Selling Your Journals Series Episode 3: Pricing Your Journals or Handmade Products 

Hey Kelly!! I don't know how I missed your message the first time! Sometimes they show up out of order! Thank you SO very much for your kind words! I cannot express how much they mean to me!! You are an angel in my world, my friend! Thank you for being here and sharing your bright light! xoxoxo Amy :)

Hi! Thank you so much and thanks for watching!! Please let me know if you ever have any questions! Best wishes to you!! 🤗🩷💛🩵

Thanks again, Vicki, for checking out my videos and sharing your thoughts! It definitely takes a lot of time and effort to get your work out there. For those who wish to sell their art, marketing should take up about 80% of their time, with the other 20% spent in the actual making of the art!

Thank you so much for checking them out and for your nice comment, Karla!! I really appreciate it!! 🤗💖💖💖💖

Hi!! Thank you so much and thanks for watching!! xoxo Amy :)

You are welcome!! Thank you very much for watching and leaving a comment!! xoxo Amy :)

Hi Mary! Thank you so much!! Hope you're doing well!! xoxo Amy :)

Oh, thank you so much!! I really love the business side of things, almost as much as the creative side! 😃 Thank you for watching and commenting!! 🤗💖💖💖💖

Thank you so much for your sweet comment and thank you for watching! Blessings to you as well! 🤗💕

You bet!! Thank you for watching!! 🤗💕💖💕💖💕

Gosh, thank you so very much for your kind words!! I am glad it was helpful. Please let me know if you ever have questions! 🤗💖💖💖

You are so welcome, Louise! Thank you for watching!! 🤗💖💖💖

Thank you so much and thank you for watching and commenting! 🤗💖💖💖

Thank you so much, Patricia! I appreciate you watching! 🤗💕

Thank you, Rovelyn!! Yes, journals are so time consuming and if you have an Etsy shop, it really is best to have the majority of your items be things that take less time to make! Most of my journals end up being in the 8 hour range also! I totally understand!! xoxo Amy :)

Thanks for your comment! The $600 rule has to do with receiving payments through third party applications like PayPal and Venmo (which is how most of us receive payment). If you are a sole proprietorship, you still do not have to register your business or get a Tax ID. Those are required for LLCs and other corporations, but sole props can opt not to do that. Regarding Media Mail, I looked into this quite a bit and technically, because junk journals are handcrafted goods and not books published and printed by a publisher, they do not fall under the category of media mail. Even though they contain book pages and are bound, they are not mass produced, printed and bound publications, so do not meet the criteria. The USPS has the right to refuse to deliver or to destroy packages that are shipped as the wrong class. I would hate to risk that! 🙈 I appreciate you watching and sharing!! Happy new year! 🤗🩷💛🩵

Hi Luellen! Happy Memorial Day to you, too! Thank you for your comment. I announced on my Instagram and FB Group (but never made a video here on YT), that I was stepping away from Kittywitty Papercraft as a business and moving onto other things. I havent had any time to craft, as I've been learning things in a new field and working on building something new. I do miss crafting and making videos (at least sometimes 😄)! I appreciate your kind words and for checking in. I hope you're doing well also! 🤗💖💖💖💖

Hi Estee! What a wonderful thing you are doing!!! I just love it and wish you all the best!! Please let me know if I can ever be of any help! Thank you so much for checking out the series! I'll have another video soon! 🤗💕💖💕💖💕💖

@@KittywittyPapercraft thanks! Do you have a video on the best type of boxes to ship journals in? I have some spiral bound and the others will be Coptic stitched,

@@flutterby1979 Hi! I use plain cardboard boxes that are just a little bit bigger than my Little Golden Book journals.. Just big enough to add bubble wrap and some extra padding all around, but so it is pretty snug--not a lot of extra room to move around. I think my boxes are approximately 8x10x4. I buy them from The Boxery on Ebay. Hope that helps! 🤗💕💕💕

You bet, Pamela!! Thank you so much for taking the time to watch! I know there are so many things to take into consideration!! Please let me know any time you have questions, since I know you have a shop! I am not sure if I am going to move forward with my membership idea (or if I do if it will be focused on the selling aspect), so please reach out with questions any time!! xoxo Amy :)

