# How many have you sold.



## Sharlow

So being new to Indy publishing, I find myself curiously wondering whats normal and whats good for sales. I see authors periodically throwing numbers around here and there, and I thought maybe it would be good for people, especially new people like me to be able to see what we can realistically expect when first starting out on Kindle. 
 So please help us new people out, and give us some sales numbers, like how many you sold your first month. How long you been selling your books? When did it feel like you made it over the hump and started getting regular sales.... These things I'm interested in, and I cant help but think others are as well. Thanks ahead of time guys, I really do appreciate the info. 


P.S. Wow, has it really been a year since I started this post? I would like to think I've learned something over that year, and I want to thank all of you who have participated in this thread and made it better for all of us who have just started out. With out you and this board, I don't think it would have been possible to keep my chin up and know what to expect. Thanks everyone.


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## MariaESchneider

EDITED TO ADD LINKS:

http://www.bearmountainbooks.com/home/sales-data-new-and-old/
http://www.bearmountainbooks.com/favorite-reads/writing-links/money-matters/

I've edited to add 2016 info.

End edit.
If you go to my website, there's two blog posts (go down past the cat posts) that link to traditional published authors and sales data they were willing to share. One of the links is to the smashwords blog where an Indie author posted her sales info. There was some additional info in the comments and if you go to her blog, I think she linked to another Indie author with the same sort of info. It's a little convoluted to follow through the paths, but you'll find lots of data. 
Maria

www.BearMountainBooks.com


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## ReeseReed

I first published in mid-November, and had 18 downloads on Amazon.  In December I had only 13.  But so far in January I've had 41.  However, I've only had one download on Smashwords since December.


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## Maria Hooley

That's a tricky question because I think it really depends on the individual book.  I've got thirteen titles out, and one of them has been selling more and more each month by leaps and bounds.  It's been out six months and the total sales for January is 106.  I have other titles that are in the 20's and 30's and others that aren't doing as well.  I don't know if that helps you or not.  I do think it takes a little time to get the title established for people to really see it.

I can also tell you that I haven't had a lot of luck with Smashwords either.


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## Thumper

I think you may find, that for many writers, that question is right up there with "So, how much did you pay for your car?" and "Hey, how hefty is your paycheck?" There's also the _what if the IRS sees this_ panic (though we all declare all income, right?) I understand the curiosity, but don't be disappointed if most don't answer...



Spoiler



If it helps, last year I sold roughly 22,000 Kindle books, spread out over 8 titles.



Kindle sales accounted for roughly 30% of my per-copy sales, although that trend may reverse itself as more people are buying Kindles and seeking cheaper books for it. The money is still in print...again, a trend that has the potential of changing.


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## MariaESchneider

As you can see...it totally varies.  I do think it helps to have a couple of titles to choose from, but it does take time to build an audience and there's also seasonal variation.  Christmas was a boost to all my titles as I said on my website.  From the various posts I've seen, women's fiction does pretty well as a category, fantasy and thriller.  There's been a few polls on Amazon about "what age are you Kindle buyers" and that provides a little insight as well.  But my take away is that it's as big a mystery to us Indies as it is to the publishers--they are always trying to guess how much a title will sell.  They base their print runs on experience and guesses and from what I read, they are wrong most of the time!!!!


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## William Woodall

I first published on Kindle nine months ago, in April of 2009.  I don't remember exactly how many I sold that month.  I think it was like 10 copies, give or take a couple.  The next few months were very irregular.  Some months I only sold two or three copies, other months maybe 15 or so.  I know in December I sold 35 copies, which was nice.  So far in January I've sold I think 7.

I've had very little luck with Smashwords.  I've sold a grand total of one book through their site, which from what I understand is better than a lot of people ever get.  

I'm actually still selling just about as many paperbacks as I am Kindle books at this point.  Hardbacks go a lot slower, but I sell maybe one or two copies a month in hardback.  Most of my sales have been in the US, but I do get a trickle of sales from England.  Most sales have been on Amazon, with a few through Barnes and Noble, and a scattered few others through my website and other places.

Counting up everything (Kindle books, paperbacks, and hardbacks), I sold roughly 200 copies of my books last year, over a span of 8 months.  That isn't counting the ones I gave away for various reasons.

I have three titles out right now.  I would say 75-80 percent of sales have come from "Cry for the Moon", and the remainder divided between the other two.  My fourth book should be coming out in March and we'll see how that goes.


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## Melonhead

Sharlow, I see your book has no reviews yet. How long has it been for sale? 

Disclaimer, I'm not an author, I'm a librarian.


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## Carol Hanrahan

Wow, Thumper.  Very impressive.  I'm more on the scale with Mr. Woodall.  Except my print book has not sold well at all.  Well, my Dad gets a kick out of giving copies away to his friends.


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## KathyBell

I agree with the earlier posters, that answering this question can be a little uncomfortable. This is because different books sell driven by what may be hot in the market, by word of mouth, or by price and so one author's experience will not necessarily reflect the majority. Sort of like those commercials where the small print says 'Results not typical'! I have done little promotion outside these forums and those on Amazon, and I am Canadian so do not even have local word-of-mouth (where I live, few people are likely to purchase Kindles, LOL!)

I mentioned in the discussion begun by Joseph Rhea about $2.95 pricing, that my best day saw 305 sales shortly before New Year's, and that was three times a regular day at the time. If I average my sales numbers over the 75 days Regression has been available on Kindle, sales average 30 per day, but the month of November was slow (priced at $3.99 for much of the month), skewing the average so sales right now are about 55 per day. Will that continue? Hard to know, but since the Kindle is still the #1 product selling on Amazon, there is a good chance book sales will remain steady as new readers load up their units.

Smashwords has only sold one copy, as well as a dozen or so eBookDrop downloads.

I can't say why I've found dramatic success, since I am only one of a multitude of free and cheap books, but it certainly has been gratifying. The print copies are selling on almost a daily basis through Amazon and/or B&N, and I know a few copies per week are selling in Ontario bookstores. I personally sign a couple per week for purchasers, as well. So, in total, there are about 3000 copies out there since publication in July.

So, there is hope, but as Maria said, no one knows the specific recipe, and if they figure it out they're going to write a book about it, LOL! I hope my willingness to share isn't taken as bragging.

Kasthy


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## Christopher Meeks

Sales is an interesting topic because it's one I've shied away from--from myself. That is, sales reports come in and I think, "That's it?" and until recently I didn't keep any records. Boyd Morrison's "The Ark" is the mark that many people aim for. If you want to see what the top authors do on Kindle, J.A. Konrath has a blog stating numbers at http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2009/06/amazon-kindle-numbers.html. Basically, top sellers are selling twenty-five books or more each day. Edward Patterson said something many postings ago that selling one book a day was a good realistic goal for him, per title. That's what I've aimed for with my literary short story collections (they have humor, so that helps their appeal). My first Kindle book, "The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea," a collection of short stories, came on in September, and I've sold 222 copies by the end of December, which averages 2.1 books per day. For short stories, I'm thrilled. At times the book has been in the top five of short story collection sales. My well-received play, "Who Lives?", whose production in March was sold out most nights here in Los Angeles, has sold 7 copies in six weeks, so that's a little over one per week. The other books are somewhere in between, but most haven't been on more than two months. I ended the year with 333 sales on Kindle.

I just researched and found a way to tie Amazon ranking to sales:

Kindle Store Sales Rank of 20 = 500 or so sales a day. 
Rank of 200 = 50 or so sales a day. 
Rank of 1000 = 15 or so sales a day

From my experience, a ranking of around 4,000 is about twenty sales a day. I'm thrilled when any of my four books hits a ranking under 10,000 on Kindle. On Amazon itself with printed books, I'm thrilled when I'm below 60,000. A sale of a book or two a month lands you in a ranking just over a million. If one's ranking is over two million, it's virtually never selling.

For yourself, you have to look at what genre your book is in. If it's literary, for instance, don't expect a lot of sales. If it's a mystery, that's a hot-selling genre for Kindle. As Konrath notes, "I believe the product description should sing, but the genre of the book may be more important than the description. I think my best and most provocative description is for the poem book, which is selling poorly. Category listings and keywords seem to be just as important, if not more important, than the description, because this is how people browse for titles."

In browsing this thread, I'm seeing that many people may be selling 15 books per month per title, which may be the most realistic expectation. However, one thing to keep in mind is something that book-promotion specialist Carolyn Howard-Johnson says: you're not selling books, you're building a career. Make sure each book you bring to market is something you're proud of. You want to brand yourself as a quality writer. At some point, someone might sing the praises of your books, and sales will surge. That's one thing I've discovered. I can write all day every day about my books, but it has only a hundredth of the power of someone else writing good things about my book.

--Christopher Meeks


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## Randolphlalonde

I won't get into specific numbers, but through Mobipocket I've sold about three thousand copies of five eBooks over a year and a half. The royalty there is only 35%, so it's not actually that much in dollars. I've been at the top of the Indie pile there, thanks to word of mouth and reader loyalty for quite a while there, so I'm sure that's an uncommonly large number.

I'm only just starting to enter the North American market in a meaningful way.

Amazon isn't huge for me, I average about fifty Kindle sales a month over seven books.

Smashwords has been great to me so far this year. The free trilogy I have up (The First Light Chronicles Omnibus: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3178), has been downloaded over 6,600 times since it was priced at $0.00 (or what I like to call - Priceless), and that's led to steadily increasing sales for the rest of the series ever since. I've been selling 4-8 books a day there since January 1. (thank you good readers! I may be able to upgrade my diet from spam and macaroni to hot dogs and spaghetti! I could plant a big wet one on every one of you - or at least give you a great big hug if the former is too creepy!).

I don't know how much the retailers Smashwords is distributing to are drawing for me since those numbers aren't available yet.

There are other vendors who trail behind like Lulu, Shortcovers, eBooks About Everything, etc... and they sell a dozen or less per month normally.

Keep in mind I'm a full time Indie, so I literally spend most days writing, promoting, creating new content and managing my back catalog. You really have to work at it to get anywhere unless you're unbelievably lucky.

Hope that helps.


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## MariaESchneider

Oh I should note that I sell one to two copies per month on Smashwords.  Not a lot but every now and then.  (These are sales, not give-aways.  I do a lot more giveaways via smash especially due to operation ebook drop.)


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## Sharlow

MariaESchneider said:


> If you go to my website, there's two blog posts (go down past the cat posts) that link to traditional published authors and sales data they were willing to share. One of the links is to the smashwords blog where an Indie author posted her sales info. There was some additional info in the comments and if you go to her blog, I think she linked to another Indie author with the same sort of info. It's a little convoluted to follow through the paths, but you'll find lots of data. There's another thread with the 2.95 standard pricing here on kindleboards were some Indie authors mention book sales (although they don't necessarily mention a timeframe or how long.)
> 
> I don't have enough data to be very useful yet, although I covered some basic info in my blog post (Not as much as other authors, but I'm new at this as well! Lots of us are...!)
> 
> Maria
> 
> oh. www.BearMountainBooks.com


Ok thanks, I'll zip right over after dinner and take a look. Wow a lot of replys since I last read this, hope I can replay to everyone.


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## Sharlow

ReeseReed said:


> I first published in mid-November, and had 18 downloads on Amazon. In December I had only 13. But so far in January I've had 41. However, I've only had one download on Smashwords since December.


 I just put my book on Smashwords last night. I'm hoping it will get more attention that way. But from what I'm hearing, a lot of people aren't seeing much happening there on smash words.


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## Geoffrey Thorne

it's been about two weeks since my books went live and I've sold about 43.


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## Sharlow

Maria Hooley said:


> That's a tricky question because I think it really depends on the individual book. I've got thirteen titles out, and one of them has been selling more and more each month by leaps and bounds. It's been out six months and the total sales for January is 106. I have other titles that are in the 20's and 30's and others that aren't doing as well. I don't know if that helps you or not. I do think it takes a little time to get the title established for people to really see it.
> 
> I can also tell you that I haven't had a lot of luck with Smashwords either.


 thank you and yes it does. I've heard that publishing is a slow business, and Ind even more so. By seeing how it went for you and others, it's helps me to be patient and not feel like I "messed" up not waiting for agents to come around and say yes. I would think other people new to the industry would find all this encouraging and helpful too,


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## Sharlow

Thumper said:


> I think you may find, that for many writers, that question is right up there with "So, how much did you pay for your car?" and "Hey, how hefty is your paycheck?" There's also the _what if the IRS sees this_ panic (though we all declare all income, right?) I understand the curiosity, but don't be disappointed if most don't answer...
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> If it helps, last year I sold roughly 22,000 Kindle books, spread out over 8 titles.
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle sales accounted for roughly 30% of my per-copy sales, although that trend may reverse itself as more people are buying Kindles and seeking cheaper books for it. The money is still in print...again, a trend that has the potential of changing.


 I was afraid that could be a problem, but I'm hoping it wont be. From what it looks like, we have had a pretty good turn out so far. And the numbers very, except in the beginning. Most seem to be the same at least here. Wow, you must be feeling pretty good about selling that many books. Thats awesome. I would be on cloud nine with those numbers.


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## Sharlow

Melonhead said:


> Sharlow, I see your book has no reviews yet. How long has it been for sale?
> 
> Disclaimer, I'm not an author, I'm a librarian.


 I put it up Dec 18th. I've been trying to get some reviews, but none so far.


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## J Dean

Not as many as I'd like   My biggest favorite seems to be Fraidy-Cat. It's at 80 right now (Not bad for being up less than a month), but it's up for free.  I was hoping that Fraidy-Cat would be a sort of gateway story for people to get interested in The Summoning of Clade Josso, but unfortunately it's not drawing people the way I had initially hoped it would.


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## Archer

Sharlow:

I downloaded a sample this morning, and I must say I'm enjoying it!


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## Sharlow

Maria Hooley said:


> That's a tricky question because I think it really depends on the individual book. I've got thirteen titles out, and one of them has been selling more and more each month by leaps and bounds. It's been out six months and the total sales for January is 106. I have other titles that are in the 20's and 30's and others that aren't doing as well. I don't know if that helps you or not. I do think it takes a little time to get the title established for people to really see it.
> 
> I can also tell you that I haven't had a lot of luck with Smashwords either.


Thirteen titles seems like a lot. how long did it take to write those? Do you have them all up on Kindle? With that many titles, how many over all would you say you sold combined?


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## Sharlow

KathyBell said:


> I agree with the earlier posters, that answering this question can be a little uncomfortable. This is because different books sell driven by what may be hot in the market, by word of mouth, or by price and so one author's experience will not necessarily reflect the majority. Sort of like those commercials where the small print says 'Results not typical'! I have done little promotion outside these forums and those on Amazon, and I am Canadian so do not even have local word-of-mouth (where I live, few people are likely to purchase Kindles, LOL!)
> 
> I mentioned in the discussion begun by Joseph Rhea about $2.95 pricing, that my best day saw 305 sales shortly before New Year's, and that was three times a regular day at the time. If I average my sales numbers over the 75 days Regression has been available on Kindle, sales average 30 per day, but the month of November was slow (priced at $3.99 for much of the month), skewing the average so sales right now are about 55 per day. Will that continue? Hard to know, but since the Kindle is still the #1 product selling on Amazon, there is a good chance book sales will remain steady as new readers load up their units.
> 
> Smashwords has only sold one copy, as well as a dozen or so eBookDrop downloads.
> 
> I can't say why I've found dramatic success, since I am only one of a multitude of free and cheap books, but it certainly has been gratifying. The print copies are selling on almost a daily basis through Amazon and/or B&N, and I know a few copies per week are selling in Ontario bookstores. I personally sign a couple per week for purchasers, as well. So, in total, there are about 3000 copies out there since publication in July.
> 
> So, there is hope, but as Maria said, no one knows the specific recipe, and if they figure it out they're going to write a book about it, LOL! I hope my willingness to share isn't taken as bragging.
> 
> Kasthy


 No this isn't bragging, it's very helpful! Your success is very inspiring. The more i see that there are more then one or two people that are getting reasonable sales, makes me feel more and more confident that my decision to go Indy was a good one. Thanks Kasthy for sharing this with us all. Once again I see that Smashwords has threw another strike out. To think i just spent a couple of days trying to get my formating right so I could up load there. Hopefully it will pay off.


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## Eric C

Tomorrow I will likely break 1,000 in books sold (at $1.99). My first sale was about six months ago.

Thanks to those readers here who've read Crack-Up. I hear Konrath pays his mortgage with his indie earnings. At least I can cover the light bill with mine. 

I'm having a follow-up published real soon. Going after that gas money dream next...


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## Sharlow

archer said:


> Sharlow:
> 
> I downloaded a sample this morning, and I must say I'm enjoying it!


 Thanks Archer... You know the strange and funny thing is, that I just downloaded your sample and read a few pages just last night. I see you around so much, I just had to look at your work. We've been enjoying it so far, but i haven't gotten that far, and I'm not sure how long your sample is. But thanks for mentioning that you liked (hope thats not to strong a word) it so far!


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## Sharlow

Eric C said:


> Tomorrow I will likely break 1,000 in books sold (at $1.99). My first sale was about six months ago.
> 
> Thanks to those readers here who've read Crack-Up. I hear Konrath pays his mortgage with his indie earnings. At least I can cover the light bill with mine.
> 
> I'm having a follow-up published real soon. Going after that gas money dream next...


1000 sales! Congratulations on that. six months, seems like that was pretty fast. Well if the next one sells better maybe it can pay for a few dinners out as well. Nice to have a hobby that actually pays you rather then cost you something to do.


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## Archer

Sharlow:

I'd say 'liked' is NOT too strong a word! Not too strong at all.  

We have modest goals--gas money and light bill are wonderful! 
Me, I've bought two Kindles (one for me and one for my mom--who, by the way, ADORES it) with Kindlebook sales. Hang in there!


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## JennaAnderson

Congrats on everyone’s success. I am pleasantly surprised at how Healing Touch is doing on Amazon. I loaded the story mid Dec and am averaging about ten sales a day. It is enough to support my Starbucks habit. Ha ha. 

I definitely think Smashwords is worth it. They will distribute titles to B&N and a few other sellers. The exposure is important. Right now my title is in the top 20,000 ebooks at B&N which I am excited about. I think only a few people bought it but it is a few more readers than I had.

Good luck with your book.


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## Karen_McQ

JennaAnderson said:


> The exposure is important. Right now my title is in the top 20,000 ebooks at B&N which I am excited about. I think only a few people bought it but it is a few more readers than I had.


Congratulations on making the top 20,000, Jenna! No small thing, considering how many there are overall.

Your reference to having "more readers than I had" really struck home because that's also my philosophy. Having books languishing on my hard drive was getting me nowhere. Every sale is another copy out in the world.


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## Sharlow

JennaAnderson said:


> Congrats on everyone's success. I am pleasantly surprised at how Healing Touch is doing on Amazon. I loaded the story mid Dec and am averaging about ten sales a day. It is enough to support my Starbucks habit. Ha ha.
> 
> I definitely think Smashwords is worth it. They will distribute titles to B&N and a few other sellers. The exposure is important. Right now my title is in the top 20,000 ebooks at B&N which I am excited about. I think only a few people bought it but it is a few more readers than I had.
> 
> Good luck with your book.


 10 sales a day sounds nice. Did you do anything to promote your book to get it up to 10 a day so quickly? It's good to hear that some people are doing fine with Smashwords. I'm there, just no real activity yet.


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## JennaAnderson

I've only been selling one or two a month on Smashwords - the 10/day is through Amazon. 

My marketing has been pretty low key so far. I'm a really private person so it's tough for me to say "Hey everyone, look what I did!"

Over the last year I've started a blog (see my signature) joined a few online communities such as Goodreads and a writers group, told my entire family and all of my coworkers, and mentioned my book on Facebook.

I believe the ten sales per day is due to all the new Kindle owners and not really anything I'm doing. My story is $0.99. I'm sure a lot of people are thinking - what do I have to lose?


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## Sharlow

JennaAnderson said:


> I've only been selling one or two a month on Smashwords - the 10/day is through Amazon.
> 
> My marketing has been pretty low key so far. I'm a really private person so it's tough for me to say "Hey everyone, look what I did!"
> 
> Over the last year I've started a blog (see my signature) joined a few online communities such as Goodreads and a writers group, told my entire family and all of my coworkers, and mentioned my book on Facebook.
> 
> I believe the ten sales per day is due to all the new Kindle owners and not really anything I'm doing. My story is $0.99. I'm sure a lot of people are thinking - what do I have to lose?


 Nice looking blog. I like how it looks like a scrap book. The light color green isn't great for me, but the rest is really good looking. I have mine set to 0.99 as well. Hopefully in time I will see a similar interest in mine as well. i thought doing query's would be nerve wracking, but trying to get people to look at your book seems to be almost if not just the same for my nerves.


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## JennaAnderson

I'll look at the green font and maybe change it. 

I added your story to the 99 Cent tag group.

Have you promoted your story on the Amazon forums? that is a good spot too. Just keep it in the proper thread or you will hear about it.

Look for "Have you written a book?"
"Indie Authors help me find you."
"Kindle titles for 99 Cents"

Good luck - you'll get there.


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## Edward C. Patterson

I've been Indie published since December 2007 on the Kindle (14 titles now) and as of this evening, I have sold or moved in ebook and paper 3,566  3,569 books across all titles. Monthly sales are now about 350-400 and so far in January, I have sold 189 books (12 days), so this might be my first 500 book month. The sales totals is somewhere over $8,500 with royalty figures nearing $3,000, which excludes honorariums of about $2,500 for 2009. You move one book at a time, but you need to be close to your readers, listen, improve and remember your goals. Mine is to write and sell at least one book and that to a delighted reader who is not related to me or my best friend. In December 2007, I moved 2 books. In December 2008, I had a 30 book month. In December 2009, I moved 412 books.

Hope that helps

Edward C. Patterson


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## Sharlow

JennaAnderson said:


> I'll look at the green font and maybe change it.
> 
> I added your story to the 99 Cent tag group.
> 
> Have you promoted your story on the Amazon forums? that is a good spot too. Just keep it in the proper thread or you will hear about it.
> 
> Look for "Have you written a book?"
> "Indie Authors help me find you."
> "Kindle titles for 99 Cents"
> 
> Good luck - you'll get there.


 Thanks Jenna. Listening to everyone just helps, and I think I'm good for the long haul now. I guess I was just worried I wasn't doing something right.


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## Sharlow

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I've been Indie published since December 2007 on the Kindle (14 titles now) and as of this evening, I have sold or moved in ebook and paper 3,566  3,569 books across all titles. Monthly sales are now about 350-400 and so far in January, I have sold 189 books (12 days), so this might be my first 500 book month. The sales totals is somewhere over $8,500 with royalty figures nearing $3,000, which excludes honorariums of about $2,500 for 2009. You move one book at a time, but you need to be close to your readers, listen, improve and remember your goals. Mine is to write and sell at least one book and that to a delighted reader who is not related to me or my best friend. In December 2007, I moved 2 books. In December 2008, I had a 30 book month. In December 2009, I moved 412 books.
> 
> Hope that helps
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


 Yes it does, and I thank you for sharing that with us. That was a big jump in 2009 for you. I got 3 for my first December, but in all fairness it was only up from the 18th on.


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## Edward C. Patterson

My first Kindle book had and has all the bumps of the neophyte back in 2007, and to commemorate my progress, I have revised it completely applying my ver-maturing style to it, and am about to re-release it on Amazon for Kindle and Paperback in the next week or so in pristine condition (It will be free on Smashwords for 2 weeks, so the readers who purchased the original effort can get a replacement copy and, in that window, new readers can take a little giftie). 

Edward C. Patterson

PS: I hate the business part of publishing and I believe the only reason I've been able to make a small success of it is that I was Marketing Director for a fortune 500 company for 38 years, when I was downsized. It was that simple act (a reassessment of life) that gave me my life back from the clutches of a corporate existance and gave me the gift of TIME. That allowed me to muster a few decades of manuscripts and proceed with my true calling. It might appear that I write a book every few months, but when I lost my job, I had 22 manuascripts in various unfinished states. Now, 14 have been brought to the refinery. Others are in progress.


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## Archer

It's really encouraging to see so many indies doing well!

I know I've just had the two best months ever, but I need to take a step back, quit focusing so much on sales (I mean, checking them five times a day is kinda silly), and keep working in the next one. It's easy to get caught up in the sales thing. It's important, of course, to monitor sales, though, especially when you're not sure of your pricing strategy or when you alter it.


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## Carol Hanrahan

Edward C. Patterson said:


> PS: I hate the business part of publishing and I believe the only reason I've been able to make a small success of it is that I was Marketing Director for a fortune 500 company for 38 years, when I was downsized. It was that simple act (a reassessment of life) that gave me my life back from the clutches of a corporate existance and gave me the gift of TIME. That allowed me to muster a few decades of manuscripts and proceed with my true calling. It might appear that I write a book every few months, but when I lost my job, I had 22 manuascripts in various unfinished states. Now, 14 have been brought to the refinery. Others are in progress.


Ed, I never knew this about you!  Geez, I thought you were just hurling 'em out!


