# The February Sales Thread



## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

I have the suspicion that very few people want to get the ball rolling on this anymore, but a lot of people would like to see it for one of two reasons - 1) If they're not selling well, they'd like to see others in the same boat as them because it offers a kind of comfort to feel not alone and 2) It's nice to have some hope that things can get better. Since I do little to nothing other than snark and cause mild havoc around here, I'll get this festival of motivation started. For those who are appalled by such things...move along. Quickly, now, there's little else to see here besides some Grumpycat gifs that will probably crop up further down the page. 

I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago. 

This month I sold 9,494 books and made roughly $29,500. 

Imagine where you could be twelve months hence. 

Just keep writing.


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## AnnMHammond (Aug 9, 2012)

RobertJCrane said:


> I have the suspicion that very few people want to get the ball rolling on this anymore, but a lot of people would like to see it for one of two reasons - 1) If they're not selling well, they'd like to see others in the same boat as them because it offers a kind of comfort to feel not alone and 2) It's nice to have some hope that things can get better. Since I do little to nothing other than snark and cause mild havoc around here, I'll get this festival of motivation started. For those who are appalled by such things...move along. Quickly, now, there's little else to see here besides some Grumpycat gifs that will probably crop up further down the page.
> 
> I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago.
> 
> ...


Thanks Robert! I <3 these threads. So inspirational 

(Heck, even the people who only sell 15 books in a month are inspirational to me!)


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## vrabinec (May 19, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> made roughly $29,500.


U. Da. Man.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

RobertJCrane said:


> This month I sold 9,494 books and made roughly $29,500.


Very nice! Congrats!


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## 48209 (Jul 4, 2011)

I'm always so amazed and impressed by your numbers, Robert!

ME:
KISS (.99) -- 62 sales, 1 borrows,  down 16% from last Feb
LSG (1.99) -- 70 sales, 2 borrows, 1 spontaneous free day with 1805 DLs


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## Diane Patterson (Jun 17, 2012)

Well, now I'm confused -- the last time I looked at my Dashboard yesterday, I had sold 37 books in February (my debut month! go me!), but now looking at the Prior 6 Weeks, I've sold 33. I want my 4 books back, darnit!


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## Bruce Blake (Feb 15, 2011)

I don't have my numbers from last February in front of me, but I only had one novel and a collection of short stories out--it wasn't very many (10 or 12, maybe).
This year, with 5 novels, I sold a little over 1600...much better, but down from 2200 last month.


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## Danielle Kazemi (Apr 2, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago.
> 
> This month I sold 9,494 books and made roughly $29,500.


Fabulous inspiration. Can't wait til I can say I made that much in a month.

Feb. 2012: 17 (US and UK)
Feb. 2013: 140 (US, UK, and 1 in DE)

Overall, not the best month. I blame myself for lack of a new release.


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## Nathalie Hamidi (Jul 9, 2011)

Amazing Robert, really amazing! 

Here are my numbers:

*February 2012*
Units sold: 42
Royalties: €161.81


*Title**Books sold* *Earnings*Mon enfant est-il autiste?11€16.84Autisme Infantile 2009 (Tome 1)6€18.18Autisme Infantile 2009 (Tome 2)1€3.02Autisme et autonomie à la maison: L'alimentation, les repas 7€39.71Autisme et autonomie à la maison: La propreté11€74.19Calamari Spa Fantasies6€9.87

*February 2013*
Units sold: 16
Royalties: ?


*Title**Books sold* *Earnings*Mon enfant est-il autiste?2?Autisme Infantile 2009 (Tome 2)1?Autisme et autonomie à la maison: L'alimentation, les repas 1?Autisme et autonomie à la maison: La propreté1?Calamari Spa Fantasies2?Autism and Autonomy at Home: Toilet Training3?NightmarZ: Asylum6?

Worse than last year.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I don't have last Feb to compare Feb to, but my Feb numbers are about the same as December which was lower than Nov or January.

January was my best month, likely because ENT picked me up on a freebie run.  My high sales days are too impacted by promotions to really have an overall picture of "regular" sales.

Borrows are pretty steady for any month.


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## MegHarris (Mar 4, 2010)

My Amazon sales are getting worse every month. B&N is improving a bit, and I'm doing well with ARe, but it's not enough to compensate for my dropping Amazon sales.

Let's see:

Amazon: 829
Amazon UK: 90
B&N: 727
ARe: 285

On ARe, most of my sales are for my m/m erotic romance books. They're not moving so well on Amazon; I finally got the first one in the series to go permafree, but it hasn't done much good so far.



> This month I sold 9,494 books and made roughly $29,500.
> 
> Imagine where you could be twelve months hence.


That's great, Robert. Congrats! $29,500 would take care of all my college tuition needs for a while, so I'll keep working and hoping.  I will inject a doom-and-gloom note, however, by commenting that it can happen in the other direction too; I'm down quite a bit from early 2012. But what goes down must go up, huh? At least I'll hope so!


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## Bec (Aug 24, 2012)

This was my first full month, 1 novella out, only on Amazon.

