# 2014 Sales Figures: Let's Share



## ronvitale (Mar 11, 2011)

I've been an off and on user on this board. Between working full-time, raising two kids and writing (and all business related to that), I'm doing the best I can and wanted to share  my 2014 sales figures.

I learned a lot this past year and I've a long, long way to go. Hopefully, I can help other writers.

I'd appreciate if others share their data and what they've learned in 2014 so we can help each other.

Thank you.


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## Nymirra (Mar 15, 2014)

Due to real life circumstance, I have effectively only been able to write 5 out of 7 months in 2014. Had an obvious impact on my sales. Still, I started from almost nothing and ended up selling ~2000 copies across all vendors. Peanuts compared to some, but it's a springboard for next year. And next year. And so on.

It's an obvious lesson, but if I had anything confirmed to me this year, it is that *consistency* is important to growing and maintaining good sales. That's why I'm dialing back my expectations for released wordcount for 2015, but dialing up consistency. As in, releases every x, on the dot, every time.


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## M_A_Alonso (Nov 20, 2014)

In 2014 I sold 829 copies of my first book, a 0,99 loss leader and learning tool, and delivered 339 free copies. My second book has sold 58 copies (37 preorders at 0,99 and 21 at full price of 2,99) since mid-october. Not stellar numbers, but I'm proud of them. I have my day job but I'm going to continue learning the craft and getting better as in 2016 I will get married and start living in another country. Then I'l work full time on writing.


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## DawnLee (Aug 17, 2014)

I'm still a demi-prawn. I only just published my debut novel on December 21, so I don't have much to report, but it sure is comforting to be able to report somethng, after months of
not even having a book in my sig. Thus far for 2014, I've sold 20 ebooks and 13 paperbacks. I'm grateful and boggled.


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## RBK (Nov 28, 2014)

Zero idea how many I've sold exactly, but based on my income tracker that I do at the end of the month, I've made just under $30,000 in 2014, which will sneak into the $30,000+ range once I've added December.

This makes me extremely, extremely happy. Actually quite surprised seeing this figure myself.

I made $6,500 in 2013, for context.

Here's hoping 2015 will be anywhere near as successful as 2014...


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## sela (Nov 2, 2014)

65,000+ books, $155,000+ revenues. Books published in 2014 = 2 full-length books, 2 collections, 3 boxed sets with other authors, 1 4-novella series, 1 novella, 2 short stories. Backlist: 5 full-length books, 1 collection. Overall, about 50% better than 2013. Who can say what 2015 will look like? My last three months of 2014 were down from the previous 3 quarters so...


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Another prawn here. First book published in September. Total sales to date: 129 ebooks, 2 paperbacks, 38 borrows and 5,206 free copies. Second book has 10 pre-orders already   and one return  .


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## ronvitale (Mar 11, 2011)

Thanks all for sharing.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

About $6,800 on short stories only. Currently working on a book. I've been rewriting the first 60K words for a while now. It never reads as perfectly as it did in my head...


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## Guest (Dec 30, 2014)

About 6 - 7 thousand dollars for 2014.

About 3000 in December alone.

In 2013 I published several books and made a total of 100 dollars.

I was writing horror in 2013, and at the start of this year.

Now I write romance.


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## Drake (Apr 30, 2014)

I'm still working on the money part, since the KU payout won't be known until mid-January, but including KU I've sold 10,135 books so far this year.  WooHoo!


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## Indecisive (Jun 17, 2013)

I've lumped sales and borrows together for ease of accounting and because I have very few borrows (2 or 3 last year, 6 so far this year). Prawny prawn prawn, here. 

I published my first book at the very end of 2012 (Dec. 27th), so I have lumped 2012 and 2013 together. I published my second book on  Nov. 1st 2012, and the third on Dec. 1st of this year. I also added print editions of the first two books and have sold a couple dozen of those all together (started out with both print and ebook for my most recent release).

2013 sales + borrows = 175 
2014 sales + borrows = 249

I'm actually surprised at how sales of my Regency romance added up over the course of the year (182!), because apart from the initial "going wide" and a short 99 cent promo in late June the sales have been few and far between, though it has sold pretty well locally in print. Go figure.


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## Sonya Bateman (Feb 3, 2013)

Broke 1,000 in US sales + borrows this year (1148, to be precise). Woohoo


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

In total (across 20+ books, via Amazon, B&N, etc, and various pen names) I've sold 714 copies so far. Since Dec 17th, I've had no paid sales on Amazon  but I've got a few through other channels. Almost a quarter of those 714 sales came from the Spanish translated version of one of my books via Apple *.

In 2013, I sold 214 books total.
In 2012, I sold 145 books total.
And in 2011 (I first published in Aug of that year), I sold 79 copies.

Happily, my sales are slowly growing with more books out and my writing getting better.

* - Apple and B&N are slowly overtaking Amazon as my best-selling channels.


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## Paul Kohler (Aug 14, 2013)

My totals from 7 titles is 810 copies borrowed/sold. Those are from January 1st through yesterday. Throughout the year, I've given away 8,530 copies as well. That number is so large because I had one of my titles permafree for about 3 months early in the year.

I only started in September of 2013, so last years sales were pretty minimal for comparison. I had only 2 titles that were available the entire year. The other 5 had been published throughout this year, beginning in March, and two of those titles in the last month.  All of my titles are on Amazon only.


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## Drake (Apr 30, 2014)

garam81 said:


> Happily, my sales are slowly growing with more books out and my writing getting better.


I can relate to this comment, it's why I'm writing under a pseudonym. I like to think I'm on the learn as you go plan.