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## Anne Frasier

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I've been Indie published since December 2007 on the Kindle (14 titles now) and as of this evening, I have sold or moved in ebook and paper 3,566  3,569 books across all titles. Monthly sales are now about 350-400 and so far in January, I have sold 189 books (12 days), so this might be my first 500 book month. The sales totals is somewhere over $8,500 with royalty figures nearing $3,000, which excludes honorariums of about $2,500 for 2009. You move one book at a time, but you need to be close to your readers, listen, improve and remember your goals. Mine is to write and sell at least one book and that to a delighted reader who is not related to me or my best friend. In December 2007, I moved 2 books. In December 2008, I had a 30 book month. In December 2009, I moved 412 books.
> 
> Hope that helps
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


that is awesome!


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## Edward C. Patterson

Thank you Anne.

Carol - yep. I've been writing for 50 years (actually longer - I started when I was 8 - my first stupid little novel at 9).   I work at it and I'm as slow as everyone else - but when you have a manuscript that you've been puttering with for ten years plus, when you come to the finishing touches, it can go lickety split. I have slowed down, however, because the remaining manuscripts are less manuscripts than shells and play remnants and, my writing style has matured in the last few years . . . year . . . month . . . well, from book to book. The more you write, the better you get at it. Stuff that stymied me is now routine. However, I must remember never to take anything for granted. Readers must always be engaged - 100% or they will not stay within your pages. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## David Derrico

Through the magic of the 99 cent eBook, I just had my best month ever, selling almost 250 copies (total for two novels). But I jumped on the Kindle train late, so I've only sold about 750 or so total. I am very thankful to my readers and excited that so many people are (hopefully!) enjoying my work. Of course, I'm not setting any sales records here, and it's not like I can make a living on a few bucks a day, but there are enough success stories here from indie authors that it should give all of us hope.

There is definitely a change in the landscape of independent publishing, and an enormous change in the attitude of the reading public. People no longer think that the big publishing houses know what they're doing or that they find all the good authors out there. They've heard enough stories of famous authors who got 500 rejections before getting lucky. And they're relating indie authors to indie music and indie films... and looking at indie work as a way to find artists who write or sing or make movies above the level of the lowest common denominator.



archer said:


> (I mean, checking sales five times a day is kinda silly)


I could not disagree more!!! I checked my sales a couple times while writing this post.


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

David Derrico said:


> , selling almost 250 copies


<sighs wistfully>


----------



## Sharlow

archer said:


> It's really encouraging to see so many indies doing well!
> 
> I know I've just had the two best months ever, but I need to take a step back, quit focusing so much on sales (I mean, checking them five times a day is kinda silly), and keep working in the next one. It's easy to get caught up in the sales thing. It's important, of course, to monitor sales, though, especially when you're not sure of your pricing strategy or when you alter it.


 But it's so encouraging when you get a sale.I mean, it's why we wrote it. It validates our writing, no matter how few sales you have. Someone out there you have never met bought your book, and it feels so good. I started writing mine with no expectation of ever selling any. It was just for fun, to see what I could do. The fact that its real now makes me feel like i did something worth while, something i can leave later generations of my family. "Here's your great Grand pa's books son". If you know what i mean, and now that some have sold it's even better.


----------



## Archer

David writes: 'I could not disagree more!!! I checked my sales a couple times while writing this post.'

David--LOL! I hear ya!  

It has been interesting to see whether there are sales peaks at various times of day, and so on. However, due to interference with life in general (life? Writers have a life?) I am now limited to one sales check in the morning. Just did mine this a.m.--all systems normal! (And yes, I know, writers DO have lives.)

The hubs and I are planning a party if we ever sell 100 in a day...so far we're pretty safe from that. I won't order the party hats yet!  

Sharlow, I know what you mean. It is a form of validation when someone purchases your book.  You were chosen! It's a great feeling. Here are a few good wishes to you from me:
--May you sell lots of books!
--May you write more books!
--May you receive favorable, honest reviews!
--May you see your title on someone's 'recommended' list!
--May your 'children' make you proud!
--May your writings entertain, inspire, and transport many readers!

(Repeat for all Kindleboards authors)


----------



## Sharlow

archer said:


> David writes: 'I could not disagree more!!! I checked my sales a couple times while writing this post.'
> 
> David--LOL! I hear ya!
> 
> It has been interesting to see whether there are sales peaks at various times of day, and so on. However, due to interference with life in general (life? Writers have a life?) I am now limited to one sales check in the morning. Just did mine this a.m.--all systems normal! (And yes, I know, writers DO have lives.)
> 
> The hubs and I are planning a party if we ever sell 100 in a day...so far we're pretty safe from that. I won't order the party hats yet!
> 
> Sharlow, I know what you mean. It is a form of validation when someone purchases your book. You were chosen! It's a great feeling. Here are a few good wishes to you from me:
> --May you sell lots of books!
> --May you write more books!
> --May you receive favorable, honest reviews!
> --May you see your title on someone's 'recommended' list!
> --May your 'children' make you proud!
> --May your writings entertain, inspire, and transport many readers!
> 
> (Repeat for all Kindleboards authors)


Awww. Thank you, i really appreciate that. May you have all the same happen to you. For all of your generosity .


----------



## ASparrow

It must be a psychological disorder of some sort, but it makes me feel dirty whenever someone pays actual cash for my novel.  I feel much better about free downloads, probably because I don't feel strapped with the shame of having someone expend their own resources for work I know to be flawed and imperfect. That said, well over three-quarters of my 600+ full downloads (1,200+ full plus samples) since October have been with free coupons. Maybe I'll get over it once I write a book I'm completely happy with (yeah, right!).


----------



## David Derrico

Carol Hanrahan said:


> <sighs wistfully>


You'll get there! If I can do it with no marketing budget or particular marketing acumen, then anyone can!

As for the obsessive sales-checking... it definitely helps keep me going. If someone is willing to plunk down a buck (or more) for my stuff, then it reinvigorates me to keep writing, keep editing and honing my craft, keep marketing, etc. It definitely gives me a thrill and satisfaction WAY out of proportion to the 35 cents.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I might say a BOOK is FREE (I'll have one on special tomorrow or the day after), but I don't regard FREE downloads as free - like thrown off the top of a building like confetti). I list FREE books moved as SELECT Books, because someone still wanted it and made the conscious move to download it. I know from having FREE book available on my website for years without one person biting to know that it is as great an accomplishment to get a person to take a book for free as it is to get them to pay $ 17.50 (which I had someone do today).  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Lisa Hinsley

Wow, there are some big numbers being thrown about here. Would love to know how you've managed to get people to your book. Me, I'm very proud to have sold 11 copies so far this month. Coombe's Wood has been live since October, and each month sales have gone up. I am not very Internet savvy, and other than a few posts here and on Amazon boards (done through my husband's account as I am a Brit) I've done no advertising. 

The other question, once you get past sales, is how do you get reviews? I have a bunch, kindly moved by Amazon from my ABNA entry version to the final upload. Is it just luck of the draw?


----------



## Thumper

Honestly? I suck at self promotion and have a guy who does it for me. Without him, my kitties would not be eating the good canned food, for sure...


----------



## Dana Taylor

This has been a very interesting thread. Thanks to everyone for their candor. _Princess Robin_ has sold a whopping 8 since I sent out a post-Christmas announcement to about 50 friends. I guess that's not too bad a return.


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

Dana Taylor said:


> This has been a very interesting thread. Thanks to everyone for their candor. _Princess Robin_ has sold a whopping 8 since I sent out a post-Christmas announcement to about 50 friends. I guess that's not too bad a return.


Bless those 8 friends. (8 more'n I got)


----------



## Sharlow

Carol Hanrahan said:


> Bless those 8 friends. (8 more'n I got)


 How many have you got Carol? It sounds like your saying no sales yet this month?


----------



## J Dean

I have to admit, sometimes I think it's been a double-edged sword for me to offer free stuff.  People have been downloading my free short story like crazy (and for those here who have done so, thank you!), but I've barely gotten a bite on my novel or another short story I put up which has a "You set the price" option.  I was hoping that the free story would act as a springboard for people wanting to read more, and would be curious enough to check out the novel, but unfortunately it's not working the way I thought it would.

Not to sound like a gripe, and not to say this applies to people here at the kindle site, but at times I get the impression (and maybe this is because I'm also a teacher hearing this from junior high and high school students) that people expect internet related things to be free.  When I point out that it costs 99 cents for downloading CLADE JOSSO at Smashwords, I get weird looks and remarks like "It costs money to get it online!?"  To which I want to reply "Do you do your job for free?"  It seems as if we're so used to finding things for free, especially on the Internet, that we (and again, I'm using "we" generically, mind you) balk at the notion of having to actually put out money for the purpose of obtaining something which somebody else had to work so hard to produce.  

While I don't agree with all of his politics, and while I don't want to make this a politic thread, I do want to say that Rush Limbaugh was right about one thing in one of his remarks he made: a lot of people have a sense of entitlement in this country, and don't think they should have to pay for what they want.  I've seen that more and more, especially with stuff like bittorrent which permits people to rip TV and movies for free, or with pirated DVD copies of films which have barely been in the theatre.  I think that, for many people, such an attitude transfers over to other areas of life, which is really sad, because it's neither right nor healthy to demand for free what you should be paying others for.

Just my thoughts on some of what I've seen....


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

Sharlow said:


> How many have you got Carol? It sounds like your saying no sales yet this month?


No, I've had 13 sales so far this month, which is good for me. My comment referred to when I sent out news to friends and family about my book when it came out in print. That led to zero sales.  Well, you can't count my Dad, who doesn't have a computer. He bought some (via me) and has had fun giving them out to his friends!


----------



## Sharlow

Carol Hanrahan said:


> No, I've had 13 sales so far this month, which is good for me. My comment referred to when I sent out news to friends and family about my book when it came out in print. That led to zero sales.  Well, you can't count my Dad, who doesn't have a computer. He bought some (via me) and has had fun giving them out to his friends!


 Well your doing better then me this month. I was pleasantly surprised to wake up and find 3 sales today! That's a total of 6 so far this month. Which isn't bad as it's only been technically up now for four weeks. I got 6 sales in December for the half month it was up. None of my family has bought any, to be fair there not computer savvy. I've been thinking about making it available through create a space and selling it here as well, but you have to price it stupidly high just to make a profit, not to mention I'm not sure how you put the paper back up on amazon for sale. On another note i found out that my ex wife actually bought my book and read it. what a surprise that was...She was the last person i would of thought would...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Carol:

In my littl FREE Indie Publishing book in Chapter one I state: "Friends and family never buy your book." So don;t feel badly, but maybe Sharlow can prove wrong and in that, hope springs eternal.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Archer

My Mom's got all of mine--plus new editions. My sister, au contraire...


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Carol:
> 
> In my littl FREE Indie Publishing book in Chapter one I state: "Friends and family never buy your book." So don;t feel badly, but maybe Sharlow can prove wrong and in that, hope springs eternal.
> 
> Ed Patterson


Well said, Ed!


----------



## KathyBell

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Carol:
> 
> In my littl FREE Indie Publishing book in Chapter one I state: "Friends and family never buy your book." So don;t feel badly, but maybe Sharlow can prove wrong and in that, hope springs eternal.
> 
> Ed Patterson


I hate to prove that statement wrong, but my family alone - giving out copies as holiday gifts to their friends and family as well as keeping a reading copy for themselves - I think they've bought over 50 print copies! Mind you, I do have a fairly large family, but at least they don't demand freebees. My sister is part of a reading group who is doing my novel next month (that's a little nervewracking for me, coming under the microscope, but she did read it beforehand to decide if she wanted to do it with the group and if it would meet their interests), so they purchased 8 copies. All told, about 100 have gone to friends, family, and co-workers. The rest I've sold through book signings, book events (Word on The Street in Canada), and bookstore sales. Not too many of the original print run left, and to be honest had we found Lightningsource prior to ordering a print run, we would have just gone with Lightningsource for the order. Their pricing is unbeatable in Canada. I am negotiating with an English teacher to create a school copy with questions at the end of each chapter, to be used in a grade 11 class. That could lead to some amazing sales numbers if he gives it his endorsement, since he has published his own textbook.

A funny aside, a fellow teacher was speaking with my husband, and mentioned her brother had bought a Kindle Christmas and told her he read a story by a Canadian author and really enjoyed it. When she asked who it was, and he mentioned my name, she was all excited to say "I know the author". The world is so small


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I should also prove my statement wrong because, after 3,600 book sales (more like 3,675 s of yesterday), I consider all my readers - friends.

The point is, however, your friends and family might like and even buy your books . . . but unless they are your bed patner or Tabitha King, they generally find you the best thing since Gorganzola (I hat Gorgonzola, shades of *Cutting the Cheese*). They love is essential, but sometimes their opinion "don't count." Unless, of course you're sleeping with Tabitha King or an author equivolent. (Thank you Tabitha for taking *Carrie* out of the garbage pail and ordering Stephen to whip the coffee grinds off it and do a revision. Where would we be without you).

Ed Patterson


----------



## Sharlow

Well I had my best day so far yesterday. I sold four... Thats 4 books in one day. I feel good!


----------



## David Derrico

Sharlow said:


> Well I had my best day so far yesterday. I sold four... Thats 4 books in one day. I feel good!


Congratulations! It's quite a thrill having a good sales day.


----------



## Sharlow

David Derrico said:


> Congratulations! It's quite a thrill having a good sales day.


I agree since I never intended to sell this book originally. I know that some might laugh at 4 sales, but thats a lot when compared to none!


----------



## JennaAnderson

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I should also prove my statement wrong because, after 3,600 book sales (more like 3,675 s of yesterday), I consider all my readers - friends.
> 
> The point is, however, your friends and family might like and even buy your books . . . but unless they are your bed patner or Tabitha King, they generally find you the best thing since Gorganzola (I hat Gorgonzola, shades of *Cutting the Cheese*). They love is essential, but sometimes their opinion "don't count." Unless, of course you're sleeping with Tabitha King or an author equivolent. (Thank you Tabitha for taking *Carrie* out of the garbage pail and ordering Stephen to whip the coffee grinds off it and do a revision. Where would we be without you).
> 
> Ed Patterson


You crack me up! You should write for sure tonight you are full of fun stuff!

Jenna


----------



## Archer

Sharlow, that's GREAT!  

Congratulations!!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Jenna, 

It is my contention that a prerequisite to writing a novel is poetry and humor. Humor engages the reader better than any other endearment, and poetry give prose sound and sense that goes beyond grammar and spelling. Both concepts have given me loyal readers and toxic critics. I'll take the readers and leave the critics to poison themselves, for I shall not be drinking from their cup any time soon, although I am closer to the finish line than most of them, but I shall cross it with my soul intact.

Ed Patterson


----------



## JennaAnderson

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Jenna,
> 
> It is my contention that a prerequisite to writing a novel is poetry and humor. Humor engages the reader better than any other endearment, and poetry give prose sound and sense that goes beyond grammar and spelling. Both concepts have given me loyal readers and toxic critics. I'll take the readers and leave the critics to poison themselves, for I shall not be drinking from their cup any time soon, although I am closer to the finish line than most of them, but I shall cross it with my soul intact.
> 
> Ed Patterson


Lovely and well timed. I just jumped off another online forum full of nasty toxic people. I reread your paragraph a few times just to make myself feel better.

Thank you


----------



## sierra09

JennaAnderson said:


> Lovely and well timed. I just jumped off another online forum full of nasty toxic people. I reread your paragraph a few times just to make myself feel better.
> 
> Thank you


Sounds like another online book forum that I used to frequent more than I do lately. The amount of negativity via computer wavelengths was actually more depressing than real life...and that's saying something.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

You know, everytime you express the fact that you have joy and hope and happiness, there will be a troll on the bridge to take you down. As an Indie author, I am occasionally accused of being a hack who, frustrated by a wall of rejections, self-published because no one else would do it. When these toxins spew (and they will), they do hurt, but you must always consider a few facts. In my case, I didn't have a wall of rejections. In fact, traditional publishers that passed on my book The Jade Owl encouraged me, giving me tips, praising the work, but couldn't find a slot to publish it. I, like many Indie authors, write "crossover" works, which do not fit neatly into marketing genre niches. Mainstream and even small press publishers need clear cut "genres." It can't be a little bit vampiral, and a touch of romance. That will do for readers, but not for marketing plans. So, in my acknowledgements in The Jade Owl, I thank Mundania Press for their support (in reality, their rejection). While I waited for their final verdict, I published 7 books on the Kindle, none of which were ever traditionally sent out and . . . they were successful enough to let my Hoot bird fly that route as well. Now, when I hear the trolls on the bridge slam me with "frustrated author," ya-nanny-na-nah, I shrug and think that perhaps they are the frustrated ones. Now, valid criticism of my art is important, especially to improve my craft and improve the reader's experience, but once the authoring thing ceases to be a source of light, I would be better off watching Lucy re-runs (which I do anyway, 'cause they're good). So, when faced by these obnoxious demons that want to snuff your personal light, just concentrate on the source of the light and not the jealous bleakness that these creatures really are. They thrive on other people's misery and deserve nothing in return but to be ignored. In fact, your silence makes them go away, or at least steers them to other prey. 

Sorry for the vitriol, but not everyone wishes you well and if you engage them, they win. If you ignore them, you win. And to stay on topic, I've sold a lot and will sell a lot more and each reader is a source of light, and that light will be here, even when I am not.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

Ed, you are one of our fountains of wisdom!  
I often click on your posts just to see what you've got to add - and it's always helpful!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Oooh, Carol - I feel so . . .  so . . . Promethean.  

Ed P, the create of the Naked conga dance in red boa and stiletos (now there's light and darkness if you ever wanted it). I feel a Betsy hat coming.


----------



## sierra09

Ed, those words are so true.

As for the topic...I try to steer clear of looking at my sales reports but I will admit to peeking every few days. Can't say a total of Kindle sales since those spreadsheets and I just don't hit it off but so far in January Flames of Betrayal has sold 133 copies which   I still oogle at every time I peek and my other book is also still doing well.

I really do need to right those numbers down monthly since I can't figure out that spreadsheet thing to save my life.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Few days. I look every hour, although a watched ot never boils (like today)  

Ed Patterson


----------



## JennaAnderson

sierra09 said:


> Sounds like another online book forum that I used to frequent more than I do lately. The amount of negativity via computer wavelengths was actually more depressing than real life...and that's saying something.


I have a really hard time with negative forums. I want to argue, but I've learned it's a waste of time.

To keep this thread on topic - I have had a good sales weekend. I'm wondering how long this trend will last.

Jenna


----------



## David Derrico

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Few days. I look every hour, although a watched ot never boils (like today)


I agree with Edward. Every few days? You are a model of restraint.

Sierra, congrats on the impressive sales numbers!


----------



## JennaAnderson

Thanks Ed - I didn't see your post before loading mine.

The sad thing is - this other forum is for writers to support other writers. The topic of self publishing never came up. 

There was so much - "you have to do it this way, you will never, that's wrong, If you ever want to...."

I was lurking and not participating but when things got to be a bit much I offered up a question to the group and an opinion. This earned me a off thread email by the moderators not to stir the pot. So, it's ok to continue slamming new writers and force them into a tactic of writer, editing, and subbing ms in a way that THEY feel is ok but not to suggest something else. 

I suggested that this author was perhaps being treated unfairly by a pubs editor. She needed help and I think it's ok to find a friend or two to help with editing grammer, punctuation, and spelling. I feel an author can be very strong in creating and weaving a great story, but can be weak mechanically. Therefore - find others to help you with that aspect. No can do according to this group. 

I answered the mods email by typing "Interesting" then hitting reply.    She then emailed me again with more info to back up her side of things and I deleted it.

Sorry to get so off topic. I am probably going to shoot myself in the foot because the internet is much smaller than we think.

I promosie to publish highly polished stories. My day to day writing and posting sucks in terms of SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) but by damn it will not keep me from writing.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

It's important to offer help. I often get requests to look at thinks (beta etc), and mentor, mos of which I cannot find the time for. However, I feel it's important that an author mentor at least one or two other authors a year. I have one now, who is going the traditional publishing route and who got one of those rare "please rvise and resubmit" rejections, which is the best kind. So I'm helping with the "resubmit" because the author is talented, but just needs a few twekas. I need a few tweaks (or I wouldn;t have relaucnhed a novel and planning another such relaunch). Offering help in a hostile forum is a Hindenburg disaster waiting to happen. In fact, I rarely chime in on one of those so-called Indie blogs that want to discuss self-publishing, because it draws out the circur crew of anonymous "bookgizzard," "BillGWhiz'" "IluvmyJesus" screen names that fell free to bash behind their real name. Waste of time. 

That's the beauty of Kindlboards, folks. It is a supportive environment. Thank you Harvey, Ann, betsy and folks for that. d has everyone read Harvey's interviw on the West Coast? perhaps Ann or betsy can provide the link.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Sharlow

archer said:


> Sharlow, that's GREAT!
> 
> Congratulations!!


 Thanks Archer. I appreciate it. Got another sale the next day, and none so far today. So I'm up to 8 for the month. I'd say thats about average from what i hear for new authors, so i find that encouraging.


----------



## JennaAnderson

Everyone must have been watching football. I've noticed more sales in the last couple hours.  

Is it just me or does the sales ranking update hourly at about :50  ??


----------



## Sharlow

Anyone else like to add to the discussion? the month is just about over, how'd you do?


----------



## Eric C

Sharlow said:


> Anyone else like to add to the discussion? the month is just about over, how'd you do?


Best month ever. Assume it's the after Christmas Kindle gift bonanza. (But I'd be happier wrong.)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Last weekend, with no promoting (I lost my internet connection), I sold 71 books. I'm 7 books short of 500 for this month, which would be the first time I sail over that mark. The next milestone is 4,000 books, and at this rate that will be reached sometime the first week of febraury.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David Derrico

I also saw a definite uptick in January (in addition to the uptick I saw in December when I lowered my prices to 99 cents). I don't know if it was more people getting Kindles for Xmas, or maybe starting to get some word of mouth, or moving up enough on the Amazon charts to attract more readers, or people searching for David Weber and finding me.    But I recently went over 500 books sold this month (my two titles combined). Sounds like a lot of us had good months, hopefully it's evidence that the eBook business will continue to grow for all of us.

Now, if I could just get some reviews posted... you'd think 1 out of 500 might have something to say...?


----------



## plumboz

Not counting whatever has sold at B&N since they don't have the sort of moment to moment reporting you can get from Amazon or Smashwords, Boomerang has tallied just over 500 sales since September, which is when I finally got a decent version of it out and available. Much of the action happened in December, with Christmas Day actually being my tops sales day yet, which surprised the heck out of me.

Another nice byproduct of the ebook has been that it seems to have stimulated at least a bit more interest in the paperback, especially folks who have order copies directly from me. That is not a profitable venture for me since with my cost of the book and the cost of packaging and shipping I barely break even, but it's still nice to have hard copies of Boomerang taking up residence around the country.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Yes, I've had an uptick in paperbacks in the last few days. Go figure. Funny, though. I sold a Jade Owl legacy set ($23.00, $24.00 & $25.00 respectively per book) on the extended distribution and for that $72.00 sale I netted a $ .98 royalty  . The price of wider distribution. The same 3 books as e-book prices (total $11.97) would net a $4.20 royalty. Good thig I'm not in this for the Moolah.

Ed Patterson


----------



## JennaAnderson

I've been amazed at my sales this month. I am nearing 275 sales for my $0.99 ebook. A two star review didn't even slow things down.

I'm still shocked that I have a title up on Amazon and now to see that people are BUYING it - whoa!

Jenna


----------



## Thumper

This has definitely been a good month...I'm not sure it's sustainable, but it would be nice if it was...


----------



## Geoffrey Thorne

I'm closing in on 100 sales for my first full month. Since I had no expectations, this is pretty awesome to me. I'm also selling shorts, not novels. A novel for the same price would have to outsell me; you're getting more for your money (at least on paper. ;>)

I'm well satisfied.

Bigger and better in FEB.

tally ho!


----------



## J Dean

I sold TEN!!!!!!!!

....total, that is....


----------



## KathyBell

Just curious if anyone has had the flip side of sales...returns? I've had some, but they amount to less than 1/2 a percent of total sales, but I do wish Amazon provided some reason. Did the person buy by mistake? Hate the book? Not want a book without a TOC (I just went and added one, just in case!).

Congrats on all the sales, everyone!


----------



## AnnaM

This month (and December) my returns are 2% of sales. Previous months were less than 1%. My overall sales were higher (two titles) these past two months, so it makes sense that I'd have a few more returns.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Sometimes a potential read hits the buy button instead of the sample boutton and then requests a refund.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David Derrico

I've only had a single return (over hundreds of sales) -- I'm hoping it was an accidental purchase and not someone who hated the book so much that he wanted his 99 cents back!!


----------



## Guest

January has been a very good month for me. Between Kindle and Smashwords I've sold 56 and had two refunds. I've also sold a handful of paperbacks via Amazon (I think 4). 

The goal for me is to get as many people reading my books as possible, not immediate profit. The reduced price ($1 on Kindle) certainly helped.

Of course, I'm still waiting for feedback - which is essential if the next book is to do better. It's quite scary re-reading my own book after all this time - if I was reviewing it I'd have a few suggestions for myself!


