# A Thread for all those Prawny Milestones



## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Sold ten thousand books today? Pfft!  This thread is not for you.

What I want to hear about are all those prawny milestones that make us feel good about our day.

I'll start. Today I gave away my first Kindle book in Brazil. In English.
Como vai voce, new reader! (Or something like that.)


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

Yesterday I sold a copy of the only title of mine that had never sold before. 

Three months online - and at last - one sale, netting me a wonderful 35 cents.  You have no idea how much I appreciate that single sale - now I can honestly say that someone has bought a copy of every book I have ever published. 

I am unduly proud of myself.


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

EC said:


> Yesterday I sold a copy of the only title of mine that had never sold before.
> 
> Three months online - and at last - one sale, netting me a wonderful 35 cents. You have no idea how much I appreciate that single sale - now I can honestly say that someone has bought a copy of every book I have ever published.
> 
> I am unduly proud of myself.


Yay and yay!!!


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## LKWatts (May 5, 2011)

EC said:


> Yesterday I sold a copy of the only title of mine that had never sold before.
> 
> Three months online - and at last - one sale, netting me a wonderful 35 cents. You have no idea how much I appreciate that single sale - now I can honestly say that someone has bought a copy of every book I have ever published.
> 
> ...


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

One of my books has finally paid for itself. cover design, editing costs, advertising etc, the book has been available since June 2013 (so almost a year) at $2.99 and has finally covered it's own costs. It's pure profit from here!! LOL


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## Scottish Lass (Oct 10, 2013)

I've had 2 lovely prawny milestones in the last two days  

Yesterday, for the first time since I made Episode 1 permafree, sales outnumbered freebie downloads. Because there were no downloads  

Today, I sold a book in Japan. Yes, Japan. A book in English, to Japan. And it wasn't book 1. I'm confused    (but also pleased)


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## MorganKegan (Jan 10, 2013)

I've sold 26 copies this month, twice as many as the total I'd sold since I released it, thanks to BargainBooksy and DigitalBookSpot ads.


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## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

I want to be the prawny cheerleader! *Yay Yay Yay!* Sis boom bah! Today I had a blogger review my book. And they liked it! Woohoo!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

My free run last week got me five free downloads in Japan and one in Brazil. I'm still fanning myself.


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## ElHawk (Aug 13, 2012)

Quittin' my day job in exactly three weeks.   That's not the exciting part. The exciting part is that all my co-workers want me to hold a "book signing" for them. Wheee!!!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

ElHawk said:


> Quittin' my day job in exactly three weeks.


YAY!


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## tknite (Feb 18, 2014)

I finally passed 100 sales thanks to my promo last week.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Congrats everyone!  I have a goal: to sell 4 of each of my novels a day. And I'm doing it! I'll be able to quit the day job if this keeps up-- in eight years. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Cheyanne (Jan 9, 2013)

I haven't checked my sales in a few weeks.

This is a milestone for my sanity because I used to log into every account and check sales once a day. For a while there I was writing daily sales in a spreadsheet! Now I've learned to kick back and not worry about it.


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## Jill James (May 8, 2011)

I had a sale in Amazon.it !! and 27 sales at Flipkart!! 27 people in India bought MY book!!


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

ElHawk said:


> Quittin' my day job in exactly three weeks.


Oooh wow. I agree, thats a definite Yay! Wish I was


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## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

Yay, I finally have a milestone to post!  

Overnight, I had my 2000th paid sale!    Considering it took me just over three years to get the first thousand, and only five months to get the second, I'm considering that progress.

Not out of the red, yet, but have treated myself to an Eccles cake to celebrate. (Yeah, people over the pond may have to google that one!)


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Is it a milestone to say that I've just completed my first tax return as a writer?


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## Donna Alam (Mar 6, 2014)

Raquel Lyon said:


> Yay, I finally have a milestone to post!
> 
> Overnight, I had my 2000th paid sale!   Considering it took me just over three years to get the first thousand, and only five months to get the second, I'm considering that progress.
> 
> Not out of the red, yet, but have treated myself to an Eccles cake to celebrate. (Yeah, people over the pond may have to google that one!)


I hope you had tea with that cake! Yay for you; sales and a fly graveyard!


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## theaatkinson (Sep 22, 2010)

congrats Raquel! That's a sweet milestone.

I'm slow but steady. After 3 years, I just passed 15K sold. It's not Hugh Howey good, bit it's Thea good. 

Onward!


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

> Overnight, I had my 2000th paid sale!   Considering it took me just over three years to get the first thousand, and only five months to get the second, I'm considering that progress.


Congrats! It's kind of cool how things start to snowball. I'm almost done with my first series, and I have a second in mind (in an even less popular genre--romantic sci-fi--hahahaha!)

I'm excited to be finishing off series number 1 and onto number 2 (sometime next year.  )


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

I haven't been on Authorcentral in a week! Which means I haven't looked at rankings in over a week either! Wohoo. Unfortunately, I have a promo tomorrow, so I'm thinking that streak has to end.


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## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

Thanks, everyone.  

@Donna, I did indeed have a nice cup of tea with my 'fly sandwich' (Graveyard, I've never heard of, but may use from now on!).


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

I SOLD MY FIRST COPY!  
OMG! OMG! OMG! The royalties at the bottom of the Amazon chart says 0.35 USD.
Wow! Someone thought enough of one of my books to actually spend money on it. I can't believe it!

Now, what should I spend it on?


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## Chinese Writer (Mar 25, 2014)

I have two people in my mailing list. Yeah! I'm going to zoom to the top with my next release. Seriously I thought my mailing list would just be an item I check off on my author platform tasks. I didn't think anyone would like my book enough to let me have their email address.


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## EC (Aug 20, 2013)

e-chant said:


> I SOLD MY FIRST COPY!
> OMG! OMG! OMG! The royalties at the bottom of the Amazon chart says 0.35 USD.
> Wow! Someone thought enough of one of my books to actually spend money on it. I can't believe it!
> 
> Now, what should I spend it on?


Get 35 cents inlaid to a nice commemorative plaque and hang in on the wall with the inscription -

"Here Be My First 35 cent Royalty"

And well done on your first sale


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Ooh lovely idea. Thanks.
And so far, whoever bought it hasn't returned it to Amazon and asked for their money back.
Amazing!


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## ricola (Mar 3, 2014)

I had someone buy my first book in France, then the next day, she downloaded my second, and then that afternoon, a French email address showed up on my mailing list.

It was pretty awesome.  I was like, "HI FRENCH READER!  I AM NOT STALKING YOU, NO!"  (I didn't email.  I just talked to my screen.)


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## Evan of the R. (Oct 15, 2013)

e-chant said:


> I SOLD MY FIRST COPY!


Excellent! Here's to many more...


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## Huldra (Nov 7, 2013)

Today I sent out my first newsletter for the second book in my series to my itty-btty list of 4 people (not counting myself)--and within 6 hours everyone'd not only opened it but also clicked the link!
I imagine this is one of those zomg! moments the more experienced authors snicker at, but zomg! *happy prawny dance*


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## Lionel&#039;s Mom (Aug 22, 2013)

100% open and click through rate is nothing to sneeze at, ever!


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## momilp (Jan 11, 2010)

I sold one book in India, and it made me incredibly happy! Also, my permafree was pirated just recently


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## Huldra (Nov 7, 2013)

Lionel's Mom said:


> 100% open and click through rate is nothing to sneeze at, ever!


Fingers crossed it won't drop too much in the future. 



momilp said:


> I sold one book in India, and it made me incredibly happy! Also, my permafree was pirated just recently


Ah, the true mark of being on the right path. Congrats!


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## Ceinwen (Feb 25, 2014)

I published my first novel last week and 'officially' launched yesterday and all up I've sold 21 copies. Mostly to friends and family, but hey. I'll take it!


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

I have no idea how many books I've sold since I started in June 2013; I really ought to download the spreadsheets and do a count.

But my good news (for SF fans) is that Larry Smith, Booksellers (they sell mainly at SF conventions) ordered 5 copies each of all my books (except Child of Promise, which I told them not to get until I get it illustrated) and asked what the re-order time was for when (when not if!) they sold out!

and I'll be merchanting my books at 2 events within the next few weeks (one SCA, one local) and have applied for booth space at a really big area fall festival. My books seem to sell better when I can sell them in person, so I have great hopes for summer sales, even if it doesn't affect my Amazon rankings. I include a bookmark with every sold book that gives my website and mailing list signup information (which is in the back matter too), so maybe I'll get some more mailing list signups.


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Congratulations, all! As someone who is planning to finally do it (get my five novels out into the real world) in the next couple months, I'm encouraged by your successes!


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## hedonist6 (Dec 3, 2013)

What a lovely thread, don't mind if I get in on this. it's so important to celebrate the little stuff instead of looking up to the bestsellers wondering "why not me?"  
This month, I have (what I assume must be) one reader in Germany who's just buying everything I've got.


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## Alex Rogers (Jan 7, 2014)

I got my first mailing list sign up!


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## mphicks (Jan 29, 2014)

This month my book sold to foreign countries for the first time on both Amazon and Kobo! I now have a couple readers (or at least a couple buyers) in the UK and Australia. I also managed to earn one sale a day for three consecutive days. May could be my second-highest selling month with about twenty copies sold if all goes well. And there's a week left to the month. The sky's the limit!


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## BCotton (Aug 1, 2013)

I'm approaching 100 sales in a day for the first time ever. (Running a 99c promo, but whatever, it all counts!)
Here's the book: http://amzn.to/1jANDou


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## sstroble (Dec 16, 2013)

Nothing to report yet but there are 12 hours left...


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## scbarrus (Nov 26, 2013)

My novel made it into the top 100 for it's genre!!! Then proceeded not to sell another copy since (5 days).... Hmmm, not sure what happened there.


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## Guest (May 22, 2014)

I cracked the '300 lifetime sales' milestone today


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

I'm not selling more than one copy of my new YA novel, *Shade*, every once in awhile  ...but I've gotten quite a few good reviews for it and permission from the reviewers to post their reviews on my website, I've been offered interviews by two people on Goodreads, and yesterday I had a lovely interview posted on the _All Who Wander_ blog of Wendi M. Lee: http://wendimlee.blogspot.com/2014/05/interview-with-marilyn-peake-author-of.html


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## Going Incognito (Oct 13, 2013)

I wanna play, too! 
I passed 100 titles sold on my softer, more romantic pen name. It's taken a year. One full length novel, with the second just released a week ago. Almost immediately someone in the UK bought it. Woohoo. No sales since tho
In 8 months, under this newer pen name, I passed 600 titles sold! Woohoo. And this month I had individual titles (3) sell in the double digits! Woohoo again. It's also my best month ever. Porn sells, who knew? 
Hmm, wonder which pen name I should concentrate on?


Yay us and our little, prawny milestones! Congrats everyone!


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## BCotton (Aug 1, 2013)

Made it to

#11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Historical Fiction > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

#33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Crime Fiction

AND 
*#1* in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Crime Fiction > That My Mom Bought


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

I have two more things to add. I still have ZERO sales  ...but a few minutes ago I received another wonderful 5-star review on Goodreads for my YA novel, *Shade*; and, to my complete amazement, I discovered that Shade has been added to these Goodreads lists: *https://www.goodreads.com/list/book/21941910 *


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## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

Thanks to Book Bub I'm number 592 in paid, and #54 in all of non-fiction! wooohoooooo!!!


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

I had my first borrow two days ago. Took me a few seconds to work out what the heck the new blue line was.


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## Harry Manners (Jul 6, 2013)

BCotton said:


> *#1* in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Crime Fiction > That My Mom Bought


Genius. 

I'm glad everyone is as excited by the idea of a few sales as I am. Imagine, people spending real money to read some words you've written.

I can't wait to make my first sale. I'll be sure to post it on here after publishing day!


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## Ceinwen (Feb 25, 2014)

BCotton said:


> *#1* in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Crime Fiction > That My Mom Bought


Most important category!


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

My mum doesn't even know I write ficiton. Uh, yeah, we're close...


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I hate to talk about my Kobo sales here at kboards. I mean you folks used to be KINDLE BOARDS - and I don't expect that "K" has changed its meaning overnight. Talking about Kobo here makes me feel a little like the dude who burns incense at the tent revival - but to heck with it. Maybe that "K" can stand for "Kobo" as well as "Kindle".

All kidding aside - I woke up to find that I had reached 999 total sales as of this morning and I am hoping to pass 1000 sales by the end of the evening.



Note - Came back from a book signing only to find that I had sold my ONE THOUSANDTH Kobo e-book!


http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/someone-left-the-gate-open/


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## Caoimhe McCabe (May 5, 2014)

Hi All,

I published my first book last weekend and have 7 sales in total. One to myself to check it was downloading OK, one to my bezzie mate, one gifted to my cover artist, but also four complete strangers based in the US, the UK and Australia have bought my book. 


It’s an amazing feeling to know that one’s readership can be so geographically widespread...


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I changed the cover on my permafree and the rest of the books in the series. Yesterday, I had more downloads of the freebie in one day than I've ever had (except for a couple of Select runs way long ago). 

With 313 downloads, my ranking went to 872 in the free store and now sits at 

#772 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)

    #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Private Investigators
    #16 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Mystery & Suspense > Mystery

I was also at #28 in women sleuths, but that has disappeared.


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## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

Nice! These are awesome achieved goals guys- Congratulations Gertie and everyone.


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## Huldra (Nov 7, 2013)

This thread is like reading pure sunshine. Congrats everyone! And thank you for sharing


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Yay! I've just had my first bought and returned! 

Now I know I'm a SERIOUS author


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## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

e-chant said:


> Yay! I've just had my first bought and returned!
> 
> Now I know I'm a SERIOUS author


Maybe there was dirt on the cover.


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

My covers are very clean


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## VMJaskiernia (Jan 7, 2014)

I sold a book over in Brazil, and a few days ago in Australia! In total I've had ~125 sales in two months (Yay!)


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

VMJaskiernia said:


> I sold a book over in Brazil, and a few days ago in Australia! In total I've had ~125 sales in two months (Yay!)


Well done!!!


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## S. Elliot Brandis (Dec 9, 2013)

VMJaskiernia said:


> I sold a book over in Brazil, and a few days ago in Australia! In total I've had ~125 sales in two months (Yay!)


I sell a few in Australia... about 20% of my sales so far. Though I'm Aussie, so that helps.

My rarest sale so far was in Spain.


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Steve Vernon said:


> Came back from a book signing only to find that I had sold my ONE THOUSANDTH Kobo e-book!
> 
> 
> http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/2014/05/24/someone-left-the-gate-open/


That is fantastic! Congratulations!


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## BradMcDauthor (May 22, 2014)

Finished the Ebook and put it up on the Kindle market today. Still working on the print version but hey! I am FINALLY out there. Now to get that first sale O.O


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## SomethingClever (Mar 9, 2014)

Very excited that this month I hit 100 total sales. I started self publishing last July. Until March sales were dismal but then I started releasing erotica under a pen name and the sales have been pretty good so far.


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I just released my 50th title today.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I just released my 50th title today.


Impressive!


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## T.M. Blades (May 1, 2013)

I'm reviving this thread... because I've sold a grand total of 1 copy of my urban fantasy serial. : D Thank you kind internet stranger, whoever you are.

MRW


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## AssanaBanana (Feb 1, 2014)

Someone on the Apple store bought a copy of my worst selling title yesterday. The first time that book has sold in that particular store.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I got an email this morning that said this:



> I have enjoyed reading your books and find them highly entertaining. You are right up there among my favorite science fiction authors including Terry Pratchett, Asimov and Dan Simmons.


Since my sales are kind of sucky at the moment, it was a good boost!


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## Kristine McKinley (Aug 26, 2012)

C. Gockel said:


> I got an email this morning that said this:


Awesome fan mail! I recently got my first fan email and after 21 months I recently sold my 150th book. Exciting! Small milestones are just as important as large ones.


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## Quiss (Aug 21, 2012)

I passed 7000 books sold over all platforms. Yay.


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## Guest (Jun 16, 2014)

Quiss said:


> I passed 7000 books sold over all platforms. Yay.


That's great! I just passed 2500 ebooks sold.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

Is there an easy way to count the # you've sold? I don't do it. I track what promos do well, and calculate the two week sell-thru rate after each, but I've never kept a running tally of "sales". I track profits (and lack thereof) instead.


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## Redacted1111 (Oct 26, 2013)

Last month I made it to #50 in the free store during a paid promo. It slipped out of the top 100 within 48 hours, but it was fun while it lasted! Now I'm getting at least one or two fan letters a week. That's the best part.  

The boxed set of the first serial I wrote a last September/October is having a renaissance and is outselling the standalone novel I busted my butt to make perfect. It's more expensive too. 

I also had my first sale in Amazon India.


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## Heather Hamilton-Senter (May 25, 2013)

Here's a couple of prawny milestones! I was a number 1 bestseller in my tiny category on Amazon Canada and made it as high as 3 in the US.....in a tiny category 

Still, I'm thrilled. I've been published exactly a week and I've sold 38 books! I'd love to say thousands, but I'll take it!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I bundled my four book series last September and it's been selling. But yesterday, I go the first bundle sale in the UK.


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## Christian Price (Aug 3, 2012)

Heck Yeah!  Big milestone, I just realized, my writing is paying our cable bill.  A year ago, I posted, my writing bought dinner out once a month.  Yesterday, dinner out, today the cable, tomorrow...anything is possible!  I'm also going to add one of those shiny badges in my signature.  3 months of greater than one or two sales a day, I think qualifies me for it


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## Heather Hamilton-Senter (May 25, 2013)

I just hit 42 sales! 

It's maybe a little pathetic how excited I am


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## Scottish Lass (Oct 10, 2013)

Rather pathetic, but exciting for me - as of yesterday, 100 lifetime sales!  
It's taken 7 months and 7 stories, but, hey, I got there eventually


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## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

Here are two milestones for me...

I found this review for my YA novel, *Shade*, on Goodreads today:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/923845914?book_show_action=false&page=1

Then, a few minutes later, I found this comment:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/972066446?book_show_action=false&page=1

I'm thrilled!


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## Christian Price (Aug 3, 2012)

A year ago I finished a book, and I never published it.  I finally got around to it this spring and enrolled it in Select.  After 3 months, it never sold a single copy.  I removed it from Select, and I decided to follow members of this forum and went to Draft2Digital.  Today, I sold 2 copies of that book!  This book, was sitting around and earning me nothing.  Today, it earned me just under 4 bucks!  I'm counting the weeks down, and I'll move all of my books into Draft2Digital.  My next title, should be finished about the time my next 90 day Select term expires, so I'll likewise publish that book as well.  I'd also like to redo a cover before my September deadline (exit Select) but overall, I'm starting to feel optimistic for the first time, in a very long time.


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## Diane Patterson (Jun 17, 2012)

I discovered that a book I just uploaded, that I haven't told anyone about yet, has sold one copy. I am unduly excited about this.


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## Carolyn J. Rose Mystery Writer (Aug 10, 2010)

After 2 1/2 years I am 1 review away from hitting 100 for No Substitute for Murder. I've never done the free days and sent copies to only 3 or 4 reviewers, so the majority of these are unsolicited comments from readers. Never thought I'd hit the triple digits and I haven't yet - hard to type with fingers crossed.


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## Andrew Ashling (Nov 15, 2010)

Got a fan letter:



fan said:


> To be honnest, I never liked reading and only read when forced to; however, My buddy urged me to read "Bonds of Hate: the invisible chains part 1", so i decided to give it a try. I was amazingly suprised that I finished it in 2 days! I read it as if my life depended on it! So good!
> I just had to thank you for creating such a marvelous read and for changing my mind about reading, (Didn't know that you can laugh, be sad, and get filled with lust just by reading!!!) so fun!
> By the way, I think I'm in love with Anaxantis!