Feb: 
52 sales, 8 borrows 
(Breakdown: 37 .com, 5 .co.uk and 3 .ca, 7 CS) 

Projected income is around $110. 

I'm pretty happy with that for my first full month


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## Jonathan C. Gillespie (Aug 9, 2012)

That's very good for month one, Allison.

Me:

Amazon
-----------
US: Six books
UK: One book

Pubit, KOBO
-----------
Zilch. Nada.


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## FeatherWatt (Feb 28, 2013)

RobertJCrane said:


> I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago.


Hey, I sold eight books this month too!  My first story has been live since the 27th and I'm still getting the hang of this whole self-promotion thing, so I don't think that's too bad.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

First let me say to Robert - Way to go dude! There's no one on the board more happy for you.
My congrats to everyone else, along with sincere hopes for March to be a record setting month for all.

I don't know the final mix from ACX or the final download fees from Amazon just yet, but Feb was just shy of $40,000.

Not a strong month here - about the same as last year.


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## 60169 (May 18, 2012)

After Joe Nobody's thread yesterday, I think a lot of us have the perspective that we can be proud that we have a book out and sales to report at all.

February is my sixth month. It was also my best month.

Feels Like the First Time ($4.99) : 1,764 Sales/Borrows. 

Lucky Man (Short Story, .99) : 53 sales and 1 Borrow.

I give full credit to these sales to a late-January free run.


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## Kwalker (Aug 23, 2012)

February was absolutely amazing for me. 

I had a new release, and a bookbbub ad and a kindleboards ad

I sold 

421 on amazon
26 on Apple
2 on Kobo
324 on B&N

February was my 5th month publishing, and I couldn't be happier.
The 773 sales total for the month bring me to 41 books away from my first milestone goal of 1000 books sold total.

The royalties, though I don't have exact numbers yet, also put me out of the red as far as editing costs, advertising costs, and cover/stock art costs, making my writing officially profitable.

To put it in perspective, I sold 34 books total in January - what a difference a month makes =) 

Jan 2013 - 2 titles, 34 sales
Dec 2012 - 2 titles,  74 sales, 27 borrows
Nov 2012 - 1 title, 28 sales, 0 borrows (8000 freeloads)
Oct 2012 1 title, 50 sales, 1 borrow ( 2000 freeloads)


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## SeanBlack (May 13, 2010)

Amazon US - 2497
Amazon UK - 114
Barnes and Noble - 1423
Apple - 379
Kobo - 28

No idea about dollar figures but the books sell from $2.99 to $9.99


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## SunHi Mistwalker (Feb 28, 2012)

February 2012 - 4 copies sold
February 2013 - 50 copies sold (not counting Smashwords, Apple, and Sony)

I can't be bothered to break it all out because Friday's are too busy for me. But I consider the large increase to be progress.


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## vrabinec (May 19, 2011)

Joe_Nobody said:


> Feb was just shy of $40,000.


$40K and it WASN'T a strong month? Dude...


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## wolfrom (May 26, 2012)

Congratulations, Robert! That is inspiring!  

I had 1928 in February, which is 1928 more than last February, and around 1915 more than January.

I can't imagine matching those sales in March, but I can always hope.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

vrabinec said:


> $40K and it WASN'T a strong month? Dude...


When you consider we published four additional books since Feb 2012 and have an audio book out as well, it was disappointing.

I've lit a fire under marketing and have another new release out in the next few weeks. We'll get it moving in the right direction again - I assure you.

It doesn't matter if I'm selling 10 books a month or 10,000. I have to be moving forward or I'm not happy.


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## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

Well I'm with all the people who did worse than last year.  

Feb 2012: 35

Feb 2013: 12

Last year, March was my best month, selling 57. I know it's only day one, but I'm not holding my breath for this year. So far, it's brown bars all round. And don't even mention other sales channels to me...zilch...nada.


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## The 13th Doctor (May 31, 2012)

Last February = 8 paid sales
This February = 7 paid sales.


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## Claudia King (Oct 27, 2012)

I was pretty happy with my overall sales for February, especially considering it was a short month, and I had a couple of patches where sales trailed off to almost nothing. 

I sold 440 titles in total, which is up from my ~400 in January, 221 in December, and 119 in November. I'll have to wait for Smashwords to update to see how I did with other retailers, but Apple and B&N in particular have been rivalling my Amazon royalties recently.
I've got my fingers crossed I'll be making a comfortable living from my writing by the time next February rolls around.

Congratulations to everyone on their awesome numbers!


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## Lefty (Apr 7, 2011)

All of my stuff is short. Sold 31 in Feb, a 3% increase from January!


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## David Alastair Hayden (Mar 19, 2011)

Diane Patterson said:


> Well, now I'm confused -- the last time I looked at my Dashboard yesterday, I had sold 37 books in February (my debut month! go me!), but now looking at the Prior 6 Weeks, I've sold 33. I want my 4 books back, darnit!


Prior 6 weeks doesn't include sales from this week.

Those numbers aren't real-time. They run them once each week. On Sunday, I think.