@@KittywittyPapercraft Hi Amy, I want to ask you a question about making flip throughs or videos with an iPhone. I have been struggling with this for awhile! I have bout several different types of tripods and something that clamps on a desk but even after watching utube videos can’t figure it out. They all seem to show how to make videos with me doing something in them! But first I want to tell you I want to pay you for your help! I would feel so much better if I could pay you your hourly rate - $15.00 an hour - is that for all your services? That would be so worth it to me if you could do that. I could send you a picture of what I have tried to do and my set up which doesn’t seem to work and maybe you could tell what I’m doing wrong! I can’t do it though unless I can pay you. You do enough for free!💖💖💖 If this is not something you do I totally understand. And also I can send money thru Venmo whichI have set up and someone told me it doesn’t have a fee??? Thank you - you are such a sweetheart 💖💖💖

@@pamelavollmer9289 Hey friend!! I know we started talking about this on IG, but wanted to make sure I answered you here, too! ;) I absolutely will answer this question and help you with this at no charge! I insist!! If you still want to send me a photo of your set up, feel free to do that however is easiest for you. You can send it through IG as a direct message or email it to me at kittywittypapercraft@gmail.com. Thank you for YOUR kindness!! I appreciate it so much!! I love nothing more than to feel I can help someone, so I hope I can help you with this issue! Talk to you soon!! xo Amy :)

Hi Nancy! You are so welcome! Thank you for watching and commenting! I know it is a lot to consider and can be overwhelming! Just take one step at a time and know that it takes time to put all the pieces together! I think I fixed the issue with the pdf. Since you already requested it, you should receive another email with the pdf link in it. Let me know if you have any questions! Thank you!! xoxo Amy :)

You bet! Thank you for taking the time to watch and comment! 🤗💕

You are welcome, Lynette! May I ask if you received the email for the pdf? I've had 2 people say they didn't receive the email and I'm curious if you did! Thanks so much and thank you for watching!! xoxo Amy :)

@@KittywittyPapercraft Hi Amy, no unfortunately not yet🌺

@@lynette.papercrafts4826 Hmm, that is so strange! My email service provider is showing that you subscribed to my email list about 5 hours ago. But you did not receive a confirmation email? It should have come to you as soon as you subscribed. Did you check your spam and promotions folders? I see you have gmail. Emails will often to go to gmail's Promotions folder. I even tested it out and had my provider test it and it worked. Sorry to bother you with a second question. I am looking into it some more to see if I can figure out what the issue is. Thank you for your patience!! xoxo Amy

@@KittywittyPapercraft I actually received the confirmation gmail immediately in my inbox. I confirmed and thought the pdf would come later on. I just went back and confirmed again, just for incase.

@@lynette.papercrafts4826 Ok, Thank you for letting me know you got the confirmation email immediately. When you click the button in that email to confirm that you want to receive emails from me, a window should have popped up with a Thank You page and at the bottom of that page is the link to download the pdf. Did you get that Thank You page? I'm wondering if people don't know to look for the link on that page. I wish they didn't have it set up that way. I'm going to see if I can put a note in the email and on the Thank You page saying where the download link is. Could you let me know if you got that Thank You page and if you see the link at the bottom?? This is really helping me understand what is going on, Lynette, so I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me about this! xo Amy :)

Oh, you are so welcome!! Yes it is SCARY! But the things that are worth it are scary! The things that make us grow are scary! Only way out is through!! Just take it one step at a time and don't overwhelm yourself with trying to learn and do too much at one time. In that same vein...it takes longer than you might imagine to build a business. It doesn't mean you are slow or doing it wrong. It is totally normal--especially when you are doing everything yourself! Keep pushing through your challenges! I wish you all the best with your endeavor!! 🤗💕💖💕💖💕

Hi! Thanks, Jen!! I'm so happy to share! Etsy takes of of sales tax stuff!! They really do make it easy to sell there! The fees stink, but when you consider all the ways they make it easy, it is worth it! 🤗💗💗💗💗

Hi there! Thank you so much for your nice comments on this series! I truly appreciate it!! Just a couple weeks ago, I announced on my Instagram account that I am going to be scaling back to just crafting as a hobby. As I shared in this series, having a handmade business is really tough and for various reasons, I've decided it's time for me to move on from Kittywitty Papercraft. I am keeping my Etsy shop open, but not making handmade items or classes or videos for the foreseeable future. I'm really sorry that you were hoping to see another video in this series! If you have any questions, I am happy to answer them! Thank you again!! xo Amy :)

I’ve tried to download the PDF and it doesn’t seem to be working. I got a co formation email and clicked to confirm and was brought to a page saying I’d get another email in a few minutes. It’s been an hour and I never received the PDF in my inbox or junk folders.