Changing someone's mind about reading&#8230; That's what makes it all worth it for me.


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## sarahdalton (Mar 15, 2011)

I have two milestones to share. 

I hit 40,000 sales today!! 

Also, I got a cute handwritten letter from my cousin telling me that White Hart is his favourite book. It's my worst selling book to date, so at least someone loves it!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

sarahdalton said:


> I have two milestones to share.
> 
> I hit 40,000 sales today!!
> 
> Also, I got a cute handwritten letter from my cousin telling me that White Hart is his favourite book. It's my worst selling book to date, so at least someone loves it!


Good grief! A hand-written letter. That alone would have me fainting.

At 40K sales, you've lost your prawn status. Congrat, anyway. That's a great milestone.


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## Andrzej Tucholski (Jan 4, 2014)

Diane Patterson said:


> I discovered that a book I just uploaded, that I haven't told anyone about yet, has sold one copy. I am unduly excited about this.


That made me smile. Great! 



Marilyn Peake said:


> Here are two milestones for me...
> (...)
> I'm thrilled!


Congratulations!!!


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## sarahdalton (Mar 15, 2011)

Sorry, I just had to share, saw the word 'milestone' in the title and went for it. I'm way too shy to start my own thread about sales figures. 

Anyway, congrats on all your prawny achievements. I spent a long time celebrating the small milestones, 10 copies, 50 copies sold. It's all part of the journey!


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## mphicks (Jan 29, 2014)

If I'm really, really lucky I'll be crossing the 100 sales mark soon. Until then, I'm celebrating my prawny 97 copies sold!


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## Heather Hamilton-Senter (May 25, 2013)

Somewhere though the night I hit 1200 in sales, all but 13 of them at full price! I'm a happy prawn!


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## Elliott Garber (Apr 8, 2013)

Almost exactly a year since publishing my short story, its sales rank on Amazon is higher than it has ever been before! Still not that high, but anything better than 50k is awesome in my book. Four sales in one day?? That's almost unheard of!

This is without any promotion of any kind. I'm guessing that the story has benefited a lot from the recent _National Geographic_ cover article about military working dogs.


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## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

I published my first book just over a week ago. I've had 20 sales (Yay!) and 2 returns (Boo!).

No reviews as yet. I am anxious to see what they will say. I have practically no finger nails left. 

I'll be doing a free day bknights thing to get it to a few more people, and hopefully get some reviews. I almost didnt do it. I have heard that free books come with a higher risk of poor reviews. And, well, my story has some graphic violence. I fear some will take issue with it. 

But, the story is what it is, so we shall see.


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## beccaprice (Oct 1, 2011)

I'm finally getting all my books illustrated! I love my illustrator! she really captures the feelings of my stories. My biggest problem is that the primary layout artist I've been using has gotten really busy and can't do my layout anymore. I have a secondary one (she did The Snarls for me) but she's got a backlog, and I don't know when I'll get the files from her. oh, well! My goal for all my books to be illustrated was end of September, so I think I'll make it.


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## Carol Davis (Dec 9, 2013)

I discovered the other day that I had topped 2,500 sales!  (That's total, over a little more than 10 months.)  I'm still a long way from being able to buy that private island I have my eye on, but it's VERY amazing to me.

Congratulations to everyone who's marked a milestone!


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

So a reader posted this on my FB wall last night:



> One of the things I like most about these books is how this talented author ties together in her narrative various myths/religions, pointing out similarities without bolstering any one over another. Her treatment of Christianity is brief and gentle, which I find both brave and wise. Instead she explores the Nordic creator/ruler/destroyer trinity and interposes it over a corresponding Hindu trinity, which makes for an interesting narrative, whether or not you have prior knowledge of either. Then, for good measure, she throws in a dash of Greek myth, as well as a passing reference to Gilgamesh. It's an escapist adventure and an engaging academic scavenger hunt rolled into one delightful pentology, and a half.


I wrote the story hoping that it would be entertaining, but I snuck in little nuggets of historical fact, philosophy, physics, and theology. Usually people focus on one or the other, "this is light reading", or "this really made me think", it's awesome when someone appreciates it for being entertaining and deep ... I am philosophically opposed to the idea that you have to be one or the other!


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## martyns (May 8, 2014)

Here's my milestone - last night for the first time in weeks I didn't do any writing, reading or editing! Not an iota! I know I'm trying to get my book 3 finished and my book 4 started, but my wife and son were out on a day-trip. I picked my little girl up from school, we played Minecraft for a bit, had some dinner - then she went to bed and I sat down to watch Germany humiliate Brazil... It was nice to have a break! I feel a bit guilty now though, like I ought to try and do double tonight


----------



## Scottish Lass (Oct 10, 2013)

Andrew Ashling said:


> Changing someone's mind about reading... That's what makes it all worth it for me.


I think this is wonderful! Well done, Andrew;  I'd be so made up if I could ever claim something similar


----------



## rmoses (Apr 30, 2012)

Here's the tiniest, prawniest milestone of all-I finally opened my p.o. box! I'm proud of myself, which is kind of silly. AND I made two whole sales yesterday-what? Is the summer slump becoming the summer extravaganza? I think it is!


----------



## eveadrian (Jan 27, 2014)

I just got my second 5 star review. And in the 2ish weeks I've had a title permafree, I've given away about 2000 copies.


----------



## vrcumming (May 17, 2014)

I had my first (and only) review of one of my books on Amazon UK. It was a five-star, one-word review ("Excellent")...I'll take it!


----------



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

vrcumming said:


> I had my first (and only) review of one of my books on Amazon UK. It was a five-star, one-word review ("Excellent")...I'll take it!


Excellent!!!


----------



## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

EC said:


> Yesterday I sold a copy of the only title of mine that had never sold before.
> 
> Three months online - and at last - one sale, netting me a wonderful 35 cents. You have no idea how much I appreciate that single sale - now I can honestly say that someone has bought a copy of every book I have ever published.
> 
> I am unduly proud of myself.


Woo-Hoo!


----------



## SarahWritesSometimes (Aug 18, 2014)

I like this thread  

My prawny moment happened when my first book went live a few hours ago.  I am a published author.  Yay me!  Now if only I could get my mother to buy a copy...


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

SarahWritesSometimes said:


> I like this thread
> 
> My prawny moment happened when my first book went live a few hours ago. I am a published author. Yay me! Now if only I could get my mother to buy a copy...


That's not a prawny moment. That's an awesome moment! Congratulations!


----------



## SarahWritesSometimes (Aug 18, 2014)

Thank you Robert  

Strangely enough, I've had a not-so-great day, and your post made me feel better.


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Fantastic, fellow prawns! Keep us the good work.


----------



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

SarahWritesSometimes said:


> I like this thread
> 
> My prawny moment happened when my first book went live a few hours ago. I am a published author. Yay me! Now if only I could get my mother to buy a copy...


Friends and family only want free book. I gave in a long time ago and give my parents their free copies.


----------



## VictoriaScribens (Sep 11, 2014)

My milestone came in August, but I wasn't on Kboards then, so ... Getting the first (and so far only) review from a complete stranger. And it was a pretty awesome one comparing my book to one of my favourite authors (and not only that, the one I was aiming at in terms of genre and tone!):

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1NQXIQP3NU4K4/ref=cm_cr_dp_title?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00LT5VHT8&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=133140011&store=digital-text


----------



## SarahWritesSometimes (Aug 18, 2014)

That is fantastic Victoria!  I see two reviews, both 5 stars


----------



## VictoriaScribens (Sep 11, 2014)

Yeah, the other one's from my sister! Though I do know she does like it that much, so it's not fake. Nor did I ask her to put it up.


----------



## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

I'm feeling prawntastic. I'm having my best sales month ever with a massive 19 sales of Story of My Escape!

It took three promotions and a week at $0.99 to get there, but I'm hopeful now that I can break the big 2-0 for September!


----------



## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

Last week I hit the paid erotica charts. This is not as impressive as it sounds. You can hit the category charts with as little as 5 sales, but I've never hit any chart with a story that wasn't free before.


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

SarahWritesSometimes said:


> Thank you Robert
> 
> Strangely enough, I've had a not-so-great day, and your post made me feel better.


I'm glad it did.  Now write that next book!


----------



## SarahWritesSometimes (Aug 18, 2014)

Nice job Andrew and Katrina!  I have sold 3 copies of my book in less than 24 hours  

I am 191,000 and change on the paid list lol


----------



## C Ryan Bymaster (Oct 4, 2013)

I had my best weekend ever in sales!  On 09/14 I actually hit a #1 spot in a sub-cat. It was only for like an hour, but, trust me, my friends and family will complain that I made that hour seem like an eternity to them. 

here's a snapshot on 9/14/2014
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,034 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) 
#1 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Heist 
#2 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Crime > Vigilante Justice 
#3 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Supernatural > Psychics


----------



## Morgan Jameson (Sep 16, 2014)

I just received the last of the final line edits from my editor - which means in 2 - 3 weeks I should be pressing the big, red SUBMIT button. Everything is ready to go but final formatting. Getting a little scary...


----------



## Navigator (Jul 9, 2014)

Morgan Jameson said:


> I just received the last of the final line edits from my editor - which means in 2 - 3 weeks I should be pressing the big, red SUBMIT button. Everything is ready to go but final formatting. Getting a little scary...


Once you've submitted your work, be sure to treat yourself to a delicious meal and drink!


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

My first top 20!

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: 
    #17 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Gay & Lesbian

I thought I'd look and see there were only 18 Gay and Lesbian Action-Adventure novels altogether, but there are more than that.


----------



## SarahWritesSometimes (Aug 18, 2014)

Congrats Morgan, Liv & Lacey  , and cadle   

Really impressive!

I <3 this thread


----------



## Al Dente (Sep 3, 2012)

Congrats everyone! I published a novelette under a brand new pen name at the end of August and though it's only part 1 of 3 and the other books aren't out yet, I managed to sell 49 copies in less than 30 days! I can't wait to finish the next book and publish it.


----------



## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

SarahWritesSometimes said:


> Nice job Andrew and Katrina! I have sold 3 copies of my book in less than 24 hours
> 
> I am 191,000 and change on the paid list lol


Thank you. I have only recently started to sell 2-3 copies of each book everyday as opposed to 5-15 in one day when promoting, then nothing for a week. I think slow and steady is a better sign than spurts here and there, so I hope you keep it up.


----------



## Adrian Howell (Feb 24, 2013)

Nearly two years since I started publishing, I FINALLY got readers in my home country who have read through my entire series. Didn't have a single sale in Japan until last month, and now sold TWO of each copy of my series on Amazon.jp, so that's reader_*s*_ in the plural.


----------



## mphicks (Jan 29, 2014)

Two prawnies!

First up is an advanced review of my forthcoming horror short story, Consumption: http://mrshsgbookreviews.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/consumption-by-michael-patrick-hicks-%E2%9C%AD%E2%9C%AD%E2%9C%AD%E2%9C%AD/

Second prawny is, I've hit 150 copies sold of my current title, Convergence.

Pretty darn happy right now.


----------



## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

mphicks said:


> Two prawnies!
> 
> First up is an advanced review of my forthcoming horror short story, Consumption: http://mrshsgbookreviews.wordpress.com/2014/09/30/consumption-by-michael-patrick-hicks-%E2%9C%AD%E2%9C%AD%E2%9C%AD%E2%9C%AD/
> 
> ...


Awesome! I love this thread. Each success should be celebrated, because it means you are all moving forward. It took me a year to sell my first 1000. Don't give up!


----------



## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

Prawny goal met: Getting a third book in a series published. Very excited about the opportunities we have to promote now, which we've been delaying until we had three in a series.


----------



## mphicks (Jan 29, 2014)

KJCOLT said:


> Awesome! I love this thread. Each success should be celebrated, because it means you are all moving forward. It took me a year to sell my first 1000. Don't give up!


Agreed! And congrats on the success of the giveaway of Concealed Power - you're numbers in the free store are pretty damn terrific!


----------



## Writerly Writer (Jul 19, 2012)

mphicks said:


> Agreed! And congrats on the success of the giveaway of Concealed Power - you're numbers in the free store are pretty d*mn terrific!


Cheers, 20k given away this month.


----------



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

It's taken me over three years but I hit my 1,000th paid sale, this month.


----------



## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

I just had my first month of over $100 in sales on Amazon, including 40 copies of my latest release. 

Woot!!  Big check coming!  (lol for me anyways)

ETA:  I should specify this was Amazon.com. When I include the other Amazon international sites it was 49 copies.


----------



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

Congrats, Judy!


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

way to go, Gayle, Michale, Nico, KJ, and Judy.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Congrats to everybody on their respective milestones. 

September 2014 was my best sales month ever, I just had my first sales at Smashwords today (and someone bought the entire series at that) and I sold a book at a store I've never even heard of via a distributor.


----------



## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

Here's my bit of good news.

My books have been published on Amazon and other bookstores for a little more than a week now. Had a few snags here and there but nothing major. All is well now.

I'd set the first book free on Google Play and Kobo during the uploading process with the hopes of drumming up interest in the series. (That is what members on this board advise authors to do if they have a series.) Well, just this past Friday I got Amazon to (hopefully) permafree the same book. After that, I've done nothing more than sit around thinking of ways of getting the word out about my work. (That's kinda hard to do with zero reviews and no money. These being Christian works can be seen as a problem too.)

Moments ago, I logged into my KDP account just to have a look at things. Lo and behold, *I've given away 37 copies of the permafree book (14 on Friday and 23 on Saturday)! This book is now #2 in one category and #4 in another (one I didn't choose) on their respective Free lists! What's more, it's #6,122 Free in the whole Kindle Store! And it seems I've made a sale/download of the same book on Google Play!* All this is without any promotion whatsoever.

Prawny milestone indeed, but this is something to shout about, at least for me it is. Although I've yet to gain a single review for my freebie or sell a single copy of my other books (they're priced at $1.99 so that might have something to do with it; I thought $2.99 for short nonfiction was too expensive), I'm very happy with the results I've gotten thus far. Who knows what results I'll get if I could just promote the freebie on ebook sites without those price and review requirements (among other things).

Hooray for me!


----------



## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

In the first three days since publishing my debut fantasy novel, I have gotten over 60 sales and 20 borrows, AND I've gotten several new 'Likes' on my Facebook Author Page and new subscribers to my mailing list! And I have managed to stay in the top 100 lists in a couple of different categories for two days now, so YAY!


----------



## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

Got my first KDP payment today totaling around $8.00!  

Between that, emails, and a review I have no complaints!  I am even more anxious to get my trilogy out now!


----------



## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

Wooohoo! Congrats everyone!


----------



## jackiegp (May 18, 2013)

Congrats to EVERYONE HERE! This is so great! My sales are still in the garborator (sigh) but my book LUMIERE was just awarded an INDIE BRAG MEDALLION, so maybe that'll help? Excited and honoured to be awarded the MEDALLION. YAY! (And THANKS again if your out there Indie Brag people!)


----------



## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

This is utterly pathetic in comparison to other achievements in this thread, but I thought I'd share anyway. Yesterday, I passed a certain number of total books sold in my series. What number is that, pray tell?










...yes, I have been waiting a whole year to make that stupid, outdated joke. That's how I roll.


----------



## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

I just wanted to update everyone on my results from the first week of my debut novel being released! 

Sales: 122
Borrows: 46

I'm beyond thrilled! *happy dance*


----------



## taiweiland (Oct 16, 2014)

Here's an incredible prawny milestone! I got my first Amazon bank deposit! I was wondering why Amazon was giving me money until I checked my sales. I had published one short story under a pen name and basically left it there without zilch promotion.

Guess how much it was?

0.20!

Awesome!!

But actually I earned more than that but told Amazon not to give the $ to me until I reached #100


----------



## Maddie_K (Sep 13, 2014)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Friends and family only want free book. I gave in a long time ago and give my parents their free copies.


This is too funny! I sent my parents a free paperback copy...which my mom insisted on paying me for.

Prawny Milestone - I enrolled my book in select because it wasn't selling outside of amazon anyway... as of today I've had 5 borrows! Whoo! I'm tearing up those charts!

Second prawny milestone - I got an email from amazon saying they're depositing $3.24 in my account - my first royalty payment!


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

My Pawny Milestones:

- 1st Book Published on Oct 14: 2 sales + 1 borrow in the last 9 days! 2 reviews (OK so I cheated on the 1st one with free preview copies and it was by someone who I mentioned in the book - but she's a pretty successful homesteader blogger/author so I think it's a pretty big review!!)

- 2 other NF books about maximizing profits on ebay completed within 2 weeks! I'm stoked! I'm waiting for my mum to proofread one. Need a bit more $$ for an actual edit for my bigger ebay book. The husband will work on the covers for me tomorrow. Hopefully I'll be able to get another book published by next week.

- I've outlined the 4th NF book in my head. I will start tomorrow.

I'm so happy. I never thought of being an author but I'm having fun writing! I'm an unknown author and knowing I'll have at least $2 in royalties (assuming the KU pay out is about $1.50/borrow) is the icing on the cake!!


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## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

Shiriluna Nott said:


> I just wanted to update everyone on my results from the first week of my debut novel being released!
> 
> Sales: 122
> Borrows: 46
> ...


What an absolutely fabulous first week! I can see you being ineligible to post I this thread in no time.


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## Mr. RAD (Jan 4, 2011)

One of my books has a rank under 10K in Amazon.in. A _single_ sale made that happen. Imagine if I sell two or three.  

ETA: I've also sold two copies (one of two different books) on Google Play within the last three days!


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## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

Any day now, an anthology is coming out with one of my stories included, from an independent publishing company. I get royalties and everything, I could make as much as $10 by Christmas if I play my cards right!


----------



## SVD (Jan 15, 2013)

*Sometimes We Ran: A Story from the Zombie Apocalypse *- 250 copies sold.


----------



## Bec (Aug 24, 2012)

I hit 500 paid sales today


----------



## Marilyn Peake (Aug 8, 2011)

I'm offering *Mutation Z: The Ebola Zombies* free until the end of October. It just made these ranks:

*Amazon Best Sellers Rank:* #3,876 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#9 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 90 minutes (44-64 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy 
#49 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 90 minutes (44-64 pages) > Literature & Fiction

This got me so motivated, I outlined the second book in the series and plan to start writing it tomorrow.


----------



## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

Up until recently, my writing production and publishing has been "Ready, Aim....Aim....Aim...."    Lots of research and discarded manuscripts and stalling and....WHATEVER.  

Tonight I pulled the trigger, and hit the publish button for my first short story.  

And yes, I'm already writing the next one, due out later this week.  If I can do it once, I can do it again!
Thank you to everyone here for the support, info, advice, and community.  I am very grateful for what you have taught, and are teaching, me.  YOU INSPIRE ME.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

That's great! Congrats, Kassidia!

I hit a Prawny Milestone today: first borrow from the German site! Woo! Go me! 

Rue


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## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

ruecole said:


> That's great! Congrats, Kassidia!
> 
> I hit a Prawny Milestone today: first borrow from the German site! Woo! Go me!
> 
> Rue


Rue, way to go! Hope it is the first of many


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

4 month anniversary, first 20+-sale weekend, at least 250 books sold altogether (I need to do some adding, don't I, and figure that out?). My expenses for the year are all (theoretically) recouped (have to wait for 12/28 to see that in the business bank balance.) It's going far better than I expected when I jumped in to indie publishing. Every day, I think, wow, a stranger out there is reading a book of mine, possibly right this moment--and it's a great feeling.

Bec, those are impressive numbers! I think you're well beyond prawndom, and may that trend continue for you!  Congratulations to all the other prawns, too.