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## Z. Rider (Aug 15, 2014)

I don't know the number of books because I got lazy and stopped tracking, but across my pen names, I received about $10k in payments in 2014 so far. In 2013, I made $102.

My early projected income for 2015, on the sales I made in the last quarter of 2014, is up to around $6-7k, but I'm not sure how it's going to work out over the full course of the year because most of those sales came from a pen name in a hotter genre that I'm not focusing on right now.


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## Cliff Ball (Apr 10, 2010)

Between 2008 and 2012, I made less than $1000 a year, then I slightly doubled that in 2013 to around $2500. This year, I pretty much tripled 2013 and made somewhere close to $7k since I have a seven novel series that's finished. My goal next year is to get close to $14k.


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## Alain Gomez (Nov 12, 2010)

Nymirra said:


> It's an obvious lesson, but if I had anything confirmed to me this year, it is that *consistency* is important to growing and maintaining good sales. That's why I'm dialing back my expectations for released wordcount for 2015, but dialing up consistency. As in, releases every x, on the dot, every time.


And this is the most important lesson you can learn. It takes awhile before most authors can come to peace with this. There's lots of frustration built up when secret hopes at becoming an overnight success are dashed. The only thing you can really control is steady output and improving your craft.


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## MyraScott (Jul 18, 2014)

This is a fabulous thread.  Thank you for starting it and thanks to everyone who is participating.  I really think it helps me to set reasonable expectations.


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## M T McGuire (Dec 6, 2010)

Hello everyone, 

OK. I can give you all a good laugh.

Bear in mind that I write humorous science fiction fantasy adventure with a dash of romance so look at the percentages because the genre is a bit of a duffer unless you're in the top 2% (and I haven't found the secret stash of unicorn poo that gets me there yet). I'm searching.

This year, I completed a 4 book series - the last two books came out in June and July, respectively. In February I started the machinery to make the first book perma free. It went free in a few days.

I gave away 3,079 copies of the first book in the series and sold 100 copies of book 2, 85 of book 3 and 69 of book 4. 63 kind souls bought the short story prequel too. I made the princely sum of £427.66. I did make £200 selling books at a local event though, so the future of sales clearly lies in personal appearances, rather than on the internet.

This looks very bad. I appreciate that, but if you take into account that I'd made £383.45 in internet sales of one and then two books between 2010 (second book came out in April 2012) and now it puts it into perspective. If I wrote a sensible genre, or even something that could be pinned to one, I'd probably be doing quite well.

Cheers

MTM


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

My sales from all time are all in a public spreadsheet. Not to brag. Just to be helpful. When I started there was NOTHING out there on actual copies sold, just a vague "Indie books on average sell 500 copies in their lifetime" nonsense which is STILL bandied about with no back up.

https://docs.google.com/a/thecheapebook.com/spreadsheets/d/1i9tCrzZctNnucllTkxyRtTRrvN1_yu6Rb2xfmbr_RPY/edit#gid=1674240584


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

Around 55,000 books total, 50,000 just this year, $140,000 in revenues in 2014. 

My books are all in my sig. I plan to top these numbers in the coming year. Amazon has been less than 50% of my revenue for the last six months or so, so most of the consistent growth has been on other channels.


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## Error404 (Sep 6, 2012)

I ordered my numbers slave to compile my 2014 and 2013 years. I write in the YA and Adult Romance genres (both focused on paranormal/fantasy).

*2013*
Units sold: 2,382
Money earned (US): $4,900

*2014*
Units sold: 22,000
Money earned (US): $36,000


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## M T McGuire (Dec 6, 2010)

Alain Gomez said:


> And this is the most important lesson you can learn. It takes awhile before most authors can come to peace with this. There's lots of frustration built up when secret hopes at becoming an overnight success are dashed. The only thing you can really control is steady output and improving your craft.


The whole thread, including the public humiliation I have submitted myself to by admitting my sales figures in front of the usual Kindleboarders churning out seven or eight books in a year and selling gazillions of copies of each one, is worth it for that one statement right there.

I think it's also important to add that some of us write really slowly. That said, I wrote 350,000 words in 12 and 13... Pity it was only two books. So going on from this it is important to remember that the important things are:

1. Write stuff, the highest output at the best quality you can. If the quality drops, slow up, if it doesn't keep finding ways to write smarter and faster.
2. Set realistic targets for yourself (and the genre/s you write in) and allow yourself a few moments to feel chuffed if you achieve them.
3. Avoid comparing yourself to others (that's where the frustration and disappointment will come from).
4. There is no thing 4.
5. Enjoy it. Write work you can believe in and do the best you can.
6. Relax there is no point in worrying. All you can do is put in the legwork so that if you do step in unicorn poo the infrastructure is there and you are ready if your book sales suddenly rocket.

Cheers

MTM


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## Douglas Milewski (Jul 4, 2014)

I sold about 30 books this year, which is double what I sold last year.


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## NoBlackHats (Oct 17, 2012)

Enough to pay for one plane ticket to and from a tropical paradise.  Since I just started publishing in November, that suits me fine.  (okay, I spent the $ that Amazon hasn't sent me quite yet, but it counts!).

Next year, more plane tickets!


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## Amanda M. Lee (Jun 3, 2014)

I wish I kept track of how many books I sold, and borrows I had, but I didn't. That's something to strive for this year. I know I made about $160,000 -- and I'm hoping to push that number above $200,000 in 2015.


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## rachelmedhurst (Jun 25, 2014)

YodaRead said:


> I wish I kept track of how many books I sold, and borrows I had, but I didn't. That's something to strive for this year. I know I made about $160,000 -- and I'm hoping to push that number above $200,000 in 2015.


Wow - Inspired Yoda!