Hi! Thank you so much for watching and for your nice comment!! I'm sorry, but I am no longer creating content for my crafting business. As I think I mentioned in this video, all the hours for little pay just got to be too much. LOL I *do* still have my Etsy shop open where I sell supplies and once a month I have 1 handmade journal and a few junk journal kits for sale. I share shop updates on my Instagram account, Kittywitty Papercraft. There's lots of photos of my past work and things I would share there, too. My 2 online junk journal courses are still available also. I always answer questions still, here on YT and on IG, so please let me know if you have any questions! Take care! xo Amy :)

@@PrettyAliceNight I'm so sorry about that! If you want to send me an email at kittywittypapercraft@gmail.com, I will send it right over to you as an attachment! Thank you!

@@KittywittyPapercraft ok thanks, I’ll do that!

Hi! Thank you so much! I'm sorry about the link. If you send me a direct email at kittywittypapercraft@gmail.com I will email it to you! And I won't be adding your name to an email list, just so you know. I'll just send you that pdf. Thank you for asking and watching! 🤗💕💕💕

You could count how many pages are in the book and divide that number by the price of the book to get the individual cost of each page. Not sure if that is the right way to do it but I think it would work.

Hi Diane! Oh, shoot! I had that wrong! I thought I had read that you couldn't deduct expenses at all, but I did more digging after I saw your comment and see you just can't deduct losses from a hobby from other income. Thank you for sharing that. I will put a note in the Description box to reflect that! Thank you!!! xoxo Amy :)

Hi there! I can imagine how tough it is to try to make and sell your work alongside working a full time job!! The first thing I would suggest is deciding how serious you want to be with this, like you said. Decide what your goal is with selling. You mentioned your dream life. Is your dream to create your crafts and sell them full-time? That is certainly doable! You just need to know what the potential for income is and if that works for you. Did you see my last video on how much money you can realistically expect to make selling journals? It's not very much!! LOL BUT, that may be all you need! It really depends on what your income needs are. And do you need the benefits that your job provides (if it does)? I have several streams of income in addition to selling journals (and I don't sell many journals these days bc of time!) and I still make very little money for the time I put in. That is partly my fault and there are ways I could make more money (like focusing on only ONE product or focusing only on selling courses). But I am OK with the income I'm bringing in bc my spouse is our main income provider. Then my issue becomes: is the little income I'm making worth the amount of time and sacrifices I'm making? I haven't decided that quite yet! ;) All that being said--you are right to think about maximizing the little time you have by choosing to focus on one social media platform to share your work. I would definitely choose ONE at least to start with. If you are spread too thin, you never gain any traction. I would recommend whichever platform you have already started gaining some followers with AND that you love making content for. If you really haven't started with any yet, then I recommend choosing FIRST based on what you love to use. If you are comfortable with IG, then choose that. If you love making videos, choose that. You don't want to have content making end up feeling like a chore. If you like both equally, then I would recommend Instagram. There is already a big crafting community there (also on YT), but I find it easier to share my work in a very aesthetically pleasing way on IG vs YT and when you are trying to attract the attention of your ideal customer, visuals are very important. And you can do video in a variety of formats right on IG, so you don't have to use YT to share video. Granted, your videos on IG need to be 10 min or less, unless you go Live, but for starting out, I find it's a great platform to share your work and start building a community of followers. You can really engage with people in a more intimate way on IG vs YT, I think. You have post comments, Stories, Live video (which you can also do on YT), and DMs (direct messages). Building a community of people who love your work is KEY to successful selling with ease, in my opinion!! As you start gaining traction with one platform, you can add in others. I added in YT after I'd been on IG for awhile. It is nice for showing longer flip-through videos and longer videos in general, but like I said, I think choosing one platform and getting good with that is the best way to go, especially when you also have a full-time job! If you choose IG, try to post consistently--4-6 days a week, if you can, but be consistent with showing up regularly. Learn to take good quality photos and answer every comment you receive. Be kind and generous and get to know the people in the community and your account will grow over time. It does take consistent time and effort, but it will happen. I will be talking a lot more about how to get your work out there, especially using IG, in my upcoming videos in this series. I hope you'll check them out and they are of some help to you! Please let me know if you ever have any questions or need help!! Best of luck to you!! xoxo Amy :)