----------



## Rin (Apr 25, 2011)

600 copies given away in September.

600 copies given away in October.


----------



## markhealy (Jun 5, 2014)

While sales have been pretty lousy, I did get my first fan mail today from a reader.  Not bad considering I only published my novel a week ago.

I think that's pretty prawn-tastic.


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Mark, that is cool! Congratulations.

November was a good month for me. I didn't release anything new, but my sales continue to increase by 30-50% every month. I had two days of double-digit sales, triple digit sales over all titles for the month, and readers in two new countries. My fifth month at it, and it's going better than I'd originally hoped. 

Best of all, I drafted a new novel. So I have three (maybe four if I can find the fourth) in draft form to revise and release in 2015.


----------



## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

artan said:


> I have two people in my mailing list. Yeah! I'm going to zoom to the top with my next release. Seriously I thought my mailing list would just be an item I check off on my author platform tasks. I didn't think anyone would like my book enough to let me have their email address.


I got five subscribers from a free promo. Only like 2,495 to go. We should both congratulate each other.


----------



## delly_xo (Oct 29, 2014)

I got my first mailing list subscriber today


----------



## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

I've now sold 300 books! And that on the very day I was rejected by Bookbub! In your face, Bookbub!


----------



## A. N. Other Author (Oct 11, 2014)

I made a pre-order sale of a book scheduled for release late Feb 2015.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Today I parceled up 5 copies of the paperback version of my book to be preserved for posterity, as requested by the Bodleian Library Oxford University, the Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales and Trinity College Dublin. No request yet from the British Library - buck up, BL, you don't want to be outdone by the provinces.

It's not personal, they keep a copy of every book in print and I'm legally obliged to provide it, but still - the Bodleian!!! And I never even knew there was a National Library of Scotland {hangs head in shame}.

Mind you, nice as it is to have a print version, it's cost me about £200 (around $300) so far in cover design, proof copy, copies for relatives, postage and whatnot. Total sales of print version: big fat zero. At least the expenses are tax deductable.

ETA: And another prawny milestone this very day - my first sale to Australia! G'day, mate, and thanks, whoever you are.


----------



## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

Ah, yes, I have to get a few paperbacks over to the British Library and the Bod.

Sorry to hear you're not having much luck with the paperback sales - my Casanova paperback is still outselling the digital edition (this information should be qualified by the fact that I sell 5 books a month. In a GOOD month).


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

alawston said:


> Sorry to hear you're not having much luck with the paperback sales


I didn't expect to. The thing is stupidly big, and is priced at £12.99 (or $12.45 for Americans). I mean, *I* wouldn't buy it at that price. I just like the idea of having it sitting on my bookshelf.  But I really must learn to write more succinctly...


----------



## NoBlackHats (Oct 17, 2012)

I love this thread.


----------



## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

I do, too, Miranda!

Betsy


----------



## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

I had an actual PAID sale in France. It was a $0.99 book, but it was my first there.


----------



## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

I am so pleased - and proud   - that people love this thread.
I would have contributed more myself - but I completely forgot my KB login details; now retrieved.
So... I have a new one! 
I had my first written review on Google Play the other day.
It said:

"Great!" 

The great was good, but the exclamation mark made my prawny day


----------



## martyns (May 8, 2014)

I'm on 5154 Free, Paid and Loaned.

I'm on 769 Paid Sales and Loans, I'm still doing less than 100 a month, it'll probably be June before I hit 1000  

I do have a book 4 coming out! But I'm taking my time and polishing it to perfection, I expect a late summer 2015 release.

Maybe I can pick up the pace afterwards? At the moment I know my releases are too spread apart.


----------



## Morgan Jameson (Sep 16, 2014)

How about 7 five-star reviews on Amazon? (7 out of 7) Hasn't translated into more sales yet, but not bad for first month with a soft start. (About 50 overall - 20 hard copies the rest Kindle.) I'm going to play around with search words more.


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

7 weeks since I published my 1st book and I've hit 50 paid sales/borrows!!


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

I just sold my first paperback copy through Amazon!  Sky's the limit now!


----------



## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

Have made £200 in 6 months. Not recorded any prawny milestones yet so thought I'd record this one.


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

carinasanfey said:


> Well done! Did you do it using createspace?


Yep! I noticed it when I dropped by my dashboard to order copies for myself. (I had to reject the first proof copies for Book Two when I discovered the cover wasn't printing right. So, to make lemonade out of lemons, I'm ordering a few extra copies of Book One and dropping them and the bad Book Twos off at the local library for donations.)


----------



## Michael McClung (Feb 12, 2014)

Two almost-prawnies:

1. I've never sold a title a day for a week straight on Amazon. If I make a sale today, I'll have hit that milestone.
2. A new signup today put me at 24 subscribers to my mailing list. Mailchimp's default setting when showing subscribers is 25. One more signup and I'll be needing a second page. Mwahahaha


----------



## amyates (Feb 17, 2014)

A year ago today, I sold exactly zero books because I had no books published. Today, I sold three. 

In my first year of publishing, which is not yet done, I've had months where I made more than $150, and others where I've made less than $40. 

Sometimes it's easy to forget that a year ago today, it would've blown my mind to think that I would have beautiful, heartfelt reviews from complete strangers, or that anyone would have PAID to read my books. 

I spent a great many years engaging with editors and agents of the traditional publishing industry, but 2014 is the first year in which I engaged with the reading public and they engaged with me. I am not an outlier. I'm not supporting my family or even paying the bills. Every cent I make goes back into my publishing endeavors. But someone I've never met told me that I wrote  a "good book" and gave that book three stars. And I'm not just happy, I'm ecstatic. 

I am one in 7 billion on this tiny little planet in this great, wide universe. I told a story. And one other person took the time to read my book and say, "Hey, good story." 

Win.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

I've just had my first direct email from a reader: "Thank you for the wonderful read". Makes me feel all warm inside.


----------



## LyraParish (Aug 27, 2013)

I had my first double digit borrow on KU! lol! Woohoo for 10 borrows!  It really is the small things!


----------



## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

I've just had my first sales that didn't coincide with any promotion at all - despite being almost entirely offline last week, I shifted 3 copies of Story of My Escape around the world, and had a borrow for Something Nice.


----------



## loriann (Jun 20, 2014)

I have averaged a sale a day on my stand-alones for the last two months since first publishing in April. Before that it was mostly crickets. Hooray!!


----------



## bobbic (Apr 4, 2011)

My short mystery story, "Aunt Jewel and the Purloined Pork Loin," is now #91 in Kindle Store for Crime > Fiction > Heist stories, on the same page as Oliver Twist, David Tennant as Broadchurch and Robert Crais and now has 9 great reviews.


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Michael McClung said:


> Two almost-prawnies:
> 
> 2. A new signup today put me at 24 subscribers to my mailing list. Mailchimp's default setting when showing subscribers is 25. One more signup and I'll be needing a second page. Mwahahaha


totally jealous (in the nicest way). I'd love to build a mailing list. Way to go!


----------



## R. M. Webb (Jul 24, 2014)

My book made it to #6 on the Vampire Suspense Amazon Bestsellers list two days ago. Anne Rice and Deborah Harkness hold spots 1 and 2 respectively. I took a screen shot! It's since slipped to #19 (last I checked) but hey! That's still the first page!


----------



## Kassidia (Sep 14, 2012)

Hit the publish button on my third book today.


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

carinasanfey said:


> Ooh, good idea!
> 
> Edited to add: Ooh, my status has just changed to Jane Austen! I've always wanted to be Jane Austen (except for the whole bovine tuberculosis thing, that's no fun).


Thanks! I like the idea of supporting libraries; I've had several boxes of things dropped off there after recent moves.

I was actually sad about moving on from the Lewis Carroll status. I've been a Wonderland fan for a long time.


----------



## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

Sold 3 copies of one of my fantasy books in Japan today!  I don't know why, but the Japan sales just make me smile. And I had my first Japan KU/KO borrow. 

In other news, released a new erotic romance yesterday.


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

carinasanfey said:



> I was *very* relieved when I got rid of the 'Dr Seuss' label. Until then, I kept having irrepressible urges to make everything rhyme.


Now I'm worried about what'll happen if/when I reach the Shakespeare level. I never did get the hang of iambic pentimeter.


----------



## bobbic (Apr 4, 2011)

And I just made Arthur Conan Doyle! The game's afoot!


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## T.M. Blades (May 1, 2013)

Tiny milestone today. Running some promos this week. Episode 1 of my urban fantasy serial Grimoire is #15 on short reads/teen and young adult. It's something at least. Sold a few copies yesterday and one borrow showing up today so far. Have more promos scheduled for the week so, hopefully that helps out. : D


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Someone actually bought a paperbok copy of my door-stop book!!!   I only really got the print version set up so I could have a copy on my bookshelf - I never expected anyone to buy it.

And someone in Germany pre-ordered the next book the day it became available - and I haven't told a soul about it yet. Danke, whoever you are.


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## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

I can never believe it when people buy my paperback - makes me feel like I should produce print copies of my other books.


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## donna callea (Dec 25, 2009)

I just bookmarked this thread.  I have no prawny milestones to report.  But I'm feeling optimistic, even though I have had no sales for a LONG time.  Hoping a countdown promo later this month will give me a reason to post again.  In the meantime, wishing everyone here a not-so-prawny, very merry holiday season.


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## AngryGames (Jul 28, 2013)

Today got accepted for my first BB ad. Three previous rejections (all were because I'd offered the book for a lower price in the past 90 days). Didn't do anything special except apply and keep my dates at max flexibility. The book was floundering in the 1,000,000+ ranking, and has a single review. Go me.


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

I had seven straight says (last Monday all the way through Sunday) with double digit sales (11 or higher) of my print version of my book of prompts. I highly doubt the streak will extend to eight days, with only five copies sold today (which is still awesome.) But it crushed my previous streak of a single day of double digit sales. Once I sell three more copies, I'll pass the 150 print copies sold in a month mark!


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## Alchemy (Jan 31, 2011)

AngryGames said:


> Today got accepted for my first BB ad. Three previous rejections (all were because I'd offered the book for a lower price in the past 90 days). Didn't do anything special except apply and keep my dates at max flexibility. The book was floundering in the 1,000,000+ ranking, and has a single review. Go me.


That's a great achievement, especially in light of only having one review. Congratulations to you, and indeed everyone posting their humble milestones. It's both reassuring and inspirational.


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Today I sold a copy of my print book through "Expanded Distribution." I wish I knew what that meant. I know that means through one of the expanded distribution channels, but which one of 'em? Still awesome.


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

It means you sold one to something like an independent bookstore, Barnes and Nobel, basically a physical bookstore somewhere!  Great stuff!

I have my fifth erotica title out (can't link, obviously), and it's just been ranked #13 in erotica in Japan! 

Okay it's Japan. But yay!


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## vkloss (Sep 22, 2014)

100 subscribers for my newsletter. Bit of a slog, but it's growing!


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

I broke 4 sales today! I've never been able to sell more than 3 books/day (not counting borrows).


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

jillb said:


> I broke 4 sales today! I've never been able to sell more than 3 books/day (not counting borrows).


Consider it five sales. Bought your book on foraging. Why is there no print version??


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## hayley (Oct 21, 2014)

Finished the third book in my War Kids series. 
Tomorrow getting final proof on the first book in my new series.
5 shorts written and edited. 
Nearly 200,000 words will be published by Jan


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

judygoodwin said:


> It means you sold one to something like an independent bookstore, Barnes and Nobel, basically a physical bookstore somewhere! Great stuff!


That is awesome. I wasn't sure if Expanded Distribution meant a library ordered it or a bookstore or whatever. Wish I could tell where in America it went to!


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## bobbic (Apr 4, 2011)

RyanAndrewKinder said:


> That is awesome. I wasn't sure if Expanded Distribution meant a library ordered it or a bookstore or whatever. Wish I could tell where in America it went to!


There's a website that lists books in libraries. Once it's processed, if it did go to a library, you can track it. 
http://www.worldcat.org/


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

RyanAndrewKinder said:


> That is awesome. I wasn't sure if Expanded Distribution meant a library ordered it or a bookstore or whatever. Wish I could tell where in America it went to!


Go to author central. Under Sales Info, choose Nielsen Book Scan. On the left side, you can choose by book or by geography and you'll see where your book was sold.


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## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

Prawny milestone! Yesterday was the first day in my .99c promo. I sold exactly 100 books! Very exciting!


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

I made my first Expanded Distribution sale this month too. A whole $0.13 in royalties! Go me! And because it's an American sale, I'm 100% sure it wasn't to my mother.


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Ros_Jackson said:


> I made my first Expanded Distribution sale this month too. A whole $0.13 in royalties! Go me! And because it's an American sale, I'm 100% sure it wasn't to my mother.


Hopefully you're thinking like I am after reading what the person said about Expanded Distribution sale: "Oh, a bookstore CEO bought a copy of the book. They're totally gunna read it and buy like 10,000 copies for their stores and I'll have a new car in the garage of my mansion by this time next year." lol


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

Thanks!  
I will work on having all my books in print next year. Right now, I'm focusing on writing more books. I will then mess with formatting for print + other platforms in early 2015. I think many of my books will sell better in print!



RyanAndrewKinder said:


> Consider it five sales. Bought your book on foraging. Why is there no print version??


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

We have now concluded the first day of my first* sale. And, drumroll... Zero books sold. ALL RIGHT. *does the Dance of Shame*

* and last, for obvious reasons

So yeah, no. Clearly no. "The world is trying to tell you something, why won't you listen" no.

On the upside, I got into my story files and rewrote a scene in an unfinished story for the first time in over a week. Soon, I hope, my love for the story will outweigh disappointment in myself, and I'll be able to write freely again. That is an actual milestone - realizing that this isn't going to work out in terms of sharing the story with other people, but that despite all reason, I still care about the characters and want to see how their stories turn out. It's just me and them, in the end, and I'm still here.


I also decided to look around for other people in the "prawn" category and buy one of their books at least once a week. Like Small Business Saturday, but more than once a year. Prawnday!


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Did you book any promo sites for your sale? If you did and got no sales, then HUGS!!! That sucks.  But if not, then now you know why you need to book ads with promo sites. Simply making your book $0.99 isn't enough. You gotta get the word out! 

BTW, I love your cover (and not just because it's got a Gypsy Vanner on it!), but it doesn't really look like a fantasy cover. Looks more like literary historical fiction or somesuch.

Hope that helps!

Rue


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Colorwheel... I searched google for your book "The Healers' Road" on google and set the parameters for the past week. The only result was a hit on Goodreads. I feel that means there wasn't enough promotion. If you just went with email lists (or no lists at all) then nobody will find your book. I saw on twitter that the only mention of your book was two days ago by someone who marked it as "to read" via goodreads. Do you have a twitter? Mentioning it there could bolster sales. 

Basically it's like someone put a discount sticker on your book and placed it on a shelf in the back of a bookstore. Dig it out and put it in the front!


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Just got accepted to do a bookbub! Jan 2nd to 4th my book will be free. Fun times.


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## Rin (Apr 25, 2011)

I've just topped $50 in royalties for December.  Biggest month ever!


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

Kayla. said:


> Don't get upset if your book doesn't sell on the first day (or the first month, ahem).
> All my books have ended up selling at least a couple of times. Some of them were... slow on the uptake, but eventually they all made me money.
> However, books aren't created equal, and while book 7 sold twice without even a free days promotion (omagad!), book 5 needed 5 KDP free days to sell only a handful of times.
> Then there are the nice and relatively successful books that sell 10 times or more with only 2 days of KDP promo. Love those.
> ...


I'm thankful for the input! When I got randomly featured by Pixel of Ink back in August (before my print version came out) I made it to #16 overall and had about 20,000 downloads. The results of the days following were: 20 purchases! 21 purchases! 22 purchases! (After day three, I thought - is this rise going to keep going?!) aaaand then 6. And then 3. And then zero. It was quite the comedown, I must say.

So the plan of attack is: Get as many people to download it as possible, get it to the highest number it can go, get people to hopefully sign up for my email list and also hope for some sales of the print copy. Picture this: It's January 2nd. People are coming off the haze of a drunken New Years. It's time to make a resolution. "You know what?" says the person with the two day hangover, "I pledge to do more writing this year. I just... just need an idea. Oh, look! A free book!" They download it. "You know, this is pretty good. I'm gunna get a paperback so I can mark it up."

Then, of course, the rolls royce, the mansion, agents asking to represent me. You know how it goes. hahaha.

Honestly, I'm happy to pay to get people to notice it's free even if it results in no additional purchases. I just paid about 70 bucks to send thirty copies to a creative writing teacher who took me up on a random offer I made on twitter. She loves it and thinks her students can get some use out of it. That's what I dig the most. What's funky is that I'm juuuuust above prawn for this month as far as print goes, but a total prawn as far as ebook sales go (with there being many days of zero in a month.) I think it's because I do give it away often.


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## donna callea (Dec 25, 2009)

Colorwheel said:


> We have now concluded the first day of my first* sale. And, drumroll... Zero books sold. ALL RIGHT. *does the Dance of Shame*
> 
> * and last, for obvious reasons
> 
> ...


I just bought your book, S.E. I like the way you write, and although I don't usually read fantasy, yours sounded intriguing. I also noticed that you have some very nice, thoughtful reviews, and your book ranks much higher than any of mine. I'm doing a countdown deal on one of mine starting Friday, and I've lined up several paid ads/promos. I think that's the only way to get noticed. Please don't give up.


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

I was inspired by donna so I bought it too, colorwheel. Even if I don't get around to reading it anytime soon hopefully it pushes you up the charts that little bit further and gets you noticed by a reader who might otherwise not have found your book.


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

No accomplishments to report this month, even prawny ones, but I just want to say--I love this thread!


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

Ha, thanks, folks. So THAT'S where those late Sunday sales came from... So yes, I haven't done any paid promo. I'm reluctant to sink more money into it, because the book is still in the red from cover art. Not by a lot, but I have a mental block that I'm going to drive us into the poorhouse if the book doesn't pull its own weight. (Also why it's, ahem, self-edited. Flat-out could not afford it.)

But I guess that's a decision that you have to make, starting out. What your realistic budget is and when it's time to cut your losses.

But I "knew" it would never sell because everyone talks about the 30- and 60-day cliffs, and this one's at...70 days or so. And when the "top" of the cliff is 6 copies, well...

So my new milestone: I spent Day 2 resolutely not thinking about it. Finally loaded up KDP on my phone. Handed it to my husband, saying "hit the yellow button and then Reports, I can't look." And, well, 5 on Sunday and 12 on Monday, more than doubling the total sales (now about 30). I guess a friend talked it up on a forum he mods, which feels astroturfy to me, but it's a normal thing there. So I have a wave of text adventure enthusiasts. 

The book has just about earned back its cover, so the next one can "afford" one too, and hopefully more services like pro editing. Aaaaas soon as I write it!


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## Ros_Jackson (Jan 11, 2014)

Today I just broke 1000 requests for my book on a Goodreads giveaway. So it's not a sales milestone (I wish), but a breakthrough in visibility.

I think a lot of writers going through this prawn stage might be strangely cheered by this post on Paul Cornell's blog: http://www.paulcornell.com/2014/12/the-12-blogs-of-christmas-ten-a-writers-worst-moment/ These are all respected writers talking about their worst moments in the profession. It drums home the normality of starting off at the bottom, of learning slowly and making mistakes and chasing mice around someone else's flat.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

How about milestones for the prawn embryo? Sold 10 copies of my ebook the first two days and about 6 copies (still kind of WTFly on finding/understanding the data) of the paperback. That's enough to buy two soft-shelled crabs, so I'm happy. A prawn embryo needs its protein.