I sold just under 600 books. I started publishing in May and released 2 novels and 5 novella length serial episodes. I made about £300/$400.

Hoping to make a lot more this year!


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## Amy Corwin (Jan 3, 2011)

I've been published since 2005, with 17 books. Two books were published in 2013 and two were published this year in 2014. I usually manage to get out two books a year. Some are traditionally published, some are self-published.

I didn't bother to track the first couple of years because the earnings were less than $100.
2008:      313 units totalling $380 earnings
2009:      157 units totalling $166 earnings
2010:      309 units totalling $309 earnings
2011:  9,528 units totalling $8,681 earnings
2012:  16,851 units totalling $3,380 earnings
2013:  11,067 units totalling $7,284 earnings
2014:    3,804 units totalling $5,676 earnings

So, there you are. 2011 was definitely my best year. This year was a lousy year. The figures above include both Amazon and other sales channels.

You can see why I find it amusing when folks talk about "prawns" and being published for a few months or even a year or two, and this expectation that you will see steadily increasing sales.It really depends upon a lot of factors, some of which you may not control. Perhaps if I published more quickly or didn't try different genres... Well, numbers speak louder than words.

In 2015, what with KU and all, I will be working harder on the traditional publishing side of the equation.

Hope this helps someone.


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## darkline (Mar 30, 2014)

Started publishing this year.
A total of ~6,000 books in April-November (for 2 pen names).
Around 11,000 books in December under another pen name.


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## Bilinda Ní Siodacaín (Jun 16, 2011)

Across all pen names I sold just over 145,000 books this year. Pushing my total all time sales over the quarter of a million mark. (Not counting freebies)


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## rjspears (Sep 25, 2011)

I'm still in the prawn stages:
Across a dozen or so titles, I sold 188 books this year.
Last year, I sold 171, so the trend is up, but certainly not dramatically up.

I write primarily in horror.  For 2015, I'm trying out another genre and will see how that goes.


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## Joe_Nobody (Oct 23, 2012)

Made ya look.  

Did you guys really think I was going to list my sales?


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

anniejocoby said:


> Around 55,000 books total, 50,000 just this year, $140,000 in revenues in 2014.
> 
> My books are all in my sig. I plan to top these numbers in the coming year. Amazon has been less than 50% of my revenue for the last six months or so, so most of the consistent growth has been on other channels.


I realize you write romance and that my question and your answer won't and cannot be extrapolated for other genres, but could you please list your best channels apart from 'Zon? Thanks


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## ronvitale (Mar 11, 2011)

I wanted to also say that I'm so happy that more authors are sharing their sales figures. So everyone knows: I'm looking at this as a means to learn and to look behind the curtain. I did not do well this year, but I see this year as a building year in my business. I put out extra expenses that I had not accounted for in the past and wanted to show what it costs for my domain, Squarespace yearly fee, etc.

I would agree with this:



MyraScott said:


> This is a fabulous thread. Thank you for starting it and thanks to everyone who is participating. I really think it helps me to set reasonable expectations.


Myra Scott makes a great point. It's nice to see how successful some writers are doing (and what genre they're in [I'm looking at you Romance authors. Congrats!]) and how others are building their brand and book lists up.

For me, Amazon was the main channel for me. Did anyone have a different experience than that?


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

I put one novel out in July 2013: total books sold = 147 for that six months.

In February 2014, I published the sequel. Then I stopped writing, and stopped caring for awhile. Family issue...

In October-November, I published 5 books (12k-15k words each) of a 10-book serial (another pen name).

*Total Sales 2014:* $4,000 and some change once December reports are available.

I did very little advertising, but did have a BookBub in May (freebie) and an ENT in February. I will be putting book 3 of my series out end-January (I think?), and finishing the other 5 shorts of the serial soon after. I plan to put it in high gear this year.


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## M T McGuire (Dec 6, 2010)

L.L. Akers said:


> I put one novel out in July 2013: total books sold = 147 for that six months.
> 
> In February 2014, I published the sequel. Then I stopped writing, and stopped caring for awhile. Family issue...
> 
> ...


Now that's interesting... you were selling kind of the way I do and suddenly, shorter serial and bingo. I get the family thing too... there's nothing like family stuff to throw you off your stride. My dad was very sick a few years back and for a while there I stopped writing altogether.

Can I ask, did you change genres when you started writing shorter stories and do you market that length as short story or novella? Just intrigued. I've finished a series, I have a spin off book in the pipeline and a 50k novel I finished over Nano and may flesh out to 70k or publish as is... then there are some short stories bubbling around and some kids stuff. In short I've got a year to experiment with some things and see what works... hence the question.

Cheers

MTM


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## Silly Writer (Jul 15, 2013)

M T McGuire said:


> Now that's interesting... you were selling kind of the way I do and suddenly, shorter serial and bingo. I get the family thing too... there's nothing like family stuff to throw you off your stride. My dad was very sick a few years back and for a while there I stopped writing altogether.
> 
> Can I ask, did you change genres when you started writing shorter stories and do you market that length as short story or novella? Just intrigued. I've finished a series, I have a spin off book in the pipeline and a 50k novel I finished over Nano and may flesh out to 70k or publish as is... then there are some short stories bubbling around and some kids stuff. In short I've got a year to experiment with some things and see what works... hence the question.
> 
> ...