I'm not even sure why that read out exists. Does anyone find it useful? I'd like to know my totals for the month, but units of six weeks isn't something I measure anything in. Does anyone outside Amazon?


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## 60911 (Jun 13, 2012)

David Alastair Hayden said:


> I'm not even sure why that read out exists. Does anyone find it useful? I'd like to know my totals for the month, but units of six weeks isn't something I measure anything in. Does anyone outside Amazon?


Allows you to get a rough idea of how many foreign sales you've had before the monthly report shows up and allows you to adjust royalty estimates accordingly, I use it to track week over week numbers, royalties, etc.


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

February 2012 was when I finally started to get going. Thanks to Select, I sold 435 copies that month.

February 2013: 5700


Breaks down about like this:

Amazon US: 3300
Amazon UK: 450
B&N: 1800
Kobo: 60
Apple: 60

A good chunk of these were at $0.99, in support of a new release, so I probably won't sell nearly as many next month. Could conceivably make more, though.


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## R. M. Reed (Nov 11, 2009)

My boomlet is going down from the heights it reached in January, but it was still pretty good (for me, anyway.) Total Mamas: 77. That included a bunch in the UK and 2 in Spain. I also sold three copies of other titles. The payment I got yesterday for December was almost $100, and it came when I really needed money so I am happy.


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## David Alastair Hayden (Mar 19, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> Allows you to get a rough idea of how many foreign sales you've had before the monthly report shows up and allows you to adjust royalty estimates accordingly, I use it to track week over week numbers, royalties, etc.


Interesting. Hadn't thought of using it for that. I track my daily numbers on a spreadsheet but I don't worry about the foreign royalty differences. I suppose if I had to, I would. But so far I haven't needed to. I just calculate what I'll make knowing it might be a little less.


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## Dee J. Stone (Jan 28, 2013)

That's amazing, RobertJCrane! I hope I can get there one day 

I had only 7 sales in Feb


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## David Alastair Hayden (Mar 19, 2011)

I went from $350 last February which was my best month by far up until that point to about $1200 this month. I don't have the total copies sold from last year and I'm lazy. But I know how much I banked. 

With Storm Phase Books 3, 4, and 5 coming out by next February, I'm hoping make another big jump.


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## Barbara Bartholomew (Nov 13, 2010)

Three hundred twenty sales and rentals in U.S. and U.K. for February.  The majority of sales are for two of my $2.99 time travel books, written in the last year.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Edward W. Robertson said:


> February 2012 was when I finally started to get going. Thanks to Select, I sold 435 copies that month.
> 
> February 2013: 5700
> 
> ...


Nice! Incidentally Amazon sent me an email promoting your second book today.


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## Missy B (Aug 20, 2012)

Feb. 2012 was my very first month self-pubbing. Good times. Sold 22 books.
Feb. 2013 ~950 books sold. Way down from December. Little bit down from Jan. Amazingly I think I may have made as much money. My more expensive titles sold. Also, had a new release sitting at $2.99 that helped even things out.


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## Pnjw (Apr 24, 2011)

Wowza Joe and Robert. Still going strong! Congrats to both of you.

I come in at 4470 across all venues.

1984 Amazon
2165 B&N
151 Apple
The rest is audio, print, and Kobo.


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## Mathew Reuther (Jan 14, 2013)

February was my first full month (January 11th was the release of Day Breaks) and I sold 21 units at 70% plus 42 at 35% for somewhere over $60.

Not as good as I wanted. Better than I hoped.  I also shifted like 4500+ free copies of my first two works, so maybe some of those folks will have a read and be interested enough to pick up more.

First day of the new month was me waking up to a new 5-star review on Day Breaks, and two more copies (SR+DN) sold. (Which tends to make me think that someone did like the first two enough to buy the next two.)

I'm happy.


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## Nick Endi Webb (Mar 25, 2012)

February was also my first full month (really only a week) on the two novels. Total: 16 sales, $46.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

13 sales across all channels. Most definitely NOT my best month (I think that was October with around 160 sales).

Of course, I haven't released anything new since October, so that's probably why.



Rue


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## Edward W. Robertson (May 18, 2010)

Deanna Chase said:


> Nice! Incidentally Amazon sent me an email promoting your second book today.


Well that's awesome. Releasing the third book in the series has just made the whole thing explode (for the moment). I've never had a new release do anything right off the bat. I feel like if I touch anything the whole house might collapse, haha.

Also, BN is crazy big! I had no idea until I saw you and Brian posting numbers last year. Those have been inspiring me to get to work over there.


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## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

February was a good month. I'm on the downswing from my release in December, so I'm at around half of what I had sold last month. I've gotten used to the ups and downs and try not to panic .

My sales break down like this:
Amazon US - 1671
Amazon UK - 430
Amazon DE - 14 
Barnes & Noble - 430
Kobo - 35
All Romance - 8

Total Feb. - 2588

Obviously no apple numbers yet, but should be around 500 sales.

*The exciting news for me this month, though, was that I crossed 120,000 total sales!!! *(No, this does not include freebies, lol, just sales.) That's been since Oct. 29, 2010. I've done that without a single month selling over 10,000 books or making over $17,000 in a single month. It's proof that sometimes slow and steady can be powerful too. You don't have to have a single rocket-to-the-moon kind of month to make a career of this.