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## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I got 400 people on my mailing list! I think that means every single one of my readers.


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

I sold A copy of my book today and as a result, its sales rank went from 440K to 140K. The heavy hitters don't get a roller coaster ride like that!


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Woohoo!


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## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I sold two books at Amazon Brazil today. First time I've broken into this particular market, though I think I sold a book in Brazil via Kobo once.


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## donna callea (Dec 25, 2009)

Gail Hart said:


> I sold A copy of my book today and as a result, its sales rank went from 440K to 140K. The heavy hitters don't get a roller coaster ride like that!


Bought your book today, Gail, and I'm loving it. I'm about half-way through. Will finish it after the holiday. I think you're a terrific writer. Not prawny at all.
Merry Christmas.


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Merry Christmas to all prawns   And to everyone else too!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

RyanAndrewKinder said:


> Just got accepted to do a bookbub! Jan 2nd to 4th my book will be free. Fun times.


BookBub! How exciting! I hope you've cleared your schedule so you can spend the whole day refreshing the KDP dashboard, and watching the little green blobs reach for the stratosphere.  Enjoy!


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> BookBub! How exciting! I hope you've cleared your schedule so you can spend the whole day refreshing the KDP dashboard, and watching the little green blobs reach for the stratosphere.  Enjoy!


Cleaned my calendar. I wanted to keep track of stats for my blog which I did a previous free run when I got 1,000 downloads by promoting on facebook, twitter and reddit.


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## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

Another prawny milestone with my ten day 0.99c promo...7 days with double figure sales for the first time! Yay!


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## donna callea (Dec 25, 2009)

Doing a 99 cent countdown sale this week on The Haircut: A New Year's Tale.
So far, yesterday and today, I'm in double digits.


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## RyanAndrewKinder (Dec 14, 2014)

donna callea said:


> Doing a 99 cent countdown sale this week on The Haircut: A New Year's Tale.
> So far, yesterday and today, I'm in double digits.


Most excellent. That would be nice to see on a consistent basis.


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## Christine_C (Jun 29, 2014)

donna callea said:


> Doing a 99 cent countdown sale this week on The Haircut: A New Year's Tale.
> So far, yesterday and today, I'm in double digits.


Nice! What are you all using to promote them?


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

I made it to #13 in my main sub-cat, Literary Fiction: Romance.  Nice, since I somehow screwed up my keywords and missed getting into the Women's Fiction cat.


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## RuthNestvold (Jan 4, 2012)

I've managed to sell 10 copies of my books through Createspace so far this month. Almost looks like a few people were actually buying my books as Christmas presents!


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

DawnLee said:


> I made it to #13 in my main sub-cat, Literary Fiction: Romance. Nice, since I somehow screwed up my keywords and missed getting into the Women's Fiction cat.


Congrats! And if you do find out how to get into WF, I'd love to hear it. I think I had "women's fiction" in my keywords with no effect, so it may be trickier than it looks.

A sub-prawny milestone, whatever that may be - my Countdown Deal wrapped up today, and total sales reached 50 copies. That's ~4 times what I had a week ago! It's not much to most people, but I'm satisfied. I hope to stop watching that dratted graph and continue writing the next book in the new year.

I didn't expect the energy/attention drain that came with watching sales all the time. It was never a "make money or I stop writing" situation - but it was surprisingly distracting.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> Congrats! And if you do find out how to get into WF, I'd love to hear it. I think I had "women's fiction" in my keywords with no effect, so it may be trickier than it looks.
> 
> A sub-prawny milestone, whatever that may be - my Countdown Deal wrapped up today, and total sales reached 50 copies. That's ~4 times what I had a week ago! It's not much to most people, but I'm satisfied. I hope to stop watching that dratted graph and continue writing the next book in the new year.
> 
> I didn't expect the energy/attention drain that came with watching sales all the time. It was never a "make money or I stop writing" situation - but it was surprisingly distracting.


Yeah, I went by the keywords that Amazon stated, but no go. The papaerback made it to WF and the ebook didn't. And yes, super taxing and addicting and compulsive, all that book-stalking.  May we both become jaded at some point.


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## donna callea (Dec 25, 2009)

CN_Crawford said:


> Nice! What are you all using to promote them?


Thanks. I've got my promo plan for The Haircut detailed on a Writer's Cafe thread called "post-Christmas Countdown sale..."
Today is the best ever, due to an ENT promo. The book is now #9 in "romance fantasy" overall, not just kindle.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Nothing major, but BookTrackr estimates that I've sold my first thousand paid copies of my novels since publication July 2013. Just something that made me smile, even though it's a pretty small number compared to other authors.


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## Nomadwoman (Aug 25, 2011)

Illusion is #! in mysteries, thrillers, suspense>Psychological (don't ask me what it's doing in that category)
and #2 in fiction>family life
#133 overall in Free kindle store

But the reason I did this promo was to launch book 2 Delusion which is not racking sales. So I'm not feeling so great about 1800 free downloads of Book 1 today or is that wrong thinking? Opinions gladly received b/c managing these series promos is a mind-boggle


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

kyokominamino said:


> Nothing major, but BookTrackr estimates that I've sold my first thousand paid copies of my novels since publication July 2013. Just something that made me smile, even though it's a pretty small number compared to other authors.


Congrats too, and wow, I need to re-think what a prawn/small-timer is. Is there anything below 1000 copies? I'd love to be able to relate to some corner of the indie world and cheer on my own peers as they rise, not just strain my neck looking up.


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Hey, Colorwheel, I'm prawny enough for you! I released my first book yesterday, and sold five copies. I don't think they were all to friends -- at least I can't think of anyone I know who would be buying from amazon.de. So I'm pretty excited about that.

My book is so new it doesn't have a ranking yet, but when I searched today on some of the keywords I used for it, it appeared on the first page of search results for one, so that was exciting too.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> Congrats too, and wow, I need to re-think what a prawn/small-timer is. Is there anything below 1000 copies? I'd love to be able to relate to some corner of the indie world and cheer on my own peers as they rise, not just strain my neck looking up.


Oh, heck yeah. Do it in intervals. First hundred sold, and then any interval between there and 500, then first 500 sold, and from on up. I think it's incredibly important to celebrate small steps, especially when you started at zero the first day you published. It took me a year and a half to get to something like that, and I know a lot of people quit before then, so make sure to note every little accomplishment you can so it gives you the juice to keep going.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

This is probably super-nerdy of me, but this new review I got made me grin until my friggin' mouth hurt:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1PYYMF722XB70/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00E3HLHIK

This author mentioned me in the same breath as Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files. The kicker? That's my favorite author and book series. I waited in a room for six hours just to meet the guy at Dragon*Con 2014, so to see someone mention similarities between us makes me so very, very happy. Especially since I wrote The Black Parade in 2009 and didn't read the Dresden Files until 2013, and I didn't go back and change my work to be more like him; it just so happens we have a similar style. That's so cool to me and I would count it as a huge milestone personally.


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

donna callea said:


> Bought your book today, Gail, and I'm loving it. I'm about half-way through. Will finish it after the holiday. I think you're a terrific writer. Not prawny at all.
> Merry Christmas.


Thank you so much, Donna! And I see you are not close to being a prawn yourself. It looks like your Countdown Deal was a success--The Haircut is doing rather nicely. 

It's a process. We all have to start somewhere, and not many are able to be a huge success right out of the gate.


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## Colhane (Dec 20, 2014)

I launched my first book two weeks ago and I'm hitting the 100 mark.  I'm very happy with that.  I've never tried to publish any of my fiction before so just working up the courage to hit the button was big for me. I sat on this story all year wondering what I was going to do with it, very intimidated by the entire publishing process. 

I published the second volume in the series last night and hope to have the third up in a few weeks.

This review made my day. "Stumbled across this book by chance. Who the heck is Dave McIntyre and where has he been hiding? Phenomenal read! Great characters, great action, and a FABULOUS and unique storyline. PLEASE SIR, MAY I HAVE SOME MORE?"

LOL - I've been in Brazil since 1999, so that's where I was hiding.


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

kyokominamino said:


> Oh, heck yeah. Do it in intervals. First hundred sold, and then any interval between there and 500, then first 500 sold, and from on up. I think it's incredibly important to celebrate small steps, especially when you started at zero the first day you published. It took me a year and a half to get to something like that, and I know a lot of people quit before then, so make sure to note every little accomplishment you can so it gives you the juice to keep going.


Haha, no, don't be silly. I just misunderstood the thread with the badges. The smallest one was 1 sale per day, so I thought "prawn" was <1 sale per day. But if 1000 sales is a prawn, then it certainly doesn't equal fewer than one sale a day!

I've realized since then that I just don't have any peers; nobody is selling fewer than 20, 50, 100 copies a day, every day. (I topped out at 54 - lifetime, not daily.) So it isn't appropriate to talk about smaller "milestones" as though they matter. Kboards are for closers.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> Haha, no, don't be silly. I just misunderstood the thread with the badges. The smallest one was 1 sale per day, so I thought "prawn" was <1 sale per day. But if 1000 sales is a prawn, then it certainly doesn't equal fewer than one sale a day!


 It depends how many years it took to get to 1000 sales. 



> I've realized since then that I just don't have any peers; nobody is selling fewer than 20, 50, 100 copies a day, every day. (I topped out at 54 - lifetime, not daily.) So it isn't appropriate to talk about smaller "milestones" as though they matter. Kboards are for closers.


I'm sure you're joking, but a little maths for perspective:

100 copies a day is a ranking of around 1,000 in the Kindle store. Given that there are 3 million ebooks listed, that's the top .03 percent.

50 copies a day: ranking of 2,000, top .06 percent.

20 copies a day: ranking of 5,000, top .17 percent.

1 copy per day: ranking of 70,000-100,000, top 3 percent.

That means that 97 percent of all Kindle books are currently selling fewer than 1 copy per day. Including mine.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> Haha, no, don't be silly. I just misunderstood the thread with the badges. The smallest one was 1 sale per day, so I thought "prawn" was <1 sale per day. But if 1000 sales is a prawn, then it certainly doesn't equal fewer than one sale a day!
> 
> I've realized since then that I just don't have any peers; nobody is selling fewer than 20, 50, 100 copies a day, every day. (I topped out at 54 - lifetime, not daily.) So it isn't appropriate to talk about smaller "milestones" as though they matter. Kboards are for closers.


You're kidding, right? Because what my post was that I've finally sold a thousand copies since I published my first book July 22, 2013. That's over a year and a half. That's an itty bitty number considering there are 7 billion people on the planet. And I do sell about 1-2 copies of my books per day, and my permafree doesn't ever crack more than 9 sales a day unless I've recently had a promo. Believe me, that's prawny as heck. You're not alone at all. Everyone here is just at a different point pushing their boulder up the mountain. Don't feel bad at all. This time last year I was only at 50 copies of my book sold. TOTAL.


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## SarahCarter (Nov 8, 2012)

Colorwheel said:


> I've realized since then that I just don't have any peers; nobody is selling fewer than 20, 50, 100 copies a day, every day.


I am, so you're not alone! Maybe we need a thread for plankton milestones?


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## bobbic (Apr 4, 2011)

SarahCarter said:


> I am, so you're not alone! Maybe we need a thread for plankton milestones?


Plankton! LOL. Love it. Sadly, I would fit in that category. I can give away tons of stories, and have a few sales after, but still I'm in the miniscule numbers category.


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## because (Jul 9, 2014)

We received a glorious review from an Amazon Top 100 Reviewer yesterday


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

I got my first reviews that weren't by people I knew, on Goodreads, and they were 4-star ratings!

A friend of my cover artist drew the first fan art of one of my characters!

I sold my first book (as part of a bundle) on DTF!

I've seen the nearly-completed art for my third book, and it is so gorgeous!

I'd be doing the happy prawn dance if I hadn't pulled a muscle in my back last night.


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Another "plankton" raising hand here! Sold a grand total of 33 books so far. Next goal is 50. After that, THE WORLD!! (kidding ...)

So many lovely milestones in this thread to celebrate: 1st review from Amazon top 100 reviewer, first fan art, enthusiastic reviews ... this business can get disappointing if we let it. It's good to celebrate every little success.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> Another "plankton" raising hand here! Sold a grand total of 33 books so far. Next goal is 50. After that, THE WORLD!! (kidding ...)


Took me a while to get past 50, too. After that, 100, 150 and 200 went by in a blur, thanks to some lucky promotion. I might even pass 250 today - yay for prawny milestones! 

I saw Twiceborn advertised on Booktastik yesterday - hope that worked well for you. To be honest, I can't imagine why Twiceborn isn't selling gangbusters - urban fantasy, werewolves, GREAT opening, what are people waiting for

Footnote: What is/are gangbusters anyway? Why does it mean selling by the truckload?


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## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

I love to pop in here and read everyone's milestones. You're doing great, everyone!
But for those of you worried about slow sales, I'll echo what Kyokominamino said (Congrats by the way  ), with my own stats.

I released my first book to crickets. Took a week to get my first sale, then 14 months to sell 50 copies and another 18 months on top of that to get to a thousand. (With three books out by then!) You can still be a prawn with a thousand books in reader's hands.

And with some of you hitting that first 50 in only a few weeks, you'll be reaching that scampi status way sooner than I did. Personally, I'm hoping to be a lobster by the end of the year.


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Took me a while to get past 50, too. After that, 100, 150 and 200 went by in a blur, thanks to some lucky promotion. I might even pass 250 today - yay for prawny milestones!
> 
> I saw Twiceborn advertised on Booktastik yesterday - hope that worked well for you. To be honest, I can't imagine why Twiceborn isn't selling gangbusters - urban fantasy, werewolves, GREAT opening, what are people waiting for
> 
> Footnote: What is/are gangbusters anyway? Why does it mean selling by the truckload?


Thanks for the compliment, Pauline! I got 4 sales yesterday, after none the day before, so I guess that was Booktastik at work. Not exactly gangbusters, more gangdenters? gangscratchers? Gang-something-not-very-emphatic.

And yeah, I have no idea where that expression comes from either. English is full of oddities, isn't it?

Raquel, I love hearing stories like yours. It gives me hope!


----------



## K&#039;Sennia Visitor (Jan 14, 2014)

I have been slowly reading this thread over the past three days because it motivates me. 

  I have a few plankton moments. I recently republished my books on amazon (had to unpublish them for reasons), I also put my authors site back up, and am 5,000 words into my 3rd Wars book. 

  My biggest moments right now are just getting over the fear of writing and doing it every day!


----------



## Kenzi (Jul 28, 2014)

My first self-published book hit the shelves today. So far I've had ten sales and four borrows. The ranking is hovering at about 30K overall and is #77 on the Kindle Short Reads list. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out! It sold 34 copies while on pre-sale, and my original sales goal was just ten copies. 

Not a bestseller by any means, but it's not bad for a completely new pen name.


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Very prawny update here. Got two books up on pre-order today, which is fun, and my Goodreads giveaway has hit 100 entries. 

Can't wait for sale #1.


----------



## Drake (Apr 30, 2014)

I have sales/borrows of 47 in a little over a week on my newest title, feels like it's starting to take off!


----------



## Secret Pen Pal (Dec 27, 2013)

Congrats on the milestones, everyone. 

Pauline M. Ross, Thanks for making my day with the maths.


----------



## Jordan Rivet (Jan 13, 2015)

Hello! My big milestone for the day is that I joined kboards! I've been lurking for a while, but this thread seemed like the right place for me to officially chime in. I launched my book at the beginning of November. _Seabound_ sold about 60 copies in the first month, but as things have slowed down I decided to switch into KU until book 2 launches (in March or April). Here's hoping I'll have more newbie milestones to celebrate soon!


----------



## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

Hi Jordan! Welcome!


----------



## Jordan Rivet (Jan 13, 2015)

Thank you!


----------



## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

Some minor milestones I'm happy I'm reaching:
- did my first guest post on my blog
- Seeing growing numbers on my blog
- Put up new Twitter and Facebook cover image
- finished the first draft of book 2
- purchased the domain name for my author website (still in development)
- formatted the paperback version of my book (loved doing it, might even open a side business to help offset my publishing costs...)

Much more to come. This will be a big year for me and I can't wait to continue the journey!


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

First borrow in Spain!

Rue


----------



## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

ruecole said:


> First borrow in Spain!
> 
> Rue


Very cool, Rue!


----------



## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

David Neth said:


> Some minor milestones I'm happy I'm reaching:
> - did my first guest post on my blog
> - Seeing growing numbers on my blog
> - Put up new Twitter and Facebook cover image
> ...


All really good steps, David!


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Prawny milestone!! I got my very first newsletter subscriber.


----------



## eleanorberesford (Dec 22, 2014)

I sold a book in Germany! And first Amazon review!

Go, *Cady*. That's a milestone I have yet to achieve.


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Love all these firsts! WTG, fellow prawns.


----------



## John Donlan (Sep 20, 2014)

This is pretty prawny to most people, but to me, it's a huge accomplishment. I finally finished the third and final volume of my steampunk trilogy. There was a time when I wasn't sure I would even finish the first book, so getting all three done feels fantastic!


----------



## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> Prawny milestone!! I got my very first newsletter subscriber.


I have a couple and I haven't even put out a book yet! I guess they're from my blog, but it's nice to know that once I put out a newsletter email announcing my book's release that it won't just go to me and that one friend from grad school who signed up! lol


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

John Donlan said:


> This is pretty prawny to most people, but to me, it's a huge accomplishment. I finally finished the third and final volume of my steampunk trilogy. There was a time when I wasn't sure I would even finish the first book, so getting all three done feels fantastic!


Congrats, John! May the sales be non-prawny.


----------



## Nadia Nader (Nov 30, 2012)

I published my first novel today! Now let's see if I can accumulate prawny milestones!


----------



## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

January is being good to me, I'm knocking down those prawny milestones - today I sold my _second_ book of the month!

And, hurrah, it was a copy of the anthology in which I've got one short story, so that's a whole $0.12 winging its way to my bank account in two months time!


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

alawston said:


> January is being good to me, I'm knocking down those prawny milestones - today I sold my _second_ book of the month!
> And, hurrah, it was a copy of the anthology in which I've got one short story, so that's a whole $0.12 winging its way to my bank account in two months time!


Wonderful news! Don't spend it all at once, now...


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

My first 30 days without a zero day. (Began publishing about July 1 last year.)

My last blog post got 76 hits, a new high.


----------



## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

This month saw my first ever sale - as in someone spending actual dollars - on Barnes and Noble. Then a second! Then a third!  
Wooh me! 
All on the same book - I only have the one for sale.
Ah, the big league!


----------



## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

Just talked to my tax guy about getting all my finances straight before I start publishing and he made the mystery of the IRS seem so simple (for my first book, at least)! Now I'm excited! Next weekend I'm off to the post office to set up my author PO Box and then to the bank to open my author account! So excited for the next step!


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

David Neth said:


> Just talked to my tax guy about getting all my finances straight before I start publishing and he made the mystery of the IRS seem so simple (for my first book, at least)! Now I'm excited! Next weekend I'm off to the post office to set up my author PO Box and then to the bank to open my author account! So excited for the next step!


Fun! When are you releasing your book?


----------



## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

I uploaded my first full length novel (87K words) in almost a year. I've sold 10 copies. There are 19 borrows. I'm bouncing between 12,000-14,000 in ranking. Tomorrow, I'm doing a free run, hoping to generate reviews.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Moist_Tissue said:


> I uploaded my first full length novel (87K words) in almost a year. I've sold 10 copies. There are 19 borrows. I'm bouncing between 12,000-14,000 in ranking. Tomorrow, I'm doing a free run, hoping to generate reviews.


Congrats!