That total is 95% my two full-length novels, but in answer to your question, I switched from Romantic Suspense to Erotica Suspense/Romance for the serial. I don't market them as either a novella or short story... It just doesn't come up yet. I've only done a BKNights as far as marketing. The first book has 55 pages. For 5 books, it's a total of around 55-60k words (I think). I've had them up for .99 all along, and have gotten probably an equal number of sales/borrows... Not that many, really. Less than 50 if I remember correctly for October and maybe 30 total for November(?). They're in KU. I just changed the price to 2.99 a few days ago, and they've actually improved in rank since then. But I'm out of that genre when I finish the serial. It's very vanilla, maybe not even Erotica (but I put it there to be safe), heavy on characterization and plot/story. I am just not a short story writer, and don't enjoy the heavy sex scenes. Although mine only has two sex scenes per book.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

This was my first six figure year, so color me happy. Somewhere around 120,000 copies sold, counting multi-author bundle numbers.



Joe_Nobody said:


> Made ya look.
> 
> Did you guys really think I was going to list my sales?


You're a sneaky man, Joe.


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## oliviajrose (Dec 2, 2014)

I started this year in October. Erotica.


*2014*
*Downloads-* 330
*Sales-* 72
*Published works-* 20


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## SarahCarter (Nov 8, 2012)

142 sales this year. I'm not just a prawn, I'm a _baby_ prawn.


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## Gennita Low (Dec 13, 2012)

Joe_Nobody said:


> Made ya look.
> 
> Did you guys really think I was going to list my sales?


LOL at Mr. Nobody. Or, with, actually. We're all skady-kats!


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## Colhane (Dec 20, 2014)

Not quite up to prawn yet.  I'm more like one of those little brine shrimp.  I launched the first book of my series on Dec 14th and have sold 85 so far. I only have it at $0.99, so its a good thing gas prices have fallen.  This year I expect to have all six online.  The second volume will be up by the end of next week.


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## astonwest (Dec 29, 2010)

I actually just posted up my 2014 second-half sales update yesterday. Doing the math on that one, here are my totals by title for 2014:

HDY: 38
FID: 34
DBV: 10
Cure: 15
DOA: 18
Seeker: 13
Triple-shots: 30

Total: 158

Granted, I do next to nothing as far as marketing (day job taking half of my time, and writing taking the other half)...so I guess I should be glad I get that many.


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## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

I only just published my first novel in mid-October, but I've crossed the 1,000 copies sold/borrowed threshold already, which far surpasses all my expectations going into this adventure. I'm hoping to get the second and third books in the series published in 2015 and see those numbers jump even higher!


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## dirtiestdevil (Aug 20, 2014)

I went from selling about 3-5 books a month to well over 20,000+ a month in under half a year.


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## AlP (Dec 20, 2014)

It's awesome that authors are willing to share their sales figures. As for me, I'm still a prawn. I have already set my goals for 2015 as of today. I have them on those colorful sticky notes on my laptop screen to remind me what books I should be working on and when I should finish them.


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## LondonCalling (Dec 19, 2014)

Shiriluna Nott said:


> I only just published my first novel in mid-October, but I've crossed the 1,000 copies sold/borrowed threshold already, which far surpasses all my expectations going into this adventure. I'm hoping to get the second and third books in the series published in 2015 and see those numbers jump even higher!


How very awesome! Have you done any special advertisements/promotions?


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

AA2014 said:


> I realize you write romance and that my question and your answer won't and cannot be extrapolated for other genres, but could you please list your best channels apart from 'Zon? Thanks


Sure. Apple is by far the best, Nook is second. Kobo lags and is in third, and Google has been meh for me so far. All Romance Ebooks, or whatever it's called, has been an absolute joke. I think that I've made around $100 there, total, and I've been on there since around May.


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## Wayne Stinnett (Feb 5, 2014)

Over 100,000 of my books in readers Kindles, probably half are freebies. A total of just shy of $110,000 in book sales income for the year, not counting my driving income the first quarter. Guess I don't qualify for Obamacare now.


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## Shiriluna Nott (Aug 26, 2014)

> How very awesome! Have you done any special advertisements/promotions?


Thanks! I did do some promoting the first month. Let me pull up my notes and see.

I did two Bknights promos, advertised on my Facebook page daily, Bargain eBook Hunter, BargainBooksy, Kboards New Book Discovery, Pixelscroll, Fussy Librarian, and Book Basset. Each of those yielded between 5-20 sales a piece. I also used two of my KDP Select free days (and gave away over 1500 free copies during that time), after which I saw a HUGE boost in sales/borrows that lasted a solid two weeks after the end of the free sale. I also did a giveaway on Goodreads. That's pretty much it. ^_^


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Just wanted to wish you all a happy new year and congratulations on your numbers, no matter what they are. We are writers, _authors_! How cool is that? Being here with you all, I don't just get to experience my own adventure--I get to experience yours.

And it's bloody exciting 

Today is a special day for me. After two weeks of being on the charts, _Arcane_ sold its 1000th copy 

I wish you all the best of luck in 2015, and nothing but joy in your craft!


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## vlmain (Aug 10, 2011)

Sever Bronny said:


> Today is a special day for me. After two weeks of being on the charts, _Arcane_ sold its 1000th copy


Congratulations! And this is only the beginning!

Congratulations to everyone on your 2014 successes, and may 2015 bring even more.


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## JR. (Dec 10, 2014)

Sever Bronny said:


> Today is a special day for me. After two weeks of being on the charts, _Arcane_ sold its 1000th copy


This is your first book, right?

#amnowstalking


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Yes 

And thanks, Vlmain!


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Joe_Nobody said:


> Made ya look.
> 
> Did you guys really think I was going to list my sales?


Hahah! You coward  I'm going to... NOT. Can I say the following stats without garnering stars (or lack of them?)

61% of all sales across all channels was a free download!!  And that I'm living a full time writing life with no other income from the remaining 39% of 14 titles (2 are box sets)

Breaking it down further: 55% is Amazon, 35% is Audible  (and I started Audio thanks to Joe in Feb) 6% is Google Play and the rest is Apple, Kobo, Scribd, Page Foundry, and Tolino.