----------



## Sharlow

J Dean said:


> I sold TEN!!!!!!!!
> 
> ....total, that is....


You beat me  I got 8 this month, still some hours left for the last day of the month, but it looks like thats it for January. Hopefully February It will do better!


----------



## tbrookside

In January I sold 151 Kindle copies [plus whatever I get for the rest of the day], but only 17 paperbacks.

I was surprised that January was better than December, because Kindle sales went berserk from 12/25 to 12/29. But January brought a nice, steady drumbeat of sales.

I consistently sell ~10 times as many Kindle copies as DTB's. Since Kindle owners are a mere fraction of Amazon's total user base, it seems like Kindle owners have to be at least 100x more likely to buy my book than non-Kindle owners. Something MacMillan should keep in mind.


----------



## Meredith Sinclair

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Yes, I've had an uptick in paperbacks in the last few days. Go figure. Funny, though. I sold a Jade Owl legacy set ($23.00, $24.00 & $25.00 respectively per book) on the extended distribution and for that $72.00 sale I netted a $ .98 royalty . The price of wider distribution. The same 3 books as e-book prices (total $11.97) would net a $4.20 royalty. Good thig I'm not in this for the Moolah.
> Ed Patterson


Just curious why you don't make much money off of your books? Do all Indie authors mak pennies off of their books?


----------



## David Derrico

Meredith Sinclair said:


> Just curious why you don't make much money off of your books? Do all Indie authors mak pennies off of their books?


The answer is "it depends." Selling through Amazon means that Amazon takes 40% of the price for DTBs and 65% for eBooks. For DTBs, with the cost of producing books and Amazon's 40% cut, the "break even" minimum price point for a particular book (depending on length and other factors) may be $10 or $12 or $14. Some of us are wary of trying to sell our books for too high a price, and price it at or near the minimum -- leaving little or no royalty. But, assuming the author shells out the $39 for CreateSpace's Pro Plan, the prices are generally reasonable enough to leave a fair royalty.

However, if an author decides to do "Expanded Distribution" through CreateSpace (which puts it in a catalog where THEORETICALLY bookstores and libraries can order it if they want), then they take 60% of the cover price ... which usually strips royalties to nothing or almost nothing, and forces an increase in the cover price of the book. It's part of the reason I decided against expanded distribution -- I'd have to raise the prices of my books, and I'd prefer to keep them affordable (under $10).


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Meredith:

Ah, my point was missed (my fault). I DO make money from my books ($5,000.00 so far - Uncle Sam wants his cut), but the point I was making is that with the expanded distribution throgh CreateSpace, my paperbacks sold through Ingrams make about what Dan Brown makes on his books, only $ .35. As Indie authors, we're spoiled by the handsome 35% royalty we get through the Amazon organizations. When pumped through the traditional channels, our earnings fall dramatically. The same books through Amazon (paperback) earn me a royal royalty of over $ 3.00. 

As for your question on Indie authors making pennies off their books. No, we make out like Flynn, except we don't sell 5 million copies like Dan Brown. 500 copies of the eBook The Jade Owl would yield me $700 at a royalty of $ 1.40 per ebook. Dan Brown made less per book, but at 5 million copies, he made $ 1.75 million, and Uncle Sam likes him more than me (than I, for the spacial grammarians out there).  

Indie authors who complain about their royalty shares are living on . . . Pandora with the Omitacaya.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Dave:

You still get a full royalty on Amazon sold DTB's through CreateSpace. The deep cut is only for the expanded, and let's face it, that just get the books out there and your name. PLUS there are many advantages to have your books show up in Europe on eBay and on Library shelves. It's nice also to have them available through Barnes & Noble along side your titles for the nook. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## David Derrico

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Dave:
> 
> You still get a full royalty on Amazon sold DTB's through CreateSpace. The deep cut is only for the expanded, and let's face it, that just get the books out there and your name. PLUS there are many advantages to have your books show up in Europe on eBay and on Library shelves. It's nice also to have them available through Barnes & Noble along side your titles for the nook.
> 
> Ed Patterson


Yes, I know that books sold through Amazon still get the same royalty treatment, even if you go with expanded distribution. But my understanding is that you must raise your prices to at least break even on the expanded distro stuff ... and that the list price must be the same for Amazon and expanded sales. So, someone selling close to the minimum Amazon price would need to raise their prices to do expanded distribution.

The other thing I don't like about it is the $25 fee (plus ordering another proof) to make any changes, even minor ones. It's not a huge deal, and I've hopefully ferreted out all the last niggling minor imperfections by now, but you never know. I do like being able to relatively painlessly make a small correction or change the front or back matter or whatever.

But you're right, having the paperbacks listed on B&N.com would be nice. It's just that I previously had my books in the Baker & Taylor database and I know that something being theoretically "available" to bookstores and libraries, and anyone actually looking for my title on the list and ordering it (instead of just ordering it on Amazon or my own website) is quite remote.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Dave:

I just updated Cutting the Cheese (which was on expanded release). Anytime you update the file you MUST order a proof, regardless of whether your book is on expanded or not. That's been a fixture. I know, having updated several books in 2008 and 2009 in paper. I was never charged $25.00, BTW, just as CreateSpace put all my books (at that time 8 to ProPlan for free and has waived the $5 per book renewal for the last 2 years). Perhaps the $25 charge will drift in, but it didn't with the last royalty transfer, which made it into my bank account on Friday.

Also, the incremental price hasn't hurt my paperback sales (which have never been fantastic), but have doubled over last month. (You're thinking,   2 as opposed to one, "big deal" - but its 11 as opposed to 4). 

Also, my paperbacks on Amazon are more expensive now, but less expensive than other POD offierings, and Amazon has discounted a number of them back to their original price. Also my books on Barnes & Noble have been immediately discounted, so the deal is with the Suggest Retail Price, not the sellers price. The new work The Nan Tu in paper is $17, on B&N and Amazon is $12.60. So, in my particular case, an Indie author who sells more eBooks and depends on expanded distribution for branding, it works well and represents a break through for Indie authors. Of course, if you make you living with paperbacks, why put a crimp in the income.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Ricky Sides

Hi there,

I've sold 99 for the month, which is a record for me. My previous record was October when I sold 94. I had 100 for the month, but I think one was an accidental buy because one was refunded almost immediately. My first refund.

Though 99 is a record sales number for me, the dollar value is still below October when my books were priced higher. Those 99 sales are spread over the 7 books that I have in the Kindle store. I am hoping to hit 100 before the month ends, but it'll be a few days before I know. Time for me to sleep now. 3 AM comes way too early.

Have a great night,
Ricky


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I'm flabbergasted. I had 83 sales over the weekend, my highest ever, and I was delighted when I went over 500 books for the month for the first time, but now over the moon, because I went over 600. I am a handful of books away from th 4,000 mark.

A very grateful Indie Author - God bless my readers.
Edward C. Patterson


----------



## KathyBell

So nice to hear everyone having a bumper month, I'm close to my December numbers but not quite there, especially since things slowed down mid-month for my sales (darn negative reviews). Thrilled with the whole Kindle experience. I recently got my first Kindle royalty payment from Amazon, my listing was activated at the very end of October so the payment for October was rolled into November's which was just deposited.

DTB sales have been steady this month, as well, so I am a happy camper


----------



## Maria Hooley

I'm not sure what happened.  I didn't do anything different, but I was definitely blessed.  I have twelve titles currently out and another which has been pulled all month for revision.  As of last night I'd sold 1470 novels total.  One title in particular has sold about 773 copies.  Again, not sure what happened but I feel really lucky somehow.  And I owe a big thank you to everyone who bought one of my books!


----------



## David Derrico

Ed, I know you always need to order a new proof for any change. My understanding was, that with Expanded Distribution, you also had to pay a $25 change fee. It would be very interesting if they changed this policy or just don't charge the fee -- enough to probably convince me to do it.

Since it's somewhat related to the topic of this thread, Ed (or anyone else), would you mind sharing if you've had any success with Expanded Distribution sales? Also, Ed, could you maybe please expand a bit on the benefits you find the Expanded Distribution gives you, how it helps your sales or marketing?

PS: Like you, the vast, vast majority of my sales are eBooks, paperbacks are just a trickle anyway.


----------



## Sharlow

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I'm flabbergasted. I had 83 sales over the weekend, my highest ever, and I was delighted when I went over 500 books for the month for the first time, but now over the moon, because I went over 600. I am a handful of books away from th 4,000 mark.
> 
> A very grateful Indie Author - God bless my readers.
> Edward C. Patterson


Gratz on selling 600 books this month and not only reaching, but surpassing your goals. Very encouraging to me and i'm sure others.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

David

3 of the 11 were estended distribution. I'll keep you posted on the fee (if it comes retrospectively). Also I have another relaucnh in February so I'll get another chance to pay it. 

IMNSHO, DTB's are becoming "avatars" of their eBoo counterparts. If they don't exist, the eBook doesn't have an original price point. The greater the distributioon of the DTB, the further your title and name carry, and that's worth the uptick in price (slight uptick). In addition, this uptick increases the discount on the eBook, and Amazon emphasizes that on your product page . . . now. It's a new thing, but it helps.

Ed Patterson


----------



## 911jason

Sharlow, I don't know if you saw the JA Konrath/Jack Kilborn blog post about the whole Macmillan debacle, but he included a screenshot of his January sales figures directly from the Amazon DTP page.

(Click image for full-size)


----------



## plumboz

911jason said:


> Sharlow, I don't know if you saw the JA Konrath/Jack Kilborn blog post about the whole Macmillan debacle, but he included a screenshot of his January sales figures directly from the Amazon DTP page.
> 
> (Click image for full-size)


Thanks for highlighting Konrath's blog. I'm not a big fan of his fiction writing, but Konrath has shown a real grasp of the business side of publishing for quite a while and he presents his arguments clearly and persuasively.


----------



## KathyBell

That posting also speaks to the question of returns, looks like he's coming in under 1% on the month for most books, so I'll take that figure as fairly standard. 

I really like Konrath's willingness to shoot from the hip, and to also share his tips.


----------



## Sharlow

Yes it's really cool the fact that he's willing to share this info with his readers. Looks like he had a pretty good month!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Now, wait a minute. The first day of sales for each month I've always dreaded - looking at those blank report pages, remembering that they were full just the day before. So I'm puzzled by (but not unhappy with) looking at a first day in a month - a month which is usually slow, on a weekday, and on a Monday no less and see 22 sales so far for the day. 

Ed Patterson
(Quietly creeping into a corner so as not to jinx it)


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

Last month I didn't do any advertising of my fantasy duology _Wysard_ and _Lord Brother_, because I was too busy putting the combined edition together. To my surprise and pleasure, sales of both books continued brisk. December had been terrific, mainly because I'd priced both volumes at a bargain $1.99 each (several hundred sales).

We'll see how February turns out. To draw readers to _The Ryel Saga_, which unites the duology and adds almost half again as much new material, I've upped the price of _Wysard_ and _Lord Brother_ to $4.99 per volume, while charging only $3.99 for the new single-volume expanded revision. Fingers are duly crossed... 

CK


----------



## Jay Hartman

I do think a critical part of having successful sales is how well the title is promoted. It certainly makes things easier when readers can purchase their titles directly from their device (i.e.: Kindle, Stanza for iPhone), but if the word doesn't get out about it, it makes it that much harder.

Be sure to encourage fans of your works to post reviews wherever possible.  That will also help drive traffic your way.  If you are self-publishing, take advantage of every free marketing opportunity you can. If you are with a publisher, make sure they are doing their part to help promote you.  Remember: they take a cut, so they have something at stake to help you sell lots of copies!

Best,
Jay Hartman
Editor-In-Chief
UntreedReads.com


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

Jay Hartman said:


> I do think a critical part of having successful sales is how well the title is promoted...
> Be sure to encourage fans of your works to post reviews wherever possible.


Promotion's the hardest part of e-publishing. I can see a lucrative business opportunity for someone with marketing savvy who offered to take that burden from the indie author's hands, for a small consideration.

Now that anyone can upload their masterpiece to Kindle for free, the only barriers to fame are scrupulous editing and effective marketing. Oh, and maybe good writing. 

CK


----------



## scottnicholson

I just started and sold about 65 copies of The Red Church in January. It was printed in 2002 and did pretty well in paperback but was out of print a few years. I got up to #2 in Ghosts but couldn't knock off some dude named Poe. Oddly enough, the more I promote The Red Church, the worse my NY Kindle book They Hunger ranks...

I do have a novella Burial to Follow that got about 14 downloads last month, and I am now putting up some story collections, which I expect to sell much lower numbers than a novel. I figure if more publishers get boycotted, then indie sales will pick up...

Scott


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I am happy to report that this evening I went over the 4,000 mark across a titles, a milestone for me. If anyone told me that I would sell 1,000 books let alone 4,000 books, I would have asked to share their whacky weed, but alas I do not smoke or drink strong spirits.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## J Dean

Sharlow said:


> You beat me  I got 8 this month, still some hours left for the last day of the month, but it looks like thats it for January. Hopefully February It will do better!


Like I said, my free short story is doing great. In a month, I've had over a hundred downloads, but for some reason, my 99 cent novel isn't getting as many as I'd hoped. Granted, there have been free downloads done thanks to Operation Ebook drop (God bless them for doing it!) but maybe it's because I'm not a particularly good pitchman. I've asked people to tell others about the book if they like it, but to be honest, unless a book really "wows" somebody, that doesn't happen as much as I'd like it to. 

Maybe I should give a piece of gum away with each copy of the novel...


----------



## JennaAnderson

I am seeing some good sales numbers this month - anyone else?

I think it is due to the snow storm.   

Jenna


----------



## Sharlow

JennaAnderson said:


> I am seeing some good sales numbers this month - anyone else?
> 
> I think it is due to the snow storm.
> 
> Jenna


No, my sales have been nil for a bit now. But I only have been up for two months, so thats probably normal


----------



## JimC1946

Recollections: A Baby Boomer's Memories of the Fabulous Fifties







has sold just over 400 Kindle editions in the six months since it was published. It's gained momentum in the last two months, with just over a hundred sales a month.

As other Indies know, it takes a lot of work to promote a new book, but it's very gratifying to see the sales numbers climbing.

Recollections: A Baby Boomer's Memories of the Fabulous Fifties







is still only 99 cents.


----------



## Ricky Sides

Congratulations Mr. C. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy. May your sales continue to grow.

Have a great day,
Ricky


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I went over 4,100 today. Month started good (26 sales on the first day), slowed down for the last two days, but today looks like it's picked up again, thanks to Look Away Silence (which has been compared to a Nicholas Sparks book, you know the one that knocked Avatar out of the #1 spot) - 137 across all titles so far for the month.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Ricky Sides

Wow, you're on a roll! Way to go Ed.

By the way sir, Having read some of your books, I'm curious to know if you have a horror title. I think that with your writing style you could really put a chill in a reader's blood if you set your mind to it. And I think I saw you say in a post that some of your titles aren't on Kindle yet. So put the question down to a yearning on my part. I love a good horror tale occasionally.

sincerely,
Ricky


----------



## Brad Marlowe

My first book came out for the Kindle in October and I've sold 685 copies to date at prices ranging from 99 cents to $6.99. I just offered the book via Smashwords, as well, about a month ago - but have only sold 2 copies there.










http://www.amazon.com/Sleepwalker-Last-Sandman-Kindle-ebook/dp/B002RHP4N2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1254873284&sr=1-2


----------



## Debra Purdy Kong

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I went over 4,100 today. Month started good (26 sales on the first day), slowed down for the last two days, but today looks like it's picked up again, thanks to Look Away Silence (which has been compared to a Nicholas Sparks book, you know the one that knocked Avatar out of the #1 spot) - 137 across all titles so far for the month.
> 
> Ed Patterson


You are my selling hero. 

Debra


----------



## AnnaM

A 99-cent "loss leader" makes a huge difference in jump-starting sales. I sold 873 (two titles) in January, and 225 sold so far this month. Sales began to accelerate in a big way just before the Christmas holiday.

I'd love to know how many samples are downloaded of each title -- I wish Amazon would add the sample stats to our sales statistics. I like to think that people read those samples and base their buying decisions on the partial read . . . I tried to put as much of the book into the sample as possible (no blank pages, no dedications, etc.). I find it irritating when I only get 10-15 pages in the sample.


----------



## David Derrico

AnnaM said:


> I tried to put as much of the book into the sample as possible (no blank pages, no dedications, etc.). I find it irritating when I only get 10-15 pages in the sample.


That's an interesting point ... I left the front matter in, some people have said they like "the whole book experience" of paging through the copyright page and dedication and everything. But others just want more of the actual story. I actually wish we could authorize a longer sample.

I wonder what most people prefer? (I've learned recently that you can't please everyone.)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Ricky:

I do. It's called Bobby's Tace and it's currently being revised and relaunched. The older version is still available and selling well, but my oldest three novels (novella) are in the shop for a tune up and mid year they will come together in an Omnibus edition.

As for loss leaders, FREE is a loss leader. $ .99 is my normal eBook price. It's hard to call anything a Loss Leader, because that ties back into a paradigm of "making money," which only a few do. My focus is on readers, so my FREE loss leader, should really be called a GAIN Leader. 

Readership is gold. Money is just something you stop making when you die. Readers linger with you, long after the cash register hangs mold. In the words of WS Gilbert (Ko-Ko to Nanki-poo in the Mikado) "You won't see it, but it will be there all the same." Modified Rapture.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## AnnaM

"It's hard to call anything a Loss Leader, because that ties back into a paradigm of "making money," which only a few do."

I'm laughing. True -- we aren't getting rich, but I did meet the electric bill (and heat bill) standard in January!

My husband (Mr. Marketer) calls it a "loss leader" so I've picked up the term myself.  

Reader-friendly price? Macmillan-buster price? Not sure what to call it, but it works.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Yep, I'm a omer marketing director myself and I can tell you, promoting books is NOT marketing. It's a plunge of a 80 storie building, which makes it more fun. If only I had a parachute.  

Ed patterson


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

_"A little still she strove, and much repented, and whispering, 'I will ne'er consent' -- consented."_ (Lord Byron, _Don Juan_)

Clenching my teeth around the bullet, I lowered the price on _The Ryel Saga_ the other day from $2.99 to a dollar less. My numbers improved within the hour. If I drop to 99 cents, sales may well soar to meet the 300 of last month, but...it's such a big book! 

At least I have the luxury of decision, which is the whole beauty of being indie. May we all prosper.

CK


----------



## Sharlow

Well it's getting to that time of the month again. I hope everyones having a good month. I'm doing OK this month so far. Even tho the month isn't quite over yet, I've sold the same I sold in January, 8 so far. I was going to raise the price to $1.99, but after some discussion here, I decided it's way to premature for a raise in price. So I've stayed at 0.99. Hasn't helped on sales so far, but I think i would of had less if I had raised it. Anyways, feel free to share guys. You guys always give me hope, and remind me this is just a start of a long trip to where i want to go.


----------



## Archer

Right you are, mate!

This is a journey. The question--are you enjoying it? If the answer is 'yes', then full speed ahead!
I've not shared my sales numbers, but I will say this: the way to have fun on this ride, IMO, is to begin with a modest goal. 
Once that goal has been met, buy a celebratory pint of Ben and Jerry's and then advance to the next goal. Make each one attainable (with a reasonable effort).

At some point, you might not attain a goal you've set. When (if) that happens, you can console yourself by looking back at that first modest goal...and how far you've progressed from it! 

BEST of luck!
--Archer


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Good month so far, nearing the 350 mark, with 92 sold in the last 3 days.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Sharlow

archer said:


> Right you are, mate!
> 
> This is a journey. The question--are you enjoying it? If the answer is 'yes', then full speed ahead!
> I've not shared my sales numbers, but I will say this: the way to have fun on this ride, IMO, is to begin with a modest goal.
> Once that goal has been met, buy a celebratory pint of Ben and Jerry's and then advance to the next goal. Make each one attainable (with a reasonable effort).
> 
> At some point, you might not attain a goal you've set. When (if) that happens, you can console yourself by looking back at that first modest goal...and how far you've progressed from it!
> 
> BEST of luck!
> --Archer


 And here I thought you were going to say to buy a Ben and Jerry's even if you dont meet your goal to console yourself.


----------



## Archer

Sharlow said:


> And here I thought you were going to say to buy a Ben and Jerry's even if you dont meet your goal to console yourself.


Some things go without saying!


----------



## jseay

My ebook went live on Smashwords and Amazon this week. However, I haven't made any sales yet.  Hopefully, things will pick up with time. Anyone have any marketing advice?

Thanks,

Jaye


----------



## Gthater

So far this month my Harbinger of Doom (fantasy) series has sold a little over 600 copies, mostly of Book 1, The Gateway. The majority have come from Smashwords this month, where The Gateway is ranked about #103 in all-time sales. Typically, the majority of my sales are via Amazon, kindle.

glenn g. thater
author of harbinger of doom
www.glenngthater.com


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Not counting the free downloads from smashwords, The Weight of Blood is up to a rockin' 44 sales. Not too shabby for the first 3 weeks its been uploaded (2/1 to 2/20). Hopefully uploading book two will increase the likelihood of people purchasing the first one, and then I'll start working on a website. Also submitted to 4 different review sites. Hoping if/when one or two does a review, that will help as well.

You know, assuming they don't eat my story alive.

David Dalglish


----------



## Sharlow

jseay said:


> My ebook went live on Smashwords and Amazon this week. However, I haven't made any sales yet. Hopefully, things will pick up with time. Anyone have any marketing advice?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jaye


So far I haven't had any sales from Smashwords. Some people do great there and some not so. So far I'm the not so.


----------



## kayakruthie

Hi Sharlow--I just sold my first 100 copies of Amsterdam 2012 at $3.99 in about a month.  Next week I think I'll drop my price to .99.  I'll let you know how it goes.  -Ruth


----------



## LCEvans

I have four titles and have sold a total of about 250 copies. Two of my books are not on Kindle, but I'm going to change that as soon as I can. My 2 Kindle books are selling better than my paperbacks. One of my paperbacks is with a small publisher which has the electronic rights, so I can't do anything to change that one, but the contract on the other is up next month. I'm going to take it out of print with the publisher and regain control so I can put it out for Kindle and Smashwords.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I went over the 4,400 mark about 20 minites ago across all titles since I've been doing this publishing thing. So far for February, 448 sold. It's funny, February 2008 I was selling 2 books a week, In Febraury 2009 I was selling 2 books a day, in Febraury 2010 I've been selling 20 books a day. Does that mean in February 2011 that I'll be selling . . . One would think it possible.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

You must remember us, Ed, in all your fame and glory....
I'm at your Feb 2009 level.....


----------



## Sharlow

kayakruthie said:


> Hi Sharlow--I just sold my first 100 copies of Amsterdam 2012 at $3.99 in about a month. Next week I think I'll drop my price to .99. I'll let you know how it goes. -Ruth


Wow thats sweet Ruth. This was your first month?


----------



## Sharlow

LCEvans said:


> I have four titles and have sold a total of about 250 copies. Two of my books are not on Kindle, but I'm going to change that as soon as I can. My 2 Kindle books are selling better than my paperbacks. One of my paperbacks is with a small publisher which has the electronic rights, so I can't do anything to change that one, but the contract on the other is up next month. I'm going to take it out of print with the publisher and regain control so I can put it out for Kindle and Smashwords.


 Thats what Ive been reading a lot in blogs recently. A lot of traditionally published authors are putting up their old books and that are out of print or that they just got back the rights to, and are making a killing.


----------



## Sharlow

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I went over the 4,400 mark about 20 minites ago across all titles since I've been doing this publishing thing. So far for February, 448 sold. It's funny, February 2008 I was selling 2 books a week, In Febraury 2009 I was selling 2 books a day, in Febraury 2010 I've been selling 20 books a day. Does that mean in February 2011 that I'll be selling . . . One would think it possible.
> 
> Ed Patterson


 Thats an amazing change each year. I hope I can do as well. So what would that be...200 a day?


----------



## J Dean

Just found out I sold three on my Amazon dashboard yesterday.  Not much, but I'll take it!


----------



## Joseph Rhea

To add to the discussion, most of last year my book was listed at $7.99, and without any promotion, I was lucky to get 2-3 sales per month (however, I was busy rewriting the first act during that time, so I didn't care). When I finished the revised version, I changed the price to $0.99 for a 3-week period right before Christmas and sold about 300 copies. In January, after a lot of thought (and numerous posts here) I set the "final" price at $2.99 and my book has been averaging 9-10 sales per day for the past 2 months (totaling between 225-275 sales per month).

Tomorrow, as one last bold experiment, Cyberdrome will go on sale for *$1.99* for a limited time (~4 weeks), so we'll see how that changes things for March (possibly more sales but less income--which is okay--I can afford to experiment right now.) 

This, however, will be the last sale for me. $2.99 is a good price-point, it seems, and with the Amazon royalty change coming in June, it is where I plan to stay...(after the sale anyway.)