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

Moist_Tissue said:


> I uploaded my first full length novel (87K words) in almost a year. I've sold 10 copies. There are 19 borrows. I'm bouncing between 12,000-14,000 in ranking. Tomorrow, I'm doing a free run, hoping to generate reviews.


Congrats, Moist Tissue! I hope it does really well.


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

I just crossed the 1000 sales threshold.


----------



## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

CadyVance said:


> Congrats!


Thanks!


----------



## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

DawnLee said:


> Congrats, Moist Tissue! I hope it does really well.


Thanks!


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I just crossed the 1000 sales threshold.


Wow! That's a BIG milestone - very well done.


----------



## Evan of the R. (Oct 15, 2013)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I just crossed the 1000 sales threshold.


Well done, Cora!


----------



## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

CoraBuhlert said:


> I just crossed the 1000 sales threshold.


Woo Hoo! 

I think I may be getting there myself. Need to go count. 

Rue


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## vkloss (Sep 22, 2014)

Just had my 200th newsletter subscriber.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Prawniest of prawn milestones: I just logged into KDP, and I have my very first pre-order. Someone out there in internet land has bought my book. *pops champagne*


----------



## CoraBuhlert (Aug 7, 2011)

Thanks everybody and congrats on your own milestones, prawny or otherwise.


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## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> Fun! When are you releasing your book?


Not until August, unfortunately. I want to get as much of book 2 (and possibly book 3) done as I can before I release book 1. I figure I'll thank myself later for it, but it's a killer having to wait!

Also, I just ordered a proof copy of book 1, so that's exciting! I still have a few more edits to make, but nothing major. Can't wait to see my book in print!


----------



## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

I published a book and sold two copies with no promotion right off the bat. I always have to promote to get my first sale. The best part is it wasn't the pirates. No returns!


----------



## Felix R. Savage (Mar 3, 2011)

Congrats everyone on your milestones! I'm closing in on 1000 sales myself. Let's keep on truckin'!


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

vkloss said:


> Just had my 200th newsletter subscriber.


That's actually not prawny. It's a nice number to have on your list.


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

200 on the mailing list sounds awesome! I still have 3 subscribers: me, my daughter and my best friend.

I've sold my first 50 books now, so that's my prawny milestone for the day. Congrats to all the other successful prawns!


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## NotHere (Jan 21, 2015)

I'm considering celebrating the small milestones, though for a beginner it's not small really: on my teen dystopian novel, I'm currently sitting at 106 views (which may not necessarily translate to sales, but I'm happy.)

It's a bit of a mixed blessing though. Love you guys sales so far!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Just sold my first paperback copy of 'The Fire Mages'! Also, I've just tiptoed past the point of 200 sales plus borrows for this month...


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## Colhane (Dec 20, 2014)

So far since the launch of Volume I of my series on Dec 14th, 2014 it hasn't had e single day with no sales or KU downloads. I'm watching my sales rates for Volumes II and III to get an idea of my read-through rate and they seem to be picking up. I'm very happy I went the Indie route with this story.

The other day I thought I was going to lose my streak.  I checked in the evening had no sales on Volume I. I checked back before bed and someone had bought all three!


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## vkloss (Sep 22, 2014)

katrina46 said:


> That's actually not prawny. It's a nice number to have on your list.


Sorry about that! I did think twice before posting. I think I may have finally graduated from prawny status with regard to milestones.


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## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

My first printed proof arrived on Friday and I spent some time freaking out! Also, my family and friends were really excited, which helped fuel a productive weekend


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

A good day yesterday put me over 500 total sales just before my six-month anniversary.  When I began this endeavor, I expected a slower start, perhaps 100 sales (and half to people I know) by now, so I'm tickled that strangers are reading.

Congratulations to everyone else on their milestones!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

I've just had my tenth mailing list signup.  Only a few thousand more to go before I'm _really _in the big league.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> I've just had my tenth mailing list signup.  Only a few thousand more to go before I'm _really _in the big league.


Woo hoo!


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

I've neglected this thread, so here are my 2014 prawny milestones:

- Published the third book in a trilogy, so now I can say I finished a series.
- Crossed 500 sales

Not a bad year, overall.


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## Alex Owens (Mar 24, 2011)

It's so good to see everyone making great progress! Baby steps is how I roll 

I'm trying to tell myself this is going to be my year, and if the month of Jan. has been any indicator I might not be delusional after all. 

Not only have I crossed a personal goal (doubling my income from the previous month) but I finally had a book hit the top 100 (free and only for a day, but still) and then I checked my stats and I'm coming up on two more milestones that I hope to hit in the next month or so. I also had my best freebie promo run ever this past week, giving away almost 5k copies. Plus, I've managed to sweet talk people into picking up book two in the series a full month and a half before the new novel drops. Weirdly, I've sold more pre-orders on #2 than book #1 for the month of Jan as well.  

Viva la Prawns!


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## Drake (Apr 30, 2014)

Congratulations to everyone on your successes!  It's a wonderful thing to find an audience for your writing.


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Yesterday, I sold three books in one day!  Woot!  
My prawny record to date.
O my gosh, not so long ago it was crickets, and I would have thought three a month was fantastic!
Slowly slowly.


----------



## Anya Monroe (Dec 3, 2014)

My first novel was released yesterday!


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Anya Monroe said:


> My first novel was released yesterday!


Congrats! May it sell by the electronic truckload!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Anya Monroe said:


> My first novel was released yesterday!


Congrats! It's a great moment, isn't it? I hope it achieves all you wish for it.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Anya Monroe said:


> My first novel was released yesterday!


Congrats! Hope it's going well!


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

My prawny milestone: I crossed 50 sales.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Congrats, Anya and Cady!


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## Alex Owens (Mar 24, 2011)

CadyVance said:


> My prawny milestone: I crossed 50 sales.


Sweet! There's nothing like hitting the prawny milestones to help one see that progress is actually being made. I know counting my accomplishments helps keep me on the right track.

I've hit a couple of my own in the past few days- finally broke 1000 books sold... and the big one to me is with the next sale (sitting at a 10-cent deficit right now) I will have made more in less than five weeks of 2015, than I did in ALL of 2014  If that's not motivation to get my butt in gear, I don't know what is.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Alex Owens said:


> with the next sale (sitting at a 10-cent deficit right now) I will have made more in less than five weeks of 2015, than I did in ALL of 2014  If that's not motivation to get my butt in gear, I don't know what is.


Oh oh oh! I did that too! Actually, I probably passed that milestone somewhere in mid-January. It's amazing what a bit of promotion can do.


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Good job on the prawny milestones, all! (And I love your covers, Anya. So bright and cheerful!)


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## Alex Owens (Mar 24, 2011)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Oh oh oh! I did that too! Actually, I probably passed that milestone somewhere in mid-January. It's amazing what a bit of promotion can do.


Feels fabulous, right? Now to harness that momentum


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## Anya Monroe (Dec 3, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> My prawny milestone: I crossed 50 sales.


YAY Cady! I can't wait to hit that milestone myself.


----------



## Anya Monroe (Dec 3, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> Good job on the prawny milestones, all! (And I love your covers, Anya. So bright and cheerful!)


Thank you for saying that! I have gotten conflicting feedback, so you know, just another thing to over analyze!


----------



## C. Gockel (Jan 28, 2014)

I earned enough on GooglePlay to get a 1099! Woot! (But only just)


----------



## elizabethsade (Feb 3, 2015)

This is super duper prawny, but also incredibly exciting for me as a writer - I just finished the first draft of my first novel, at just over 85k. 

(I've written tons of original stuff in the past, finished some shorter (50k) fanfics, but I've never followed a single original project through completion.)


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

One of my titles has finally passed the 100 copies threshold!   Only took three and a half years.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Perry Constantine said:


> One of my titles has finally passed the 100 copies threshold!  Only took three and a half years.


That's great! Congrats!


----------



## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

I know I'm not big enough to be a prawn yet, but I checked back here for the first time in a few months, and there are a few other people who are still languishing in the two digits (per day, per lifetime like me - whichever). I thought I was the only one, based on all the other threads. So thank you. It sounds weird to say, but I feel better knowing that it's possible. That I haven't broken Amazon somehow and ruined everything.

People always post threads about how they made up a new pen name, posted a new book and got hundreds or thousands of downloads right away, and I just want to throw my keyboard at the wall. It's awesome for them, of course, but I don't understand what I'm doing wrong; I did basically the same thing as a newbie, and I got nowhere near those results. I keep writing and enjoy it just as much as ever, but I feel awful every time I think about the publishing side. It's been a rough winter.

So: Apparently it isn't impossible to sell fewer than hundreds of copies a day. I am not in the Twilight Zone. Thank you.

I haven't had any milestones since last time - it's been pretty flat since the end of the Countdown Deal, and I decided not to make any major changes (like entering other markets) until I have another one out. However, I made this and posted it next to my computer. (Not in my line of sight while I write, or it might be distracting. Your mileage may vary.)










After angsting so much about what I was and wasn't achieving, what I wanted to do and what I was supposed to want to do, I sat down and wrote them down. I divided outcomes into two sides, Business and Artistic - but what those ACTUALLY are is "things I cannot directly control" and "things I can (usually) directly control." Gave myself a couple of gimmes. Ranged from easy (read a book for research) to ludicrous (matching covers for an entire series that hasn't been written yet). Kept going till I had one full page.

(To explain "convention", my other moonlighting gig is selling handicrafts at anime conventions. You see comic book artists sometimes, and very rarely, indie/small-press fantasy novelists. Since I already have a table for my crafts anyway, I plan to commission some art in that style, put up a sign with a QR code, and see if anyone bites. Obviously, everyone's goals are different. )

So that was a lighthearted way to nail down the hydra of Expectations.


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

elizabethsade said:


> This is super duper prawny, but also incredibly exciting for me as a writer - I just finished the first draft of my first novel, at just over 85k.
> 
> (I've written tons of original stuff in the past, finished some shorter (50k) fanfics, but I've never followed a single original project through completion.)


Congratulations! I know how hard that can be, from experience, and it's an awesome accomplishment!


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

elizabethsade said:


> This is super duper prawny, but also incredibly exciting for me as a writer - I just finished the first draft of my first novel, at just over 85k.
> 
> (I've written tons of original stuff in the past, finished some shorter (50k) fanfics, but I've never followed a single original project through completion.)


That's a huge achievement, Elizabeth, and definitely worth being excited about! Congrats!


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> People always post threads about how they made up a new pen name, posted a new book and got hundreds or thousands of downloads right away, and I just want to throw my keyboard at the wall. It's awesome for them, of course, but I don't understand what I'm doing wrong; I did basically the same thing as a newbie, and I got nowhere near those results.


I know how you feel, and you're definitely not alone. I think I've sold about 55 books in total. I'm not sure because I don't have the heart to count. I have to force myself to check my sales graph every morning, just in case something's happened, but I haven't had a sale for over a week, and only a couple in the weeks before that. It's very depressing and makes you wonder what you're doing wrong when others seem to find success right out of the gate with their first book.

I think your solution of writing up your goals--and realising there are some things you have no control over--is the best way forward. I'm trying to focus on revising Book 2 myself, and ignore Book 1's slide into obscurity. I've booked some ads for next weekend. I hope they help revive it, but if they don't I'm just going to try to stop thinking about it and focus on Book 2. I can't _make _people buy it. All I can control is the writing. I'll hope for better luck when I have some more books out.


----------



## elizabethsade (Feb 3, 2015)

Thanks!! I still can barely believe it, haha.

Colorwheel, I love your milestone sheet!! I think you've inspired me to do something like that for myself, and pass it onto a friend. I think it really helps having a physical thing to 'check off' when goals (both in our control and not) are reached.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> People always post threads about how they made up a new pen name, posted a new book and got hundreds or thousands of downloads right away, and I just want to throw my keyboard at the wall. It's awesome for them, of course, but I don't understand what I'm doing wrong;


You're not writing romance, that's what you're doing wrong. Or YA. The market there is huge, and voracious. Readers are roaming in packs looking for new stuff, and telling each other when they find something. It's much, much easier to make a splash.

My first book languished in obscurity for months, too. That's what happens without promotion in most genres. The second book is proof that a little light promotion can work wonders for the sales graph. I can recommend it.

Love the achievements chart, by the way - with stickers!! Great idea.


----------



## SunshineOnMe (Jan 11, 2014)

You guys are all amazing! I love this thread. 

Congrats on finishing your books, Elizabeth and Anya!

Congrats on the sales, everyone.  Here's to the next goal!


----------



## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

I'm currently ranked #4,792 in the Kindle Paid Store. I'm rather pleased because I hadn't done anything to promote it.


----------



## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

After a little over 2 months of not having a new book published, books #7 & #8are now on amazon! YAY!
The first lot of books that have fallen out of Select have now gone wide (and I'm now a little balder from the process) but it's done (for this round of books)!


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

After 3 sad-making days, I finally got another sale! Plus, a pre-order for my next book! (I'm guessing it was the same person.)


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> After 3 sad-making days, I finally got another sale! Plus, a pre-order for my next book! (I'm guessing it was the same person.)


Pre-orders are a huge compliment - it means you have a FAN.


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Pre-orders are a huge compliment - it means you have a FAN.


I wish I had been smart enough to put tracking links into the backmatter so I could know if the sale came from someone who read the first book. Because that would be pretty cool.


----------



## 75814 (Mar 12, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> After 3 sad-making days, I finally got another sale! Plus, a pre-order for my next book! (I'm guessing it was the same person.)


Nice! I just got my second pre-order on the second book in my serial. Someone then went on to pre-order #3-4.


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Perry Constantine said:


> Nice! I just got my second pre-order on the second book in my serial. Someone then went on to pre-order #3-4.


You've got a fan right there.


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

I published another book! It's only a short story, but it makes me feel less of a beginner to have more than one book in my sig, so I'm claiming that as a milestone.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> I published another book! It's only a short story, but it makes me feel less of a beginner to have more than one book in my sig, so I'm claiming that as a milestone.


But it is a milestone! Very cool, and an intriguing cover, too. Congrats.


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Thanks, Pauline! I got the cover done on Fiverr. What a revelation--covers for $5! Obviously there are limits to what you can get, but for a short story it seemed like a great option.


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Marina Finlayson said:


> I published another book! It's only a short story, but it makes me feel less of a beginner to have more than one book in my sig, so I'm claiming that as a milestone.


Ooh, congrats!


----------



## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

Just booked my first paid promo (GenrePulse), and applied for another (ENT), though I do not expect miracles. Still working on other books, but since I was leaving this one in KU for another cycle anyway, figured I'd schedule a sale and get what I can out of it.

I feel SO WEIRD, and not particularly good. Like I'm paying somebody to pretend to like my child on the playground so that other kids will play with them.  (caveats: I do not have actual children; I know books are not children)

I know it's a totally normal thing to do; it just _feels _really weird. But that comes from faulty premises, namely "if it's good enough, people will automatically know it exists", which... is not how things work, necessarily. Hard things to shake, faulty premises!


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> I feel SO WEIRD, and not particularly good. Like I'm paying somebody to pretend to like my child on the playground so that other kids will play with them.


I think of it like paying a bookseller to put the book in the window for a while, that's all. It's always been for sale, same book, same story, but previously it's been tucked away on a high shelf where very few people see it. Now random passers-by will see it. It's just visibility. Amazon is all about visibility.

Good luck with the promos. Yours is one of those books that truly deserves to be out there where people can see it.


----------



## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> I think of it like paying a bookseller to put the book in the window for a while, that's all. It's always been for sale, same book, same story, but previously it's been tucked away on a high shelf where very few people see it. Now random passers-by will see it. It's just visibility. Amazon is all about visibility.
> 
> Good luck with the promos. Yours is one of those books that truly deserves to be out there where people can see it.


Thank you! And that's a much more healthy metaphor...


----------



## doolittle03 (Feb 13, 2015)

Colorwheel said:


> I feel SO WEIRD, and not particularly good. Like I'm paying somebody to pretend to like my child on the playground so that other kids will play with them.  (caveats: I do not have actual children; I know books are not children)


I felt the same way with my first promotion! And then I thought well, the grocery store has sales on various products and they stick a flyer in my mailbox to advertise the sales. That's all I'm doing.

Good luck with your promotion! My milestone: April 2014 to today - I finally saw $100 in my royalties report after months of ... less than that.


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Good luck with your promos, Colorwheel! I love your book cover and blurb!


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## CassieL (Aug 29, 2013)

I just sent out my first mailing list announcement to my one mailing list subscribers other than myself.


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Ooh, Cassie, I can so relate! I was hugely excited this morning to get my first real subscriber (ie not me, my daughter or my best friend). An actual stranger who wants to hear about my books-- woo-hoo!


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

My first batch of books started going wide this month. 5 sales so far on iTunes (via D2D). Sweet! I might consider upgrading my dinosaur MAC if sales continue.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

A milestone of a sort... One of my books has a used copy available from Amazon. The description says: 'Never read, front cover slightly curled up...'

How sad is that.


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> I think of it like paying a bookseller to put the book in the window for a while, that's all. It's always been for sale, same book, same story, but previously it's been tucked away on a high shelf where very few people see it.


This is an awesome way to look at it.


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

Of the books I've sold, about half (so far) have bought the preorder of my next one!


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## Indigo W (Dec 27, 2014)

I released my first book for pre-order on Monday and I've just passed the big 2-0 in pre-orders!! Super psyched!


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> A milestone of a sort... One of my books has a used copy available from Amazon. The description says: 'Never read, front cover slightly curled up...'
> 
> How sad is that.


Several "new" print copies of my book are available on Amazon, from secondary vendors, for less than CreateSpace charges. I can't believe these people all selling the books at a loss, so I guess they're stretching the truth about them being new rather than used. I autographed the copies I sent to my Goodreads giveaway winners, so it would be pretty tacky to sell them as new, IMO.


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## Alex Owens (Mar 24, 2011)

PaulineMRoss said:


> A milestone of a sort... One of my books has a used copy available from Amazon. The description says: 'Never read, front cover slightly curled up...'
> 
> How sad is that.


:-( Here's a hug and a... (insert favorite vice: sack o'chocolate, bottle of wine, what have you.)

Take heart, I'm pretty sure a lot of people list used books with a "never read" descriptor, thinking it somehow makes it more valuable. I get advertizing a DVD as new/ unopened, but a book? I bet they did read it, and love it, but the baby needs diapers or something!


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

I beat my first writer's block.  Took a couple days, but I finally wrote past it.


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## meh (Apr 18, 2013)

TOS.


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

EreaderNewsToday accepted my promo, so that's ENT and GenrePulse in a couple of weeks. Hey, we'll see, and if not, then they didn't really break the bank ($30 and $15 respectively).

Took my brand new "earnings" to the taxman and kind of got "..." in reply. Too small to bother itemizing. They stuck it in some kind of miscellaneous column. Next year...?

Excited about this: I hashed through a big list of priorities and played a bunch of artistic Which Would You Rather. Ex. If you had to choose between making more money or honing your craft, which would be more important to you? Interestingly, my list shuffled around a lot once I pitted them against one another. I thought independence was my highest priority, but apparently it's self-improvement.

I picked four things that I feel most strongly about, and if I don't also achieve the 36,000 other priorities in the world, I will (imaginarily) point to that list and say STOP STRESSING, you still have your big-ticket priorities.

So if you are a fellow stress monster, I kind of recommend that sort of "when the chips are down" calculus. I can't do everything yet, make all the money and write the best books and be the most unique and the most popular and the prettiest princess at the ball - but I can choose what is important to me.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> EreaderNewsToday accepted my promo, so that's ENT and GenrePulse in a couple of weeks. Hey, we'll see, and if not, then they didn't really break the bank ($30 and $15 respectively).