My permafree sell through is...
17% for sci-fi
7.18% for epic fantasy
7.24% for werewolfy urban fantasy

Sci-fi pays most of my bills so far. And that's it. If I could convert the 61% free stuff into royalties, I WOULD be rich on my scale. As it is, I am doing very well. 18 months of writing full time, and I will NEVER go back to work for "the man" even if I had to sell everything to do it. Money is nice, don't get me wrong, but the lifestyle I have makes me truly happy, maybe for the first time in my life. I always thought I was happy before losing my job. I was fooling myself. I didn't know what happiness was until THIS life opened for me.

I never liked all those wishy-washy quotes that say something like "love/happiness/joy/blah blah is all that matters" Try paying the mortgage with happiness, and see what happens! hahah. BUT now I see it. I really really do. I have maybe 30? years left to enjoy life. I started EXACTLY 18 months ago.

Be well everyone,
Happy new year,
Mark

EDIT: Pah! goshdarnned spelling!


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

This thread is fascinating in many ways (and thanks to everyone who's shared), but what interests me most is that some people know precisely how many copies they've sold, and some people don't, but they know precisely how much money they've made. And some are vague about both. Different approaches.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

PaulineMRoss said:


> This thread is fascinating in many ways (and thanks to everyone who's shared), but what interests me most is that some people know precisely how many copies they've sold, and some people don't, but they know precisely how much money they've made. And some are vague about both. Different approaches.


aHAAAA! My secret is that I KNOW everything, but I parcel out morsels in small does. This past year I learned to document everything. From keywords and category tests and results on a simple text file (just pasting stuff before hitting the save button at kdp for example, and then noting the changes at the sales page and income) To building huge multi-page spreadsheets with sales, royalties, percentages, and graphs.

The excel thing started when I made one for my audio. It started as a single page, and as I learned that, cool! I can link pages, and cooler! I can link separate spreadsheets! How awesome is that? Very I decided as I learned more and more excel features. Now I have a sheet for each book, linked to a results and graph page, AND linked to a channel page. There are about four workbooks in the set now, all with multiple pages linked together. It does take a few hours a month to fill it all in though.

Those spreadsheets are how I know that if I could monetize my 61% free downloads, I could rule the world! muhahaha...okay, I could double my income, but that seems like a mega goal, and I believe all my permafrees serve a purpose and are why I am where I am. So, instead of making them paid, I need to release another book in each series and pretend I meant all along to do that


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## PearlEarringLady (Feb 28, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Now I have a sheet for each book, linked to a results and graph page, AND linked to a channel page. There are about four workbooks in the set now, all with multiple pages linked together. It does take a few hours a month to fill it all in though.


Ye gods! That sounds terrifying.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

PaulineMRoss said:


> Ye gods! That sounds terrifying.


Yeah. I never would have envisioned them. I just started with one sheet and no idea how to start. I didn't know how to make formulas or tables. But tinkering with one title and one page I was like this:

"What happens if I do sum=E3? Oh cool!" tap tap tap
"What if I do sum=E3*0.7? AWESOME, that's my royalty for that book this month!" tap tap tap
"Let's do all of them. Wow..."
"What if I add all those? Excellent! That's the entire month for Amazon in dollars. How the hell do I convert to GBP?" tap tap tap...

This was over this past 12 months you realize. I just kept having ideas and tacking them on until I had entire workbooks, and then I learned how to link them together into a results table and create graphs from the table. It just sort of happened as i came up with ideas on why I needed to know what sell through was for example, or how screwed I was if Amazon shut its doors etc.


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## M T McGuire (Dec 6, 2010)

L.L. Akers said:


> That total is 95% my two full-length novels, but in answer to your question, I switched from Romantic Suspense to Erotica Suspense/Romance for the serial. I don't market them as either a novella or short story... It just doesn't come up yet. I've only done a BKNights as far as marketing. The first book has 55 pages. For 5 books, it's a total of around 55-60k words (I think). I've had them up for .99 all along, and have gotten probably an equal number of sales/borrows... Not that many, really. Less than 50 if I remember correctly for October and maybe 30 total for November(?). They're in KU. I just changed the price to 2.99 a few days ago, and they've actually improved in rank since then. But I'm out of that genre when I finish the serial. It's very vanilla, maybe not even Erotica (but I put it there to be safe), heavy on characterization and plot/story. I am just not a short story writer, and don't enjoy the heavy sex scenes. Although mine only has two sex scenes per book.


Thanks for sharing. Whatever I write will be sci fi fantasy of some sort and while there is romance i tend to close the bedroom door on them after the first kiss!

Like you I enjoy longer stuff with characters I can get my teeth into. I tend to write what I'd like to read rather than what the market dictates... Which is foolish of me, I suspect.

Cheers

MTM


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## John Donlan (Sep 20, 2014)

I was hesitant about putting anything in this thread, simply because my figures are just plain awful. Then I realised how much it helps me to hear when other people make low sales numbers, so I decided it wouldn't hurt to put mine up. Excuse any typos in this, I'm likely wincing while I write it!

I released two books starting on the 1st September, both part of an eventual trilogy (third part will be released this month.) Across both books I sold/lent a whopping 28 ebook copies and 6 paperbacks. I did two free runs, but I haven't counted those. At a guess, there were probably about 300-400 free downloads.

Even with the low amount of sales, I'm still happy. Before September last year I hadn't sold any books, so if you go by that logic, 28 is a huge increase!

Good luck to everyone in 2015.