Last year, I had more sales but made less money . At that time, I had two books at 99 cents and 3 at $2.99. I had just released Book 5 at the end of January, so Feb. was good with over 4,000 sales. This year, I have 1 perma-free, 4 at $2.99 and 1 at $3.99. I'm not super disappointed in lower sales numbers though. Like I said, last year was practically a new release month, so it's not a fair comparison. Plus, I had a baby last year and releases were super spread out, which hurt me overall, but was oh so worth it . I mean, look at this cuteness. (His shirt, says Be Hoppy, hehe, which I try to do no matter what my sales look like.)


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## Bec (Aug 24, 2012)

That sure is one cute baby, Sarra


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

Congratulations, everyone!

The latter half of 2011 was when things started to take off for me, so by Feb 2012 sales were already (by my standards, not Joe's ) good, with about 9,000 sales. In Feb 2011 sales were a few hundred, IIRC.

This February looks like it will be 15,000-18,000 when I get the B&N and Apple figures to add in. I'm very, very happy.


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## trublue (Jul 7, 2012)

First, the 40k guy, wow! Thats....wow!

Feb: 2012 (14 sales)

Feb: 2013 (9,200 sales)

Take chances, change the cover, change the blurb, try something new. 
Good luck guys


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## KellyHarper (Jul 29, 2012)

January 2013 - 570 sales (included some book blasts)

February 2013 - 261 sales (I stuck my head in the ground and continued to write a follow up novel).

I haven't published anything since 12/30 and my sales are definitely reflecting that. I hope that with the release of a couple new titles this month (including a full-length novel following up my best selling novella The Professor, and the 5th and final book of my overall best selling series Frisked) I'll be back on track .

Should be a good month


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## 60865 (Jun 11, 2012)

RobertJCrane said:


> I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago.
> This month I sold 9,494 books and made roughly $29,500.
> Imagine where you could be twelve months hence.
> Just keep writing.


Thank you Robert, you just made my evening!


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## vrabinec (May 19, 2011)

sarracannon said:


>


Must...pinch...cheeks.


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## cblewgolf (Jan 3, 2011)

Definitely down from January.  'Bout 150 on the novels & 20 on the shorts.
Just shy of Robert & Joe  .  Seriously, that's some insane #'s...big hearty congrats.


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## Cege Smith (Dec 11, 2011)

In February 2012, I sold 219 books.
February 2013 has just rolled in as my best month ever as I crossed the $1K mark in royalties in one month for the first time!

Amazon: 897 (92 borrows)
co.uk: 143 (2 borrows)
.de: 67 (1 borrow)'
.fr: 4
.it: 7 
.ca: 13
.br: 1

B&N: 30 (blockbuster month for me!)

Even sold a few on SW.


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## Marti talbott (Apr 19, 2011)

Feb 2012 - 1188, 20 titles
Feb 2012 - unpubished 4, published 7 new novels bringing total to 23 - sold 2373 Kindle only. 43 returns spread out over two series. Hate that. Biggest return month ever.

Adding new books is the key. By the way, I became certifiably insane last Thursday.


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## burke_KB (Jan 28, 2013)

RobertJCrane said:


> I have the suspicion that very few people want to get the ball rolling on this anymore, but a lot of people would like to see it for one of two reasons - 1) If they're not selling well, they'd like to see others in the same boat as them because it offers a kind of comfort to feel not alone and 2) It's nice to have some hope that things can get better. Since I do little to nothing other than snark and cause mild havoc around here, I'll get this festival of motivation started. For those who are appalled by such things...move along. Quickly, now, there's little else to see here besides some Grumpycat gifs that will probably crop up further down the page.
> 
> I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago.
> 
> ...


In the middle of a work in progress, and posts like this lift me up. Thank you for sharing.


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## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

Thanks R.M. and vrabinek  I figure every sales thread can use some cuteness.


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## L.T. Ryan (Aug 1, 2012)

Congrats to everyone who has posted so far. Not just for your sales, but for taking action as well.

I wasn't publishing in February 2012, so no sales to report from then. February 2013 was a very good month. 6280 sales.


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## A. S. Warwick (Jan 14, 2011)

I managed 12.

11 in the first 10 days, then 1 for the rest of the month.


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## PhoenixS (Apr 5, 2011)

I seriously love all the numbers posted here!

On a daily average, Steel Magnolia Press' Feb totals were down only about 1.5% from January's. We didn't put out any new releases this month, so that percentage is especially encouraging.

Grand Total Sales For Feb = 35,470

*Breakdown*
Amazon Sales = 33,214
Amazon Borrows = 1306
BN Sales (before moving this title into Select) = 950
iTunes = <50 (only 1 book there)
Freebies = 98,536

*Milestones for Feb*
SMP crossed 100,000 units sold since Dec 1, 2012
SMP (almost!) crossed 175,000 units sold since Jan 2012 (174,821)
One SMP title crossed 50,000 units sold
SMP briefly had 2 titles in the Top 100 Paid plus 3 titles in the Top 100 Free at the same time in the US
SMP had 1 title in the Top 100 Paid in the US, UK and CA stores
One SMP Select title hit #1 Free with over 44,000 downloads

March is going to be ... interesting. It will likely be a relatively low sales month for us, but April and May should be back on par with Jan and Feb.


