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Up until today I thought I was going to have... a year, two years even to save money to buy ISBNs to self publish my books.
ISBNs are essentially the product code you need to legally publish and sell a book as well as claim copyright.

However now the plan has suddenly changed to needing to save $600 by December/January for ISBNs to split between myself and my co-publisher and friend. Ideally each of us saving $300 by that time to pool together, giving us each 50 ISBNs which should last us each 15 books. (3 ISBNs are needed per book; one for ebook, one for hard cover, and one for soft cover.)

Honestly this is really daunting for me, I don't have a job and can't work outside of the house because of chronic/pain illness, being an author is my career plan.

The only money I get is an allowance of money per month, out of that I calculated that I can save $20 a month and be good on all my other needs.

I did have a plan of $60 to spend at the RPR bake sale but am going to need to dial that down a bit.

Which puts me at about $130 by January, which...isn't enough.

I need ideas on things I can sell to help me make money. I can't really do art because my only medium is my phone which just isn't working anymore.

I can write poems, short stories, do BBCode for profiles, help people with writing their backstories and what not for their characters but 1. I don't think people will be interested and 2. there's gotta be some other ideas?

I really need help figuring out how to make some more money to save so I can meet the deadline. I'm feeling very anxious about this sudden change but if I can make it it's going to be for the best.

I could use advice, hugs, support, anything really.

I would donate if I had money to donate, but I've literally only food money left until 26th... Watching people succeed in whatever endeavors is the best.

The only two things I can think of is a yard sale, and to set up a gofundme or patreon if RPR business doesn't cut it for you, but I've no idea how successful either would be.

Patreon is for creators right? Maybe you could set one up where you offer, iunno, bits of info about characters that they might not pick up on in the books, or scrapped writing that isn't going to make the cut (like deleted scenes or characters), or early access to to parts of the books or art you're purchasing for the books, or selected readings from the books, or... iunno, see how others are using their Patreons.

Doing the budget is a great start! My own has really allowed me to make smarter (well, at least informed) decisions.

Do you own anything you can sell on ebay or at a yard sale? Books, dvds, jewelry, furniture? Might suck because you really don't want to sell the items and would likely not recoup what you paid for them. But for such a critical career moment, it might still be worth it. With only needing to "find" $170, every single dollar toward that counts.

Would your family consider gifting you money for Christmas or a birthday? It doesn't hurt to say "hey, I've been saving up for something really important to me. I'd greatly appreciate money toward that instead of a traditional gift."

Take another hard look your expenses, possibly with another person who might be able to say "whoa... you're paying that much for X? Have you considered Y?"

As far as work, could you pick up freelance article work? (I don't know much about this industry. But hopefully there's someone on here that does.)

Thank you everyone, I appreiciate your responses and I'll go through each suggestion...

Patreon: Unfortunately people don't really like to contribute to 'author patreons' until they have a book published. I've tried this before and didn't get any pledges.

Yard Sale/Ebay: I...am not sure how much I'd have to sell. I sold about 30% of my things last year in order to afford a new computer when my previous one died. I actually do have the few things left I can sell already on ebay for several months.

Gofundme: I could only do this if it was anonymous or done by someone else for me due to safety reasons. The last time I attempted something like this several years ago it ended in me having to delete and remake most of my social medias and people somehow getting my phone number and harassing me, accusing me of being lazy among other things.

Freelance work: I am going to look into it again, but a lot of the people want someone who has graduated college, who has experience in article writing (often several years of experience) - I did apply for a website that pays a couple dollars per article written but was rejected both times I applied a year apart; but I'll just need to keep looking...

Budgeting tighter: The money I get is technically my dads. the $20 I can save per month is the entirety of my allowance that I get from him usually to pay for netflix, and then dinner when I go to my writers group. I didn't want to say this because it makes me feel pathetic.

Holiday/Present Money: My dad is my only family. I did ask him about money around Christmas and he said he'll probably be able to spare another $20 around that time but we won't know until then.

I'm feeling serious anxiety right now about it all, but hopefully I can manage to find something. I don't want to feel pathetic.

You're not pathetic. There's nothing pathetic about following your dreams and doing what you have to do in order to achieve that goal. It's inspiring.

I hope things somehow fall into place. You'll definitely figure something out.

Thank you, I'm honestly so frustrated because I'm probably going to need to skip going to writers group in November for NaNoWrimo, and that's the only month of the year I actually get out of the house consistently and see a bunch of people and it's the happiest month of the year for me, but if I want to save money I can't pay people gas money for taking me to writers group or food at the coffee shops. I honestly to cry just thinking about it. When I first went to the groups in 2017 I was so depressed and it saved my life and is when I started the first draft of my book, now I have to give it up and wait an entire year for it again... It's the only thing I look forward to all year. I feel like I have 45 bricks on my shoulders right now.

Just another idea and I certainly don't mean to drag you into a public conversation about the chronic pain/illness you mentioned. But would either babysitting or in-home dog sitting be a possibility?

I don't have any kids, but I know I feel super guilty leaving my dog all by his lonesome for long periods. If I had someone nearby where I could drop him off for the day for $5-$10 (the pro places near me charge $30/day, which seems pricey so I only utilize occasionally when I'm going to be gone 12+ hours) and knew he'd have some company and a bathroom opportunity in the middle of the day, I'd take advantage of that.

I'm going to try and bring up my anxiety on the matter to my co-publisher/friend today on the phone because I don't think she gets how difficult this will be for me.

It was all dropped on me all the sudden, I expected to have a year or so of income from Kindle Direct Publishing to go towards the isbns we have to pay for, now all the sudden we aren't doing to publish through KDP at all because of lots of negatives in regards to them, and I agree with the reasons, but now instead of 12 months to accumulate book income to save, I have 6 months to save without an income...

So one can imagine how anxiety inducing that concept is.

It's alright, and it would be but there's a heavy population of teens in my area who have made bank on that idea... Though I have looked into it, the only option for me is if I can drive to peoples houses but I can't drive and don't have a vehicle when my dad goes to work.

- sell commissions on tumblr / twitter / instagram

- sell your old clothes

- sell character templates

- contact local business and offer to write for their website (i recommend checking out youtubers like katie steckley for advice and tips on things like this!)

I can't really offer much more than what's already been said.

Despite that, I just wanted to pop in to wish you good luck with this goal. I hope you can achieve it!

Thank you everyone. I spoke to my partner and we agreed I need to have more time, so I have more time but it's still a bit daunting. I'm just going to take a breather...

Some people messaged me interested so I just want to mention I have a link at the top of my profile that anyone can click and donate through PayPal if you would like.