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## Guest (Jan 1, 2015)

It was my first year of writing and I sold 18,073 paid downloads. I then goofed off and spent 8 months rebuilding my family life, so will probably have to start from scratch in 2015 with my new release of RIGA,AI which is in pre-order for another 2 weeks.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

I won't share exact figures, but I will just say that in 2014 I was the main earner in our household and earned more than twice as much as I ever did in my old day job.


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## Raquel Lyon (Mar 3, 2012)

Alexia Praks said:


> It's awesome that authors are willing to share their sales figures. As for me, I'm still a prawn. I have already set my goals for 2015 as of today. I have them on those colorful sticky notes on my laptop screen to remind me what books I should be working on and when I should finish them.


Just had to chime in and say what beautiful covers you have, Alexia, and welcome.

*ends thread derail* Back to the sales figures, folks.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

anniejocoby said:


> Sure. Apple is by far the best, Nook is second. Kobo lags and is in third, and Google has been meh for me so far. All Romance Ebooks, or whatever it's called, has been an absolute joke. I think that I've made around $100 there, total, and I've been on there since around May.


That's really interesting. I've never heard of Apple being great. Usually it's our god, Zon or Google Play. I remember reading so much good about AllRomance, mostly because I caught my girlfriend looking at their site a few times, and thought people had to be joking. The site is hardly intuitive to use and they want NSA level info on their authors. Just a waste of time.

Here's to your success in 2015 and a future movie deal.  Happy new year!


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## AuthorX (Nov 11, 2014)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Hahah! You coward  I'm going to... NOT. Can I say the following stats without garnering stars (or lack of them?)
> 
> 61% of all sales across all channels was a free download!!  And that I'm living a full time writing life with no other income from the remaining 39% of 14 titles (2 are box sets)
> 
> ...


I wish you posted your sales numbers because your titles look so interesting!

Nonetheless, this is an inspirational post and makes me really want to go full time writing and get out of my dreadful day job.


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## anniejocoby (Aug 11, 2013)

AA2014 said:


> That's really interesting. I've never heard of Apple being great. Usually it's our god, Zon or Google Play. I remember reading so much good about AllRomance, mostly because I caught my girlfriend looking at their site a few times, and thought people had to be joking. The site is hardly intuitive to use and they want NSA level info on their authors. Just a waste of time.
> 
> Here's to your success in 2015 and a future movie deal.  Happy new year!


Well, Amazon still far outpaces everyone else, although Apple comes close some months. Amazon is around 45% of my income, which means that all the other platforms, COMBINED, make up 55%, so any one of the other platforms doesn't match my Amazon income.

Thanks for your kind wishes, and Happy New Year to you, too!


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

kiraward said:


> I wish you posted your sales numbers because your titles look so interesting!
> 
> Nonetheless, this is an inspirational post and makes me really want to go full time writing and get out of my dreadful day job.


Okay very rough numbers:
40ish a day at Amazon
15 a day at Audible
10 a day Barnes+Scribd+tolino
4 or 5 a day at Google
2 or 3 a day at Kobo
0 or 1 a day at Apple


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## LondonCalling (Dec 19, 2014)

Shiriluna Nott said:


> Thanks! I did do some promoting the first month. Let me pull up my notes and see.
> 
> I did two Bknights promos, advertised on my Facebook page daily, Bargain eBook Hunter, BargainBooksy, Kboards New Book Discovery, Pixelscroll, Fussy Librarian, and Book Basset. Each of those yielded between 5-20 sales a piece. I also used two of my KDP Select free days (and gave away over 1500 free copies during that time), after which I saw a HUGE boost in sales/borrows that lasted a solid two weeks after the end of the free sale. I also did a giveaway on Goodreads. That's pretty much it. ^_^


*takes notes*


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## Amanda Hough (Feb 17, 2014)

I sold 22,187 books in 2014. A bit over double what my goal was for year one.


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## Kessie Carroll (Jan 15, 2014)

I made about 40 bucks this year, but my first book launched November of 2013, my novella in Feb 2014, then my next two novels followed in September and November. So they haven't been out long. Not sure exactly how many book sales that amounts to. I've done practically no promotion except free days in KDP select, with ghetto advertising on Facebook and Twitter. I'm waiting to hit the big book newsletters until I have more books out. 

But I've never had a month where I sold zero. It's been a steady trickle all year. I'm hoping to increase that to a firehose eventually.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Over 100,000 of my books in readers Kindles, probably half are freebies. A total of just shy of $110,000 in book sales income for the year, not counting my driving income the first quarter. Guess I don't qualify for Obamacare now.


Wow. Makes you wish you quit truck driving a long time ago, huh?  Congrats Wayne. I love your books.


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## katrina46 (May 23, 2014)

Mine weren't good because I switched genres in August and started a new pen name. Things just started picking up in December, so I'm thinking 2015 will be worth sharing if I just keep doing what I'm doing.


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## CASD57 (May 3, 2014)

Started in April, Made about $100 in 2014  only promo was a FB ad and freebies


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## ronvitale (Mar 11, 2011)

Sever, congratulations on the 1000th sale. Happy New Year!



Sever Bronny said:


> Just wanted to wish you all a happy new year and congratulations on your numbers, no matter what they are. We are writers, _authors_! How cool is that? Being here with you all, I don't just get to experience my own adventure--I get to experience yours.
> 
> And it's bloody exciting
> 
> ...


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## Sever Bronny (May 13, 2013)

Thank you Ron


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## stuff1 (Jan 1, 2015)

Hey all.

I started KDP in January 2014, doing NF, then moved to F around July/Aug, only released my first and proper series in November.

This year in all I have made a $2k loss on KDP however the books will still be there next year and none of the outgoings will be.

Figures wise:

Books given away 3000.
Books sold in $ 6000
I have 30 NF books that make me around $300 a month every month.