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## Clare K. R. Miller (Apr 6, 2011)

Okay, I sold no books in February. That's right, zero. (Actually, someone told me they bought my book on Apple, but Smashwords hasn't updated from them yet so I don't know for sure. But zero on Amazon, zero on BN, zero on Smashwords itself, and zero ever on Kobo.)

But this?



RobertJCrane said:


> I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago.
> 
> This month I sold 9,494 books and made roughly $29,500.
> 
> ...


This is inspirational. Thank you.


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## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

A. S. Warwick said:


> I managed 12.
> 
> 11 in the first 10 days, then 1 for the rest of the month.


Wow, that's spooky! Mine was 11 in the first week and 1 on the 28th!


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## Routhwick (Apr 1, 2012)

During February, my _Gadsby_ re-issue sold 12 copies U.S./India-wise...but, surprisingly, it's taken off in Europe! (12 sales + 1 refund in the UK...and my first one out of Germany!)

(BTW, I've recently revised it to address some typos [in the original work]; bring the formatting up to the latest Previewer standards; and add in some new information to the supplementary essay.)

Who's up for another Wright book? _The Wonderful Fairies of the Sun_ is next on my schedule!


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## legion (Mar 1, 2013)

Feb 2013: 75 sales over 2 titles for me!

So much encouraging stuff here--makes me want to pull some of my pieces from mag/journal submission and just put them up myself!
I'm currently working on a few new pieces to put up (skipping the sub process). Must...work...faster...


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## Jay Allan (Aug 20, 2012)

About 9,500 across all platforms in Feb.


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## valeriec80 (Feb 24, 2011)

Okay, this was my best month EVER!!!

So, to celebrate, I'll do the uber how-far-I-have-come post.

Feb 2010: 3 books sold
Feb 2011: 107 books sold
Feb 2012: 1370 books sold
Feb 2013: *5129 books sold!*  (That means I'm making almost half the money I made all of last year in ONE MONTH.  )

Oh, and there were over 1500 on the Amazon U.K. site, and like 100-ish on B&N, and it was AWESOME.

This was all because of _Slow Burn_, which at one point this month was selling like 200 books a day. Now, it's down to selling 40-ish, so unless the sequel does really well when I get it out mid-month, I'm not going to have a month like this again, but it sure was freaking cool.


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## KMatthew (Mar 21, 2012)

I'm pretty sure I was just making coffee money in Feb 2012. 

Feb 2013 books sold: 2,728
Feb 2013 royalties earned across all platforms (not including Apple, since those totals haven't come in yet): $5,227.37

Better than last month, and once Apple totals come in, I'm anticipating this will be my best month thus far. I had a paranormal romance series really take off. I gave away over 10,000 freeloads this month too. I'm not expecting March to be as impressive, considering that I'll be working on my first full length novel, so I don't plan on having any new releases this month.


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## LarryWilmot (Jul 31, 2012)

106 in total including UK and Borrows.  Not going to retire on the proceeds but hey, it's funds I didn't have before I got the idea that someone might be interested in our diaries.  

Total sales since I started in August 12.  650.  Which has exceeded my expectations by about 600. 

Cheers Larry.


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## R.A. Hobbs (Jun 6, 2011)

RobertJCrane said:


> I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago.
> 
> This month I sold 9,494 books and made roughly $29,500.
> 
> ...


I sold 10. So, thanks for this! Very inspirational.


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## Al Dente (Sep 3, 2012)

February ended up being one of my worst months, but it was my fault for being a slacker. I try to put out at least one title every month, and I failed to do so because of classes, tests, etc. My wife, however, killed it this month with her debut book.

My Sales: 80

Amazon US - 30
Amazon UK - 36
Smashwords - 2
Kobo - 2
Apple - 10


My Wife's Sales: 727

Amazon US - 575
Amazon US Borrows - 138 
Amazon Canada - 7
Paperback Sales - 7


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## mwhetzel (Dec 14, 2011)

Feb 2012: 14 sales over 1 title

Feb 2013: 157 sales over six titles.

All Amazon. Slow and steady climb. 

I also added a new novella and short story collection the last week of the month. Novella factored in about 7 of those sales. Nothing has upped my sales more than releasing more work


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## Guest (Mar 2, 2013)

February 2013: 122 paid, 717 free.
February 2012: 13 paid, 0 free.

These numbers are just for Amazon. For February 2013, books sold in Kobo and B&N are in the single digits. I distribute to Apple and the other retailers through Smashwords, so I won't know those numbers for a while. I don't expect them to be much different, though.

So yeah, not enough to go full time yet (at least, not in the US), but things are trending up. I need to put out a new book soon, though--my sales have been falling since December. Though maybe that's to be expected?