Oooh, ENT! That should be good. And GenrePulse always does pretty well for me.



> So if you are a fellow stress monster, I kind of recommend that sort of "when the chips are down" calculus. I can't do everything yet, make all the money and write the best books and be the most unique and the most popular and the prettiest princess at the ball - but I can choose what is important to me.


^ This.


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

Thanks!

I did not really expect to get in, so hooray for taking a long shot!


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

I realized I passed the 100 books sold mark this week. Hooray!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> I realized I passed the 100 books sold mark this week. Hooray!


Yay! Congrats! Now on to the next 100...


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Nicknacks said:


> That's so awesome! My first writer's block lasted two years... yeah, after I only managed to write out my first two chapters at that. That was paiiiinful - to say the least!


Holy crap! I got off easy!

And hurray for your milestone! That doesn't seem so prawny to me. You are PUBLISHED  CONGRATS!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Nicknacks said:


> I JUST pressed publish last night on Amazon... it's available for pre-release... and, no word of a lie, I spent a better part of this morning running back & forth from the bathroom, nauseated to no end.


Welcome to the other side of the Publish button... where everything is different. 

Congrats!


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Congrats on hitting publish! That's a huge milestone that should be celebrated.


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## Ian Jaymes (Jan 22, 2015)

First story up 1/21,
First sale (no not my mom) 1/24,
First review 2/2,
10th sale (yes included my mom) 2/18,

...and the most important milestone thus far...

My first post on kboards is right now!

Hi all.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

sakurajima said:


> First story up 1/21,
> First sale (no not my mom) 1/24,
> First review 2/2,
> 10th sale (yes included my mom) 2/18,
> ...


*Waving hello right back at you*


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> I realized I passed the 100 books sold mark this week. Hooray!


Congrats!


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

sakurajima said:


> First story up 1/21,
> First sale (no not my mom) 1/24,
> First review 2/2,
> 10th sale (yes included my mom) 2/18,
> ...


Congrats! (And three books out in a month!! That's the way to go...)


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## Ian Jaymes (Jan 22, 2015)

Colorwheel said:


> Congrats! (And three books out in a month!! That's the way to go...)


Well... they're just short stories. But the longer ones are on the way. And thanks!


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

sakurajima said:


> Well... they're just short stories. But the longer ones are on the way. And thanks!


Hey, still. A finished work is a finished work. Best of luck!


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Congrats. Probability Fish totally baited me to click.


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## Lottie (Feb 20, 2015)

After six line edits in the past two days, I finally clicked "publish" on the second part in my series.

I can't really see straight anymore. I wish I were joking!


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## Indigo W (Dec 27, 2014)

Amazon remembered my name! Well. I did have to type all the way to the last letter, but then I popped up as a search term finally! Who would have ever thought I'd need validation from an online search function


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

February, my eighth month at this, was my first 100+ sales month. (I came close, with 96, in January). With rentals, almost 170 novels went into the hands of readers in February.

Two more mailing list signups in the past week (which, when your list is as tiny as mine, is a huge week)

Congratulations to fellow prawns!


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

MY thriller hit number 40 in mystery suspense thriller short stories. It only took 8 sales, but still, I never had anything that wasn't erotica hit a paid chart before. YAA!!!


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## Ian Jaymes (Jan 22, 2015)

Emily Wibberley said:


> Congrats. Probability Fish totally baited me to click.


OK that made me laugh.


----------



## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

Indigo W said:


> Amazon remembered my name! Well. I did have to type all the way to the last letter, but then I popped up as a search term finally! Who would have ever thought I'd need validation from an online search function


I consistently see your book as an "customer also viewed this" on my novel's page.


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

CadyVance said:


> I realized I passed the 100 books sold mark this week. Hooray!


Awesome! Congrats on that!


----------



## Stephanie Marks (Feb 16, 2015)

I published my first short story 2 days ago!
So far it's pretty much being ignored. There has been 1 borrow but I think that was one of the girls from the other forum giving me a boost, lol.


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

Totally still counts!


...I caved and signed up for a post office box so that I can have a functional mailing list. When I start navigating bureaucracy on purpose, you know it's a labor of love.

Though I have now spent nearly four times what I've earned. (I have no shame, so: $213 out, $55 in.) I know the common advice is that you have to invest in your writing career, but I wonder where the line lies between "investing" and "throwing good money after bad". I'm sure it's different for everyone, and I hope to break even someday. It's just a strange stage to be in right now.

To stop being a bummer for a hot second, though: I have a proof coming in the mail from Createspace, which is REALLY EXCITING. I'm not one of the "paper books are realer" crowd - but it seems so...concrete. I can literally beat people over the head with my work. *sniff*


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

I have a small, exciting prawn lol. I managed to figure out Createspace and today my book went live! First paperback I've ever launched so it's milestone time.  And technically I've had my first sale ha ha since I ordered a box of them for myself. 

https://www.createspace.com/5331876


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

I really like your cover, Genevieve. Just had to say that.


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## Stephanie Marks (Feb 16, 2015)

I got my first sale yesterday. An ACTUAL sale, not a KU borrow. I had a moment of "Woah, who actually paid me $3 for this??" Lol.


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

Stephanie Marks said:


> I got my first sale yesterday. An ACTUAL sale, not a KU borrow. I had a moment of "Woah, who actually paid me $3 for this??" Lol.


Awesome! I know, I wonder when that goes away? ha ha I still assume most of my sales are accidents.


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

Colorwheel said:


> I really like your cover, Genevieve. Just had to say that.


Thank you!  It was actually a pre-made one from damonza which they kindly and affordably modified for me.  Always more fun when you get a bargain lol


----------



## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

I passed the 50 reviews milestone on my permafree urban fantasy title, The Black Parade! And (even though stating such is jinxing it), all 51 reviews are positive--no 2 or 1 star reviews!


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## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

I recently reached 100 sales without realizing it. Yay? Due to health reasons I've been out of the game since just after the launch of my first book. No promo, no writing, no... much at all. I recently plowed back into book 2, and it's been great to get back into it. 

No significant milestones, but hey, I'm alive. That's something.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

Paul K said:


> No significant milestones, but hey, I'm alive. That's something.


It's the most important "something" of all and definitely worth celebrating.


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

Stephanie Marks said:


> I got my first sale yesterday. An ACTUAL sale, not a KU borrow. I had a moment of "Woah, who actually paid me $3 for this??" Lol.


Congrats! And dude, put your 'Zon buy link in your signature to make it easier for your fellow prawns to find and buy your book.


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

Sapphire said:


> It's the most important "something" of all and definitely worth celebrating.


What Sapphire said!


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## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

Thanks guys. You are right, of course.


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## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Just got my first Amazon review...5 stars! Five freakin' stars!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Robert Dahlen said:


> Just got my first Amazon review...5 stars! Five freakin' stars!


Yay! Go you! Well done.


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## Stephanie Marks (Feb 16, 2015)

Gail Hart said:


> Congrats! And dude, put your 'Zon buy link in your signature to make it easier for your fellow prawns to find and buy your book.


I didn't think I was allowed to add erotic romance titles? That's why I didn't link to them. Or is that only if you're categorized in "erotica"?

In other news my first short story under my name (yay!) went live today. It's urban fantasy and I DID link to it! But yeah, if anyone knows if you're allowed to link to erotic romance please let me know so that I can add my other three books to my signature.


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

Stephanie Marks said:


> I didn't think I was allowed to add erotic romance titles? That's why I didn't link to them. Or is that only if you're categorized in "erotica"?
> 
> In other news my first short story under my name (yay!) went live today. It's urban fantasy and I DID link to it! But yeah, if anyone knows if you're allowed to link to erotic romance please let me know so that I can add my other three books to my signature.


Oops, I forgot about the rule about erotica. I'm not sure what the rule is on linking to erotic romances, so sorry mods if I was leading Stephanie astray!


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## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Out with some friends last night, and one introduced me as "My friend, Stephanie. She's an _author_."

Had a nice ring to it, I can get used to.


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## Stephanie Marks (Feb 16, 2015)

Stephanie Tsikrikas said:


> Out with some friends last night, and one introduced me as "My friend, Stephanie. She's an _author_."
> 
> Had a nice ring to it, I can get used to.


*Hi5!*


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

Robert Dahlen said:


> Just got my first Amazon review...5 stars! Five freakin' stars!


Awesome!


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

I checked my sales on my other platforms and I got TWO SALES EACH on GP & NOOK!!


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

I'm happy that I've been able to stay on the Hot New Release lists in both Viking/Nordic and Greek/Roman since essentially my release. I know they are smaller sub-genres but I'm excited!


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

How nice to see all the celebrating. It's so exciting to hit those milestones.

Mine in the past four weeks seems to be that my new "0" is "3." That's where the graph bottomed out three times in that period. Gotta love that 99-cent book.


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## IntoTheCloset (Feb 22, 2015)

This is such a great thread. Best of luck to everyone here, and may you have many more prawny milestones.

Anyway, I finished the first draft of my first novel today! I'm so scared and excited, it's into uncharted territory from here on out.

I wanted to print out the manuscript and give it to my beloved mother as a retirement gift (it's her last day at work tomorrow) as she's been much more supportive and patient with me than any parent should ever need to be, but the printer's almost out of ink so I don't think it could handle a couple hundred pages. I'll have to go and get the cartridge refilled tomorrow, I'm a man on a mission, must not disappoint mother (even though she doesn't even know I've been writing it).


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## CJAnderson (Oct 29, 2014)

Beyond Ruinland currently at #1 in Sci-Fi and Fantasy (Free short story)

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,237 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 30 minutes (12-21 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

CJAnderson said:


> Beyond Ruinland currently at #1 in Sci-Fi and Fantasy (Free short story)
> 
> Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,237 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
> #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 30 minutes (12-21 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy


Nice! That's awesome rankage  Congrats 

Okay, today my paperbacks arrived in the mail! It's soooo exciting to see my book in print. (There may have been a couple happy tears ha ha)


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

Follow-up on the promos: GenrePulse was today; I had 2 sales before it went live and 6 throughout the rest of the day. Soooo not great, though that's not GP's fault, of course. That's 8 more sales than I had yesterday. 

Interestingly, though: GP provides click-through stats, so I now know that 66 people clicked through and only 10% of them decided to buy. So something about the listing is turning people WAY off. 90% of everyone who _was_ interested backed out once they hit the Amazon page. So there's an enormous issue somewhere. I used essentially the same blurb as the Amazon page (shortened a little bit to bring it under 100 words), so it all goes south somewhere other than the cover, blurb and title. My best guess is the Look Inside, i.e. the story itself, and that's not exactly a quick fix. But it's still very helpful to know that. (Categories probably knock out a few people, as it now charts in a couple of LGBT sub-categories, and it's a bit more noticeable than the gender drop in the blurb. I am OK with cutting and running in that case. I'd rather you not buy the book than buy it and get upset, return it, whatever.)

So in the end, it cost $30 to get the information that the cover, title and blurb are not the problem, but something beyond that point is a problem. I still feel like it was worth the cost. Unforeseen benefits of running promos!

ENT is tomorrow, but I used the same blurb/info there, so it will probably have the same result.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> Interestingly, though: GP provides click-through stats, so I now know that 66 people clicked through and only 10% of them decided to buy. So something about the listing is turning people WAY off. 90% of everyone who _was_ interested backed out once they hit the Amazon page. So there's an enormous issue somewhere.


10% is a good sell-through rate. People look at lots of books before they decide they like the look of one enough to buy. My last GP promo had a similar sell-through rate.

The really nice thing about GP's click-through stats is that you can see the number continue to go up days after the ad went live. So you may get more sales today. Mind you, if you have ENT today, you may not notice! I hope you have a good result from them.


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> 10% is a good sell-through rate. People look at lots of books before they decide they like the look of one enough to buy. My last GP promo had a similar sell-through rate.
> 
> The really nice thing about GP's click-through stats is that you can see the number continue to go up days after the ad went live. So you may get more sales today. Mind you, if you have ENT today, you may not notice! I hope you have a good result from them.


Really! I wouldn't have expected the rate to be so low. Hey, learn somethng every day. Thanks. 

I won't be able to hover/stalk the chart today due to the day job, thankfully... ha.


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Charles C. Bailey said:


> Anyway, I finished the first draft of my first novel today! I'm so scared and excited, it's into uncharted territory from here on out.


That's a huge milestone, Charles! Congratulations! It's a wonderful feeling, isn't it?


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> I won't be able to hover/stalk the chart today due to the day job, thankfully... ha.


Don't forget to check your rankings:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,495 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
#49 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > New Adult & College
#53 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > New Adult & College

Very cool! Well done.


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

Thanks! That seems to have been the peak, even though it's sold more copies since then. Oh, the mysteries of the algorithms.

So










ENT worked
one might say
if by "worked" you mean "sold more than the last sale combined in one day"

Technically it hasn't earned back the investment of those two promos yet, but it's close, and the sale has 5 more days to go. I think it will creak over the threshold by the end of the week.

But today I passed the 0.1 of a prawn mark, I suppose: 100 copies sold since launch. Took a couple days short of five months. Round numbers! Yay!


----------



## Stephanie Marks (Feb 16, 2015)

Colorwheel said:


> Thanks! That seems to have been the peak, even though it's sold more copies since then. Oh, the mysteries of the algorithms.
> 
> So
> 
> ...


Yaaaaaay! Congrats!!


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

That's a great result, Colorwheel. Congrats!


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## Lena_Mikado (Mar 12, 2015)

Cool. Colorwheel! Congrats  ! 
This thread is hilarious, by the way.
Here's my milestone. I held my own Twitter giveaway of my paperbacks, gave away 6 paperbacks, got 21 people on my mailing list, got 3 (!!!) FB likes and 3 people who didn't win a paperback, but bought the digital copies instead. Didn't have any sales for a few days after that though.


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Very proactive of you, Lena! I would never have thought of running my own giveaway on Twitter. 21 mailing list sign-ups is a great result!


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## Lena_Mikado (Mar 12, 2015)

Thank you, Marina! I got super-excited   . And tomorrow I get to send the books off and SIGN them  .


----------



## AssanaBanana (Feb 1, 2014)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Don't forget to check your rankings:
> 
> Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #21,495 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
> #22 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
> ...


Wow, No. 5 now! Nice work!

I have two titles on the front page of LGBT>Fantasy at the moment. Surprised as hell that they made it that high and seem to be lingering.

My latest BIG milestone is hitting more than 250 mailing list subscribers. Also, earning a personal record of subscribers in a single day (12 yesterday). I'm expecting March to be a record month, in fact - shooting for 100 subscribers in a single month, thanks to a change in my CTA in my front matter.

I also had a reviewer of my latest book say (in her review) that the level of affection between my characters made her cry. It never occurred to me to aspire to make a reader cry, but I've apparently succeeded.


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

That's great, Jesse! What did you change about your CTA?


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## AssanaBanana (Feb 1, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> That's great, Jesse! What did you change about your CTA?


I actually only changed it in my first and second books (Book 1 is permafree, Book 2 is my subscriber reward title). I made the CTA a LOT bigger, gave it a dedicated page in the front matter AND in the back matter, and included an image of the subscriber reward title cover. I figure people who download Book 1 and want to read on get an in-your-face message that "BOOK 2 IS FREE" if they subscribe. And in Book 2, I have a big message at the top of the CTA that more or less says "DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! Subscribe and get it for free!" (For those folks who check out the "Look Inside" first.)

All my other books still have "subscribe" links, but they're more understated. I do expect the above tactic to result in a few more unsubscribes, but of the dozens of subscribers I've gained since I made the change, I've only had one unsubscribe. I think I can live with those numbers.


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Colorwheel said:


> ENT worked
> one might say
> if by "worked" you mean "sold more than the last sale combined in one day"


LOL. ENT is the business! And look at that ranking:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,292 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#5 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy
#10 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > New Adult & College
#12 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > New Adult & College



> But today I passed the 0.1 of a prawn mark, I suppose: 100 copies sold since launch. Took a couple days short of five months. Round numbers! Yay!


Congrats! See, all that's needed is for people to _see _the book, then it sells. I'm so happy for you! I love to see those spikes on the graph.


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## Colorwheel (Nov 21, 2014)

Thanks, all! I'm slightly terrified...



JessePearle said:


> Wow, No. 5 now! Nice work!
> 
> I have two titles on the front page of LGBT>Fantasy at the moment. Surprised as hell that they made it that high and seem to be lingering.
> 
> ...


Both awesome. Though it sounds bad to say you made a reader cry, you've moved them that much, and for a positive reason! That's lovely.


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

JessePearle said:


> I actually only changed it in my first and second books (Book 1 is permafree, Book 2 is my subscriber reward title). I made the CTA a LOT bigger, gave it a dedicated page in the front matter AND in the back matter, and included an image of the subscriber reward title cover. I figure people who download Book 1 and want to read on get an in-your-face message that "BOOK 2 IS FREE" if they subscribe. And in Book 2, I have a big message at the top of the CTA that more or less says "DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! Subscribe and get it for free!" (For those folks who check out the "Look Inside" first.)
> 
> All my other books still have "subscribe" links, but they're more understated. I do expect the above tactic to result in a few more unsubscribes, but of the dozens of subscribers I've gained since I made the change, I've only had one unsubscribe. I think I can live with those numbers.


Sounds like a great idea. It's obviously working well for you. I'll have to hurry up and get more books out so I can do something similar!


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## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

Started a wee promo yesterday. Going till Friday. This is my first promo since mid last year, so its nice to see some actual sales. Nothing went out yesterday, but the countdown deal managed to pull three sales out of the ether. Its on Booksends today. So far, 10 sales today. Hopefully there are a few more of the evening crowd yet to come in.

Ranking updates are more than half a day behind at the moment (for me) so should see a nice boost tomorrow. I hope. 

Oh well, wish me luck. 

It is nice to see that red line lift its slack corpse off the bottom of the chart


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Paul K said:


> It is nice to see that red line lift its slack corpse off the bottom of the chart


LOL! Good luck with the promo, Paul.


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## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

Thanks 

Managed to rank in Fantasy > Metaphysical & Visionary as well as Myths & Legends. I guess it's something.

It's nice to be below 50k in the rankings again, too. It's been a long while  It should drop some more yet over the next couple of hours, and hopefully the next promo helps it stay there. And the next. And the next.


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## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Woke up this morning to see I've surpassed 200 books sold! Next milestone target: 500.


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## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

I'm now over 60 sales and borrows this month. This is my strongest month by... well, by about 45 sales if I'm being honest!

Cady, well done! I'm slowly closing on the big 500, it's only taken me three years (and counting)!


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Go, Cady and Andrew! Great milestones!


----------



## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

I just passed 100 books sold on Kindle this month.

That's a record for me.

Now the hard part is going to be trying to break that new record next month. Nothing fiercer than a competition with yourself!


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Some excellent milestones there! I love this thread.


----------



## elizabethsade (Feb 3, 2015)

I just finished the rough draft of my second novel, and finished the first part of editing my first (re-arranging scene cards in prep for a huge developmental edit - it needs to be shredded and messed with).

Not sales-y prawny, but still appropriately prawny, I feel.  One step closer to being able to get my books in my sig!


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Steve, Andrew, WTG! I love this thread.



I love my readers. I'd shake every one's hand, if it wouldn't require a trip around the world to do so. (Gotta love self-publishing for that, too.)


----------



## Navigator (Jul 9, 2014)

Sold 182 books, made $70.05 from D2D this month. This is a few months after my trilogy was originally in Select and I finally got around to taking them out and uploading them wide again.

No idea what I've made over at Amazon, I refuse too look.