2015 should be fun. I have 3 ghostwriters + I write and my business partner writes, I do around 3k a week and BP does around 5k per day.

My business plan is quantity with quality, but I have found my 5k word fiction sells just as well as my 25k word fiction, so it is obvious which one to concentrate on until my income is high enough that I can explore lengthier works.

Currently doing a 5x25 series in SciFi no idea if series' work in this genre, I figure I can create a single 125k book out of it if needed.


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## jegarlick (Jun 23, 2013)

RKC said:


> Zero idea how many I've sold exactly, but based on my income tracker that I do at the end of the month, I've made just under $30,000 in 2014, which will sneak into the $30,000+ range once I've added December.
> 
> This makes me extremely, extremely happy. Actually quite surprised seeing this figure myself.
> 
> ...


I wanna be YOU!!!! That's what I'm striving for, and upward curve each year with a big jump year two!!! YAY FOR YOU!!!


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## jegarlick (Jun 23, 2013)

Sela said:


> 65,000+ books, $155,000+ revenues. Books published in 2014 = 2 full-length books, 2 collections, 3 boxed sets with other authors, 1 4-novella series, 1 novella, 2 short stories. Backlist: 5 full-length books, 1 collection. Overall, about 50% better than 2013. Who can say what 2015 will look like? My last three months of 2014 were down from the previous 3 quarters so...


Wow... just wow...that's possible? gulps


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## jillb (Oct 4, 2014)

I published my 1st book in mid Oct'14. Went on to publish a total of 6 books. I was hoping to get a total of 10 out by the year end but things got in the way. Anyway, I've sold 99 books + 53 borrows. Made about $180+ and my production costs (website, editor, promos) cost me about $160. I'm in the black overall so I'm happy! More books in 2015, costs will be cut since I self-edit now


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## jegarlick (Jun 23, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> My sales from all time are all in a public spreadsheet. Not to brag. Just to be helpful. When I started there was NOTHING out there on actual copies sold, just a vague "Indie books on average sell 500 copies in their lifetime" nonsense which is STILL bandied about with no back up.
> 
> https://docs.google.com/a/thecheapebook.com/spreadsheets/d/1i9tCrzZctNnucllTkxyRtTRrvN1_yu6Rb2xfmbr_RPY/edit#gid=1674240584


What did you do differently in August Elizabeth Ann? Am I reading your spreadsheet right?


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## jegarlick (Jun 23, 2013)

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Over 100,000 of my books in readers Kindles, probably half are freebies. A total of just shy of $110,000 in book sales income for the year, not counting my driving income the first quarter. Guess I don't qualify for Obamacare now.


Holly HECK Wayne!!! Congrats!!! You are a model for the rest of us for sure! WOW!


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## jegarlick (Jun 23, 2013)

Sever Bronny said:


> Just wanted to wish you all a happy new year and congratulations on your numbers, no matter what they are. We are writers, _authors_! How cool is that? Being here with you all, I don't just get to experience my own adventure--I get to experience yours.
> 
> And it's bloody exciting
> 
> ...


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## jegarlick (Jun 23, 2013)

anniejocoby said:


> Around 55,000 books total, 50,000 just this year, $140,000 in revenues in 2014.
> 
> My books are all in my sig. I plan to top these numbers in the coming year. Amazon has been less than 50% of my revenue for the last six months or so, so most of the consistent growth has been on other channels.


Oh. My. God-sh. *blinks* looks again *yes it is what you saw*


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## Gail Hart (Apr 11, 2014)

My first (and so far only) book, a short romance novel, came out in early September. In 2014 I sold 218 electronic copies and 31 print copies, mostly in September. I didn't do any paid promo per se but did try to get Amazon reviews by doing a small Goodreads giveaway and getting the book on NetGalley for a month via a co-op. So far I have 27 five and four star reviews on Amazon

I know I need to get more product out there, and I'm working on that.


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## jegarlick (Jun 23, 2013)

Mark E. Cooper said:


> Hahah! You coward  I'm going to... NOT. Can I say the following stats without garnering stars (or lack of them?)
> 
> 61% of all sales across all channels was a free download!!  And that I'm living a full time writing life with no other income from the remaining 39% of 14 titles (2 are box sets)
> 
> ...


WOW Mark! You wrote ALL these books in 18 months OMGOSH I need to get movin'. I'm so SO happy to read your story. I too, lost my job, (though that was 2007 now). I was poisoned on the job and fought my employer and lost (long story) and was basically thrown out of my profession and left penniless.(Don't write about lawsuits and justice...I live in Canada...and trust me...we tried and FAILED to achieve the beast...laws here prohibit you from suing your employer, regardless of what they do to you...sigh...long story...some day a book) Now I can't work outside the home, so I was like okay...perfect time to chase that lifetime dream of becoming an author (as well as an underlying panicked feeling of omgosh I really hopes this works...it has to work...please let this work. gulp. feeling.) I spent some time trying to replace the income with "The Man" as you say...developed more health problems, had to retreat...spent more with an agent trying to break through the trad pub glass ceiling...then _*finally *_dove all into self pub wholeheartedly last Dec. A year later, I can say, I didn't (still don't feel like) I know what I'm doing...so I'm not seeing the rewards yet...but your story is still so inspiring to me. Thank you for sharing. And I hope soon I'll be able to speak about my experiences as you do... Thank you.


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## Salvador Mercer (Jan 1, 2015)

Happy New Year Everyone!  

I thought I would drop by and share my 2014 sales figures to make EVERYONE else feel better...