Also interesting to note, the only promotion method I've used (besides that Cyber Monday thing I did with you guys a few months ago) has been the perma-free titles. I don't advertise them anywhere, either, but people keep downloading them. My first *Star Wanderers* novelette has been flirting with the top 20 in Free Space Opera on Amazon since November or December, which is definitely gratifying. It's driven sales for the other books in the series, too.

Perma-free works, especially for series!


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## Error404 (Sep 6, 2012)

21 for me, but then I only had out one erotica series


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## Hildred (Sep 9, 2012)

February was my best month since I started in the last couple of days of September. In fact, it eclipsed January, which was my best month, but 3x as much revenue. 

I sold about 100 copies across all channels. This includes autographed copies people directly order from me through paypal. My revenue was about 260 dollars, including the commissioned scenes fans buy from me. (I offer 10 dollars per tailored page featuring any characters they want, erotic or not. It's been a fair hit.)

I also launched a new erotica pen name in mid February. With two titles I sold about a third of my february sales. I sold on every channel (including Kobo for the first time in MONTHS!) except iTunes. I have never sold a book on iTunes. Ever. Just given them away according to D2D. In fact my freebie on iTunes gets 5x the amount of downloads as it does on Amazon. But no follow through sales.

I have no idea what March will be like. February was killing it and then suddenly somebody flipped a switch and I flatlined the last week.


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## KristenDaRay (Aug 4, 2012)

So I put my very first book out at the very last day of the month. It sold 5 copies. Of course, probably friends on fb. Let's see if i can get that up


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## Mathew Reuther (Jan 14, 2013)

KristenDaRay said:


> So I put my very first book out at the very last day of the month. It sold 5 copies. Of course, probably friends on fb. Let's see if i can get that up


You should sell more than that with the cover.


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## Guest (Mar 2, 2013)

Hope to look back at this one day and laugh 

Feb 2013

Amazon: 7 (+ 1 borrow)
Amazon UK: 15 (+ 1 borrow)


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## KristenDaRay (Aug 4, 2012)

Mathew Reuther said:


> You should sell more than that with the cover.


Thanks  I hope so. I just need to know how to market it. Even with a pretty cover no one will buy it if they don't see it.


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## H.M. Ward (May 16, 2012)

BEST MONTH EVER!   Still riding the wave from the NYT and USA Today lists from Jan. I think it took ppl a month to read that book and then jump into my other stuff. Either way, it was awesome! I ended up having the sequel to that book hit the top 100 and another title also hit the top 100. The last time I had anything get this high was when my 1st book came out. Since there was nothing else for them to read, I lost them. Those other titles help A LOT.  My next book comes out tomorrow. Im excited! 

Sarra, that baby is SO CUTE! I need his little hat. You should get a matching one and be twins.


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## kathrynoh (Oct 17, 2012)

Love reading everyone's sales.

I sold 21 in Feb, down from Jan.  15 in the US, 4 in the UK and 2 in Japan (put me in the top 20 for erotica for Japan!)

When I checked my weekly report, I was just under the payment threshold (for cheque), then I sold 1 book so am waiting to see if that was in US, which would put me over the $100 mark or Australia, which wouldn't.  Am hanging out to know if I hit the payout figure... even though I've got Amazon to hold my payments atm until my international tax business is sorted.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

I still want to be RobertJCrane when I grow up, No Matter what his wife says! 

Feb. started out great for me but the last week, sales went like watching paint dry. So my Feb. sales are down, compared to January's.

But I'm not going to complain because in
Feb 2012, I sold 210 books
Feb 2013, I sold 4100 books


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## Sophrosyne (Mar 27, 2011)

My numbers have gone the opposite direction:

Feb. 2012: 3,452

Feb. 2013: 494


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

February 2012 was my best month, and I haven't managed to better it yet, but I have a couple of new releases planned for the next couple of months.

Feb 2012: 613 (Amazon US)
Feb 2013: 547 (Amazon US)


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## Becca Mills (Apr 27, 2012)

vrabinec said:


> Must...pinch...cheeks.


Forget pinching cheeks ... I wanna squeeze him! Sooooooo cute! 

131 sales for me across all platforms, all at $.99 (except for a couple paperbacks).


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## WG McCabe (Oct 13, 2012)

I have three short stories up and they sold 10 copies. 6 at Amazon and 4 at B&N.


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## Diane Patterson (Jun 17, 2012)

I have another question about the sales report... (besides my question "Yesterday it said I had sold 37, but there's only 33 accounted for in the report"). 

There's 1 sale at 35% royalty ($3.99 sales price). Does that mean I sold one in India? Wait, that can't be right -- this book is in Select right now. Why do I have one at 35%?


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## Mathew Reuther (Jan 14, 2013)

Diane Patterson said:


> I have another question about the sales report... (besides my question "Yesterday it said I had sold 37, but there's only 33 accounted for in the report").
> 
> There's 1 sale at 35% royalty ($3.99 sales price). Does that mean I sold one in India? Wait, that can't be right -- this book is in Select right now. Why do I have one at 35%?


Market outside of us or whatever.

Amazon makes a killing selling to places like that.