Cheers all (and keep writing!)
JR


----------



## LCEvans

Isn't it fun to check your Amazon dashboard and find out you've sold a bunch of copies? Or even one. I mark mine on my kitchen calendar so I can see it at a glance. At first there were a lot of blank days, but now those are the exception.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Yes indeedy. Yesterday I checked and, because I was in the process of lowering the price on The Nan Tu to $ .99, I checked to see if it was still processing about a half hour later and I had sold 13 books. Of course, it included a $ .99 run where probably one reader (bless their hearts) ran the gamut of my $ .99 books and had bought 10 of them. I immediately hit the Amazon threads to thank this noble reader (who has good tastes   )

Ed Patterson


----------



## Sharlow

One more day for sales, and then this month is done. crossing my fingers for more sales today. Good luck to every one.!


----------



## Ricky Sides

Good luck to you sir. 

I got lucky. Books on the Knob profiled my peacekeeper series, and the women's self-defense book last night. Since then I've enjoyed the greatest flurry of one day sales I've ever experienced. Looks like I'm going to double last months sales, thanks to Koland's blog. And Kinbr's smashwords thread has netted me my best smashwords month to date as well.

Have a great day,
Ricky


----------



## Sharlow

Ricky Sides said:


> Good luck to you sir.
> 
> I got lucky. Books on the Knob profiled my peacekeeper series, and the women's self-defense book last night. Since then I've enjoyed the greatest flurry of one day sales I've ever experienced. Looks like I'm going to double last months sales, thanks to Koland's blog. And Kinbr's smashwords thread has netted me my best smashwords month to date as well.
> 
> Have a great day,
> Ricky


Gratz on that. Did they notice you on there own, or did you send them a free copy?


----------



## Ricky Sides

Sharlow said:


> Gratz on that. Did they notice you on there own, or did you send them a free copy?


Actually it was both. Koland noticed my peacekeeper books and profiled them on her blog. One day she noticed a promotional post I'd made in which I referenced the pending release of the women's self defense book. She inquired about an advance copy that she could examine, so when I had one ready I obliged her.

But if you're wondering what originally drew her attention, I'd say it was price point. Book 1 of the peacekeeper series was then selling for $1.00, and the rest of the series was selling for $2.99. I later lowered the rest of the series to $1.99. This month I had them all at $1.00, but the prices are all $1.99 now. I misstimed the Amazon change speed by a day. I should have waited until Saturday morning, instead of Friday night, to make the change on the platform so it would take place on the first of the month. This is the fastest I've ever seen Amazon change prices on my titles. 

Unfortunately, that ends my sale a day early. As of this moment I have 208 sales for the month. That blows away my previous record of 100 sales.

Have a great day,
Ricky


----------



## Sharlow

Ricky Sides said:


> Actually it was both. Koland noticed my peacekeeper books and profiled them on her blog. One day she noticed a promotional post I'd made in which I referenced the pending release of the women's self defense book. She inquired about an advance copy that she could examine, so when I had one ready I obliged her.
> 
> But if you're wondering what originally drew her attention, I'd say it was price point. Book 1 of the peacekeeper series was then selling for $1.00, and the rest of the series was selling for $2.99. I later lowered the rest of the series to $1.99. This month I had them all at $1.00, but the prices are all $1.99 now. I misstimed the Amazon change speed by a day. I should have waited until Saturday morning, instead of Friday night, to make the change on the platform so it would take place on the first of the month. This is the fastest I've ever seen Amazon change prices on my titles.
> 
> Unfortunately, that ends my sale a day early. As of this moment I have 208 sales for the month. That blows away my previous record of 100 sales.
> 
> Have a great day,
> Ricky


 Thats awesome Ricky! I'm looking forward to seeing that many sold in a month soon. Looks like we both broke our records for highest selling month so far. I actually sold 16 this month. Thats a new record for me!

So far, for those who are watching, I went:

December only 2 weeks: 6
January: 8
February: 16

I'm hoping the trend will continue. Thanks to everyone who's posted their numbers so far. I really believe this helps all us new guys, and gives us something to compare our results to and get a grip on what to expect.


----------



## Ricky Sides

Sharlow,

That's exponential growth. Outstanding!

Have a great day,
Ricky


----------



## Dawsburg

With both my Kindle books combined, about 174 in almost a year.

And then you have Ed over here who can outsell me in a moment.

Really it's all about keeping up the momentum. When the sales get rolling, go with it and have fun--keep pushing your book, especially your website (which should be all about your book). And as that ball keeps rolling, it'll expound on itself. The problem for me has been daily dedication--keeping it going when I don't really want to, which is really the key to marketing and pretty much almost anything in this wild world of writing and publishing.

Dawson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

But Dawson, you have so mouch more before you than I do. I'm racing the moon.   You're sailing with the sun.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Well, the month ended with one heck of a run on my novel. Sold 25 copies on the last four days of the month, so I finished with 76 total sales. Not bad for the very first month its been on sale, eh? So much for my paranoia and freak-out way back at 25 sales. Feel a little silly, now.

Maybe you all can help me out here, but now the month has crossed over the DTP isn't loading any reports, for previous month or this month, either. Is this common during a month transition?

David Dalglish


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

DTP clears itself out on the first of the month, so you get the dreaded blank on the 1st day of the month (until the frst saes). The sales report for the previous month takes 4 business dyas to appear.

Ed Patterson


----------



## J Dean

Got a couple of more sold over the weekend.  Was nice to see!


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Thanks for the info, Ed. And booyah, already got a fancy, shiny 1 in the sale column. No dreaded zero for me.

David Dalglish


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

I really don't like the beginning of the month.


----------



## Dave Dykema

I usually do pretty well, but looking at a "Zero" in the old DTP reports column now. Truthfully, it says "No matching transactions in this date range."

Would be nice to have some to show tonight when I gave a presentation about publishing to Kindle for a writers group.


----------



## Archer

I've always got access to previous months' sales--older, yes, but still impressive! January was a really good month for most of us. How about that one, Dave?


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

In the name of solidarity, and aid to a fellow Dave, I purchased one of your books, so you'll at least have one sale to boast of tonight.

David Dalglish


----------



## Dave Dykema

Yes, Archer, January was a really good month. Good times, good times...

David, thanks a bunch! As a fellow Dave, I appreciate it. Do you know the song "These Are the Daves I Know" by Kids in the Hall?

P.S. I returned the favor with your Orc book.


----------



## Alastair Dandy

Two this month, at 99 cents. Don't think I can quit the day job just yet.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Dave I'd help you out, but I already have all your books.   In the meanwhile I had my first 6 sales for the month, all in an hour.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

Three so far today. Take _that_, Professor Tolkien!

Cordially,

Dr. Kephart

On the other hand, _Regenerated_ at Smashwords went from 118 to 125 last night. Sweet.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Dave Dykema said:


> David, thanks a bunch! As a fellow Dave, I appreciate it. Do you know the song "These Are the Daves I Know" by Kids in the Hall?


Heh heh.

"Dave Jadiski
Man, this cat can swing
He weighs almost 50 pounds
And he delivers my paper on time"

I actually deliver newspapers, too. Not on time, though. I sleep in more than I should. I'm lazy like that.

Oh, and thanks for the purchase 

And Carolyn, you better be careful. The ghosts of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis will come after you for such coldhearted blasphemy.

David Dalglish


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

Half-Orc said:


> And Carolyn, you better be careful. The ghosts of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis will come after you for such coldhearted blasphemy.


By now they're fleeing into the darkness screaming in terror, 'cause I've just sold _five_!

My power grows...[insert requisite 'bwahahahaaaaa'] 

CK


----------



## Joseph Rhea

DTP says I've sold 6 copies of Cyberdrome this morning   but at the same time, my Amazon Rank has risen from under 3,000 to over 4,000  
That tells me someone out there is selling like mad today, driving my ratings down even with good sales...
Thanks! Thanks a lot!  

Anyone else notice this trend today?


----------



## tbrookside

You'll bounce.  There seems to be some lag today.


----------



## Dawsburg

I still have no sales for today--I hope I can get a few soon. March is traditionally the month when I get in the mood for books and specifically marketing, coming out of the dormancy of Winter.

And that's a shame, because I've historically come out with my books in December before Christmas. I swear, I'm never doing THAT again after the third book in Josiah Jones comes out.

I've actually considered moving the release date for this third book up to the Spring because it's the time where I'm most motivated to market my book and it gives me more time to make it a better book and get an excellent marketing scheme going.

But for now, I'll stick to these forums! If you haven't already, pick up a copy of Double Life!


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> Thanks for the info, Ed. And booyah, already got a fancy, shiny 1 in the sale column. No dreaded zero for me.
> 
> David Dalglish


Me too, it sure looks good. My biggest concern at the moment is I'm starting to get messages from people who can't seem to be able to purchase my book. I thought the Kindle book was available to anyone who had a Kindle?


----------



## Sharlow

Dave Dykema said:


> I usually do pretty well, but looking at a "Zero" in the old DTP reports column now. Truthfully, it says "No matching transactions in this date range."
> 
> Would be nice to have some to show tonight when I gave a presentation about publishing to Kindle for a writers group.


 Your lucky, there no writer groups in my city. I've tried all the big book stores and the library. Would be nice to have one.


----------



## Joseph Rhea

tbrookside said:


> You'll bounce. There seems to be some lag today.


Wow, you're like a magician. Suddenly, poof, my book's back in the top 2,500 where I thought it should be.
I track my Amazon ranking using the free NovelRank.com site, and I've never seen a delay as long as that one (5-6 hours).
Apparently, "March Madness" comes in different varieties.


----------



## Dawsburg

Sharlow said:


> Your lucky, there no writer groups in my city. I've tried all the big book stores and the library. Would be nice to have one.


Well, the only writers group I know of around here is the one I'm a member of--and it isn't a very good one.


----------



## Bonnie Glover

This question and the resulting answers are pretty helpful.  I especially liked when one of the answers spoke of building a career and not just selling books.  There is a difference and sometimes in our enthusiasm we forget -- at least I do.  Not just about today.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

They're off and running folks at 20 (which starts the month at my daily average).

Ed Patterson


----------



## Dawsburg

Edward C. Patterson said:


> They're off and running folks at 20 (which starts the month at my daily average).
> 
> Ed Patterson


See what I mean? Ed far exceeds anything I could even dream of reaching in sales. But you know, Ed, you were right when you said that I'm just at the beginning of the journey--sometimes I tend to forget that and I compare myself with adult authors.

And actually, a lot of times, I exceed the work of most adults as far as sales go. In my first year I sold 500 books, 350 of which were physical copies. Most authors don't sell 100.

Dawson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Dawson,

If I had sold 1 book at your age I'd have the sky by now. I sold my first book at age 60. You have the wold before you at a time when the industry has changed. And remember, authors don't sell books, they write them. Readers sell books. So get those readers and they'll sell them for you. If you noticed in the threads that I promote using what? My reader's wods. That's the ticket.

You shine, sir and you're actually leading the charge - not me.

Ed Patterson


----------



## JennaAnderson

I was waiting to post today to see what sales would do later in the day. It was a very slow start but as of now I've had 9 sales of Healing Touch.

There are A LOT of new free Kindle titles up today so I'm sure that's why our sales rankings are a bit out of the norm.

I'm so glad to see everyone doing so well. 

Jenna


----------



## Dawsburg

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Dawson,
> 
> If I had sold 1 book at your age I'd have the sky by now. I sold my first book at age 60. You have the wold before you at a time when the industry has changed. And remember, authors don't sell books, they write them. Readers sell books. So get those readers and they'll sell them for you. If you noticed in the threads that I promote using what? My reader's wods. That's the ticket.
> 
> You shine, sir and you're actually leading the charge - not me.
> 
> Ed Patterson


Ed,

Wise words. Always welcome at my house.


----------



## Gthater

My Harbinger of Doom saga sold about 900 copies in February.  March 1st has so far brought 20 more sales.  Most of these sales have been of The Gateway, which is book 1 of the series.

regards,
glenn g. thater
author of harbinger of doom
www.glenngthater.com


----------



## Sharlow

Well it's the last day of the month, and I haven't posted on this thread in a couple of month's. So it seems like a good time to revive it.

Surprisingly I actually sold 5 e-books through smashwords this month. Otherwise I sold only 6 eBooks on Kindle. It's kinda bitter sweet. The numbers are a bit depressing, but at the same time thats 6 more people I haven't met that are reading my story. 

well theres a few more hours left of the day here on the west coast. Got my fingers crossed. 

So how did everyone else do this month?


----------



## sierra09

I don't keep track that much of sales on Smashwords since most of my 'sales' on there come from OEBD and therefore are free via coupons. I think I might have sold probably 4 ebooks from there all told this month.
Most of my ebooks sales come from Kindle. According to the DTP thing all told for four titles I've sold 309 ebooks with most coming from the SEAL title.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

This month was a banner month (thanks to Red Adept and KB I'm sure). The Weight of Blood, on the final day for sales, just crossed 200, which means over a 100% increase of the previous month. Absolutely incredible. Also managed another 138 sales of The Cost of Betrayal, which means I'm pulling a 3 to 2 ratio on those, which I am also very pleased with. I keep waiting for the magic carpet ride to end, but last I checked The Weight of Blood was 2100 ranked, 38th in Epic Fantasy, so by god it isn't over for at least today.

Smashwords sales? Five.  

David Dalglish


----------



## LCEvans

I've had a really good month as well with We Interrupt This Date--more than 350 copies sold. Night Camp has sold only 5, but it's a children's book and kids don't have Kindles. I rarely get sales at Smashwords


----------



## Sean Sweeney

Turning Back The Clock just sold its 100th total copy today!


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

This was a good month for me, but I think it'd have been even better if _The Ryel Saga_ was offered as a paper-based book in addition to the Kindle edition. I'll be giving Createspace and Lightningsource a look, just to have a few hard copies on hand for fantasy readers, many of whom aren't digitally inclined.

CK


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Just short of 400 across all titles this month, bringing me to 5,517 so far. Strange month. Was slow the first week, picked up in the middle and today - zippo (well, 2). It's a good thing I sick in bed and not well enough to do a last day of the month pitch. Nite all.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## JimC1946

My nonfiction Recollections: A Baby Boomer's Memories of the Fabulous Fifties







has sold more than 100 copies a month for the last four months. The paperback is selling about fifteen copies a month and has actually sold a few copies at Amazon UK.

For reasons that totally escape me, today has been my record day, with 15 sales so far, which is pushing my sales ranking close to three digits. That's a real thrill for me, since the sales and the 28 5-star reviews show me that people are enjoying the book. And for 99 cents, I promise you'll get your money's worth.

I'm selling a few books on Smashwords and B&N, but Amazon is still the 800-pound gorilla in book sales!











Thanks to everyone who has bought my book.

Jim Chambers


----------



## MegHarris

I had a great month. All my books did well (thanks partly to an interview with The Galaxy Express, a sci-fi romance site), but the bestseller was oddly a book I didn't even promote much. My contemporary romance novella _In the Mood _sold 500 copies this month, to my immense surprise.


----------



## J.L. Penn

My book sales are definitely a testament to online presence. I released _Reunion_ around April 2009. Sales were steady but very small and soft cover sales outnumbered Kindle sales most months. This trend continued as I more or less sat dormant until this year. I promoted among friends etc., but really didn't appreciate the size of the Kindle market. To really see the dramatic change ...

My Kindle sales for _Reunion_ were 12 in February. Kindle sales in March were 151. Kindle sales for April (as of this moment) are 301. I "got online" (forums, blogs, etc.) in March. Hmm.  Oh, I almost forgot that I've also sold 22 soft cover copies this month, 7 of which went to one bookstore (wish I knew which one).

_The Cinderella Curse_ was released in March of this year I believe. The first month I had Kindle sales of around 23 copies. This month I'm at 85 right now. This one is only available in electronic form because it's a novella.

I've also sold a few copies, mainly of _Reunion_, on Smashwords, but really not much at all there. ($14 in royalties so far)

I'm not exactly sure where my cumulative sales are, but I'd guess they're around 650 for both books combined.

-Jenn


----------



## jesscscott

Congrats to all! I've sold 22 this month (compared to 1 in July 2009, when I put the first book up for the first time...). I realized that the categories/keywords I used for my first book were quite, quite atrocious--Amazon DTP takes 24-48 hours to approve the changes. Hopefully my tweaks will allow the book to start appearing alongside some similar books, and be located in the right place. 

I'll be sticking with indie publishing for now. The speed + efficiency of the DIY model seems to offer more opportunities to newbie authors, when compared to traditional publishing.


----------



## JimC1946

J.L. Penn said:


> My Kindle sales for _Reunion_ were 12 in February. Kindle sales in March were 151. Kindle sales for April (as of this moment) are 301.


Holy cow, Jenn, 300+ sales in a month, and the trend is upward. Way to go!


----------



## ldenglish

I am astonished to have sold 386 ebooks this month. Before now, I was happy to have sold fifty. Then last month it crept up to 212, and this month . . . well, I am thrilled. Paperbacks? At least I'm selling 4-6 a month now, compared to a year ago when I felt lucky to sell one.

I see other authors here are having good sales. I wonder if there are a lot of new Kindle owners who are snapping up e-books, but I hope it's more a case of readers finally taking books by Indies seriously.


----------



## Sharlow

Those are some pretty amazing figures I'm seeing so far. Congrats to everyone.


----------



## JimC1946

JimC1946 said:


> For reasons that totally escape me, today has been my record day, with 15 sales so far, which is pushing my sales ranking close to three digits. That's a real thrill for me, since the sales and the 28 5-star reviews show me that people are enjoying the book. And for 99 cents, I promise you'll get your money's worth.


Right now, I'm at 24 books sold today, but the mystery has been solved. I got a nice PM from someone who told me that my book was blurbed today at Books on the Knob. I had no idea that BOTK was so influential!


----------



## Ricky Sides

JimC1946 said:


> Right now, I'm at 24 books sold today, but the mystery has been solved. I got a nice PM from someone who told me that my book was blurbed today at Books on the Knob. I had no idea that BOTK was so influential!


Oh yeah. A couple of times now some of my books have been profiled there, and it led to a big sales rush for days afterwards.


----------



## J.L. Penn

Thanks, Jim!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Oh, yeah Jim. Every time Karen blubs me on Book on the Knob I get a spike in sales.

Ed Patterson


----------



## JimC1946

One more comment if you'll indulge me.  About 80% of my book sales are for the ebook version. Amazon has been very tight about saying how many Kindles have been sold, but I think it's probably a pretty impressive number and increasing rapidly. Same situation for the other ebook readers like the B&N Nook, Apple iPhone/iPod/iPad, and the Sony models.  As these ebook readers proliferate, there will be more and more people buying ebooks. Hopefully many of these readers will discover the world of indie literature and learn that you can buy some marvelous books for much less than the big publishers are selling their books for.

Maybe I'm just wishing/dreaming that this happens, but I think that indie self-publishing has a bright future. When I bought my Kindle in July 2009, I figured I would be buying mostly $9.99 bestsellers. In fact, I did buy 4-5 of those, but now I'm buying only indie books and loving it.

EDIT: Ed, I just saw your post. You know, of course, that you're our indie hero!


----------



## jesscscott

JimC1946 said:


> Maybe I'm just wishing/dreaming that this happens, but I think that indie self-publishing has a bright future. When I bought my Kindle in July 2009, I figured I would be buying mostly $9.99 bestsellers. In fact, I did buy 4-5 of those, but now I'm buying only indie books and loving it.
> 
> EDIT: Ed, I just saw your post. You know, of course, that you're our indie hero!


Yeah, I downloaded a bunch of indie Kindle samples (and one by a traditionally-published author) yesterday -- the trad one was the most contrived (and expensive) of all, lol...


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

JimC

 and blushing

ECP


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

I'm pleased to report that as of today Rottweiler Rescue has sold 803 copies. That's not all Kindle books.  There have been 7, count 'em, 7 Smashwords sales, and 80 paperback sales. The only actual payment I've received is for paperback sales. The ones I sold myself at the dog show, of course, and payment for March from Create Space.


----------



## MegHarris

Wow, that's great, Ellen.  I've hesitated to make paperbacks because I'm lazy, and I didn't think I would sell many.  But if it accounts for a tenth of your overall sales, then that's more significant than I would have expected.


----------



## JimC1946

You're doing great, Ellen. As a practical matter, I think a paperback helps, especially with reviewers who don't have Kindles. With the increasing numbers of devices that can be used to read ebooks, that may not be as big a factor as it used to be, but it is nice to show a "real book" to people who are clueless about ebooks.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Every eBook should have a paperback behind it, even if you only sell a few. They're good for the soul, readings, gifts, reviewers and give you a steep on-screen discount on your eBook page.

Ed Patterson

BTW, got my Barnes & Nobles Royalties from Smashwords today for pre-January and Janury ($26.02), but have no idea how many were sold and which books. 've asked Smashwors to get me a breakout, if possible. I'm anal with my spreadhseet, divvying up which books sell and whcih don't, and B&N is a different venue altogether. How else will I learn. Of course at $ .35 a royalty I could assume I had 74 sales, however, I have my little How to book up there for free without royalties, so I need to know how many of those were "select" sales. opefully Smashwords will do this.

Ed P


----------



## Archer

Speaking of Barnes and Noble, I walked into another random B&N today and found my books on the shelf in fantasy sci/fi. 
THAT was cool! Every once in a while, I find them in a previously unexplored habitat. 

(Sounds of kookaburras and peafowl and other inappropriate jungle sounds to indicate unexplored habitat.)


----------



## J.L. Penn

That is VERY cool, Archer!!


----------



## Archer

Thank you, Jenn.  

(BTW, it just makes me laugh SO hard when kookaburras are used as background noise in African jungle films...)


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

Thanks, everyone.  I didn't expect paperbacks to sell (at $9.99 as opposed to the $1.99 for the Kindle version) either and only did the paperback because I wanted to sell them directly at the dog show and donate some also, but I will do a paperback again of the next book in my Rottweiler mystery series. They seem to be selling just a little less than 1 copy per day on Amazon. A couple of people in my dog club have approached me all surprised and said, "Are you the one who . . . ."  I think they find the book when they search for non-fiction dog books, as I did put it in dog book categories. I also got an online Rottweiler magazine to mention it and supposedly they are going to have a review of it there soon.  Need to get busy and see if other dog magazines will do the same.  Since I'm donating half the royalty from the paperback to the local rescue group, my royalty on a paperback is only pennies more than from the $1.99 Kindle version, but it's all on the plus side.


----------



## LCEvans

Archer,
Finding your book on the shelves of a B&N is so exciting! I keep hoping to find one of mine in a bookstore, but so far that hasn't happened. Last year I did a book signing at Borders for Talented Horsewoman and they asked me to leave four copies at the store on consignment. They sold all four, yet they didn't order more to put on the shelves.


----------



## Archer

LCEvans said:


> Archer,
> Finding your book on the shelves of a B&N is so exciting! I keep hoping to find one of mine in a bookstore, but so far that hasn't happened. Last year I did a book signing at Borders for Talented Horsewoman and they asked me to leave four copies at the store on consignment. They sold all four, yet they didn't order more to put on the shelves.


LC:
Yeah, they're kinda obtuse that way. Unless the books are returnable (mine are, which helps), they will sell on consignment only. I'll bet they'd take more from you on consignment, though...and I simply must pick up Talented Horsewoman. Sounds like my kind of book! 

My channel sales (bookstores) aren't all that spectacular (maybe 300 a year per title); Amazon even less. I sell more DTB at conventions (two weeks ago sold 125 at a horse fair), but there's nothing like those 'random' moments in bookstores.

Elfhunter has appeared on endcaps in Scifi/fantasy at B&N and Walden's, it's been displayed under 'staff recommends', and once it was in a brand new B&N on the 'new fiction' table. I thought I was going to expire! I doubt they sold very many, but they put it there...egad! It has been quite educational to chat with the staff--they tell me how the books came to be there, how many they've sold and under what circumstances. They also give feedback about cover price concerns, which are fewer than one might think. Fortunately, the second in the trilogy is the real beastie. It only sells to those who loved the first one.

It's handy to have a website and have the address printed in the book. That way, readers can contact you easily. I've been known to hyperventilate occasionally ('Hi...I'm from Fort Collins and I found your book in the local B&N...'). Doesn't happen often, but it does happen!


----------



## J Dean

Incidentally, I had a few good sales last week for my paperback.


----------



## ◄ Jess ►

JimC1946 said:


> Right now, I'm at 24 books sold today, but the mystery has been solved. I got a nice PM from someone who told me that my book was blurbed today at Books on the Knob. I had no idea that BOTK was so influential!


Heey, I got an e-mail from Karen from BOTK and had no idea who she was/how she found out about my book, but hopefully I'll get something on there, that would be nice! That was a week ago though, so I have no idea how long it takes to get on the website (if she even likes it!). That's cool though.


----------



## Archer

J Dean said:


> Incidentally, I had a few good sales last week for my paperback.


Good news all around! Great stuff, that!


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

I sold 2 copies in physical form last month, yet three days in to this month I already have two sales. Bizarre.