----------



## a_urias (Mar 11, 2015)

I sold a copy of my short story yesterday. And I'm fairly sure it was the first person to buy it who wasn't a friend, family, or random stranger I cornered in an elevator or on the street (not really. I don't have the confidence to do that). Fairly sure. I feel oddly vindicated.


----------



## Stephanie Marks (Feb 16, 2015)

I just booked my first paid promo. It's through BKNights. I'm a buy nervous actually.


----------



## 555aaa (Jan 28, 2014)

Sold my 200th audiobook on Audible/ACX today (which is several times my e-book sales).


----------



## Stephanie Tsikrikas (Sep 23, 2014)

Finally pushed the publish button last night!  
I've already sold... drumroll please... three books!


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Stephanie Tsikrikas said:


> Finally pushed the publish button last night!
> I've already sold... drumroll please... three books!


Congratulations! Now for the obligatory KBoards reminder to work on the second book.


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Congrats, Stephanie!

I had a happy prawny milestone yesterday--signed my first paperback!


----------



## henderson (Jul 14, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> I had a happy prawny milestone yesterday--signed my first paperback!


Congratulations, Marina!

I am about to publish my third fantasy novella in a couple of weeks and I am writing my twenty-fifth fantasy novella.

Like another poster already mentioned, really enjoy reading this thread.


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Sounds like you have a lot of material nearly ready to go, henderson! Guess we'll be seeing your sig fill up with book covers before too long!


----------



## Overrated (Mar 20, 2015)

I love this thread.

My first novel is out for pre-order. I've sold enough copies to pay for a little bit of promo. Actually, more than half the budget I assigned myself. 

On Twitter, my small efforts to add onto my followers has increased them over 400%. Today, the traffic lady that I watch every morning followed me. I know that's not a big deal, but she's one of those people who follows less than a quarter of those who follow her, so I was excited. 

21 days and counting to when I must turn in the full MS. It's at the editor right now, and I am working on the second book in the series.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Harriet Ashburn said:


> My first novel is out for pre-order. I've sold enough copies to pay for a little bit of promo. Actually, more than half the budget I assigned myself.


Don't forget to add a link to the book to your sig. You'd be surprised how many people from Kboards actually buy other Kboarders' books. It all helps.

Good luck with it when it goes live!


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

Marina Finlayson said:


> Congrats, Stephanie!
> 
> I had a happy prawny milestone yesterday--signed my first paperback!


Exciting milestone. Congrats!


----------



## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

Running a sale and checked on Winemaker of the North to find my ranking is this:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,133 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#8 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Greek & Roman
#11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Greek & Roman
#12 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Myths & Legends > Norse & Viking

http://www.amazon.com/Winemaker-North-Saints-Wura-Book-ebook/dp/B00TUB3Y1C/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I'm not complaining!


----------



## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

Doing a wee promo on my one today as well. It has breathed a bit of life back into its withering corpse


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Way to go, all. Sales, book signings, new releases. It's all wonderful forward motion.


----------



## ElisabethGFoley (Nov 20, 2011)

This is such a fun thread. 

I just got my tenth Amazon review on my novella Corral Nocturne - that makes the second one of my books to crack ten reviews! And of course it helps that it was a great review.

Oh, and I was browsing my library's online catalogue the other day and saw by chance that somebody has one of my books checked out. That's always quite a little thrill.


----------



## CJAnderson (Oct 29, 2014)

Survive Ruinland remains in the top #10 of 3 different genres/categories of free titles since going permafree 2 weeks ago.  

#4 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > One hour (33-43 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy
#7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Metaphysical & Visionary
#9 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > One hour (33-43 pages) > Literature & Fiction


----------



## 58907 (Apr 3, 2012)

CJAnderson said:


> Survive Ruinland remains in the top #10 of 3 different genres/categories of free titles since going permafree 2 weeks ago.
> 
> #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > One hour (33-43 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy
> #7 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Metaphysical & Visionary
> #9 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > One hour (33-43 pages) > Literature & Fiction


I downloaded it the other day. Looking forward to reading it. 

Congrats on the recent first-time publishing milestones and the increasing sales! Great thread.


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Today, my historical mystery "Stone and Silt" made it into the Kindle Store's top 1,000 for the first time. It also nudged its way into a couple of Top 10 subcategory rankings, including #2 in Literary>Historical Fiction>British.

This was thanks to a 99-cent Kindle Countdown deal from my publisher, Red Adept Publishing. The novel was promoted by BookBub in the Middle Grade category on April 6, and in the past couple of days has appeared on Awesome Gang, Bargain Booksy, BKnights, Discountbooksdaily, EbookLister, Ebook Soda, FKBT, Fussy Librarian, Good Kindles, KBoards, and The MidList.










I'm pleased to have a few new readers checking out the book!


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Way to go, Harvey! Today the top 1,000, tomorrow the world!


----------



## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Thanks, Marina! Nice to see those low ranking numbers -- at least for a short while!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Ooh, ooh - first Amazon paid sale in Germany. And the book is in English! And they haven't demanded their money back (yet).


----------



## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

Like I mentioned - March was the FIRST month that I sold over 100 books on Kindle alone in a month.

Well, I sold 102 e-books on Kindle in April as well.

That's two months in a row.

And, besides that, I just got me a BRAND NEW cover for my dark fantasy GYPSY BLOOD.

Swim my little prawns, swim!


----------



## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

Top 1000? That's not very prawny, Harvey (and congratulations).

100 books in a month is nothing to sneeze at. 

I am signing in to report here that I finally sold a book (yes, just one, but it's a first) on Google Play!


----------



## Steve Vernon (Feb 18, 2011)

ameliasmith said:


> I am signing in to report here that I finally sold a book (yes, just one, but it's a first) on Google Play!


Congrats, Amelia. I have heard that some folks do really well on Google Play. I've manage to move three books in the last month on Google Play. I am hoping that when I get a few more books up on Google Play I will do a little better. One book at a time is all that it takes.


----------



## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

My fourth book, The Holy Dark, dropped April 24th, and as of today, my villain Belial has an actual fangirl.

https://thelfm.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/the-holy-dark-and-all-that-came-before/

She liked my other books, but this one she likes the best, and she admitted that Belial is her Head Bae in Charge and she's #TeamBels and that seriously just made me want to dance a jig around my apartment. This is the prawniest of the prawny milestones, but considering how I have a fantasy about having my own fandom someday, this is a huge deal for me. Just had to share.


----------



## mphicks (Jan 29, 2014)

My prawny milestone is breaking the 1000 free copies downloaded mark. Closing in on 1300 "sales" of Convergence at the moment. Not a bad day! And hopefully there'll be some lasting effects as a result of this promo.


----------



## S.R. Booth (Oct 6, 2013)

After over a year and a half I got my very first review on Amazon UK—and it was good! I thought this day would never come.


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

kyokominamino said:


> My fourth book, The Holy Dark, dropped April 24th, and as of today, my villain Belial has an actual fangirl.
> 
> https://thelfm.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/the-holy-dark-and-all-that-came-before/
> 
> She liked my other books, but this one she likes the best, and she admitted that Belial is her Head Bae in Charge and she's #TeamBels and that seriously just made me want to dance a jig around my apartment. This is the prawniest of the prawny milestones, but considering how I have a fantasy about having my own fandom someday, this is a huge deal for me. Just had to share.


Kyoko, that is so awesome! That's a milestone I hope I reach someday!


----------



## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Robert Dahlen said:


> Kyoko, that is so awesome! That's a milestone I hope I reach someday!


Thank you! I'm certain that you will. It just takes time. A lot of time. My goodness. But it's worth the wait, I must say.


----------



## Stephanie Marks (Feb 16, 2015)

Yesterday I rereleased my first novella length book. I made it up to #39 in Kindle Ebooks but forgot to snag the other stats. These just happen to be the last ones I copy and pasted with my phone. This is my first *paid* title to rank in the 5 thousands!

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,833 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#40 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Romance > Historical Romance > Scottish
#45 in Books > Romance > Historical > Scottish


----------



## Overrated (Mar 20, 2015)

My prawny milestone is that I am almost up to 100 bucks in my book. It's been out a week.

The little trickles every day. It makes me happy.

The other one is that I am not obsessing over the Reports page. Well, at least trying not to.


----------



## AgathaMarch (Apr 17, 2015)

I wish each comment in this thread had a LIKE button!

Here's something appropriately prawny: the clock rolled over to midnight and my graph didn't drop to zero. Somebody is staying up late to read my book in KU!


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Some great milestones here--well done, fellow prawns!

My big milestone is that I finally finished Book 2. I'm so happy! It will be heading off to the formatters tomorrow. What a relief to know that the first one wasn't a fluke; I _can _actually string enough coherent words together to make a whole novel!


----------



## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

I am currently heading toward the end of my first real promo week. It has been my best selling week thus far and have managed to sell more than 100 books. I wish that was every week, but hey, it's been awesome all the same.


----------



## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

One of my hyperurl links to my book got clicked by someone in Burkina Faso. I had to look the country up. It's a small land-locked country in the middle of West Africa.

I don't think they bought my book, but they looked at it. I consider that a prawny milestone. 

P.S. Should I start a thread on super/hyper urls for tracking clicks? It's been pretty illuminating if you guys aren't using them yet.


----------



## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

Emily Wibberley said:


> P.S. Should I start a thread on super/hyper urls for tracking clicks? It's been pretty illuminating if you guys aren't using them yet.


It might be worth it. I haven't heard of them. I've used the bitly type URLs. Are they similar?


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## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

J.T. Williams said:


> It might be worth it. I haven't heard of them. I've used the bitly type URLs. Are they similar?


Bitly is something I use too. Bitly tells you where the click came from, but smarturls or hyperurls also tell you the countries too. It also creates one link for a bunch of countries based on your amazon page. You enter your amazon link and it comes up with this:



You can manually ad more countries too very easily.

Then smarturls gives you reports about where the clicks are coming from. It's more detailed than bitly and I can't stress how easy it is to set up:


----------



## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

That is cool.  

I will look into this more. Thank you for sharing!


----------



## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

I just passed 100 sales of my latest novel, The Holy Dark, this week! And the cool part is that it happened during the book's 1-month anniversary, as launch date was April 24th. I'm so happy and grateful for the readers who followed through with my series enough to reach the end. It's a humbling experience and a new milestone that I was able to get those sales in one month. And paid! Not free! Even better!


----------



## ccruz (Oct 11, 2014)

Hello, fellow prawns! I published my YA novella, Champion, on paperback through Createspace. That's a big thing for me! I got the proof in the mail the other day and couldn't have been prouder.


----------



## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

ccruz said:


> Hello, fellow prawns! I published my YA novella, Champion, on paperback through Createspace. That's a big thing for me! I got the proof in the mail the other day and couldn't have been prouder.


Yay you!


----------



## PJ McDermott (Dec 14, 2014)

What is it with the Danes? Six downloads of my free Prelude "The Second Coming"? If one person from Holland buys the paid sequel "Avanaux: A Hickory Lace Novel" I'll be on the next plane!


----------



## IntoTheCloset (Feb 22, 2015)

I've had quite a thrilling two weeks on my journey to become a tiny plankton but I think I've officially reached plankton status over the last four days.

I pressed publish for the first time ever on a short story, got my first ever sale 9 days in from a kind person in Japan, started my 5 day free promo and have had 28 downloads so far in the first two days, reaching the number 2 spot in my little subgenre and cracking the top 9000 over all, I couldn't be happier.


----------



## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

I have a major milestone! My book, _The Blood Moon_, is now up for preorder! My signature below links it to Amazon, but it's also available at other retailers. Check them out below:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Moon-Under-Book-ebook/dp/B00XIVXWFS
Kobo - https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-blood-moon
iBooks - https://itun.es/us/l_et7.l
Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/books/details/David_Neth_The_Blood_Moon?id=_lFDCQAAQBAJ&hl=en
Smashwords - https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/542740

_The Blood Moon_ will be out August 1st! The sequel will be out in February! Thanks to everyone who helped when I asked for advice and thanks for the continued support!


----------



## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Harvey said:


> Today, my historical mystery "Stone and Silt" made it into the Kindle Store's top 1,000 for the first time. It also nudged its way into a couple of Top 10 subcategory rankings, including #2 in Literary>Historical Fiction>British.


That's great! And I love that cover.


----------



## AnonWriter (Dec 12, 2013)

Seconding the cover. Wow.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Congrats, David! A big moment, when you first see your book page on Amazon.   And thirding that cover - very eye-catching.


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## Gone Girl (Mar 7, 2015)

We miss you, Harvey Chute.


----------



## Gone Girl (Mar 7, 2015)

We miss you, Harvey Chute.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

TeaBell said:


> Wishing you such success that you are immediately booted off this thread.


That made me laugh!

I have a milestone to report, too: after my last promos, I now have precisely 23 names on my mailing list. Yay! Go me! Global domination is just around the corner...


----------



## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

I made it up to #76 overall on the free charts. I've never broken the top one hundred even for free, but since it was free i'm still counting it as prawny.


----------



## MissingAlaska (Apr 28, 2014)

I had a minor milestone today.  I sold more on Barnes and Noble (2 books) than I did on Amazon (1 book).  My first baby steps to going wide!  And one of my books yesteday hit the top 100 PAID in a (minor) category (on 2 sales, LOL).


----------



## ufwriter (Jan 12, 2015)

David, gorgeous cover! Congrats on getting your book up for pre-order!

I passed a milestone this week with the publication of book 2 in my YA urban fantasy series: 500 sales/borrows since I first published in February. Strangely enough, I passed the 600 mark today as well! I love promos. Coming at you, 1,000 sales!


----------



## danielareyes (Jun 3, 2015)

Just sold my 25th copy of my first book that I released about a week ago. Small milestone, but I've been smiling all day.


----------



## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

shimmering said:


> First sales on the .it and .de Amazon stores! On the same day! Hooray!


Is that not the COOLEST? Last month, I sold a copy in India for the very first time. So exciting! Now we can brag about being international bestsellers, right?


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

kyokominamino said:


> Now we can brag about being international bestsellers, right?


I like the way you think!

My latest prawny milestone is finally publishing the long-awaited second book in my trilogy. Long-awaited by me, at least. Not too many others are hanging out for it, but I'm still very pleased to get it out there!


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> My latest prawny milestone is finally publishing the long-awaited second book in my trilogy. Long-awaited by me, at least. Not too many others are hanging out for it, but I'm still very pleased to get it out there!


Long-awaited by me, too, Marina! I loved Twiceborn - dragons! In Sydney! What's not to like? I'm thrilled to get my hands on the next installment. Good luck with it.


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Thanks, Pauline! It's funny how, when I released the first one, I thought that by the time I got to the second one I'd know exactly what I was doing. Still feel like I'm flailing around trying to get the hang of marketing and social media and all the rest of the stuff that goes with self-publishing.


----------



## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> Thanks, Pauline! It's funny how, when I released the first one, I thought that by the time I got to the second one I'd know exactly what I was doing. Still feel like I'm flailing around trying to get the hang of marketing and social media and all the rest of the stuff that goes with self-publishing.


Yep, I'm still flailing, too. When I started, I told myself that the first year would be pure learning curve. Well, I think I may need a second year of learning curve. This business is fascinating, but there's so much to get your head round, and it changes so fast.


----------



## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> I like the way you think!
> 
> My latest prawny milestone is finally publishing the long-awaited second book in my trilogy. Long-awaited by me, at least. Not too many others are hanging out for it, but I'm still very pleased to get it out there!


Congratulations! I wish you plenty of favorable reviews and sales!


----------



## Nick Marsden (Jan 28, 2015)

For the first time in months (probably over a year) I've sold at least one copy of my books in 6 of the last 7 days (counting KU borrows)! The only change I've made is to put my Never-Born trilogy into KDP select (which accounts for the borrows). One of those days I actually sold TWO copies!


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

kyokominamino said:


> Congratulations! I wish you plenty of favorable reviews and sales!


Thanks, Kyoko!

And well done, Nick! Two copies a day would make me happy too.


----------



## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

I have a super prawny milestone to report. I reached 100 sales for my first novel towards the end of March. That took 9 months. Mostly, because I completely ignored the book for 6 months while I dealt with life. Today I reached 300. Progress!

My second novel is coming out at the start of August. It will be edited and done in a fortnight, but I went for a 3 month pre-order a while back, and I'll leave it at that. By the time it launches, I should have the first draft of book 1 in a different series (sci-fi) done. At my current rate, I should be able to get 2 books in the sci-fi series out this year, and be well on my way to wrapping the first draft of book 3 in my fantasy trilogy.

My artist is nearly done with the cover of the sci-fi book. Look!


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Great cover, Paul! Glad to hear Book 1's making progress too.


----------



## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

Thanks Marina. Slow progress, but it is something. Book 1 has spent most of its life getting 1 or 2 sales a month. Now it's a couple or more a day. 

More than anything, I need to get more books out. I should be able to publish three this year.


----------



## L.B (Apr 15, 2015)

My first milestone!

I have my first pre-order! OK, not the first as that was very kindly ordered by ALawston from kboards, but my first unknown order!

From Germany!


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Congrats, Barnaby! I've got a promo thread going that covers my current sale, but I wanted to mention here that I've sold 32 books in three days, which may not be much but makes me very very happy.


----------



## Desert Rose (Jun 2, 2015)

As of this morning I just officially had my first three figure month (dollars, not downloads).


----------



## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

geronl said:


> I don't think Paul K is going to be a Prawn much longer with a cover like that.


Hope not! I'm plankton right now. Or... what does plankton eat? Sunlight?

Thanks anyway


----------



## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Dragovian, I love your avatar! Congrats to you and Barnaby.

Robert, 32 sales in 3 days sounds huge to me! Well done!


----------



## Desert Rose (Jun 2, 2015)

Marina Finlayson said:


> Dragovian, I love your avatar! Congrats to you and Barnaby.
> 
> Robert, 32 sales in 3 days sounds huge to me! Well done!


Thanks, Marina! I did a happy dance when I saw the royalties tick over $100.


----------



## Robert Dahlen (Apr 27, 2014)

Marina Finlayson said:


> Robert, 32 sales in 3 days sounds huge to me! Well done!


Thanks! It's actually a 99 cent sale, but I'm thrilled with the results...and the sale still has a week of promos to go!


----------



## L.B (Apr 15, 2015)

Robert Dahlen said:


> Congrats, Barnaby! I've got a promo thread going that covers my current sale, but I wanted to mention here that I've sold 32 books in three days, which may not be much but makes me very very happy.





Marina Finlayson said:


> Dragovian, I love your avatar! Congrats to you and Barnaby.
> 
> Robert, 32 sales in 3 days sounds huge to me! Well done!


Thanks both!

Great stuff Robert, hope the good numbers continue!


----------



## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

Just received my very first two-star review on Amazon! My reaction?










All joking aside, I made it almost a whole two years before I got a negative review. It sucks, but hey, that's a great streak to break for a newbie author. Maybe it means I'm turning a corner...


----------



## Dale Hammond (Apr 3, 2015)

Found out I sold my first physical paperback, after it being on Createspace for a year and me forgetting about it.  I need to get around to updating my covers there.


----------



## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

Ran a free day for my new short story "Arrowfall" and am currently ranking as follows:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #913 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Free in Kindle Store)
#2 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > Teen & Young Adult
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle Short Reads > 45 minutes (22-32 pages) > Science Fiction & Fantasy
#3 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths > Collections

I've never had a free title this high!


----------



## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

Greetings fellow prawns! Here's my latest prawny milestone: As of Friday, when I got my April payment from the 'Zon, I've officially made enough money to cover the production costs of my book. Who knew breaking even would feel so good?  

Now if I could just finish Book 2...