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## Diane Patterson (Jun 17, 2012)

Mathew Reuther said:


> Market outside of us or whatever.
> 
> Amazon makes a killing selling to places like that.


Well, to be fair, they do have to pay the overseas shipping freight costs.


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## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

I sold like a million billion copies! I AM A ZILLIONAIRE.

That's probably the vodka speaking, though. Don't listen to it. _It's full of lies._ I actually sold about 11,000 books. Secondbestmonthwooooo


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## TexasGirl (Dec 21, 2011)

Feb 2010 -- 70
Feb 2011 -- 80
Feb 2012 -- 200
Feb 2013 -- 450


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## Courtney Milan (Feb 27, 2011)

Feb. 2012: 7,618 copies sold
Feb. 2013: 23,031 copies sold


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## the quiet one (Aug 13, 2012)

valeriec80 said:


> Okay, this was my best month EVER!!!
> 
> So, to celebrate, I'll do the uber how-far-I-have-come post.
> 
> ...


I love the posts with the eye-popping numbers, but appreciate these even more. When you're freaking out over day-to-day movement in sales, it's important to realize that it takes time for major growth to occur. Congrats, valeriec80!

So... 339 sales in February, 95%+ on Amazon.com. Nice movement on BN as the month ended and a handful on Kobo. Return rate lowest ever. Many new reviews and nice organic growth in the mailing list. The downside: that was my worst month yet (even accounting for the whole short month thing), and my previous worst month happened when I only had one book out. Still, can't complain. And must get that next book written.


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I honestly forgot it was the end of the month, wondered why I already had the Amazon money in the bank, AND didn't look at the total. I know it was over 2000 on all titles, but I don't know an exact figure. It's not a bad month for me, nothing like December and January when I nearly doubled that but not bad.


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## Jennah Scott (Dec 12, 2012)

I don't have any numbers for Feb 2012 since I published my debut in January 2013. But for Feb I sold right at 1300 copies. Much lower than January, but I expected drop off. I released my next novel today, so we'll see if sales pick up for March.


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## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

I'm seeing a lot of great numbers! Way to go! It'll only get better, so keep writing. 


February 2012: 8,422

February 2013: 58,019


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## Mathew Reuther (Jan 14, 2013)

JRTomlin said:


> I honestly forgot it was the end of the month, wondered why I already had the Amazon money in the bank, AND didn't look at the total. I know it was over 2000 on all titles, but I don't know an exact figure. It's not a bad month for me, nothing like December and January when I nearly doubled that but not bad.


I can just click in KDP reports to get the previous month. Right above the table. That not work for you?


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## Anotherdreamer (Jan 21, 2013)

My first Feb 2013 
42 sales, up 3 from last month. 

Just got a review on Goodreads that said they had hesitated to read my book, even after a friend recommended it, because of the cover. If that isn't a huge red flag of where I'm going wrong!  

Your threads are so inspirational!!! And oh my god! That baby is too cute!!!


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## WG McCabe (Oct 13, 2012)

LilianaHart said:


> I'm seeing a lot of great numbers! Way to go! It'll only get better, so keep writing.
> 
> February 2012: 8,422
> 
> February 2013: 58,019


Holy <insert expletive of choice here>.


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## 41413 (Apr 4, 2011)

Mathew Reuther said:


> I can just click in KDP reports to get the previous month. Right above the table. That not work for you?


It looks like JR has a few cowritten books. If they're under her cowriter's account, she wouldn't necessarily have specific figures until the cowriter issued royalty statements after the monthly reports update.


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## @Suzanna (Mar 14, 2011)

Dancing is now permafree and Dear Stranger is with an epublisher, so this is only for Loving ...

Feb 2013 (it's first full month of sales) at Amazon, Apple, Kobo: 9611


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## Rykymus (Dec 3, 2011)

Feb 2012:  3,416 sales ($  6,832)
Feb 2013: 16,805 sales ($33,610)

Sure hope the trend continues.


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## David Adams (Jan 2, 2012)

Well I've certainly been overshadowed by every else, but hey! This month I sold about $564.21 worth of stuff. Note that I currently have a freebie for Sands which gave away nearly 9,500 copies, and since it ends on the 1st of March the post-free bump hasn't kicked in. March also has my ENT Book of the Day promo on Rakshasa, and a couple more things on Demons, so I'm hoping it'll be a good month!

Full breakdown for the month here (up for 24 hours till it gets turned over to March's sales):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvxvaH4Nj7PndEoxRVYtVG9zcFMtS0k5U05HSTFBV0E&pli=1#gid=2


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## Mathew Reuther (Jan 14, 2013)

smreine said:


> It looks like JR has a few cowritten books. If they're under her cowriter's account, she wouldn't necessarily have specific figures until the cowriter issued royalty statements after the monthly reports update.


I hadn't considered the fact that she might not be the one in control. She seems so commanding.


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## TJHudson (Jul 9, 2012)

12 sales this month. My first Feb. Up from January's desperate results which was a relief. Still, a long way to go!