Ebook sales, however, are continuing to floor me. Just into day three, and I've already sold 23 copies of The Weight of Blood. Heck, I've sold 3 copies in the past two hours. I remember my first month, where at times I went a day or two in between sales, and when I did get them, they'd be 1 or 2 at a time. A day of 5 made me go crazy and call my brother to brag. Now I feel like I've been spoiled. I've sold 4 copies when I went to bed last night, and all I can think about is that I hope they continue so I finish with 30  

Maybe its the tags, maybe its Red Adept, maybe its these forums, but whatever the reason, I couldn't be more thankful.

David Dalglish


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

The smallest mention online can result in a sales spike. _The Ryel Saga_ was recommended on the Amazon Kindle forum the day before yesterday, and I checked my numbers this morning and was very pleasantly surprised.

If only readers knew how much their input matters, and how good that little jolt to the solar plexus feels! 

CK


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

How true:

Last month a favorable mention for _Look Away Silence _ has bolted that book to near 300 copies. In February it was _Turning Idolater _ that went through the roof based on reader favorable comments on the threads. _The Academician _ has now also started spiking from a few conversations from readers that are piping up while they are still reading it. Reader public feedback, not necessarily in a review, is important, because it is fresh, honest and worth its weight in gold.

Ed Patterson


----------



## JimC1946

In the 72+ hours since my book was shown on BOTN, the Kindle edition sold more than 50 copies, and for a few hours on Friday night, it was actually in the top 1,000 sales ranking.

Pretty awesome!


----------



## Ricky Sides

WTG Sir. Something like that couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Have a great day,
Ricky


----------



## JimC1946

Ricky Sides said:


> WTG Sir. Something like that couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
> 
> Have a great day,
> Ricky


Thanks, Ricky. My wife said the same thing, but she's biased, especially since I got her an iPhone last month. ;-)


----------



## Victorine

Wow, you guys are selling like gangbusters!  I'm fairly new to all of this... my book hasn't been up for sale long.  (About 2 weeks.)  So I'm still in my single digits for sales.  I'm almost to 10 though!  Wheeeee!

I'm hopeful things will pick up.  

Vicki


----------



## JimC1946

Vicki, it takes time to get rolling. I think it took about three months of promoting my book online (Kindle Boards, Amazon forums, and a few book review websites) to get the first 50-60 sales. Stay with it and don't give up, and you'll see the rewards.

Good luck!


----------



## Victorine

Thank you for the encouragement Jim!  

I've never promoted on a book review website before.  Do you have to pay them to review your book?  (I've seen some ads for that kind of thing... but I shy away from things like that.  It smells of 'scam' to me.)  Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Vicki


----------



## JimC1946

Victorine said:


> I've never promoted on a book review website before. Do you have to pay them to review your book? (I've seen some ads for that kind of thing... but I shy away from things like that. It smells of 'scam' to me.) Any tips would be greatly appreciated.


Vicki, I would recommend staying away from paid reviews. Many of them are legitimate, but if you pay one of them several hundred dollars, it's not likely you'll get enough increased sales to recoup your investment. If you'll read through the posts on Kindle Boards and some of the Amazon forums, you'll get a lot of ideas about where to request reviews for free. Hang around some of these sites and make friends with the regulars, and you can pick their brains and help them promote their books, and in turn, they'll promote yours in the forums and blogs. It takes time and a lot of your energy, but eventually, it pays off, and you'll meet some nice folks along the way.


----------



## Victorine

Thanks!  That's great advice.  I'm addicted to this board... I'm afraid to join any others... my husband and children may never see me.  LOL!

Vicki


----------



## JimC1946

Vicki, I tagged your book, and I would appreciate it if you would tag mine. Look at this website to get more tags if you're willing to spend time tagging others. Read the section "What is tagging" - it's very helpful. Make sure you look around the site, especially the section where authors request tags, before you post a request. Some people just dash right in and get everything wrong, which just aggravates the regulars.

http://tagmybookonamazon.wordpress.com/

Tags help make your book pop up higher in keyword searches on Amazon.

I recommend you keep a photograph of your family next to your PC so you can remember what they look like.

I'm looking at my wife's picture right now.


----------



## Victorine

Thanks for tagging me!  I just tagged you back.  (Does that mean you're "it" now?)

Laughing about the photo!  I'll have to do that.    Actually, my husband and I run a business full time, so I see a lot of him.  And it's in our basement... so we're near our kids too.  The best of all worlds. 

I'll check out the tagging website.  Thanks for the tips!

Vicki


----------



## JimC1946

Victorine said:


> Thanks for the tips!


Just remember me when you're rich and famous!


----------



## Sharlow

archer said:


> LC:
> Yeah, they're kinda obtuse that way. Unless the books are returnable (mine are, which helps), they will sell on consignment only. I'll bet they'd take more from you on consignment, though...and I simply must pick up Talented Horsewoman. Sounds like my kind of book!
> 
> My channel sales (bookstores) aren't all that spectacular (maybe 300 a year per title); Amazon even less. I sell more DTB at conventions (two weeks ago sold 125 at a horse fair), but there's nothing like those 'random' moments in bookstores.
> 
> Elfhunter has appeared on endcaps in Scifi/fantasy at B&N and Walden's, it's been displayed under 'staff recommends', and once it was in a brand new B&N on the 'new fiction' table. I thought I was going to expire! I doubt they sold very many, but they put it there...egad! It has been quite educational to chat with the staff--they tell me how the books came to be there, how many they've sold and under what circumstances. They also give feedback about cover price concerns, which are fewer than one might think. Fortunately, the second in the trilogy is the real beastie. It only sells to those who loved the first one.
> 
> It's handy to have a website and have the address printed in the book. That way, readers can contact you easily. I've been known to hyperventilate occasionally ('Hi...I'm from Fort Collins and I found your book in the local B&N...'). Doesn't happen often, but it does happen!


 You know, how long has Elf hunter been out? Because when I first started coming here back in December, I could of sworn I had seen that cover at our borders, or B&N when I was out hanging around in the book stores. I thought it was an Elf Quest graphic novel when I seen it. But for some reason your covers been screaming at me since I saw it here. I could be mistaken tho. That was when I lived down in Medford, OR, if you were wondering. I cant go check that store these days as I no longer live there.


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> I sold 2 copies in physical form last month, yet three days in to this month I already have two sales. Bizarre.
> 
> Ebook sales, however, are continuing to floor me. Just into day three, and I've already sold 23 copies of The Weight of Blood. Heck, I've sold 3 copies in the past two hours. I remember my first month, where at times I went a day or two in between sales, and when I did get them, they'd be 1 or 2 at a time. A day of 5 made me go crazy and call my brother to brag. Now I feel like I've been spoiled. I've sold 4 copies when I went to bed last night, and all I can think about is that I hope they continue so I finish with 30
> 
> Maybe its the tags, maybe its Red Adept, maybe its these forums, but whatever the reason, I couldn't be more thankful.
> 
> David Dalglish


 Hey Dave I wanted to thank you again, for bringing up my cover. Just to let you know, I've had 6 sales so far this month, and it's only day 3. That was the whole of my sales last month. So keep your fingers crossed.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Sharlow said:


> Hey Dave I wanted to thank you again, for bringing up my cover. Just to let you know, I've had 6 sales so far this month, and it's only day 3. That was the whole of my sales last month. So keep your fingers crossed.


Glad I could help Sharlow. I'm going to toss out a guess that you'll sell about 45 copies this month, which should be a very nice increase over your last month. You make sure you let me know at the end of the month 

David Dalglish


----------



## Archer

Sharlow said:


> You know, how long has Elf hunter been out? Because when I first started coming here back in December, I could of sworn I had seen that cover at our borders, or B&N when I was out hanging around in the book stores. I thought it was an Elf Quest graphic novel when I seen it. But for some reason your covers been screaming at me since I saw it here. I could be mistaken tho. That was when I lived down in Medford, OR, if you were wondering. I cant go check that store these days as I no longer live there.


Sharlow:

Elfhunter first hit the shelves early in 2006. It was published at the end of November in 2005. 
An Elfquest graphic novel, eh? I'll take that as a compliment. I like Wendy Pini's art.  You're not the first to 'draw' that comparison. 
I wouldn't be surprised to find the series in Oregon, though. It pops up here and there and everywhere once in a while (just like fungus in the spring! Ha!).

Good luck with those sales! The new cover is much better than the old one IMHO. Like it or not...it DOES make a difference. Ask anyone who packages ANYTHING for sale.


----------



## J Dean

2 more digital books were sold today.  Still not rubbing shoulders with Stephen King, but it's nice to see!

And I think I need more coffee too.


----------



## Greenkeeper

Depends on what you mean by "sold." I have over 250 sold on Smashwords in the two months since I started self-publishing, but the majority of those are free downloads (I do a free w/ coupon month everytime I release a book). As far as actual sales that made me money I am slow but fairly consistent, getting at least 5 per month in March and April. I get a fairly even split between Smashwords and Kindle, which is fine because Smashwords gets me 70% but Kindle sells more. 

Now that I have a sequel to my first book out I am seeing a lot of double purchases, which is exactly what I was hoping for. This month I made double my 'quota' of 5 sales in the first weekend, so hopes are high for the rest of May.


----------



## Sean Sweeney

Sold five copies yesterday... not a bad birthday present!!


----------



## Victorine

Happy Birthday John!

And five in one day... that's great!

Vicki


----------



## J.L. Penn

Sharlow said:


> Hey Dave I wanted to thank you again, for bringing up my cover. Just to let you know, I've had 6 sales so far this month, and it's only day 3. That was the whole of my sales last month. So keep your fingers crossed.


Awesome! I'm of course interested to see how the new version does too. 

Incidentally, it is amazing how quickly we get spoiled. After having some double digit days and finishing out the month at 306 Kindle editions of _Reunion _ and I think 23 soft covers for April, I looked at the 23 Kindle copies sold so far for this month and thought, "Hmm, that's it?" But I sold less than that in all of February! I must remember that sales ebb and flow like so many other things in life. But it sure is nice when they're flowing. 

-Jenn


----------



## LCEvans

> Incidentally, it is amazing how quickly we get spoiled.


So true! May has started out slower for me than April and I started wondering what I'm doing wrong. I had to give myself a good pep talk and a reminder that my sales are still very good, so I have no reason to complain.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

LC Evans:

May is slow and there's nothing an author does wrong when sales are slow. Just wheel back sales a year ago and  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Dave Dykema

May has certainly been slower for me. While Stalker has moved some copies, it took me until yesterday to sell a Wrong Number. A few months ago, I had sold 40 combined by now. Of course, I was doing a lot more promotion then. Once you stop doing that, things begin to trickle.


----------



## daveconifer

My books have never been big sellers like some of the monster writers' books here at KB.  Even for me, though, May has been really slow.  

Part of it (I hope) is that I've not done a bit of promotion in months because I felt like writing again.  If an indie ever feels like their efforts at promotion are in vain, take a month off and see what happens.  I've also been pretty busy working in the new covers.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I never spend more than an hour a day (morning and aevening) promoting, but I've only sold 47 books so far this month and I get antsy (I can't tell why). I guess it's my life as a Marketing Director for four decades, a life I shunned so I wouldn't feel antsy. Go figure.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

Considering that I have only a single book out on Amazon (I've priced the duology high on purpose, and people can get my short fiction free at Smashwords), this month started out gangbusters. Sales slackened over the weekend, but I'm still well ahead of last month at this time. No complaints! 

CK


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

daveconifer said:


> My books have never been big sellers like some of the monster writers' books here at KB. Even for me, though, May has been really slow.
> 
> Part of it (I hope) is that I've not done a bit of promotion in months because I felt like writing again. If an indie ever feels like their efforts at promotion are in vain, take a month off and see what happens. I've also been pretty busy working in the new covers.


Does posting here count as promotion? This is basically the only thing I've done, and so far I'm sitting at 39 and 25 for the two books. Perhaps I'm still coasting from prior reviews or something, but part of me thinks I am getting sales solely for the 99 cent price point and the fact that I have two books up in the series now. That, and my covers are pretty.

My sales have nothing to do with me, just the covers. Yeah, that's probably it.

David Dalglish


----------



## MariaESchneider

You do have great covers.


----------



## Victorine

I love your covers, David.  

I'm wondering if I should mark my book "free" for a little while, to get more exposure.  Does anyone have any experiences they might share about that?  Of course I'm sure you got a lot of takers on the "free"... but after you marked it back up did it help with sales or did they go back to the way they were?

Also, do the people who bought the book feel ripped off if you go "free" for a while?

Thanks in advance for any information.  

Vicki


----------



## Dave Dykema

Half-Orc said:


> Does posting here count as promotion?


Actually, I'd say yes. People here have Kindles and therefore are looking for something to read. You bought my book and I bought yours. I wouldn't have known of it without Kindleboards.

It's just a very mild form of promotion, not even intentional. It probably qualifies as Ed calls "Selling yourself."


----------



## JimC1946

Vickie, unfortunately, Amazon doesn't allow self-published authors to set a price lower than 99 cents. I'm sure that a lot of indie authors would do that if they had the opportunity.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Dave Dykema said:


> Actually, I'd say yes. People here have Kindles and therefore are looking for something to read. You bought my book and I bought yours. I wouldn't have known of it without Kindleboards.
> 
> It's just a very mild form of promotion, not even intentional. It probably qualifies as Ed calls "Selling yourself."


Even if this does count, I'd hardly call it difficult or demanding. I post here because I enjoy it. We're a fellowship of authors, in a sense, with a bunch of readers thrown into the mix. Far different than running blind into a new area and shouting "Book for sale! Fresh book for sale! Hardly used, comes with several 5 star reviews. Buy now, and I'll throw in this fancy codpiece!"

David Dalglish


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

JimC1946 said:


> Vickie, unfortunately, Amazon doesn't allow self-published authors to set a price lower than 99 cents. I'm sure that a lot of indie authors would do that if they had the opportunity.


I'd have to agree! 

Fortunately Smashwords permits freebies, and has a coupon system if one wants to give stuff away selectively.

CK


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Posting anywhere on Kindleboards is promotion. However, be sure to


Spoiler



use spoilers when mentioning your book outside the Bazaar or within a thread where it might appear to be hijacking.


 And always use the donate button at the bottom of the page. No promotion should be free and we pass the plate in the best of churches. (and no I'm not a Kindleboards employee, just a devotee).

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Victorine

JimC1946 said:


> Vickie, unfortunately, Amazon doesn't allow self-published authors to set a price lower than 99 cents. I'm sure that a lot of indie authors would do that if they had the opportunity.


Ah! Good to know.  (My newbie-ness is showing.)

Vicki


----------



## JimC1946

Edward C. Patterson said:


> And always use the donate button at the bottom of the page. No promotion should be free and we pass the plate in the best of churches.


Believe it or not, I had never noticed the donate button before you mentioned it. I just made a donation through PayPal.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

JimC1946 said:


> Believe it or not, I had never noticed the donate button before you mentioned it. I just made a donation through PayPal.


Me neither. Just made my own (pitifully small) donation.

David Dalglish


----------



## J.L. Penn

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I never spend more than an hour a day (morning and aevening) promoting
> 
> Ed Patterson


In Elaine Benis fashion ... GET! OUT!  You must type awfully fast. 

-Jenn


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

My job seasonally lets me promote on and off all day, but we just got a 6 month project which keeps me wall to wall busy - so I take care of The Indie Spotlight promotions (which is not my book) at 7 in the morning, and then a lunch time, I'll check in and perhaps twitter a little. If I no sales or nothing significant by 4 PM, I hit the Amazon boards for an hour with the "plan of the week" which is all set up and eady to go. I touch my Kindleboard threads, but prepartion is key - and if you know exactly where you're going and the purpose, then you can get it done in an hour and, not every day. I do post here in my fun threads and then there's Operation eBook Drop, which I accumulate and take care of twice a week. The Amazon disussion thread promotional secret is to lay off at least two days a week. Otherwise you DO become spam (I'm fortunate in that I have 15 books and 170 reviews to spread in every combination, so I generally don't load up the cut and paste machine and hit every thread. I might hit 10 threads, but with a different post in each and check before I post the last book I promoted in that thread and when. Amazon has a mattrix which detects the same post being cut and paste on the same day and will delete posts and eventually send you a warning, and they will suspecd your posting privileges. A good friend of mine is permnantly banned from Amazon).

Ed Patterson


----------



## J.L. Penn

Holy crappers.  I'm fairly certainly I couldn't pull that off in an hour.  In fact, I'm not sure WHAT I can pull off in just an hour.  

-Jenn


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

If readers write you promotional material, what's there to pull off.   

Ed P


----------



## Victorine

J.L. Penn said:


> Holy crappers. I'm fairly certainly I couldn't pull that off in an hour. In fact, I'm not sure WHAT I can pull off in just an hour.
> 
> -Jenn


Ha ha ha! I'm with you Jenn. I can barely catch up on my threads here in one hour. I'm pretty sure I totally stink at self-promotion. 

Vicki


----------



## J.L. Penn

Yeah, I'm way too slow.  I kind of delve in.  I'm not a good skimmer.  I don't generally do a lot with the designated self-promotion threads, and maybe that's wrong of me.  I know I never look there personally b/c they're just too stinkin' long, but maybe other readers don't feel that way.  I tend to just post on threads that interest me, which takes time to even find.  I may need a new strategy.   

-Jenn


----------



## David Derrico

J.L. Penn said:


> Yeah, I'm way too slow. I kind of delve in. I'm not a good skimmer. I don't generally do a lot with the designated self-promotion threads, and maybe that's wrong of me. I know I never look there personally b/c they're just too stinkin' long, but maybe other readers don't feel that way. I tend to just post on threads that interest me, which takes time to even find. I may need a new strategy.
> 
> -Jenn


Yeah, I'm the same way. I'm not very "organized." I read a bunch of threads and sometimes don't find any to reply to. I only reply if I care about the thread and feel I have something interesting to add. I guess it's not efficient, but ah well.

And I pretty rarely post on the Amazon forums (maybe a couple of posts a week?). I guess I should do it more for promotional reasons, but I just find myself gravitating over here much more often since it's far more enjoyable to me.


----------



## Sharlow

David Derrico said:


> Yeah, I'm the same way. I'm not very "organized." I read a bunch of threads and sometimes don't find any to reply to. I only reply if I care about the thread and feel I have something interesting to add. I guess it's not efficient, but ah well.
> 
> And I pretty rarely post on the Amazon forums (maybe a couple of posts a week?). I guess I should do it more for promotional reasons, but I just find myself gravitating over here much more often since it's far more enjoyable to me.


 Me too. I also have difficulty posting regularly at the amazon forums. It's so hard to find interesting posts to talk about for me. I've actually started gravitating to TV and movies sections. At least the conversations are interesting there.


----------



## LCEvans

I'm way slow at promoting, too. I get so caught up in reading the other posts and finding out what my friends are up to that it seems to take forever to get anything done as far as my own promotions. I've had to limit my online time so as not to cut into my writing time. I'm not always successful at this.


----------



## Victorine

LCEvans said:


> I'm way slow at promoting, too. I get so caught up in reading the other posts and finding out what my friends are up to that it seems to take forever to get anything done as far as my own promotions. I've had to limit my online time so as not to cut into my writing time. I'm not always successful at this.


At least I'm not the only one! LOL!

I've got several wholesale orders sitting here I should be working on for my "real" job... and yet here I am reading and posting on the "fun" forum.  I'd better get to really working or I'll have customers mad at me! *Skitters off to make rubber stamps...*

Vicki


----------



## Sharlow

well it's the end of a month again. The hours are ticking away. So far at least for me, this has been my best month since I put Storytellers up. I'll let you know your prediction is close David. You said 40, and I'm just about there and I'm going to wait till the last minute to see what it is. 33 at the moment. Didn't come close to your over 100 sales of weight of blood however, but I'm happy considering I only had 6 sales in April. 

Thanks again for pointing out that my original cover was dreadful, otherwise i may never of known it was holding back my sales.

So how well did everyone do this month? A lot of you I already know thank's to novel rank. Makes me feel a bit like a cyber stalker     But I like to see how others are doing. You can  spot buying trends by comparing other sales with yours as well. OK lets see those totals.


----------



## Charles Bradley

Edward C. Patterson said:


> My job seasonally lets me promote on and off all day, but we just got a 6 month project which keeps me wall to wall busy - so I take care of The Indie Spotlight promotions (which is not my book) at 7 in the morning, and then a lunch time, I'll check in and perhaps twitter a little. If I no sales or nothing significant by 4 PM, I hit the Amazon boards for an hour with the "plan of the week" which is all set up and eady to go. I touch my Kindleboard threads, but prepartion is key - and if you know exactly where you're going and the purpose, then you can get it done in an hour and, not every day. I do post here in my fun threads and then there's Operation eBook Drop, which I accumulate and take care of twice a week. The Amazon disussion thread promotional secret is to lay off at least two days a week. Otherwise you DO become spam (I'm fortunate in that I have 15 books and 170 reviews to spread in every combination, so I generally don't load up the cut and paste machine and hit every thread. I might hit 10 threads, but with a different post in each and check before I post the last book I promoted in that thread and when. Amazon has a mattrix which detects the same post being cut and paste on the same day and will delete posts and eventually send you a warning, and they will suspecd your posting privileges. A good friend of mine is permnantly banned from Amazon).
> 
> Ed Patterson


I found this really interesting. Do you find it works well? I always wondered if anyone bothered to read those Amazon forum threads. Do you find that you see an uptick in sales after you've done this, Ed, or is there no readily discernible pattern?


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Sharlow said:


> well it's the end of a month again. The hours are ticking away. So far at least for me, this has been my best month since I put Storytellers up. I'll let you know your prediction is close David. You said 40, and I'm just about there and I'm going to wait till the last minute to see what it is. 33 at the moment. Didn't come close to your over 100 sales of weight of blood however, but I'm happy considering I only had 6 sales in April.
> 
> Thanks again for pointing out that my original cover was dreadful, otherwise i may never of known it was holding back my sales.
> 
> So how well did everyone do this month? A lot of you I already know thank's to novel rank. Makes me feel a bit like a cyber stalker   But I like to see how others are doing. You can spot buying trends by comparing other sales with yours as well. OK lets see those totals.


Glad I was of some help. Now that you have a second book out, and brand-spanking new covers, I think you'll see yet another steady increase this month. I'm thinking you'll hit 65 this upcoming month. We'll check again, eh? 

This month was great for sales, hit 200 for Weight of Blood and 120 for Cost of Betrayal. Also just released *today* the third book, which should also hopefully boost sales for the series as a whole.

David Dalglish


----------



## Dave Dykema

Sharlow, are you on the third cover for Storytellers now?


----------



## RonnellDPorter

Well, my total sales for May is 27 between my four books: 13 for The Pocket Watch, 4 for The White Knight, 10 for Dead Weight, and 0 for The Little Peach King. Which is 27 more than I had prior to coming to the Kindle Board.

Here's hoping that next month proves even better for us all!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Charles Bradley said:


> I found this really interesting. Do you find it works well? I always wondered if anyone bothered to read those Amazon forum threads. Do you find that you see an uptick in sales after you've done this, Ed, or is there no readily discernible pattern?


Charles, it does. I change up my pitch every week or so. I'm currently not using the reviews, but speaking about each book with a lead line a description and a segue. It's important, I believe to change it up. So far the only thing that absolutely doesn't work on the Amazon forums is the full Table of Contents and excerpts from your book. A snippet, yes. But when you include a full length selection when a reader can download a sample, then I believe trackers begin to really revolt. Plus you shift the entire thread down a page and it's not fair to fellow posters. Other than that, it works well.

Ed Patterson

PS: May has been, as predicted, as drag. I might hit 400 across all titles with Look Away Silence and Are You Still Submitting leading the pack, but hey - I haven't had a new work out since January and won't until September and did not run any promotionals this month. As every Indie author will tell you, you have spikes and peaks. I do anticipate an increase in volume when many Indie authors raise their prices to take advantage of the few pennies in royalties in lieu of readers. I'm keeping my prices pat unless Amazon rebels.


----------



## David McAfee

Half-Orc said:


> Glad I was of some help. Now that you have a second book out, and brand-spanking new covers, I think you'll see yet another steady increase this month. I'm thinking you'll hit 65 this upcoming month. We'll check again, eh?
> 
> This month was great for sales, hit 200 for Weight of Blood and 120 for Cost of Betrayal. Also just released *today* the third book, which should also hopefully boost sales for the series as a whole.
> 
> David Dalglish


Ya got me beat. Total sales for May so far: 145. That's up from 97 in April and 11 in March.

I wanted to get my next book out today, but I am having a lot of trouble with the cover. Photoshop is nice, but it's being a pain in the U No Wut.


----------



## horse_girl

Some of you have me green with envy.

I started out selling squat for several months. Then Christmas came and I started seeing around 15 a month. I dropped my price in March from $2.99 to $1.99 and sales increased to 24 on STARFIRE ANGELS. I released two new titles in March, one of them being the full ebook of the first part of the free fantasy e-serial on my website. In April, SA doubled to 48. This month, I've had 68 sales of that and 108 total for all four books (one novella hardly sells, but it's free in its entirety on my website), with WHEN ANGELS CRY coming in at 29, almost double from last month. With a total of 97 this month, the SA series is bringing in the most sales. Even paperbacks of STARFIRE ANGELS (the original novel) were up this month with three in the last three days alone. (Normally, I see two paperbacks a month of SA.)