----------



## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

Paul K said:


> I have a super prawny milestone to report. I reached 100 sales for my first novel towards the end of March. That took 9 months. Mostly, because I completely ignored the book for 6 months while I dealt with life. Today I reached 300. Progress!
> 
> My second novel is coming out at the start of August. It will be edited and done in a fortnight, but I went for a 3 month pre-order a while back, and I'll leave it at that. By the time it launches, I should have the first draft of book 1 in a different series (sci-fi) done. At my current rate, I should be able to get 2 books in the sci-fi series out this year, and be well on my way to wrapping the first draft of book 3 in my fantasy trilogy.
> 
> My artist is nearly done with the cover of the sci-fi book. Look!


Congrats Paul! And I agree with the other prawns, that cover is beautiful.


----------



## James R Wells (May 21, 2015)

Here's my prawny milestone - when I self-published my first novel in April, I decided to live on the edge and order 150 print copies. The last copy went out a few days ago, and today my second print of another 100 came in, of which four are spoken for.

Disclosure: 26 print copies were giveaways to contributors, reviewers, and family, so actually 124 sales from the first print run (but >24 sales from Amazon + B&N so it all balances).

As measured from the starting point of having no idea what to expect two months ago, I am doing the dance of joy.

Looking ahead it's all about the transition from community marketing to fishing in the vast sea of perfect strangers.

Also, the fulfillment center (a.k.a. wicker table) shown below now has a mascot, which is a narwhalicorn, courtesy of our resident artist.


----------



## Vergence (Apr 17, 2015)

I just had my first 42 pages read on the new KU payout scheme. I wanted to see how it looked on launch day and it happened for me.


----------



## robertvasan (Jun 24, 2015)

Is this for us plankton to list milestones too? I don't even feel qualified enough to call myself a prawn. BUT... Before the KU 2 change, I had 3 borrows. After KU2, I did a brief BKnights promo, and got 5 sales. Woo-hoo! That feels like a million. And now I've got my first KU KENP read through. It was for 129 pages, which means, whoever it was read the entire thing -- because that's exactly the amount of pages it has. I just hope they like it and leave a review. A good review, pretty please.  

I've changed my keywords A LOT lately. Before, I went real specific, "Mythology Medusa Monster", sort of things. I've since lightened it, and I'm hoping it helps.


EDIT: An apparently, the book reached 86 on the Horror Short Stories chart. Which apparently doesn't take much to hit.  But it was cool to see. But it plummeted pretty quickly after that. But it still felt good.


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Okay, milestones.

I published on July 21. ^^ Yay! First book is live!

I have sales and borrows.

I reached over 50 sales yesterday! Hurray!

My rankings have surpassed some books of my favorite UF by my favorite author, even if temporarily!

I've ranked in under top 5k overall Paid store!

I hit #4 on LGBT Fantasy category!

Yay prawny milestones!! Yaaay ^^


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## Paul K (Jan 11, 2014)

Well done Shei. That's a better rank than I've managed to scrounge up.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

That's fantastic, Shei! Thanks for sharing your good news!


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

Shei Darksbane said:


> Okay, milestones.
> 
> I published on July 21. ^^ Yay! First book is live!
> 
> ...


5k overall is awesome!

Congrats!


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

What a great thread. Wtg all of you 

I guess mine is, this past week for the first time in over a year, I was in the top 8k ranks of All Authors on Amazon.
And for the first time in 9ish months, I've made over $250 in a month. Woo. lol!


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

Violet Haze said:


> What a great thread. Wtg all of you
> 
> I guess mine is, this past week for the first time in over a year, I was in the top 8k ranks of All Authors on Amazon.
> And for the first time in 9ish months, I've made over $250 in a month. Woo. lol!


That is awesome! Congratulations 

I just released my second book a few days ago!  It was a MUCH less traumatic event than last time. The first book had me biting my nails in anxiety from start to finish lol but this time the process was much more smooth. Now I'm working hard on the third book in the series as well as starting another, equestrian, series. Good times!


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Drumroll please!








Ta da!
My first 100 sales! ^^ So excited!

Eee!







​


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

I released on the 4th of July!  I re-released every other day thereafter on Amazon, Create Space, and Smashwords until I finally got it perfect over last weekend. Oy vey. 

Then I had my wifi die on me before I could do any proper promotion but ACTUAL SALES ARE IMMINENT!


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Bit the bullet and took one of my trilogies and a few standalones that weren't selling wide and put them in Select last week. So far, 610 pages read. Fingers crossed, candles lit, the numbers stay steady. I have the last of a trilogy just about ready to be published and that one will also go into Select. 

The books that are selling wide will stay wide, especially the four-parter.


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

Thank you! I've actually tripled my average earnings this month, which just has me thrilled. It's been a long year... lol

And congrats  I would say it gets easier...but every book is my baby, lol.



Genevieve Mckay said:


> That is awesome! Congratulations
> 
> I just released my second book a few days ago!  It was a MUCH less traumatic event than last time. The first book had me biting my nails in anxiety from start to finish lol but this time the process was much more smooth. Now I'm working hard on the third book in the series as well as starting another, equestrian, series. Good times!


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## alawston (Jun 3, 2012)

I like the new KU count, because it means big numbers appear on my dashboard - even if they are just individual pages being read.

Today I woke up and I'd clicked over to 1,300 pages read this month!

Put that champagne on ice, its not too late to hit the big 1,500 by the end of tomorrow!


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Robert Dahlen said:


> Congrats, Barnaby! I've got a promo thread going that covers my current sale, but I wanted to mention here that I've sold 32 books in three days, which may not be much but makes me very very happy.


Eee! Go Robert! Go go go!


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## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

I suppose not that prawny, depending on how you look at it, but my first novel (first title, first published anything!) comes out in *TWO DAYS*!!!!!!

My birthday is next Tuesday and this book, _The Blood Moon_, was started on my birthday nine years ago. It's crazy how long it took me to get it out, but now that it's out, I can't wait to sell it! (And continue on publishing the rest of the books in the series, the next one is in the hands of my editor as I type and the third one is a little less than halfway done.)

If you care at all to read the story of the nine-year journey of _The Blood Moon_, check that out here: http://www.davidnethbooks.com/?p=52


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## going going gone (Jun 4, 2013)

Congratulations Dave.

And some terrific other prawny progress going on. Yay!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

David Neth said:


> I suppose not that prawny, depending on how you look at it, but my first novel (first title, first published anything!) comes out in *TWO DAYS*!!!!!!


Congrats! I hope it won't be prawny for you at all.  With an awesome cover like that, it should do well. Let us know when it's live, won't you? Not everyone pre-orders...


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

alawston said:


> I like the new KU count, because it means big numbers appear on my dashboard - even if they are just individual pages being read.
> 
> Today I woke up and I'd clicked over to 1,300 pages read this month!
> 
> Put that champagne on ice, its not too late to hit the big 1,500 by the end of tomorrow!


Yup, that's exactly why I caved and put about a third of my books in KU.


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## AveryCockburn (Jul 5, 2015)

Congrats, Dave, and happy early birthday! What a wonderful milestone after a nine-year journey. Best of luck to you!


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

I like watching the PC Ken chart even though I'm only a crustacean zygote.


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## Guest (Jul 31, 2015)

I just ran my first ever promo - a .99 cent promo. I didn't know I could divide up days, I didn't book ads out far enough in advance so I didn't get in with all the sites I was hoping for, but overall, I'm happy with the results. I sold 101 copies of Resurrected and made it into the top 100 of one of the subcategories Amazon has me in (Sci-Fi, First Contact). And I broke into the five digits for overall paid Kindle store.

Of course, now that the promo is over, those numbers are all dropping  

I got a Goodreads review this week for Resurrected from the giveaway I did - a four star review with lots of really positive things to say, which made me super happy, AND I got a five star review from one of the people who bought my book this week during the sale.

I also learned a LOT about what to do and what NOT to do next time, so it was an exciting week!


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## Small Town Writer (Jun 11, 2014)

cadle-sparks said:


> Congratulations Dave.





PaulineMRoss said:


> Congrats! I hope it won't be prawny for you at all.  With an awesome cover like that, it should do well. Let us know when it's live, won't you? Not everyone pre-orders...





AveryCockburn said:


> Congrats, Dave, and happy early birthday! What a wonderful milestone after a nine-year journey. Best of luck to you!


Thanks everybody! My book is now live!! Help a brother out and go buy it, please! (And please leave a review, too. You know the drill...)

Haha, but seriously. I owe a lot to everyone on this forum. I have a laundry list of books by a lot of people on here whose books have caught my eye. On to the next adventure: selling the damn thing! Haha


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

I finally got Mailchimp, updated all my books with the new sign-up AND sent my first email out!  (...all this just before my first every multi-site paid promotion coming on the 12th!)


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

I reached 500 total sales over the Hunted Launch!
Plus launched my second book. That was kinda a big deal too XD
I had over 15k pages read in a day!
And have officially entered my first four-figure month!  (Which is my first 30 days / second calendar month though)

*Yay* Tiny party!


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

Okay, and now Awakened has reached 500 sales by itself!
Hunted also reached 100 sales already! In 3 days! WOW! I'm so excited! 

Yay *more tiny part*


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Finally finished the first draft of my new book '_Colony One Mars_'. So the real hard work is done. 

I took a completely different approach to writing this book by starting with a very clear outline. It definitely made the writing process much faster.


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## Katherine Stark (Jul 30, 2015)

Woke up to a 7,000 sales ranking. After the week I've had, it was enough to make my cry happy tears. 

Of course, it's slipping fast now, but nice to know I *can* get there... now, to get back to work on the next book!


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

I have officially sold 1000 books. 
I am astonished, floored, excited, happy.  Eee!


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## Cxxxxxxx (May 30, 2015)

Shei Darksbane said:


> I have officially sold 1000 books.
> I am astonished, floored, excited, happy.  Eee!


Congratulations! That's a nice round number.  As a fellow prawn, (though I'd say you're approaching jumbo size )I've found watching your marvelous launch exciting, inspiring, and just a bit envy-inducing. I know you've worked way harder than I have though, so there's no question your success is deserved, and does motivate me to get my butt back in the chair.

On to the next thousand! 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

christinick said:


> Congratulations! That's a nice round number.  As a fellow prawn, (though I'd say you're approaching jumbo size )I've found watching your marvelous launch exciting, inspiring, and just a bit envy-inducing. I know you've worked way harder than I have though, so there's no question your success is deserved, and does motivate me to get my butt back in the chair.
> 
> On to the next thousand!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Aww, I'm sorry for inducing envy, but thank you for congratulating me anyway!
I have worked *very* hard for this and I know a lot of authors work just as hard without seeing such results, so I think I've been really lucky too!
Lucky to have such great people to take advice from here, lucky in my niche choice maybe? Lucky in general? 
But thank you so much for the congrats. 
I'll be cheering you right back. ^^


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## Cxxxxxxx (May 30, 2015)

Shei Darksbane said:


> Aww, I'm sorry for inducing envy, but thank you for congratulating me anyway!
> I have worked *very* hard for this and I know a lot of authors work just as hard without seeing such results, so I think I've been really lucky too!
> Lucky to have such great people to take advice from here, lucky in my niche choice maybe? Lucky in general?
> But thank you so much for the congrats.
> I'll be cheering you right back. ^^


No worries- it's friendly, productive envy. The kind that motivates rather than depresses. 

I think there is an element of luck involved but I also believe that the smarter and harder you work, the more likely you are to be there when luck strikes.

Just knowing about these boards is a huge advantage. I'd heard about them but thought I didn't have the time to devote to yet more social media. Now I'm kicking myself because I think I could have had a much better launch than I did. Still, I'm glad to be learning all of this stuff early on. It still feels like I'm in a good position to succeed eventually. 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Shei Darksbane (Jan 31, 2015)

christinick said:


> No worries- it's friendly, productive envy. The kind that motivates rather than depresses.
> 
> I think there is an element of luck involved but I also believe that the smarter and harder you work, the more likely you are to be there when luck strikes.
> 
> Just knowing about these boards is a huge advantage. I'd heard about them but thought I didn't have the time to devote to yet more social media. Now I'm kicking myself because I think I could have had a much better launch than I did. Still, I'm glad to be learning all of this stuff early on. It still feels like I'm in a good position to succeed eventually.


That's good. ^^ I wish you all the luck in continuing! I do think that people who know about Kboards are at a huge advantage. I would have done nothing right if I hadn't known.


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Sold my first ever book on Scribd! 
Wow, didn't know indies sold anything at all on Scribd!
Now if only I could sell one on Apple, I would have the whole set of Grand Slams!


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

Well this is embarrassing, but yesterday, after 11.5 months, I finally sold my first book on iBooks.


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## e-chant (May 6, 2014)

Tell me your secret!


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

e-chant said:


> Tell me your secret!


I have no idea! Maybe the planets were aligned properly?


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## Writer&#039;s Block (Oct 29, 2014)

Not really a milestone as such but just got my first feedback on FUSION from someone who is not family or friend. They really loved it. Made my day


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## Violet Haze (Jan 9, 2014)

I suppose my little milestone is I started putting my books in KDPS on the 20th, and as of this moment, I'm over 11k pages read, the amount rising steadily every day...it's pretty cool to watch.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

For the first time ever, I made over $1000 in book sales in one month. My August royalties are $1200.93. I just...I can't even...


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## J.T. Williams (Aug 7, 2014)

kyokominamino said:


> For the first time ever, I made over $1000 in book sales in one month. My August royalties are $1200.93. I just...I can't even...


Awesome!  May we all be there one day!


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

J.T. Williams said:


> Awesome!  May we all be there one day!


Thank you! I was stunned when I finally did the numbers.


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## L.B (Apr 15, 2015)

kyokominamino said:


> For the first time ever, I made over $1000 in book sales in one month. My August royalties are $1200.93. I just...I can't even...


Fantastic! Well done!

$1,000 a month is my goal for the next twelve months. $2,000 a month the year after and so on.


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## bendanarama (Jul 25, 2015)

Just before the weekend I sold two books, making it six in a week. I was so happy I blew $10 on a fiverr promo to get a bigger boost!


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

B. Yard said:


> Fantastic! Well done!
> 
> $1,000 a month is my goal for the next twelve months. $2,000 a month the year after and so on.


Good luck to you! I hope you make your goal and beyond!


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## KDKinney (Aug 16, 2015)

I've had a few international sales on my latest release.   This month is already my best month so far. Only double digits but it is progress.


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## kyokominamino (Jan 23, 2014)

KDKinney said:


> I've had a few international sales on my latest release.  This month is already my best month so far. Only double digits but it is progress.


Isn't that the coolest feeling? I've been consistently getting sales in the UK and Australia, but I actually snagged a sale in France, Germany, and India this month and it always makes me geek out a little.


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## KDKinney (Aug 16, 2015)

kyokominamino said:


> Isn't that the coolest feeling? I've been consistently getting sales in the UK and Australia, but I actually snagged a sale in France, Germany, and India this month and it always makes me geek out a little.


Yes!! I have had some from the UK and the one that really got me excited was Germany.


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

I finished writing the last book in my trilogy. That`s my first trilogy EVER. Not a big deal for all you prolific writers but a huge deal to a slow as molasses writer like me lol.  It was pretty exciting to see them all listed together like that. I still tear up a little when I release a new book.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Genevieve Mckay said:


> I finished writing the last book in my trilogy. That`s my first trilogy EVER. Not a big deal for all you prolific writers but a huge deal to a slow as molasses writer like me lol. It was pretty exciting to see them all listed together like that. I still tear up a little when I release a new book.


Good job! I'm still slogging on my third book myself. Glad to see I'm not the only one that works at a snail's pace.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

Actual _reviews_ are starting to trickle in. Three in the last month across my books. Sniffle! I'm all verklempt. Talk among yourselves! Sniff!


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

Jessie G. Talbot said:


> Actual _reviews_ are starting to trickle in. Three in the last month across my books. Sniffle! I'm all verklempt. Talk among yourselves! Sniff!


It's fun when you stumble on them by accident, isn't it? Like Christmas!


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## Marina Finlayson (May 2, 2014)

Hey, haven't seen this thread in a while! Congrats, Genevieve, on finishing the trilogy. That's a great milestone!


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## BlouBryant (Jun 18, 2016)

What a perfect thread.  Congratulations to all, aren't those milestones just wonderful?  I'm still at the 'holy crap, I sold a book' stage. I've not marketed other than a wee bit of AMS, and every page read, every sale, is a blessing, and amazes me. My first review came in a couple weeks ago and I'm still on cloud 9. 

BB


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## JTriptych (Aug 23, 2015)

I got my first ever payment from Amazon India- it was a penny!  Woohoo, I'm rich!


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## NoBlackHats (Oct 17, 2012)

Sold my first two audiobooks! WHEW!  Not exacdtly rollin' in the dough but it sure feels nice to have a new sales channel...


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## Jim Johnson (Jan 4, 2011)

Just celebrated one year of indie publishing. Started year two by outlining another book. Onward!

And congrats to all the class of 2016 members, and congrats in advance to those in  2017 planning to jump in.


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## Ariel Eaves (Oct 24, 2016)

kyokominamino said:


> For the first time ever, I made over $1000 in book sales in one month. My August royalties are $1200.93. I just...I can't even...


Congratulations! I just hit $1000 overall since I started publishing, which is considerably less impressive, but I'm determined to get there!


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

These are all amazing!! Congratulations  I went to my first Writer's conference. Super fun!


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

Just broke 7000reads for one day - personal best. Woo hoo!


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## Genevieve Mckay (Jan 19, 2015)

AliceS said:


> Just broke 7000reads for one day - personal best. Woo hoo!


Wow, that's awesome!


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## AliceS (Dec 28, 2014)

Thanks Genevieve!


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## PityPityPity (Apr 10, 2016)

I've been stalking this thread, but so far I've been too prawny even for this place of prawns.

But yesterday I sold 19 books. Woo! My best day until now was 5, and even that was a one off.


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## Talbot (Jul 14, 2015)

I put down my 3rd in series to write a completely different book. I finally went back and finished it in two months. THIRD IN SERIES! It's too soon to launch but I'm jazzed. I'm getting faster, better, _stronger. _


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## S.L. (Jun 6, 2016)

StormChild said:


> I've been stalking this thread, but so far I've been too prawny even for this place of prawns.
> 
> But yesterday I sold 19 books. Woo! My best day until now was 5, and even that was a one off.


19 books, that's awesome! Did you run a promo or anything?


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

StormChild said:


> I've been stalking this thread, but so far I've been too prawny even for this place of prawns. But yesterday I sold 19 books. Woo! My best day until now was 5, and even that was a one off.


Congrats! Best-ever days are so exciting.


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## PityPityPity (Apr 10, 2016)

Lee Sutherland said:


> 19 books, that's awesome! Did you run a promo or anything?


I dropped my price to $0.99 ran a Bargain Booksy. Not much of a tail now the price is gone up again but I'm still riding high on the thrill.


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## archaeoroutes (Oct 12, 2014)

It finally happened. I saw someone I didn't know reading one of my books!


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## PityPityPity (Apr 10, 2016)

archaeoroutes said:


> It finally happened. I saw someone I didn't know reading one of my books!


That's fantastic! Nothing prawny about it at all.


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## AlecHutson (Sep 26, 2016)

A random googling of my book's title revealed that there are two copies in a library in New Zealand, one of which is out on loan! I thought that was pretty cool.


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## archaeoroutes (Oct 12, 2014)

I got very excited when I found one of my books in the county library catalogue. Turned out it was the copy I'd donated to a school - their library system linked into the county one.


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## archaeoroutes (Oct 12, 2014)

StormChild said:


> That's fantastic! Nothing prawny about it at all.


The prawny bit was he put it back on the shelf and moved on.


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