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## Zoe Cannon (Sep 2, 2012)

I sold 101 books this February, for my best month yet


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## Incognita (Apr 3, 2011)

In February I sold 942 books across all outlets. I don't have the numbers for my three small-press titles, but as those never seem to do that well, I'm guessing it wasn't enough to push me past 1,000. (This doesn't include downloads of my one perma-free title.)

Still, it was a decent month for me, although nothing like the numbers I had in December. If I could have sales every month like I did then, I would be a happy panda.


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

Feb 2012: 1,441
Feb 2013:  270
OUCH!


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## L.T. Ryan (Aug 1, 2012)

Patrick Szabo said:


> Holy <insert expletive of choice here>.


I inserted the George Carlin seven.


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## Shayne Parkinson (Mar 19, 2010)

Stunning results, Liliana! Huge congratulations.


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## sarracannon (Apr 19, 2011)

Aww, thanks Holly and Becca for the sweet words about Ender! I never knew I'd become one of those moms who shares a million pictures everywhere, but I can't help it. I also can't stop kissing his little forehead.

Congrats to everyone on sales for this month! I know for those of you whose numbers are down, it can be really discouraging. My numbers are down a little too. But hopefully it goes in waves and we'll have good months and bad. As long as we keep writing, there's always a chance at that one book that will really strike a chord with readers. Plus, we're making money writing, which still surprises the hell out of me every month .


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I spent some of my modest February earnings and bought a Keurig coffee maker.  Money comes in... money goes out...


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## Cheryl Douglas (Dec 7, 2011)

My numbers are still rough estimates based on ranking at B&N, since SW hasn't updated yet, but Feb. should be about 9050 books sold across all channels for me.


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## Zelah Meyer (Jun 15, 2011)

I sold two books in February - one of each.

I really need to get more books out!


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## Pamela Davis (Feb 7, 2011)

Quiss said:


> I spent some of my modest February earnings and bought a Keurig coffee maker. Money comes in... money goes out...


Best money you could have spent. I love my Keurig!

In Feb I sold 17 total books in the Gaiaverse. That's two books that I had just gotten the rights back to, so I'm very happy with that beginning.


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## Onedayatatime (Oct 14, 2012)

Wow, some of these numbers are fab!! Congrats to everyone.

Feb 2012- 47
Feb 2013- 4000 (That is just Amazon.com, about another 800 with pubit and the other Amazon's)

I have a lot less sales than Dec and Jan but most of my sales are now on the omnibus as opposed to the individual books, so I'm okay with that! I have lots to aspire to!


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## Gator (Sep 28, 2012)

RobertJCrane said:


> I'll start with this - last February I sold 8 books and made $10.89. Yep. Twelve short months ago.
> 
> This month I sold 9,494 books and made roughly $29,500.
> 
> ...


YEESSSS!!! I've got to get back to work!

Some day when I make it big in eBook sales, I'll be able to buy a can of Campbell's soup ... every ... single ... day.

I kid you not.


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## Nicole Ciacchella (May 21, 2012)

I LOVE my Keurig. It's probably unnatural to love an appliance as much as I love that thing.

I've been at this for less than a year, publishing The Eye (my first book) at the end of April 2012. 

Total sold in Feb: 295

My sales have been trending up, but the bulk of them come from The Eye. I'm just putting my nose to the grindstone and writing, writing, and writing some more. I just released the first episode in my 8-part serial, and I'm planning on releasing at least two other books this year, so we'll see how that changes things.


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## sunnycoast (Sep 10, 2010)

About the same sales for me as last January.

*Feb 2013 -* 9240 sold

Past Februarys:
*Feb 2011 -* 80 sold
*Feb 2012 - *2380 sold


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## Justawriter (Jul 24, 2012)

sarracannon said:


> Aww, thanks Holly and Becca for the sweet words about Ender! I never knew I'd become one of those moms who shares a million pictures everywhere, but I can't help it. I also can't stop kissing his little forehead.
> 
> Congrats to everyone on sales for this month! I know for those of you whose numbers are down, it can be really discouraging. My numbers are down a little too. But hopefully it goes in waves and we'll have good months and bad. As long as we keep writing, there's always a chance at that one book that will really strike a chord with readers. Plus, we're making money writing, which still surprises the hell out of me every month .


Am just working my way through this thread now. Your son is adorable! So cute....

It's so nice and inspiring to see so many people here doing so well. Congrats everyone!


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

Last February I think I had 22 sales, most of which were short story sales to me and my dad.  This February I had 158, my best month ever.  March has started out poorly (still waiting for a US sale) but there's a definitely improvement going on and I have a ton of stuff to release this year.


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## julidrevezzo (Sep 15, 2012)

For February I sold three copies of one story. Nothing of the others, unless you count the five I gave away (read $0) of one of them. Oh! And two sales at Barnes and Noble. First ever.


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## Mike Dennis (Apr 26, 2010)

*2012* / 6 titles / Jan / 1077 sold Feb / 365 sold March / 240 sold
*2013* / 9 titles / Jan / 89 sold Feb / 50 sold so far in March / 33 sold

Who was it who said, "Write more books and you'll definitely sell more"?


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