Heck, I'm just happy to have sold over 100 books this month total!

I partially credit this forum. Thank you. The other is outside efforts and probably some word of mouth I don't even know about.

EDIT: Now watch sales drop for several days. Any time I mention that sales are positive/climbing/anything, this happens. Does anyone else have this karma issue, or whatever it is?


----------



## Gus Flory

This was my best month.

GALAXY OF HEROES as of 6:49 p.m. May 31:  

Units Sold: 295 

Units Refunded: 1 

Net Units Sold: 294 

102.90 USD 

I was on pace to break 300, but one bad review put the brakes on sales for two days. So reviews really have an effect. Now I'm wondering what June will hold.


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> Glad I was of some help. Now that you have a second book out, and brand-spanking new covers, I think you'll see yet another steady increase this month. I'm thinking you'll hit 65 this upcoming month. We'll check again, eh?
> 
> This month was great for sales, hit 200 for Weight of Blood and 120 for Cost of Betrayal. Also just released *today* the third book, which should also hopefully boost sales for the series as a whole.
> 
> David Dalglish


It really was helpful Dave, and thanks for having the courage to tell another author their cover sucked. I don't know if I could of done that. We artist's are a temperamental group.


----------



## Victorine

I just sold my 150th book for this month.  Wheee!  I couldn't have imagined doing so well my second month out.  I only sold 7 in April.  (Of course it was only half a month... since I put my book up for sale on the 20th or something like that.)

Sales have been really good lately, and I think it's the other indie authors whose books are similar to mine doing so well that's bumping mine up.  (Because of the "people who bought this also bought...")

Plus, it's a dang good book.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Vicki


----------



## Sharlow

Dave Dykema said:


> Sharlow, are you on the third cover for Storytellers now?


Yep it's the third and final one. I actually love this one, and unless it bankrupts me..lol It's the final one for it.


----------



## daringnovelist

I think I've sold about fifteen books on Kindle this month.  I'm not sure how to count Smashwords, because I've been giving away free coupons as a promotion. (30 or 40 this weekend.)

I haven't been promoting much. Just testing one thing or another. (This week I wanted to get 100 Twitter followers, so I promised to tweet free ebook coupons when I reached 100.  I was happy to say it didn't take long.)  I've got a few reviews and interviews coming up next month, and a bunch more to follow up on....

But right now I feel that two unrelated off-genre books are not enough for effective promotion, so I'm concentrating on writing more.  I'll probably start in on some of the better methods I'm learning about here in the fall.  

For summer, though, the only major promotional activity I'm going to try is posting Wife of Freedom as an online serial in preparation for the publication of the sequel.


----------



## blackbelt

I've been selling one or more Billy: Messenger of Powers a day through amazon.com, and one or more through smashwords.com.  It's actually starting to amount to a fair chunk of change!  Whoot!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

daringnovelist said:


> I think I've sold about fifteen books on Kindle this month. I'm not sure how to count Smashwords, because I've been giving away free coupons as a promotion. (30 or 40 this weekend.)


If the price of your book is FREE on Smashwords, you count "downloads" which excludes samples (because there are no samples on downloads). If you are selling the book FREE via a coupon (don't count downloads), because the transaction shows up as any sale would in your sales repot, with $ 0.00 and the coupon used. So you can count these as SELECT Sales.

Hope that helps.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

A good month for me, compared to previous months.  29 copies of Baling sold.  Compared to you guys though, I'm a lightweight.
On the positive side, the sales have improved incrementally.  Here's hoping next month continues the trend! 

Oooh - I almost forgot - 2 (TWO) DTBs sold too.  That's up from, well, alotta zeroes in previous months.


----------



## amanda_hocking

It's now technically June, and the first full month since I've had titles up (My Blood Approves went up April 17, I think, and Fate went up April 25).

Here are the stats of my books: 
My Blood Approves (book 1): 307 ebooks sold (1 refunded)
Fate (book 2): 223 ebooks sold
Flutter (book 3): 93 ebooks  sold (but it went up Friday)

I have no idea how many paperbacks I've sold, but probably not that many, and I've only sold 2 on Smashwords. 

But since my book is a series, its safe to assume that I only really had 306 new readers (and one really unsatisfied reader).


----------



## daringnovelist

amanda_hocking said:


> It's now technically June, and the first full month since I've had titles up (My Blood Approves went up April 17, I think, and Fate went up April 25).
> 
> Here are the stats of my books:
> My Blood Approves (book 1): 307 ebooks sold (1 refunded)
> Fate (book 2): 223 ebooks sold
> Flutter (book 3): 93 ebooks sold (but it went up Friday)
> 
> I have no idea how many paperbacks I've sold, but probably not that many, and I've only sold 2 on Smashwords.
> 
> But since my book is a series, its safe to assume that I only really had 306 new readers (and one really unsatisfied reader).


Very nice, Amanda. You've got cool covers and titles send a clear message to your audience on tone/taste. Minimal book descriptions it looks like. If you don't mind my asking, have you done anything else in particular to promote?


----------



## amanda_hocking

daringnovelist said:


> Very nice, Amanda. You've got cool covers and titles send a clear message to your audience on tone/taste. Minimal book descriptions it looks like. If you don't mind my asking, have you done anything else in particular to promote?


I've done pretty much everything I can do that doesn't involve spending a lot of money. I've sent copies out to review sites, but that's only been in the last two weeks, so only one site has reviewed it so far. I actually have a lot of blog "press" lined up for June, but since that hasn't happened yet, I suspect that had little effect on my sales.

Twitter has probably had the most impact. I know on days I talk about it more on Twitter, the next day I'll wake up to a chunk of sales. So, that's always fun.

I also ran a giveaway on my blog and gave away paperback copies of the first 3 books in the series and some buttons.

But the most helpful thing, I think, is writing in a popular genre.

But I spend an hour or more a night on the net, looking for ways to promote my book. That in itself has become a full-time job.


----------



## Sharlow

Well Storytellers sold 34 plus 1 return
Storytellers adept 2 sales.  So i think i'll be lowering adept to 0.99 sale for a few weeks and see how that goes.

Sounds like a terrible month, but it actually was my best month so far. So I'm happy with it, and hope next month will be better.


----------



## farrellclaire

I haven't been around much this month but it was my best one so far.  One of my short story collections hit the 50 mark on kindle sales - mostly thanks to Red Adept's review and Donna Fasano posting about it in places.  

The other one sold closer to ten copies.  I was really chuffed to see I actually sold some copies on Smashwords for the first time ever, usually only get rid of free copies over there.  

I had my first refund and my stuff is no longer review-less on amazon so I feel like I had a bumper month for milestones.  I'm pretty certain May was a one-off though and will probably be my best month ever but I'm not complaining.  It was interesting to see how other people can really affect sales more than I can.


----------



## amanda_hocking

farrellclaire said:


> It was interesting to see how other people can really affect sales more than I can.


Oh yeah, word of mouth is the strongest influence of sales. Me talking about my books in fifty different places sells less than one person mentioning it favorably. It's crazy.

Also, if you don't mind me saying so, I think you should revamp your description. When I read the description, I didn't that much of it, but in the review where Red Adept described really, really got me intrigued. It sounds like something I'd really want to read, but I didn't realize that based on the description you have. But that is just IMHO.


----------



## Charles Bradley

Thanks for the replies, and for sharing all this information. I've just read this thread for half an hour and learned a ton. Fantastic.


----------



## farrellclaire

amanda_hocking said:


> Oh yeah, word of mouth is the strongest influence of sales. Me talking about my books in fifty different places sells less than one person mentioning it favorably. It's crazy.
> 
> Also, if you don't mind me saying so, I think you should revamp your description. When I read the description, I didn't that much of it, but in the review where Red Adept described really, really got me intrigued. It sounds like something I'd really want to read, but I didn't realize that based on the description you have. But that is just IMHO.


You're right, it is bad! I'm no good at descriptions/blurbs/covers/all that jazz. I think part of me is like if I make it sound good then people will be really disappointed when they read it.


----------



## MegHarris

I had my best month yet so far in May:

In the Mood, 366 copies
Isn't It Romantic?, 513 copies
All I Ever Wanted, 288 copies
Never Love a Stranger, 429 copies
Farthest Space: The Wrath of Jan, 48 copies

Farthest Space is my poorest seller, obviously, but I just introduced it this month, and my books tend to start slow.  I hope it will sell better this month!  But overall, I'm very pleased (and rather amazed) with my sales.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I need to add ABS of Steel to my covers.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Sharlow

Edward C. Patterson said:


> I need to add ABS of Steel to my covers.
> 
> Ed Patterson


I know..lol. we should all try that for a month. "The weight of blood" Just a big ol' abs of steel for the cover. Who knows we all might sell 1000 per book. =)


----------



## JimC1946

I sold about 125± Kindle editions of Recollections: A Baby Boomer's Memories of the Fabulous Fifties







in May, the 4th month in a row for more than a hundred copies. The paperback sold about a dozen copies.


----------



## LCEvans

May was slow for We Interrupt This Date compared to April, though I sold more copies of Night Camp in May than in any other month.


----------



## David McAfee

Sharlow said:


> I know..lol. we should all try that for a month. "The weight of blood" Just a big ol' abs of steel for the cover. Who knows we all might sell 1000 per book. =)


Maybe I could put a big, chesty guy with a six pack on the cover of 33 A.D. and just give him a tattoo of the three crosses and vampy teeth?


----------



## Greenkeeper

I ended up selling 25 books in May, which is 5x what I sold last month and in March when I first started. This isn't counting 60 or so free downloads from Smashwords in May. Compared to some of you more established people I feel pretty small, but overall I am happy with the upward trend I am seeing. Maybe word is getting out about me and my little fantasy adventure. I have backed off promoting lately so I can focus on my next book, so maybe it is time to turn things up for the new month.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

David McAfee said:


> Maybe I could put a big, chesty guy with a six pack on the cover of 33 A.D. and just give him a tattoo of the three crosses and vampy teeth?


How would you be any different than Twilight after that....?

David Dalglish


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

I can't give any sales figures yet because my book is not out, but I would like to thank all who have been brave enough to give sales
figures. This is very useful information.

Ann


----------



## David McAfee

Half-Orc said:


> How would you be any different than Twilight after that....?
> 
> David Dalglish


Um....no werewolves?


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Then let's stick with the creepy vampire peering out at you, and no six-pack, eh?

David Dalglish


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> How would you be any different than Twilight after that....?
> 
> David Dalglish


Well you could make his skin all cracked and not so perfect like they do with Twilight.


----------



## Sharlow

P.A. Woodburn said:


> I can't give any sales figures yet because my book is not out, but I would like to thank all who have been brave enough to give sales
> figures. This is very useful information.
> 
> Ann


originally I was just curious and confused when this thread started. It occurred to me that there was so much useful info packed it it for all us new and starting out authors that I should bump it each month, just in case we had new people that wanted to know what to expect and what the norm was.

I'm glad its working out that way, and I still feel it helps me with it's expectations.

Oh and I got 3 sales already this month on day one! That always feels good to me. Two of those sales were with my second book which only sold 2 last month. So I already matched last months sales for it this month.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I hate the first day of the month, because I need to look at the blank DP screen. Thankfully some came in, and even a DTB sale (which generally doesn't happen for the first seven days). I have a good feeling about June. But such things should not distract me from finishing the Fourth Jade Owl Book - _The People's Treasure_, a 700 pager that is just singing in the marrow of my bones and will enchant my readers like no other.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Christopher Mitchell

Good Evening Everyone.

I saw it mentioned earlier that some of you have sent out your books to review sites/blogs. Are there specific blogs/review sites that are receptive to indie author submissions? 

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread... I'm just curious.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

There are number like the Boogle and to RedAdept. There is one or two you should avoid, one in particular. PM me if you're interested.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Edward C. Patterson said:


> There a number like the Boogle and to redAdept.


"Sir, I think it's attempting to communicate with us!"

"What's it saying?"

"Hell if I know."

David Dalglish

(I kid because I care, Ed, really )


----------



## philvan

Well, I am at that position where the only possible direction is up. My short story book has been available for a couple of days now, and has a nice clean blank sales record as of now, the 1st of June. Hopefully that will change by the end of this month.
I have a question for some kind American though; I wanted to sell for $1.99, but when I do a search, it comes up at $3.99. Is that because I am in Canada, so that someone searching from inside the USA sees the price as $1.99?


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Philvan,

People trying to use the DTP outside the U.S. end up having their books cost 2 dollars more. It sucks, I'm sure. Also, short story collections are much harder to sell on the Kindle, so I wish you luck on your uphill battle. Hopefully you'll still snag a nice collection of sales.

David Dalglish


----------



## Victorine

philvan said:


> Well, I am at that position where the only possible direction is up. My short story book has been available for a couple of days now, and has a nice clean blank sales record as of now, the 1st of June. Hopefully that will change by the end of this month.
> I have a question for some kind American though; I wanted to sell for $1.99, but when I do a search, it comes up at $3.99. Is that because I am in Canada, so that someone searching from inside the USA sees the price as $1.99?


It's at $1.99 for me (in the US), so it must be coming up at $3.99 because you're in Canada.

Good luck on your book! Have you started a thread in the book bazaar about it? That got me some of my first sales. 

Vicki


----------



## philvan

thanks Vicki and David; good to know the price is right in the US which is by far the bigger market.


----------



## philvan

Well, just to keep things going, I still have zero sales on Amazon Kindle, but 8 downloads from smashwords. Sounds good, right? Ah but there is a coupon code for smashwords which I've posted on my Facebook site ( to get it free). I'm not expecting to get many sales as such for this short story book, just testing the actual processes involved in this self-publishing and marketing thing. Should I change my price to $0.00? That way I don't actually lose much, if anything, since there have been no sales & so no cash coming in.
I have a completed novel not yet published, 'Eland Dances', which could do a bit better, so that 'In the Valley stories' would only draw readers to the novel if they like my writing. 
Will that work?


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

You have at least one sale on Kindle. I have to find out what happened to those poachers.

Ann


----------



## Learnmegood

JimC1946 said:


> I sold about 125± Kindle editions of Recollections: A Baby Boomer's Memories of the Fabulous Fifties
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> in May, the 4th month in a row for more than a hundred copies. The paperback sold about a dozen copies.


That's awesome, Jim! Way to go!


----------



## philvan

P.A. Woodburn said:


> You have at least one sale on Kindle. I have to find out what happened to those poachers.
> 
> Ann


Hey thanks Ann, I saw your post just now and went to check. Sure enough it shows one sale, and 70cents in my account! Whooee ! Feels good. You are my very first paying customer for 'In the Valley' What can I do for you? Foot massage? Read and review your book? Send my sincere thanks is probably the most socially acceptable response, but if we ever meet in Real Life I reserve the right to hug you.
phil


----------



## nomesque

Phil, I'm in much the same position - my ebook just turned up in the Kindle catalogue. One sale so far (Ann, was it you?  ). I think patience is key - sales take a while to kick off, if my experiences with a free ebook are anything to go by.


----------



## philvan

Well, one is a whole order of magnitude better than none. I am happy.
phil


----------



## philvan

Just for information purposes, one sale brings my book to #19,832 in the Amazon Best Sellers ranking.


----------



## Charles Bradley

Amazon's rankings are notoriously insane. I seriously suspect a major reason for them is to increase traffic by getting authors to visit their pages thousands of times.  It works. It's also a really frustrating thing to do, in my opinion, because a lot of readers and, it seems, authors, don't understand how it works (or doesn't work), so if your ranking is 200,000 you might well have people saying 'Oh, wow, your book really didn't sell, did it?' It might be 20,000 an hour later, though. And 2 million a few days later.

For the short story I just put up on Kindle under a pseudonym, my first sale got me a ranking of 12,000. I've now sold four copies and am at 26,000. There are too many books moving every hour of the day for Amazon's rankings to mean anything you could easily decipher. I know I've sold four copies of this story. That's what counts. I wish it could be this easy with print books.


----------



## farrellclaire

philvan said:


> I have a question for some kind American though; I wanted to sell for $1.99, but when I do a search, it comes up at $3.99. Is that because I am in Canada, so that someone searching from inside the USA sees the price as $1.99?


I'm in Ireland and the price of your book is listed at $2.34 for me. The whispernet fee thingy seemed to change recently, I can even get free books for free now so I'm surprised you're still seeing the extra two dollars.


----------



## drhetal1

i published my book last month
my book is a lifestyle book 
it mentions a few minor changes in day to day activities to get skin free from pimples

so far only one book is sold
and i am quite dissappointed with it..


----------



## farrellclaire

drhetal1 said:


> i published my book last month
> my book is a lifestyle book
> it mentions a few minor changes in day to day activities to get skin free from pimples
> 
> so far only one book is sold
> and i am quite dissappointed with it..


The sample doesn't make it past the acknowledgements. A lot of people won't buy if they can't sample the actual content.


----------



## 911jason

drhetal1 said:


> i published my book last month
> my book is a lifestyle book
> it mentions a few minor changes in day to day activities to get skin free from pimples
> 
> so far only one book is sold
> and i am quite dissappointed with it..


Please don't be offended by my remarks, they are honestly intended as constructive.

I'm wondering if English is your first language. This is based solely on the cover of your book. The title doesn't really make sense to me. Unless I'm reading it wrong, that is. Perhaps something like "Lifestyle Changes for Beautiful Skin" or something similar.

Also, in the U.S. your name would go after your title. For example, Dr. Hetal Vadanlal or if you prefer, Hetal Vadanlal, M.D. (if that is your proper qualifying degree).


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

Phil: Write more and longer stories about Africa. I love stuff about Africa. I want to go there, but probably will never afford it.
Correction-I have been there three times, but not to the part I want to go to. I have been to Egypt three times, lived there twice, but I want to see all the warm and fuzzy animals. I'm waiting for that hug!

Ann.


----------



## philvan

Anne, didn't see your post til now - I have more stuff set in Africa, coming soon; a novel 'Eland Dances' and some more shorts. Unfortunately even the fuzziest African animals can bite or sting or claw - it's the original survival school, and my stories tend to deal with that - you know beauty with claws, the one ounce bird that can kill a six foot cobra, the deadly honey bees.
How about I blow you a kiss across the Ether, to hold you til we meet? 
phil


----------



## Carol Hanrahan

Slow beginning of the month!  
Do I need to learn how to Twitter?


----------



## amanda_hocking

Carol Hanrahan said:


> Slow beginning of the month!
> Do I need to learn how to Twitter?


I really find Twitter helpful and I'd highly recommend it.


----------



## drhetal1

farrellclaire said:


> The sample doesn't make it past the acknowledgements. A lot of people won't buy if they can't sample the actual content.


How can i make the sample? do i need to put some extract of my book in some place where people can view it?


----------



## drhetal1

911jason said:


> Please don't be offended by my remarks, they are honestly intended as constructive.
> 
> I'm wondering if English is your first language. This is based solely on the cover of your book. The title doesn't really make sense to me. Unless I'm reading it wrong, that is. Perhaps something like "Lifestyle Changes for Beautiful Skin" or something similar.
> 
> Also, in the U.S. your name would go after your title. For example, Dr. Hetal Vadanlal or if you prefer, Hetal Vadanlal, M.D. (if that is your proper qualifying degree).


thank you jason. I will consider revising the title. you are right english is not my first language. about the name actually doctor is my surname and i cant do much about it 
thanks a tonn for your reply.


----------



## 911jason

drhetal1 said:


> thank you jason. I will consider revising the title. you are right english is not my first language. about the name actually doctor is my surname and i cant do much about it
> thanks a tonn for your reply.


How cool that doctor is your name! =)


----------



## Sharlow

amanda_hocking said:


> I really find Twitter helpful and I'd highly recommend it.


Yes but aren't you a self proclaimed twitter junkie?   I'm on twitter, not sure it helps yet.


----------



## drhetal1

Hi Jason,
i have renamed my book to make it more appropriate to the topic - http://www.amazon.com/Lifestyle-beautiful-skin-lifestyle-ebook/dp/B003LY45B2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AH9CGK6QR37LL&s=digital-text&qid=1275904892&sr=1-1
I have changed it to "Lifestyle to beautiful skin - Small changes to lifestyle to achive clear pimple, acne free "


----------



## amanda_hocking

drhetal1 said:


> Hi Jason,
> i have renamed my book to make it more appropriate to the topic - http://www.amazon.com/Lifestyle-beautiful-skin-lifestyle-ebook/dp/B003LY45B2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AH9CGK6QR37LL&s=digital-text&qid=1275904892&sr=1-1
> I have changed it to "Lifestyle to beautiful skin - Small changes to lifestyle to achive clear pimple, acne free "


I think maybe it would sound better if it were "Lifestyle For Beautiful Skin: Small Changes In Lifestyle to Achieve Clear Skin."

I don't mean this offensively, either, and what you have might technically be correct, but it comes off as English-as-a-second-language. Which isn't bad, but it gives the impression that the book might not be the easiest to read since the author might not have a mastery of the language.

But that is just my opinion, and I don't mean anything by it. I'm just offering tips.


----------



## Sharlow

alright, the new month of June is coming to an end. How did everyone due. Did we get any record highs, or was it a slow month for you?

This month was my best so far. At this moment with one day left to go, I'm up to 53 sales. Not huge like some, but I had only 35 sales last month, so it is an increase. 

My big decision now with July coming on, is do I raise my 0.99 to $2.99 or leave them. I'm thinking I may raise book 2 of my series and leave book 1 at 0.99 because I don't think the sales justify the increase at this time. Fallen Blood is selling well so I will most likely raise that from $1.99 to $2.99 and see how well that does. 

So tell us how you did this month, was it a great month?


----------



## farrellclaire

drhetal1 said:


> How can i make the sample? do i need to put some extract of my book in some place where people can view it?


Sorry, only saw this now. The sample is automatically 10% of the book so if your first 10% doesn't contain any actual text from the body of the book, it doesn't really help anyone who samples it.


----------



## farrellclaire

Sharlow said:


> alright, the new month of June is coming to an end. How did everyone due. Did we get any record highs, or was it a slow month for you?
> 
> This month was my best so far. At this moment with one day left to go, I'm up to 53 sales. Not huge like some, but I had only 35 sales last month, so it is an increase.
> 
> So tell us how you did this month, was it a great month?


Last month was unusually good because of some reviews so I didn't expect to beat it but I sold more than the month before. I'm happy enough with that. I have low expectations so selling anything is a bonus. 

Not looking forward to the new month though, first week is always depressing.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I'm nearing the 400 mark (3 away). Better than May. One of the better royalty months also, but that's irrelevant, because the most inconstant element in this business is the money, but the constant and bulwark is the reader. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## ReeseReed

June has been a record month for me, with 272 sales as of this morning.  *Does happy dance*


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Weight: 207
Cost: 127
Death: 102

Very happy overall with those sales. If I can stay at just that level, and keep cranking out more books, I'll be a happy man.

David Dalglish


----------



## Joseph Rhea

As of this hour, 1,862 copies of Cyberdrome have been sold, including Kindle, Smashwords, and paperback versions.
Of course 95% of those were for our beloved Kindle... What would I do without it?


----------



## Kristen Painter

June has been my best month ever for Heart Of Fire - 73 copies! No clue on All Fired Up since I'm not the publisher of that book. I'm doing some advertising for July for Heart Of Fire so I'm really curious to see if that makes a difference. I'll have another book out in October from Samhain (All Fired Up's pub) and I would expect a kick from that too.


----------



## D.A. Boulter

June has been my best month so far, also.  (Of course it has been my only month so far.)  10 sales in 26 days.  Looking forward to July.


----------



## Daniel Arenson

I've been selling 100 copies of Firefly Island a month, on average.  So far I've sold about 950.


----------



## R. M. Reed

_Cyberdrome_ is consistently on my page as one of the books bought by the same people who bought mine. Have you ever seen my book on your page?


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

I have sold 4 so far, but was not up until June 24th and had formatting problems so have not been pushing book. One copy sold at $2.99 which makes me very happy. 
Ann


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I went over the 6,300 mark across all titles two days ago. This month's sparky little number is _*Turning Idolater*_, a buzz starting after a review that began "A Masterpiece of Literature" - and no, I didn't pay for that review. Every now and then a reader returns the blessing.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Learnmegood

I'm coming up fast on 200 with Learn Me Good for this month, so it's been a great month.  About 130 of those were at the $2.99 price.  Yesterday, I lowered the price to 99 cents for the Happily Ever After promotion I'm having, and nearly 70 have sold since then.  I'm up 824% in the Movers and Shakers section!  Currently sitting at number 326 in the Kindle store.

Got a great review yesterday that contained this gem: "this is like what would happen if Jim Halpert (from The Office) became a teacher.


----------



## R. M. Reed

If I added all the monthly reports up correctly, I have sold a grand total of 64 Kindle editions, in a number of months. I thought that was a good number until I saw what some of the rest of you have sold. I think there are things I don't know about how to get the book noticed. Some of you talk about choosing a category, and what the ranking is in which category. I haven't found any instructions on the DTP page about choosing a category.


