Brian Jackson, Writing, Self-publishing and Marketing an Amazon Kindle eBook and Book with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and KDP

Hello,My name is Brian Jackson.  I'm the writer of approximately one dozen books, publisher of well over 100 books and Udemy instructor with over 40 courses to my name.Over the last 13 years, since July 2011, I've made over $715,000 online through publishing Amazon Kindle eBooks and Udemy online video training courses.This is my story...1 OriginsI was born in the middle of the last century in Los Angeles, California. I graduated from Humboldt State University amid the redwoods of Northern California. After working for Lockheed Missiles and Space for 14 years as an IBM system programmer and Cisco Systems for 12 years as a test engineer, I retired at 48.I instantly became bored.2 Community CollegeIn response to my boredom, I enrolled in Columbia Community College to take writing, art, acting and statistics classes. I took 24 units over one year and received straight “A” 's.I was still bored.3 Writing and Self-publishingI began writing fiction and nonfiction books and self-publishing them on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords in July 2011. Though I wrote and published several books, my self-publishing business didn’t take off until my wife joined me.4 My Wife and Author, Melanie JacksonMelanie Jackson, my wife, was an author publishing over two romance novels per year through her New York publisher, Dorchester Press. After publishing 24 novels with Dorchester, the company folded, and Melanie was without a publisher (she wanted to write cozy mysteries anyway).I convinced Melanie to join me in self-publishing cozy mysteries on Amazon.5 The Self-publishing YearsFor the last fourteen years, from July 2010 until now (6/22/2024), my wife and I wrote and self-published cozy mysteries. At first, we continued to self-publish on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords, but eventually chose to self-publish exclusively on Amazon. To date, I've self-published well over 100 of my wife’s books on Amazon.During the last fourteen years, from 2010 until now (6/22/2024), my wife and I have made precisely $499,122.10 self-publishing books on Amazon alone.6 My Wife and IWhen I say “my wife and I,” I mean that my wife did the writing, and I helped with the brainstorming, did half the editing, created the book covers, and self-published and marketed my wife’s books. So, my wife had it pretty good while I honed my writing, self-publishing and marketing skills.After about five years of self-publishing a book every two months, Melanie and I burned out and slowed way, waaayyy, doowwwnnn…7 UdemyI began publishing courses on Udemy, Skillshare and multiple other sites in July 2014, focusing on writing, self-publishing and book covers. Within ten weeks, I had published my first 10 Udemy courses. I currently (6/22/2024) publish almost exclusively on Udemy and have over 40 Udemy courses to my name.  I've made precisely $215,826.57 to date and will celebrate my 10th year on Udemy this July.I currently live in Las Vegas, Nevada, with my lovely wife and author, Melanie Jackson, and Butterscotch the cat.I'll see you in the classroom,---Brian