Hi Nancy! Yes, that's a great question, and a little tricky! I would estimate since it is money that you have spent! Thank you for your question! xoxo Amy :)

Hi! Thank you and thank you for watching! I'm sorry about the link! If you send me an email at kittywittypapercraft@gmail.com I will send you the pdf. Don't worry...I won't add your name to an email list. It's just the best way to send you the pdf. 🤗🩷🩷🩷

Hi! This is a tricky aspect to explain and I may not have done a good job of it in this video!! I can't recall exactly what I said in the video (and don't have the time to rewatch it! LOL). Let me see if I can explain it clearly! For accounting purposes, you keep the labor amount separate. Technically, I am keeping the labor part of the revenue as income, but for accounting purposes, you need to keep it separate, so you can see the true profits you are generating because that tells you the "health" of your business--whether you are actually making any money. And as my husband always reminded me, I wasn't truly accounting for ALL the time I spent working on my business, that indirectly, went into each product. The labor cost gives me an idea of what I can pay myself out of the total net profits I have earned. Some of the net profit goes to taxes, of course, and then as a sole proprietor, I can decide what amount of the remaining profit goes back into my business and what amount I take to pay myself. I may not always choose to take the full labor amount. I hope this makes more sense!! Thank you for your question and for watching!! xo Amy :)

Thank you for watching, Annette!! About the pdf... can you tell me if you even received an email that asked you to confirm that you wanted to be added to my email list? You should have received that email and then when you click the button in the email to confirm, a Thank You page opens up and there is a link to click to download the pdf on that Thank You page. Can you tell me if you got the first email? And yes, check your spam and Promotions folder also if you have one of those. Thank you!!! 🤗💖💖💖💖

@@KittywittyPapercraft no i dont received the first email en no spam.

@@polhuisje Ok, Anette! Thank you for letting me know! I will let you know when I fix this issue!!

Hi again! I fixed the issue with the pdf. Now I know you didn't receive the initial email. Would you be able to click the link under the video again to request the pdf? Most people were at least getting the initial email--even those outside the U.S. Please let me know if you still don't get it and I will send it to you personally. Sorry for all the trouble, Anette!! P.S. I saw your message on IG! I will get back to you later today about that! ;) xoxo Amy :)

@@KittywittyPapercraft dear Amy, sorry I only read this message now and I tried it again right away but it still doesn't work I don't get an email in my spam either. Sorry, I'm fine with that I don't know what it is but you've tried enough. And the video message is also clear to me without pdf. thanks for all your efforts. love Anette

Aww, hi Cindy! It's so nice of you to think about me. I don't know if I'm coming back or not. I haven't done any crafting since before the holidays and I've got some new things on my plate making it hard to make time to craft, and that includes making videos, too, of course. I still have my Etsy shop where I sell junk journal supplies. I'd like to get back to creating, I just don't know when I'll find time! I've also needed to get off social media for awhile bc the world is just crazy right now and it was really getting to me. Thank you for your message. I always appreciate your support! I hope all is well with you! 🤗💖💖💖💖

Well, I sure hope that what is keeping you from what you love to do is a good thing, and I hope that you will eventually come back. Yes, the world is not well that is for sure. My husband has been in the hospital 35 days now and nearly passed from complications of COVID and we are all vaccinated, but the doctors are saying he is a miracle and will be going to rehab in the next couple of days to get stronger. Stay well and hope to see you again soon!!

@@cindysadd3309 Oh, Cindy, I am sorry your husband has been struggling with Covid, but I pray he gets better and stronger every single day! I am sure that has been hard on you, too. Hang in there, my friend! I am studying to become a Reiki practitioner and that is taking a big chunk of my time and attention, but I am hoping I can carve out some time to create. Thank you again, Cindy! Love and hugs!! 🤗💖💖💖

Hi Anna! I'm so sorry about that! Did you check your spam and Promotions folders? Sometimes the email goes there. If you did and still did not get it, I can send it to you directly. If you email me at kittywittypapercraft@gmail.com I will get it right over to you. Sorry to have you do another step! I don't want you to leave your email here, publically, though. I look forward to hearing back from you! Thank you for watching the video and requesting the pdf! 🤗💖💖💖💖