----------



## Joseph Rhea

R. Reed said:


> If I added all the monthly reports up correctly, I have sold a grand total of 64 Kindle editions, in a number of months. I thought that was a good number until I saw what some of the rest of you have sold. I think there are things I don't know about how to get the book noticed. Some of you talk about choosing a category, and what the ranking is in which category. I haven't found any instructions on the DTP page about choosing a category.


Robin
To select a category, go to your DTP page, and under the first tab (where you enter description, etc) look on the right side under *Search keywords*, you will see, *Categories (add/Edit)* Just go there and add one (or two).

Make sure you give the category some thought, because this is how you will be "labeled" for some time. A smaller sub-group will have less competition, but also fewer people might find you there. Something to think about before choosing...

Joe


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Despite what categories you add (and you should add them), Amazon will market the book as they see fit. I have three of my books being pushed in non-fiction categories that I didn't select. However, Amazon feels that if your write a novel about China or the AIDS epidemic, that it should pop up as "of interest" for readers searching for "Chinese History" and "Health." 

Ed Patterson


----------



## R. M. Reed

I'm smarter than I thought. It already had the categories of Science Fiction - General and Humor - General.
There's no way to combine the two. I guess a book that doesn't fit into the categories well is going to be harder to sell.

While I was there I changed the price to $2.99. As long as I'm not selling many, I might as well make more money, right?


----------



## daringnovelist

Let's see, I don't know how much the DTP has screwed up, but I think it only lost one sale.  Which puts me at 23 for the month so far. That's my record, and it does seem to be accelerating somewhat.  (I got two reviews in the past couple days, and had strangers contact me on the Kindle community discussion boards so that a good sign too, I think.)

I just put my first mystery up, and I'm thinking I might put a small collection of my published mystery short stories up too.  Maybe for a dollar.  Five stories, maybe a couple more unpublished ones to fill out the collection. 

Two questions for the populace: Is it still possible to get a book onto Amazon for free through Smashwords?  And what do you think of including the first chapter or two of a novel at the end of such a collection?

Camille


----------



## Victorine

June has been awesome to me... I've sold 440 so far this month.  I am amazed.  I'm two sales away from hitting the 600 all time sales mark.  Wow.  I am so blessed.

Long live the Kindle!

Vicki


----------



## R. M. Reed

Print publishers often put a sample of another book at the end, so I don't see why you shouldn't.


----------



## swolf

I've sold $2.19 worth.

So if Smashwords ever lowers their threshhold for sending payment, I'll spurge and spend it all on a party.  You're all invited.


----------



## bvlarson

It totally depends on the book and where you get it listed (best to be listed in categories that let you get onto bestselling sub-genre lists). My best is doing about 15 a day "Blood of Gold" my worst is doing about ZERO per month (Kids books don't sell, people don't give Kindles to kids yet   ). 

The main things to selling a self-pub book are:
0) Hot Genre
1) Search Ranking (think how often you go to page 53 on google search lists... Answer: Never.)
2) Cover
3) Title
You have full control over the last two, and some control over the Search Ranking. Use these levers fully! I've found that if I get the click I usually get the sale with a low price. The trick is getting the click in the first place...

-bvl


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

It could have been a worse month for me, considering that I couldn't sell anything for the first two weeks because of a price/availability glitch and I hiked the price of The Ryel Saga from 99 cents to two dollars more.

I'm confused by the Amazon category system. As far as I can tell, there's no specific category in DTP for 'Magic and Wysards' (Wizards, sorry)--and yet Dave Dalglish's (Oligart's, sorry) books come under that heading, I've seen. How'd that happen? Why can't I be there too? 

If I tear any more hair out, I'll look like that other Dave, the shiny one.   

125 sales for June. I might have had twice that, but I'm happy.

CK


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

daringnovelist said:


> Two questions for the populace: Is it still possible to get a book onto Amazon for free through Smashwords? And what do you think of including the first chapter or two of a novel at the end of such a collection?


It's possible, but why would you? You can get a book on Amazon for free through its DTP and since you can format it yourself you can have a much better looking Kindle book available on Amazon that way. I haven't looked at figures, but my guess is you can also get a better per sale royalty through Amazon than through SW, and Amazon pays on the dot monthly by deposits to any account you want. SW pays quarterly (with a pretty long delay even on that) by PayPal.


----------



## MegHarris

I had an awesome month. I'm up to around 5600 sold overall since February. Most of my book sales were actually down a bit (and my new ones aren't taking off the way I'd like), but _Never Love a Stranger_ has sold over 800 copies this month. I'm planning on raising its price from 99 cents to $2.99 at the beginning of July, and it definitely worries me-- the ranking is probably going to drop like a stone, and I don't know what that will do to my sales.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

CK,

When submitting my novels, under categories, all I've selected is Epic Fantasy and General Fantasy. I have no clue why it shows up in the Magic and Wizards category. I think it is actually because of CreateSpace, though there I pick the Epic Fantasy category and that's it. So something else is going on behind the series. Perhaps because you're only allowed in so many categories, and you're higher up on the Mythology?

David Dalglish


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

I've been posting month by month figures for both my books on my blog and will do so again sometime Thursday. This has been a good month for me. I think total sales for this month will be more than 150% of last month.


----------



## daringnovelist

ellenoc said:


> It's possible, but why would you? You can get a book on Amazon for free through its DTP and since you can format it yourself you can have a much better looking Kindle book available on Amazon that way. I haven't looked at figures, but my guess is you can also get a better per sale royalty through Amazon than through SW, and Amazon pays on the dot monthly by deposits to any account you want. SW pays quarterly (with a pretty long delay even on that) by PayPal.


Amazon doesn't let you offer free books - the minimum is 99 cents. (Maybe you misunderstood what I meant by "for free" - I meant the book is free to the customers.)

Oh, and another thought about adding sample chapters to the end of a short story collection - it would make Amazon's dang 10 percent sample longer. (Add twenty pages, you get two more in the sample.)

Camille


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

EllenFisher said:


> I'm planning on raising its price from 99 cents to $2.99 at the beginning of July, and it definitely worries me-- the ranking is probably going to drop like a stone, and I don't know what that will do to my sales.


I'm worried too, not just about sales and ranking but also about this unavailability thing, but I'm going to go ahead and at least see what happens. One small encouraging sign - I raised my prices on Smashwords a couple of days ago. SW sales are small anyway. To give you an idea, at the beginning of this month both Eyes and RR had sold 13 copies on SW since their respective release dates. However, in the few days since I raised the price, each book has sold a copy, so the higher price there is not affecting that slow rate of sales.

Camille - I did misread your question about free via SW. Haven't the foggiest about that one.


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

Half-Orc said:


> CK,
> 
> When submitting my novels, under categories, all I've selected is Epic Fantasy and General Fantasy. I have no clue why it shows up in the Magic and Wizards category. I think it is actually because of CreateSpace, though there I pick the Epic Fantasy category and that's it. So something else is going on behind the series. Perhaps because you're only allowed in so many categories, and you're higher up on the Mythology?
> 
> David Dalglish


Thanks for the tip, Dave. I'll go to DTP and decrease my categories. Originally I'd checked as many as I could, thinking it would widen my sales opportunities, but apparently the reverse is true.

The 'Magic and Wizards' category is really tailor-made for my book. I'll email DTP and see if they can do anything to help get me in.

I'm not expecting great things for July, since I'm going to be too busy then to promote anywhere. Any sales at all will be wonderful. I'm glad to see yours have been so good. 

CK


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

CK,

You'll notice that "Magic and Wizards" is listed not as a Kindle category but a Book category. If I remember right, you don't have a print version of Ryel Saga up yet, correct? That'd be why you're not sneaking into that category.

David Dalglish


----------



## Carolyn Kephart

Half-Orc said:


> CK,
> 
> You'll notice that "Magic and Wizards" is listed not as a Kindle category but a Book category. If I remember right, you don't have a print version of Ryel Saga up yet, correct? That'd be why you're not sneaking into that category.
> 
> David Dalglish


/lifts hand to brow in despairing gesture

By Crom, you're right!

I'd been planning on using Createspace to establish a paper presence. Now I'll make that a priority.

"Words, words, words" ~Hamlet

CK


----------



## Victorine

ellenoc said:


> I'm worried too, not just about sales and ranking but also about this unavailability thing, but I'm going to go ahead and at least see what happens.


I just raised my price, and my book was never unavailable. My dashboard said the book was not available yet, but it always says that even though the old version is still able to sell. So, unless something goes very wrong, it should still be available to purchase.



EllenFisher said:


> I had an awesome month. I'm up to around 5600 sold overall since February. Most of my book sales were actually down a bit (and my new ones aren't taking off the way I'd like), but _Never Love a Stranger_ has sold over 800 copies this month. I'm planning on raising its price from 99 cents to $2.99 at the beginning of July, and it definitely worries me-- the ranking is probably going to drop like a stone, and I don't know what that will do to my sales.


What I did was figure out mathematically how many I have to sell at the higher price to make as much as I was at the lower price. (With the new royalty rates of course.) That magic number for me was 7 sales a day. So that's my new goal for each day. Yes, it hurts to see your ranking drop... and the sales slow way down, but I sold 8 yesterday, so I'm feeling encouraged that this might work out okay for me.

I hope that helps.

Vicki


----------



## Paul Clayton

I'm up to 180 nowfor White Seed: The Untold Story of The Lost Colony of Roanoke. Usually I see fifteen a month. That price reduction really did work. Now I have enough to buy a fifth of whiskey and a six pack of the good stuff... and I don't mean Bud.

Paul Clayton

WHITE SEED: The Untold Story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke


----------



## David Derrico

Victorine said:


> I just raised my price, and my book was never unavailable. My dashboard said the book was not available yet, but it always says that even though the old version is still able to sell. So, unless something goes very wrong, it should still be available to purchase.


For two of my books, they never became unavailable, but my first (and best-selling) novel is still unavailable, 2 days later. I think the reason is because Amazon wants to match the $0.79 discounted price that B&N is offering (from the old $0.99 list price that I updated 2 weeks ago on Smashwords but hasn't trickled down to B&N), but won't give me a $1.05 royalty (35% of $2.99) on a book selling for $0.79. So they pulled it.

UPDATE: Right now, it seems like Amazon is totally wonky. All my books are "unavailable" and returning "We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site," but it looks like the whole website is essentially down -- even their home page is mostly blank. Weird. Anyone else seeing this?


----------



## Eric C

David Derrico said:


> UPDATE: Right now, it seems like Amazon is totally wonky. All my books are "unavailable" and returning "We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site," but it looks like the whole website is essentially down -- even their home page is mostly blank. Weird. Anyone else seeing this?


Twitter is abuzz with Amazon's sudden death. Let's hope for a resurrection soon.


----------



## David Derrico

Eric C said:


> Twitter is abuzz with Amazon's sudden death. Let's hope for a resurrection soon.


Damn, I didn't mean to break the whole site. Well, whatever it takes to get my books back up there.


----------



## Guest

My goal for this, my first month was 100 sales, and I hit that in 3 weeks. 

For this 2nd month, there's a lot of new factors with the price increase, the contest, hopefully some reviews. Since the price increase and income change are the biggest measure, hopefully I'll see some growth by those standards. Here's hoping!

I'd also love to see the magical month to month growth everyone always talks about.


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

I can't get into my book to check the rank. I updated my avg security this am. Now my firewall is blocking everything my avg security is saying it is going to run out in three days and Amazon is not working. I guess Hubby can fix some of it when he gets home at about 11.00 tonight. Anyway I can't say whether Amazon is wonky or it is the Avg update. I remember firewall and avg doing this before.  I don't know how I will survive until tonight without being able to check anything. It woulf seem to me reasonable that Amazon would collapse a day or two before the new royalty. I'll bet everyone is trying to change their price at once. I have to stay in someone's house for the next three days, and I don't know if they have a wireless connection. Life is going to be very rough it's like going back to the dark ages! I sold two more books at the higher price. I knew that before I did this last bit of checking.

Ann


----------



## Sharlow

Looks as if everyones doing pretty good. I've sold a few more since my last post pushing me to 57. I'm raising Fallen Blood, just did in fact and Adept. So it will be interesting to see how sales for those go this coming month. Those two were on sale till the end of the month, and I'll be leaving Storytellers at 0.99 for this month.


----------



## Kristen Painter

Apparently the crash was good for me. I've sold almost 10 more books.


----------



## D.A. Boulter

Kristen Painter said:


> Apparently the crash was good for me. I've sold almost 10 more books.


Almost 10? What's that--9 1/2?

Sorry, couldn't resist.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Of course, without the month-to-date report, How Many becomes a rhetorical question.

Ed Patterson


----------



## LCEvans

I said I would raise the price on We Interrupt This Date when I published another book. My publisher for Talented Horsewoman notified me yesterday that she is finally putting the book out for Kindle. I've been bugging her about this for months and she finally agreed to accept the new Amazon contract and she's putting all her company's titles out on Kindle. Mine is in the first wave to go. So We Interrupt This Date will now be priced at $2.99.


----------



## Kristen Painter

D.A. Boulter said:


> Almost 10? What's that--9 1/2?


I bet you think you're fancy with your fractions. Go ahead, confuse me. I can take it.


----------



## Greenkeeper

Sold 10 for the month, so generally right on target. Still no Amazon customer reviews, though, which I know is holding me back. I did get one on Smashwords, though, but Amazon is where I get most of my sales. If anyone wants a free download in exchange for a review PM me and I can email you a Smashwords coupon.


----------



## Vyrl

Is the question for total book sales, or just electronic? Over this month, year, or over the past five years?


----------



## Sharlow

Vyrl said:


> Is the question for total book sales, or just electronic? Over this month, year, or over the past five years?


I'm asking about the month, but I'm sure there would be some people that would be interested(like me  ) in anything you would want to volunteer.

Looks like 58 was my sales for June. It's a step up in the right direction from last month, that was only 33. That make's June my official best month so far!!!


----------



## Vyrl

Sharlow said:


> I'm asking about the month, but I'm sure there would be some people that would be interested(like me  ) in anything you would want to volunteer.
> 
> Looks like 58 was my sales for June. It's a step up in the right direction from last month, that was only 33. That make's June my official best month so far!!!


For June:

311 DTP/Kindle
58 Electronic book orders (Amazon, B&N, Abe, +international)
46 Book store (not event related)
21 Direct order (customer)
208 Events
17 Library order (school and public)

661 total for the month

June is usually really slow for me as my events tend to drop off. So DTP/Kindle has saved me on total numbers.

Since 2005 we have sold over 23,000 hard copy books. Since last July, we have sold over 1350 DTP.


----------



## Vyrl

Sharlow said:


> Looks like 58 was my sales for June. It's a step up in the right direction from last month, that was only 33. That make's June my official best month so far!!!


My first month only resulted in 12 sales. So I think you're doing very well!


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

For those of you interested in sales figures, I just posted mine on my blog. What I've got is a table that shows figures for each month since I started this venture in February. My hope was to make some sense out of this whole selling ebooks thing, but even though I haven't been doing this long, I'm beginning to think each book is an entity in its own right and what happens or doesn't happen to it is pretty individual.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Well, I've been blown away for a 2 day July total of 64, the Smashwords promotion firing most of it, but I haven't been around the computer today to do much promoting.

Ed Patterson


----------



## Victorine

June was a great month for me, I sold 454 kindle books.  Things did slow down when I raised my price, and I haven't checked my sales since June 30th (blasted contest) so I have no idea what to expect for July.

Vicki


----------



## Vyrl

Victorine said:


> June was a great month for me, I sold 454 kindle books. Things did slow down when I raised my price, and I haven't checked my sales since June 30th (blasted contest) so I have no idea what to expect for July.
> 
> Vicki


Oh come-on... Just a little peak.... Just one..... Please

A few sales figures never hurt anyone. Right?


----------



## Victorine

Vyrl said:


> Oh come-on... Just a little peak.... Just one..... Please
> 
> A few sales figures never hurt anyone. Right?


Ooh, you're terrible! Actually, I wanted to quit yesterday, but my husband keeps urging me to keep going with it. *Sigh* I guess I can wait one more day.


----------



## swcleveland

I've sold exactly 23 (combined Kindle and print) since January.  

(I really hope it's my marketing and not my WRITING...)


----------



## MariaESchneider

swcleveland said:


> I've sold exactly 23 (combined Kindle and print) since January.
> 
> (I really hope it's my marketing and not my WRITING...)


Your sell-through is 80 percent, your description is good, your cover is good. I'm guessing people don't know about it because when they do go to the page, 80 percent are buying it!!

Maria


----------



## swcleveland

MariaESchneider said:


> Your sell-through is 80 percent, your description is good, your cover is good.


Thanks, Maria, I needed that!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

The last time I moved 100 books in 3 days was . . . I've never moved 100 books in 3 days before, esepecailly at the beginning of the month; and I'm at 103. It must be that spell I cast at the end of the month.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## JoeMitchell

swcleveland said:


> I've sold exactly 23 (combined Kindle and print) since January.
> 
> (I really hope it's my marketing and not my WRITING...)


I'm hoping the same thing. I've sold 10 copies of my book in it's first month out, only one of those to a friend who wanted a paperback, the rest all digital downloads, 6 on kindle, 3 on smashwords. I thought maybe I was pricing my book too high at 7.99 so I lowered the price all the way down to 2.99 to see if it would get a bump in sales, but...nada. It's just been a few days, though. I think people just don't know about my book because I don't know how to market it. Or my writing sucks...it's hard to tell with no reviews. I hope the people who bought it liked it.


----------



## MariaESchneider

Ootwah said:


> I'm hoping the same thing. I've sold 10 copies of my book in it's first month out, only one of those to a friend who wanted a paperback, the rest all digital downloads, 6 on kindle, 3 on smashwords. I thought maybe I was pricing my book too high at 7.99 so I lowered the price all the way down to 2.99 to see if it would get a bump in sales, but...nada. It's just been a few days, though. I think people just don't know about my book because I don't know how to market it. Or my writing sucks...it's hard to tell with no reviews. I hope the people who bought it liked it.


Well since I'm out here offering opinions for free--I liked the nice short description. Started to read the longer one and frankly, for me, you do more harm than good. Instead of reading a sample based on the short/quick draw-in, I got bogged down by re-reading a couple of paragraphs that said the same as the first description. Then there's more...stuff but frankly I quit reading after about 4 paragraphs. You can't put in action scenes and therefore it's just synopsis. Kind of like reading an after-the-fact newspaper article that starts out with "no one died."

Characters grab me, but you can't make them come alive in a synopsis. You probably would have convinced me to read the sample had there not been 12 pages of description that made my eyes cross (okay, okay, not 12!) Bottom line. It today's world of quick sample download...you don't need the longer description. If your short one didn't interest me enough, I'm not going to keep reading a longer one anyway and in this case it proved more a distraction.

I know there's been a lot of discussions on whether a long synopsis is better than a short one and everyone has their preferences. I'm obviously one you either get me in 3 paragraphs or I'm going to wander off.

Your cover is good. Not sure what I was looking at, but it fits the theme.

One line that threw me off was digging up "futuristic" devices or something like that. I know what you meant--these were obviously things that were created AFTER these guys had their accident...but futuristic is sort of an oxymoron there. Maybe...Digging up technology that was much more advanced than they had ever seen but had obviously been discarded. You know. But better.



Maria


----------



## swcleveland

Edward C. Patterson said:



> The last time I moved 100 books in 3 days was . . . I've never moved 100 books in 3 days before, esepecailly at the beginning of the month; and I'm at 103. It must be that spell I cast at the end of the month.
> 
> Ed Patterson


Soooo, how much are you charging for that spell?


----------



## Guest

Edward C. Patterson said:


> The last time I moved 100 books in 3 days was . . . I've never moved 100 books in 3 days before, esepecailly at the beginning of the month; and I'm at 103. It must be that spell I cast at the end of the month.
> 
> Ed Patterson


This is really awesome! If this happened to me I'd probably start acting like the Beatles and compare myself to God. I hope it keeps up for you!



Ootwah said:


> I thought maybe I was pricing my book too high at 7.99 so I lowered the price all the way down to 2.99 to see if it would get a bump in sales, but...nada. It's just been a few days, though.


Yes, 7.99 is way, way too high. 2.99 is reasonable. I'd be shocked if anyone got any sales at 7.99.


----------



## J.R. Chase

If it's not selling try a different cover maybe. Also, although you seem to have a lot invested in the title, it doesn't reflect the epic sci-fi theme (in fact, my very first thought was that it was a play on "shared" probably because I've never seen "shard" in a title). You may want to reflect the time travel theme -- "2500 AD" perhaps?

Your first line of dialogue in the prologue has an error (should be a comma not a period at the end of the quote). That right there would send me looking for another book -- perhaps people sampling are feeling the same? (It was the sample on the website, I haven't tried it on Kindle).



Ootwah said:


> I'm hoping the same thing. I've sold 10 copies of my book in it's first month out, only one of those to a friend who wanted a paperback, the rest all digital downloads, 6 on kindle, 3 on smashwords. I thought maybe I was pricing my book too high at 7.99 so I lowered the price all the way down to 2.99 to see if it would get a bump in sales, but...nada. It's just been a few days, though. I think people just don't know about my book because I don't know how to market it. Or my writing sucks...it's hard to tell with no reviews. I hope the people who bought it liked it.


----------



## JoeMitchell

MariaESchneider said:


> I liked the nice short description. Started to read the longer one and frankly, for me, you do more harm than good.


Thanks for all the advice you offered. I'm new at this, so any suggestions are very much appreciated. I'm going to look at shortening the extended description or removing it from amazon, while leaving it up somewhere on my website. I just added the extended description 3 days ago, and it just showed up yesterday.


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

I like your cover. Prefer the short description. I don't like descriptions that tell me too much. How much social net working are you doing?
It is too early to get in a panic. Don't talk about lack of faith in your writing until you have done all the things you can to promote and improve. Your description did stir my curiosity, but I'm brand new myself. If I see you around more I may buy.

Ann


----------



## JumpingShip

foreverjuly said:


> This is really awesome! If this happened to me I'd probably start acting like the Beatles and compare myself to God. I hope it keeps up for you!


That made me LOL. 

Today marks one month since I became an e-published author. I uploaded my book on June 4th on both Smashwords and at Amazon. I sold 20 books my first month. I guess I can be happy about that? (yeah, not sure if that's any good or not, but at least I made it to double digits. lol.)


----------



## 911jason

MaryMcDonald said:


> I sold 20 books my first month... at least I made it to double digits. lol.)


No, you did twice that good!


----------



## Sharlow

swcleveland said:


> I've sold exactly 23 (combined Kindle and print) since January.
> 
> (I really hope it's my marketing and not my WRITING...)


If thats your cover....It isn't doing anything for me. It looks like one of those tourist magazines you see laying around in the doctors office. I was lucky to sell 5-6 copies of my book a month with my old cover. Day I got a good cover my sales went from that to 33 in a month. Then the next month to the high 50's and I've already sold 12 this month so far.

My suggestion is to mess around with your cover first. Then if that don't help, look at your description. It seems your book is an action adventure with some Science fiction. I just don't see that in your cover. Theres some pretty good threads around here on covers, you might want to read them. The worst that will happen is nothing changes, the best, you might increase your sales.


----------



## JumpingShip

Ootwah said:


> Thanks for all the advice you offered. I'm new at this, so any suggestions are very much appreciated. I'm going to look at shortening the extended description or removing it from amazon, while leaving it up somewhere on my website. I just added the extended description 3 days ago, and it just showed up yesterday.


I'm not sure your cover works either. It's hard to see exactly what it is. A quick check at DeviantArt.com turned up several photos/art works that seem to convey a dark dystopian theme that might work for you. 
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=dark+mountains#/dmv7a9
http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&global=1&q=dark+mountains#/d2don4a
http://browse.deviantart.com/?q=dark%20mountains&order=9&offset=144#/d2kh2zn

The main problem I have with DeviantArt isn't the lack of possibilities, it's the lack of response from the artists. Grrr...


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

I don't know about anybody else, but if they keep the new DTP reporting system, I'm probably never going to have a firm idea of how many I've sold again. The numbers just keep slip sliding around on me, and while my calculations are in the ballpark, a new day comes and I seem to be off again by a few here and there. I REALLY hope they change back to something that gives cumulative month totals again and stop this adding in the beginning of last month stuff.


----------



## Victorine

ellenoc said:


> I don't know about anybody else, but if they keep the new DTP reporting system, I'm probably never going to have a firm idea of how many I've sold again. The numbers just keep slip sliding around on me, and while my calculations are in the ballpark, a new day comes and I seem to be off again by a few here and there. I REALLY hope they change back to something that gives cumulative month totals again and stop this adding in the beginning of last month stuff.


I hear you. The new system is driving me nuts.

Plus I feel like a failure more often. It was bad enough with the old system when we started a new month, and had several days of really low numbers to look at, but now we get that each Sunday. *pout*

Vicki


----------



## swcleveland

Sharlow said:


> It seems your book is an action adventure with some Science fiction. I just don't see that in your cover.


That's a good point.

The front/back cover were originaly designed for hard copy, and the art does reflect scenes in the book, but obviously a person can't tell that without reading the book first (and it's a little more difficult to look at the back cover in this situation )

Thanks for the feedback, folks!


