutting down the pressure that Amazon puts on me. Once again, year over year, Amazon is just a place I sell books and it's not the main place I sell books. Third, Amazon mattered, but it didn't carry the year for me. Kindle Unlimited was a non factor. I only had one book in Kindle Unlimited all year and I just did it.

DL White [00:16:53]:
I put something there to park it. I think that could work for me, especially for a new title. I think my goal going forward is to keep doing short releases. Sell them direct for a couple of weeks and then put them in Kindle Unlimited for 90 days and just let them sit there and then pull them out and cycle something else. I think I would like to try that for maybe 2026. So that's pretty much how the sales went. Now for the fun part, the 2025 reading. Because I do truly, truly enjoy being a reader.

DL White [00:17:38]:
I'm a reader first. I will, I will read a book. If I'm gonna do anything, I'm gonna read a book. According challenge. I read 172 book. 72 books in 2025. I do have two books I'm currently reading. That number is going to top 175 before December 31st.

DL White [00:18:01]:
I'm telling you right now, I got a lot of books in the hopper. So anyway, for wrap up purposes, we're at 172 out of who knows for 2025. Most of those were audiobooks. That was definitely how I stayed grounded this year. I leaned heavily into romantic suspense, crime and mystery series, black romance, contemporary black romance, narrative nonfiction, and true crime. I avoided dry and academic nonfiction. If it felt like homework, I was not interested. I preferred investigative storytelling that read like a thriller.

DL White [00:18:43]:
My top reads of the year, that kind of stand out for me. 5050 by Steve Kavanaugh, which is basically representative of the entire full series binge. I think I read all of the Eddie Flynn series by Steve Kavanaugh this year and like every year I pick an author and then just dig into them. I think last year was Robert Dugoni and the year before that was Kendra Elliott and Melinda Lee. I also read Edge by Tracy Clark. You guys, I absolutely enjoyed. It's my favorite of the Harriet, They Call Her Harry Private Investigator series. Is she a private investigator or she a cop? I think she's a cop.

DL White [00:19:29]:
But. And this is, this is a spoiler. So speed past this if you don't want to hear it. Spoiler, spoiler, spoiler. But I was so happy to see Cass Rains show up in this novel. Like, I was listening to it and I heard the name and I sat up and my jaw hit the floor and I immediately had to send a note to Tracy. I hope we see so much Cass Rains in other books in this series. It made me so happy.

DL White [00:20:06]:
Then Fog and Fury by Rachel Howzell hall, who is one of my absolute faves. We Don't Talk About Carol by Kristen L. Berry. This book was so, so good. Really, really good. And then Can't Get Enough by Kennedy Ryan. That is book three. I don't remember the name of this series, but Skyland series, my favorite in the series.

DL White [00:20:29]:
And then Bad Blood by John Caryrou, which was about Elizabeth Holmes in Theranos. And I also want to add, and as an honorable mention, A Devil Went down to Georgia. I don't remember the title of this book, but that was probably my favorite of my nonfiction November reads. This is. I think I said this before. I'll say it once more, that this was my most fun nonfiction November. I really leaned into what I just love to read, message and murder. And I just, I had myself a ball.

DL White [00:21:10]:
So these books all share Something in common, I think. Competent adults, a lot of tension, momentum. That's my cat dip. That's clearly what I gravitated toward this year in most of my books. And you know, honestly, you know, that reading taste lines up perfectly with what I write and with what I sold this year. So when I AM Looking at 2025 as a whole, I see a year where I, I stayed busy on purpose because I had to. This was how I stayed sane. I published nine projects.

DL White [00:21:50]:
I earned steady diversified income. I probably earned more than I thought I earned because I wasn't really looking at things as a whole. I was just looking at like bits and pieces here and there. I read constantly. Constantly. And when I wasn't reading, I was watching a documentary or looking at good TV series or, you know, feeding myself with like, you know, enjoyable TV shows and just kind of exploring all the things I have saved on all of my streaming accounts. And I feel like I stayed grounded and sane and kept my head on my shoulders. Shoulders which allowed me to do, you know, all kinds of new, innovative, inventive things that I had never done before.

DL White [00:22:42]:
It was not flashy, it was intentional. I needed a focus. And that is exactly what this year was for me. So that is my wrap up for 2025. I. I had a blast. I had a ball of a year. It was like, it was a rough, it was a rough year, but I also made the best with what was handed to me.

DL White [00:23:06]:
I'm very proud of what I was able to accomplish this year. So I think in the next episode we'll talk about 2026. What is going to be coming. I'm definitely trying to think of something I made. I made an agreement with my editor to hand something to her at the end of March. And so I'm going to be using probably 20k in 5 days is at the end of January. I'm going to use that time to kind of flesh out a couple ideas that I have. I've been very much into medical romance, which is like a romance that features heavily on medical personnel, usually set in or around a hospital, that sort of thing.

DL White [00:23:55]:
I do have character that are nurses, but I don't think I classify them as medical romance. And so I'm kind of thinking along those lines. I'm very excited about it, but I might also try to dip it into like a mystery. I don't know, I might be biting off more than I can chew, but I love nothing more than a difficult project that I don't think I can get done. So, so I'm going to be working on fleshing that out in January, kind of trying to pace it out during 20k in 5 days and then February and March writing my tail off. So we'll see. I don't know if I will have a seasonal novella for February. I don't know we'll see because Grumpy Valentine really snuck up on me and I I banged that one out very quickly so I don't know we'll see.

DL White [00:24:49]:
But I am going to go back to enjoying my holiday break, get some dinner, find something good to watch, eat some good food, grab a good drink and just enjoy myself. I truly, truly hope that you are finding time at the end of this year to rest and restore, put your head back on your shoulders and just sort of enjoy this time of year as best you can. Thank you so much for joining me for this year for the podcast and we will see you in 2020. But.