Hi Debbie! I never did do a YT video about selling or marketing through Instagram, but I sure could have and should have! 😄 If you have any particular questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them or share my opinion! Thank you for watching my videos! 🤗💖💖💖

Thank you for checking the video out, Catherine!! I'm sorry about the pdf! I am looking into what the issue might be. I will come back here and let you know what I find out. If it comes down to it, I will email it to you directly. Thank you!! xoxo Amy :)

Thanks Amy. Looks like I am not the only one. I will await the solution. Best wishes 🐨

Hi Catherine! I think the issue with the pdf is fixed now. You should have received another email this morning with the link to the pdf in it. Please let me know if you didn't. Thank you for your patience!! xo Amy :)

Hi Amy no I didn’t but happy to try again from the beginning to see if it works this time. Edit - I used a different email address and it worked 😀

@@catherinecrawford2889 Ok, Catherine! I hope you got it! Let me know if you didn't! Thanks again!! 🤗💖💖💖💖

Hi Lindy! I'm sorry about that! Yes, I can email it directly to you. Can you email me at kittywittypapercraft@gmail.com? I will attach it to my reply email to you. Thank you for asking and watching! 🤗🩷🩷🩷

Hi Sharon! I use my smartphone camera for all my videos except my online courses videos (where I bbn use a DSLR camera). I don't always edit my videos, but when I do, I use Camtasia software. I found it quite easy to learn how to use (give or take a few features that took some extra digging to find out how to learn!). I taught myself just using online tutorials. You can also use a phone app called InShot to edit right from your phone. It's a little clumsy to use, but it's a good app. Today's smartphones have really good cameras. You don't need a separate fancy one. You do need a good clamp to hold your phone while filming. I use an adjustable arm smartphone holder that clamps onto the side of my desk. I can get my phone right over the center of my table, about 18 inches above it, to film overhead views and I can also clamp it to my desk and orient the phone so I can sit facing it to do face to camera videos. I use one sold on Amazon called Benks Flexible Arm Smartphone Holder (I think!). I know Benks is the brand and you want the 900 mm length arm so you can get your phone over the center of your table, if you want to do film from overhead. Let me know if you have any other questions! 🤗💖💖💖

Hi Mel! I'm sorry about that! Yes, I can email it directly to you. Can you email me at kittywittypapercraft@gmail.com? I will attach it to my reply email to you. Thank you for asking and watching! 🤗🩷🩷🩷

@@KittywittyPapercraft this is so so nice of you, I will email you, thank you so much, dear!!

Thank you for letting me know, Nancy! Actually, did you check the bottom of the Thank You page for the link? It should say "Content" below the Thank you message and have the link right below that. I am trying to determine if the link isn't there or if it is just being missed. Thank you!!! 🤗💖💖💖

@@KittywittyPapercraft I just checked the thank you screen and do not see any additional links. I may be looking in wrong place but could not find. Thanks for the help and I really liked your video and the series!

@@nancyd63 Thank you SO much for checking on that! That will help me know what to tell my email people! So aggravating!! I hope I can get this resolved soon! Either way, I can always email it to you directly! I will know for sure by tomorrow! Thank you for your kind words and your patience!! xoxo Amy :)

Hi Nancy! I think the issue with the pdf is fixed now. You should have received another email this morning with the link to the pdf in it. Please let me know if you didn't. Thank you for your patience!! xo Amy :)

@@KittywittyPapercraft I got the pdf in your email. Thank you so much for all your help!

That is very difficult for sure! 😄 I can't recall what I said in the video because it was so long ago, but I know that I might count my labor as 8 hours to try to recoup as much time as possible, although it may have actually taken me longer to make it. I would just lose out on some of the time. That is why it's important when selling, to keep the decorating to a reasonable amount because that is where you can really spend a ton of time. I went all out on decorating only a few times (and yes, easily spent a total of 10 to 15 hours), but tried to be careful to not do too much. I had a system for decorating that helped me stay more reasonable with my time. The other things that did help me get my time down was one, lots of practice. The more you make, the faster you get. And two, having a very organized system from start to finish and having my supplies organized. Having a system in place saves a lot of potentially wasted time looking for things. Thank you for watching! Happy crafting! 🤗💕