For Salvador Mercer across all platforms and all books for 2014... (drum roll please...) 0$

There will be no charge for the warm fuzzy that most of you are feeling right now and my condolences for anyone who feels that they are sharing my pain.  Actually I am one of those 'debut' writers who has a completed book (Fantasy Genre) and has started work on my second book today (Read the '1k words each day' thread and the 'pulp speed' thread) having finished 2.6k words this morning.

Just wanted to say hi to everyone and thank Ron for starting this thread.  I can honestly say that it was a real eye opener and I now feel sufficiently humbled as I stand at the base of 'Writer's Mountain' which now seems to make Mount Everest look small by comparison.  I hope Ron has a '2015 Sales Figures' post so that we can compare notes a year from now.

In the meantime if there are any other debut authors, other newer authors trying to climb the mountain, etc. who are interested in opening a dialog about how to start let me know.  I am a sponge right now.

Now go out there and get them for 2015!

Warmest New Year Regards,
Dr. Seuss

Er, I mean Salvador Mercer.  Yeah that one.


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## steffmetal (May 8, 2014)

I am so happy with my first "REAL" year as a self published author.

Total copies sold for the year: 582 - 393 of those came in December!
Total profit: $170 for previous 11 months. Not sure about December yet, but estimating around $500.
November was the first month I hit more than 30 copies sold (50 in total) and then December things just went crazy. I started an erotica penance in November and that's where most of the sales come from, but this month I also sold around 30 copies of The Sunken, without running any kind of paid promotion.

I am just hoping the December numbers last for subsequent months. I'm hard at word on my second full-length novel, as well as more erotica shorts.


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## CJArcher (Jan 22, 2011)

About 75k sales (not free downloads - why are some people still calling freebies "sales"?), assuming I've sold the same amount on GP as previous months - their reporting seems to be down. While this seems like a good amount, it's not an increase on last year, and with more books out, I would have expected an increase. Interestingly, my income DID increase from 2013, so it seems I'm selling more higher priced books and fewer lower priced ones - to me, this is more important than sales numbers.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

I'd rather people not include their freebies count. Just avoid mentioning it. It's a bit silly to say "200K books, but 120K of them were freebies, teehee." Maybe I'm just an old and bitter 25-year-old-man.


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## CASD57 (May 3, 2014)

I agree... I have 1200 sale's but only made $100  it doesn't make sense to include freebies... looks bad


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

jegarlick said:


> WOW Mark! You wrote ALL these books in 18 months OMGOSH I need to get movin'. I'm so SO happy to read your story. I too, lost my job, (though that was 2007 now). I was poisoned on the job and fought my employer and lost (long story) and was basically thrown out of my profession and left penniless.(Don't write about lawsuits and justice...I live in Canada...and trust me...we tried and FAILED to achieve the beast...laws here prohibit you from suing your employer, regardless of what they do to you...sigh...long story...some day a book) Now I can't work outside the home, so I was like okay...perfect time to chase that lifetime dream of becoming an author (as well as an underlying panicked feeling of omgosh I really hopes this works...it has to work...please let this work. gulp. feeling.) I spent some time trying to replace the income with "The Man" as you say...developed more health problems, had to retreat...spent more with an agent trying to break through the trad pub glass ceiling...then _*finally *_dove all into self pub wholeheartedly last Dec. A year later, I can say, I didn't (still don't feel like) I know what I'm doing...so I'm not seeing the rewards yet...but your story is still so inspiring to me. Thank you for sharing. And I hope soon I'll be able to speak about my experiences as you do... Thank you.


No, no, no. 14 years ago I started self publishing in paper. I wrote a 4 book series that didn't really sell, but I was in full time work then. I wrote another book about shifters, and then things happened in real life. I stopped writing as much, and didn't publish anything. Kindle came to Uk in 2011, I decided to give it a whirl, and made $187 that year woohoo! Since 2011 I've published all my original 5 titles, added five more and two box sets. In mid 2013 I went full time.

Compared to most here on KB, I am ultra slow writer (lazy as heck) I enjoy writing at my own pace with zero stress. I have been lucky in that my sci fi hit it off with readers, and it supports me. My audio doubled income in 2014 for a while, then KU came along, but it's still 35% of all income. I am very pleased with the way things are going.


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## Evenstar (Jan 26, 2013)

Kessie Carroll said:


> I made about 40 bucks this year, but my first book launched November of 2013, my novella in Feb 2014, then my next two novels followed in September and November. So they haven't been out long. Not sure exactly how many book sales that amounts to. I've done practically no promotion except free days in KDP select, with ghetto advertising on Facebook and Twitter. I'm waiting to hit the big book newsletters until I have more books out.
> 
> But I've never had a month where I sold zero. It's been a steady trickle all year. I'm hoping to increase that to a firehose eventually.


I think it might be because your books look amazing but will make you almost nothing at those prices! I've just bought the first one, so I'll let you know. But if it is half as good as your cover then you are seriously undervaluing your work


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## Sylvia R. Frost (Jan 8, 2014)

I sneaked in three books(serial installments really) for 2014:
My numbers are as follows:
September/October (I launched September 28th): 390 (Buys/Borrows)
November: 480  (Buys/Borrows)
December: 821 (Buys/Borrows)
Total: 1691

Decent numbers, but not at all as good as I want/need them to be. But that's my fault for delaying a release :-(.  Resolution for 2015, publish more and make sure to meet deadlines. Not half bad for three books out though. My average price per book is 1.3 and my borrows are 2x my sales. In the future I'm looking to experiment with shorter works, all at 99 cent price point with bi-weekly releases. I've also just book book 1 on permafree, so I'm excited to see how that works out for the coming year. 

My goal is to make at least 10k next year, 20k  would be great. To have writing and design work make up a significant part of my income.


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