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

Can I count the "Free" sales I've made?  Because then I'm doing okay.  As a newly published author on Kindle I really want more readers, this is why I decided to go with the Smashwords sale, but on the other hand once you offer up your novel for free or .99 I worry that devalues it.

Dawn


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Absolutely. You have drawn a potential reader who now has your book on their device. They are SELECT sales, discounted in the reader's favor, however, their investment in the selection is time. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

Thanks Ed, that makes me feel a little better.  

Dawn


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Edward C. Patterson said:


> Absolutely. You have drawn a potential reader who now has your book on their device. They are SELECT sales, discounted in the reader's favor, however, their investment in the selection is time.
> 
> Ed Patterson


But Ed, you don't even know if you're getting that. So many free downloads people suck up and never bother to read. You can claim time, but in all reality the only time you can know for certain they exchanged was the couple seconds it took them to click the link and download it. And if you don't have a large volume of extra works for people to buy, you're not really accomplishing much. If I have 500 sales of book 1, and 0 free downloads, is that really any worse than 500 sales of book 1 and 10,000 free downloads? Now if you have 10,000 free downloads that translate into sales of a book 2, then you're getting something more worthwhile. But seriously, if you only have one book, and you're giving it away for free, what exactly are you accomplishing?

Also, if someone looks at you and asks "how many sales have you had?" it just seems dishonest to count free downloads into the mix. It isn't a sale. No one chose to hand over money. It seems like an artificial way to inflate the amount you tell the person. If I've only had 20 sales of a book, but nabbed 300 downloads on the first day I tossed it up on Smashwords for free, would you count that as a success? I sure as heck wouldn't. But you'll get far different reactions from people if you say "I've had 20 sales" compared to "I've had 320 sales".

David Dalglish


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

Half-Orc said:


> Also, if someone looks at you and asks "how many sales have you had?" it just seems dishonest to count free downloads into the mix. It isn't a sale. No one chose to hand over money. It seems like an artificial way to inflate the amount you tell the person. If I've only had 20 sales of a book, but nabbed 300 downloads on the first day I tossed it up on Smashwords for free, would you count that as a success? I sure as heck wouldn't. But you'll get far different reactions from people if you say "I've had 20 sales" compared to "I've had 320 sales".
> 
> David Dalglish


I realize you're talking to Ed but, since what I initially said started this. I will say that my novel is the first in a series, so giving away the first for free or keeping it at .99 was my way of trying to get more readers for the series. I'm also not looking to make lots of money on my books, I'd rather accomplish lots of readers. But, I don't wish to devalue my writing, that's really the problem I see for myself.

Dawn


----------



## MariaESchneider

swcleveland said:


> That's a good point.
> 
> The front/back cover were originaly designed for hard copy, and the art does reflect scenes in the book, but obviously a person can't tell that without reading the book first (and it's a little more difficult to look at the back cover in this situation )
> 
> Thanks for the feedback, folks!


With an 80 percent sell-through after people get to the page, I wouldn't mess with the cover unless you have a lot of feedback that it is a problem. With that sell-through, unless you're selling to people you know, you need to get more people to the page. THEN if sales are under 50 percent or so, you can think about tweaking the cover. Now if you post the cover in places and people aren't going to Amazon BECAUSE of that, that's a different story. But only you know if you are posting the cover all over and sundry. 

Are you submitting to places to get reviews? That helps as well.


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

I agree with David. I'm not at all sure that giving away books for free has any value whatsoever.

Ann


----------



## Archer

I would like to live in a world where creative people who work hard are compensated for their time and effort, just as with any other talent/service. To expect otherwise devalues what we do.

To count as a sale, the book must be sold. If it's free, it's not a sale. (JMO) I agree with David and Ann.


----------



## Archer

Dawn: Why are you feeling 'bad' about your sales? Your book has not been available very long and lots of folks are downloading it for free. 
Give it a little time. Perhaps the 'seed corn' you are planting in the form of freebies will take root and grow. Then readers will BUY your books because of reader recommendations, reviews, and so on. I think your strategy makes sense. You shouldn't feel bad.


----------



## daringnovelist

MariaESchneider said:


> With an 80 percent sell-through after people get to the page, I wouldn't mess with the cover unless you have a lot of feedback that it is a problem. With that sell-through, unless you're selling to people you know, you need to get more people to the page. THEN if sales are under 50 percent or so, you can think about tweaking the cover. Now if you post the cover in places and people aren't going to Amazon BECAUSE of that, that's a different story. But only you know if you are posting the cover all over and sundry.
> 
> Are you submitting to places to get reviews? That helps as well.


Actually, I'm not so sure that the cover can be credited with the Amazon "sell through" numbers.

For one thing, we don't actually get real "sell through" numbers on Amazon, since we don't get any figures on the people who bought nothing. (I assume we're talking about the "what did customers ultimately buy" numbers, which is a whole different thing than "sell through.") Those numbers are affected by two things - how the customer got to the page, and then whether what was on the page "sold" them on the product.

The cover is important in getting the customer to the page. A cover which drives all but the most dedicated customers away will result in a high sell through. Always. Because only people who already know they want the book will click on a bad cover. On the other hand, a very attractive cover will get many more people to visit, including people who may not be the prime audience - so there may be a lower "sell through" percentage, even if it's selling more copies.

Now, once the customer is on the page, the cover still has some influence, but the book description is what's important at that point. (The cover is also still important if the customer got to the page via some means by which they didn't see the cover.)

(NOTE: this is just an explanation of numbers and theory - and not a recommendation on the covers in question. I agree that the author should give it a little time and more study.)

Camille


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

archer said:


> Dawn: Why are you feeling 'bad' about your sales? Your book has not been available very long and lots of folks are downloading it for free.
> Give it a little time. Perhaps the 'seed corn' you are planting in the form of freebies will take root and grow. Then readers will BUY your books because of reader recommendations, reviews, and so on. I think your strategy makes sense. You shouldn't feel bad.


Thanks Archer 

I just don't really know how long it takes for sales to catch on, if they're going to, of course.

Dawn


----------



## JimC1946

MaryMcDonald said:


> Today marks one month since I became an e-published author. I uploaded my book on June 4th on both Smashwords and at Amazon. I sold 20 books my first month.


Selling 20 books in your first month after publication is extraordinary. You're off to a great start!

JimC


----------



## Sharlow

JimC1946 said:


> Selling 20 books in your first month after publication is extraordinary. You're off to a great start!
> 
> JimC


I agree as I only sold 6 books my first month. Way better start then I had.


----------



## Lisa Hinsley

Sharlow said:


> I agree as I only sold 6 books my first month. Way better start then I had.


I think I sold six my first month as well. Had a few brilliant months, and now the sales are evening out. Must admit, putting the price up slowed sales enormously.


----------



## Sharlow

Well the end of July is here. From what everyone except a lucky few have been saying, July was a slow month. Unfortunately for me, that was how it was as well. Sales on Storytellers line were way down from the last two months. 

However, my newest book exceeded it's previous months sales, including selling Paperbacks for the first time this month. So the break down for July for me assuming no more sales come in the next three hours are.

31 books from the kindle
4 paperbacks
3 from smashwords

So thats a grand total of 38 sales this month for me. The good news with the 70% royalty I actually made more money this month. Well I hope everyone else is doing great!


----------



## HP Mallory

Hi Sharlow,
I published both my books this month--July 7th I think and so far I've sold 376.
Hope that helps,
HP


----------



## Sharlow

HP Mallory said:


> Hi Sharlow,
> I published both my books this month--July 7th I think and so far I've sold 376.
> Hope that helps,
> HP


Thats awesome. Are these the first books you've written? It sounds like your doing great for a first month.


----------



## Valmore Daniels

HP Mallory said:


> Hi Sharlow,
> I published both my books this month--July 7th I think and so far I've sold 376.
> Hope that helps,
> HP


Did you do any advertising? Or was it all promotion? What's your secret? Us newbies needs to know!


----------



## HP Mallory

Hello,
Yes these are the first books I've written. And I'm really happy with my sales so far.
As far as promotion--I haven't done any paid advertising if that's what you mean.
I've introduced my books on a few different message boards here--those message boards that have to do
with what I write--urban fantasy and paranormal romance and then I also will respond and ask questions
on the customer discussions--kindle board. THat's probably been the best so far.
I have a website, facebook, twitter and blogging account which I try to keep up on.
I also have done some interviews at various people's blogs which I think helped.
I think a lot of it might be word of mouth? I'm not sure. I have 9 reviews on one book and 3 on another.
I think the more reviews you get, the better. Although I just got a 2 star review today which I'm not too happy about! LOL


----------



## Valmore Daniels

HP Mallory said:


> Hello,
> Yes these are the first books I've written. And I'm really happy with my sales so far.
> As far as promotion--I haven't done any paid advertising if that's what you mean.
> I've introduced my books on a few different message boards here--those message boards that have to do
> with what I write--urban fantasy and paranormal romance and then I also will respond and ask questions
> on the customer discussions--kindle board. THat's probably been the best so far.
> I have a website, facebook, twitter and blogging account which I try to keep up on.
> I also have done some interviews at various people's blogs which I think helped.
> I think a lot of it might be word of mouth? I'm not sure. I have 9 reviews on one book and 3 on another.
> I think the more reviews you get, the better. Although I just got a 2 star review today which I'm not too happy about! LOL


Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. And I'm thrilled with your level of success.


----------



## HP Mallory

Thank you! It's been really fun so far. Just hope the sales stay up!!!


----------



## farrellclaire

HP Mallory said:


> Thank you! It's been really fun so far. Just hope the sales stay up!!!


You should link to your Kindle books in your signature. Handy for anyone curious about your books to just click on.

This month I sold 47 on Kindle. I'm actually happy with that because I expected less, I'm never going to sell hundreds of copies. I had a baby in July and wasn't online for most of the month so it was nice to get sales even though I didn't do any actual work. 

I wish I had some novels up though. Starting to think I've over-edited the main one I'm working on.


----------



## N. Gemini Sasson

I can't remember the date mine actually went live last month (July), but in the first 20 days for my first Kindle book, I sold 16. So just under a book a day. I was actually pretty happy with that as a start. Working hard at getting the second one ready...


----------



## RyanMWilliams

Well, for me July turned out to be my best month so far. Most of my books haven't been up long, Dirty Old Vampires, only went up on the 7th and was live a couple days later. I actually sold more copies via Smashwords in July but I think the sale had something to do with that. I was just looking and I guess I've sold 35 ebooks in July, plus a couple paperbacks.

I believe it takes time for word about titles to spread. I do really appreciate the positive reviews I've gotten so far!


----------



## Zack Hamric

July was excellent! Ended up with 77 sold for the month- the majority at $2.99. 

Someone mentioned sell through earlier- I was featured on a blog earlier this week not related to my genre. My sell rate dropped from 68% to 48%- obviously, the blog moved people to the site, but the demographic of the visitors to the blog didn't translate into sales....

Zack


----------



## Archer

Zack:
Don't you LOVE being able to gather hard data?  I sure do!


----------



## Zack Hamric

archer said:


> Zack:
> Don't you LOVE being able to gather hard data? I sure do!


Yep...no data= bad decisions on marketing..
Zack


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

719 - July 2010.  

0 - August 2010, so far.  

Ed Patterson


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Edward C. Patterson said:


> 719 - July 2010.
> 
> 0 - August 2010, so far.
> 
> Ed Patterson


2 - August 2010 

ECP


----------



## JimC1946

My book sold 249 Kindle editions in July. That was my best month ever, but I should mention that I'm still selling it for $0.99, and The Kindle Review featured it last Sunday. That made a big difference, since June sales were 150.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

June - 485

July - 727

August  - 10. Heck yah.

David Dalglish


----------



## Guest

Only 16 in July - but all at $2.99 and 70% so it's not as bad as it sounds.


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

My first month on Kindle = 20 sales

I guess I'm okay with that.  Hopefully that's the beginning of better months.  And anyhow, that's 20 more people who are reading my book than there were prior to putting up on Kindle.

Dawn


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Dawn McCullough White said:


> I guess I'm okay with that. Hopefully that's the beginning of better months. And anyhow, that's 20 more people who are reading my book than there were prior to putting up on Kindle.


That's the right attitude.

David Dalglish


----------



## LCEvans

20 is a nice start. Best wishes for a fantastic August.


----------



## Daniel Arenson

Dawn, I think there are different paths a book can take.  You can start with a bang, then fizzle out.  Or you can start slowly and gradually build an audience.

When "Firefly Island" was first published (in 2007), it sold about 600 books in the first month.  Largely, this was thanks to my publisher promoting it.  Sales then slowed to a CRAWL.  I barely sold any books for two years (definitely fewer than 20 books a month!) until I uploaded it to Kindle in April.  I've sold about 400 Kindle ebooks since.  I reckon there are ups and downs.  There will be great months when you sell hundreds of books.  There will be months when you barely sell a thing.  My attitude?  I just keep plugging at it.  I keep writing, I keep promoting, and I keep building my reader base.  Every day, you've accomplished a bit more; you keep growing, sometimes in leaps, sometimes in baby steps, but you're always moving forward.


----------



## D.A. Boulter

Dawn McCullough White said:


> My first month on Kindle = 20 sales
> 
> I guess I'm okay with that. Hopefully that's the beginning of better months. And anyhow, that's 20 more people who are reading my book than there were prior to putting up on Kindle.
> 
> Dawn


My first month: 16 (June); my second month: 39 (July); my third month: 1 (okay, so August has just started).

I'm not worried. 2 kind people reviewed "Courtesan" on Amazon, saying nice things about it. 1 said nice things about my 2-novella book -- but only on kindleboards, not Amazon. No one has said anything nasty. 50 sales of Courtesan, thus far and, like you, I think: that's 50 people reading my book who wouldn't have otherwise. Not only that, but 50 people who PAID to read my book.

I hope that your second month's sales will beat my second months sales, as your first beat my first. Go get 'em, Dawn!


----------



## JumpingShip

Sold 15 in June, my first month. (went live about June 6th, so only about three weeks of that month). July started slowly, but about the middle of the month, the book started selling fairly well. I ended up selling 79 on Amazon and 6 on Smashwords.


----------



## Kristen Painter

394 copies of Heart Of Fire for July. Best month ever. I'm thrilled!

Have 21 copies for August so far.


----------



## David McAfee

Dawn McCullough White said:


> My first month on Kindle = 20 sales
> 
> I guess I'm okay with that. Hopefully that's the beginning of better months. And anyhow, that's 20 more people who are reading my book than there were prior to putting up on Kindle.
> 
> Dawn


In its first month, _33 A.D._ sold 11 copies. So you're ahead of me.


----------



## N. Gemini Sasson

This is really helpful info., especially to those of us just starting out.

For those who have been at this a little longer, did you find that it was an advantage to have more than one e-book available? Or is it a good idea to let the first one build a base before adding another?  I'm getting ready to put a second book out and then a third later in the fall and am just wondering how much I should space them out.  Thx.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Get a second book out immediately, especially if it is directly related to the first (i.e. a series). Sales of my first book nearly tripled when I put out my second.

David Dalglish


----------



## D.A. Boulter

N. Gemini Sasson said:


> This is really helpful info., especially to those of us just starting out.
> 
> For those who have been at this a little longer, did you find that it was an advantage to have more than one e-book available? Or is it a good idea to let the first one build a base before adding another? I'm getting ready to put a second book out and then a third later in the fall and am just wondering how much I should space them out. Thx.


Well, I haven't been at it long, but I'd get the next one out as soon as practicably possible--especially if it is a sequel. If your first book pleases, having a second ready for the happy customer might mean a sale where three months down the road they may forget to check back to see if you have another book out. Numerous times, upon finding a really good read, I've gone to a bookstore to see if they have anything else by that author.

And you might want to update your first book by putting an "Also by this Author" page in as soon as the second goes live.


----------



## Bar steward

I only sold 1 in July, though I only just posted it up last week. I think I need to get some reviews on, I had loads on www.authonomy.com, its a shame I couldn't move them over


----------



## N. Gemini Sasson

D.A. Boulter said:


> Well, I haven't been at it long, but I'd get the next one out as soon as practicably possible--especially if it is a sequel. If your first book pleases, having a second ready for the happy customer might mean a sale where three months down the road they may forget to check back to see if you have another book out. Numerous times, upon finding a really good read, I've gone to a bookstore to see if they have anything else by that author.
> 
> And you might want to update your first book by putting an "Also by this Author" page in as soon as the second goes live.


Thanks, D.A. and David! Will do. The books are all related, so that makes sense. Making the final proofreading changes as we speak. Have already had some folk ask when the next one will be available, so I think I'll just ramp up the release dates before they forget.


----------



## Dave Dykema

My books are not related or part of a series. _Stalker_'s initial brisk sales pumped me up and I released _Wrong Number_ about two months later. I think it's wise to have more than one book out, because I often see people buying both books. It also makes you look like more than a one-hit wonder.

On the other hand, I sometimes feel I rushed putting out another title because I'm not the fastest writer and don't think I'll have anything new ready by the end of this year. So that part of me wishes I'd waited six to eight months between releases. If I went with that model, my "new book" would be due around now, but at least it would only be a few months' delay. As it is, it's already been more than a year since my last book came out.

I think a third title would help me out tremendously.


----------



## M.S. Verish

We're still pretty new to the KB, but our book has sold 23 copies/downloads in its first month!   Nothing too incredible, but we're excited to have fresh eyes seeing our work. Maybe GenCon 2010 will bump our sales. Here's to hoping August brings new readers.


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

Sold 7 in June, just started June 24th. Sold 3 in July, but the good news is have sold 2 already in August.


----------



## Sharlow

P.A. Woodburn said:


> Sold 7 in June, just started June 24th. Sold 3 in July, but the good news is have sold 2 already in August.


doing better then me so far. I'm still trying to get into this months club...before the popcorn is all gone.


----------



## justadumbauthor

Sharlow! Don't we know each other from Authonomy? (C Castle - Simon's Choice.)

Anyway - Simon's Choice e-book went on sale 2 weeks ago and has shifted 29 copies on Kindle. 47 on Smashwords. I believe this figure is going up each day.

Paperback comes out next week, and there will be a proper launch.

A number of 5 star reviews from the book blogging world have helped enormously. Awaiting reviews on mummy blogging sites and hopefully some exposure in traditional press, which should help shift some more.

http://www.amazon.com/Simons-Choice-ebook/dp/B003VS0DWI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&s=digital-text&qid=1280827272&sr=1-1


----------



## Sharlow

justadumbauthor said:


> Sharlow! Don't we know each other from Authonomy? (C Castle - Simon's Choice.)
> 
> Anyway - Simon's Choice e-book went on sale 2 weeks ago and has shifted 29 copies on Kindle. 47 on Smashwords. I believe this figure is going up each day.
> 
> Paperback comes out next week, and there will be a proper launch.
> 
> A number of 5 star reviews from the book blogging world have helped enormously. Awaiting reviews on mummy blogging sites and hopefully some exposure in traditional press, which should help shift some more.
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/Simons-Choice-ebook/dp/B003VS0DWI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ&s=digital-text&qid=1280827272&sr=1-1


 /wave. Yes we do. Welcome to the boards. Sounds like your book is off to a good start.


----------



## Sharlow

Well it's about that time again. The month is about over, and we have so many new people dieing to hear how well you have been doing. So like I do every month at this time, it's time to bump this thread!


----------



## Zack Hamric

Sharlow said:


> Well iot's about that time again. The month is about over, and we have so many new people dieing to hear how well you have been doing. So like I do every month at this time, it's time to bump this thread!


Not a bad month for August...111 so far with 45 of those this week on Crescent Rising...

Zack


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

All in all not too bad a month. Sitting at 732 Amazon sales. What's crazy is that Smashwords has picked up for me. I used to sell -nothing- there, but over the last week I've had like 20 bucks worth of sales. Craziness, I say.

David Dalglish


----------



## kcmay

The month's not over yet, but so far I've sold 21 copies of TKL on Amazon and 17 on Smashwords. The last ten days or so have been far more active on Amazon for me, and almost zip on Smashwords, whereas it was the opposite for the first couple weeks the book was out. My total Amazon sales have almost caught up to my total SW sales!


----------



## farrellclaire

A little over a hundred.  I can die happy now.    Seriously though, I don't know what happened this month or where the sales were coming from.  It was a total fluke and will probably never happen again but I'm chuffed with it.  Wish I had a novel out.


----------



## Daniel Arenson

The month ain't over yet! Give me a couple more days to catch up!

I sell three books on Kindle. Firefly Island







is my bestseller of the month; it's currently sitting on 135 Kindle sales for $2.99. I'll probably hit 140 before the month's over.

My other two Kindle ebooks, Flaming Dove







and The Word Weaver's Grimoire, haven't sold nearly as much. However, Flaming Dove is only a few days old, and The Word Weaver's Grimoire is just a short ebooklet of writing tips.

Outside of Kindle, my sales are still now; I barely sell books on Smashwords, iTunes, or anywhere else. I wish I knew how to increase sales outside of the Kindle store.

Overall I'm happy with August. For the first time, I broke the $300 earnings barrier for one month. I'm also happy because I seem to be doing a little better each month, so hopefully the upward trend will continue.


----------



## JumpingShip

DArenson said:


> Outside of Kindle, my sales are still now; I barely sell books on Smashwords, iTunes, or anywhere else. I wish I knew how to increase sales outside of the Kindle store.


I'm in the same boat. In July, I sold a handful of books on Smashwords, this month, not a single book. At B&N, I've sold four that I know of, only because my dad, my sister, a friend, and the sales lady my dad bought his Nook from, bought my book. The other places, like Sony and iBooks, I have no idea. Kobo never put mine in their store, and I've now opted out of them. I'm really afraid they'll put it in the catalog anyway, as they are so slow about updating. It seems like they discount everyone's book right off the bat.

Thankfully, my Amazon sales seem to be steadily growing. In June, I sold 16, July=79, and so far in August, 92, plus one in the UK store. Breaking a hundred is a possibility, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that. lol.


----------



## Daniel Arenson

MaryMcDonald said:


> Kobo never put mine in their store, and I've now opted out of them. I'm really afraid they'll put it in the catalog anyway, as they are so slow about updating. It seems like they discount everyone's book right off the bat.


Same here. Kobo never listed any of my books. Boo. And I'm even a Kobo owner -- bought one the DAY they came out! I feel betrayed!

I list my books for $3.99 on Smashwords, so if other stores discount it, it should still be above Amazon's $2.99.


----------



## MegHarris

My sales have been fairly poor this month, partly because I haven't been around to promote much.  My best seller is In the Mood (a 99 cent book) with 214 sales.  My worst is Never Love a Stranger, formerly my best seller, which got hit with several poor reviews in a row, poor thing, and only sold 17 copies this month.  Ouch!  But I am working on a couple of novellas (one under my name, one under a pen name) to release in September, so I'm hoping my sales will go back up next month!


----------



## Steven L. Hawk

This is my first full month in publication, so I'm still trying to gauge what's normal, good, and great for the book.  So far, I've sold 110 on Amazon (105 Kindle, 5 paperback).  

All other avenues have provided a total of one sale.


----------



## Sharlow

Steven L. Hawk said:


> This is my first full month in publication, so I'm still trying to gauge what's normal, good, and great for the book. So far, I've sold 110 on Amazon (105 Kindle, 5 paperback).
> 
> All other avenues have provided a total of one sale.


Steven did you promote your book on Kindle nation? I can't quite remember.


----------



## Steven L. Hawk

Sharlow said:


> Steven did you promote your book on Kindle nation? I can't quite remember.


I did and it counted for about 40% of my overall sales for the month. It paid for itself, and then some.

My sales numbers have decreased from that day obviously, but are still higher than they were prior to the sponsorship. Getting my first 5-star review has helped my overall momentum as well. I've had 5 more sales since my post this morning.

I've sold about 200 copies total, from all outlets in the first 6-7 weeks of publication. Not sure if that's good, bad or average.


----------



## CCrooks

This month was significantly worse than the month before -- less than 50 total sold. But I'm waiting on some reviews, which I hear can provide a bit of a boost. Also doing a Kindle Nation sponsorship of Choose Your Own Romance soon. Am crossing fingers that September's better, saleswise.

Christina


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

As of today, my two have sold 595 copies in August - that's a combination of Kindle, Smashwords, paperbacks via Amazon and paperbacks via direct sale. Paperbacks and SW aren't a lot, but I will say that I sell more paperbacks than SW copies. I've opted out of all SW distribution to other vendors because of the problems it's caused in the past, which persist to today (my mystery is still selling at a discount on Amazon because Kobo put it up 6 weeks after I opted out of SW distribution).

So my August sales will be about 85% of July, and July, after raising my prices from $1.99 to $2.99 was something like 75% of June. However, my romance has now been out 4 months, and while no one else seems to see a declining sales curve over time, I have with both books, so I don't think it's just price or just slow summer sales. I hope to have another romance out this fall and hope it will strike the same kind of chords with readers that Eyes did and things will continue buzzing right along at least at the current rate, which is quite satisfactory for me and what I want/need out of this venture. The 70% royalty is so terrific. I HEART Amazon.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

I basically track Weight of Blood's sales as the overall 'health' of my series (can't buy book two without buying book one, ya know?). I've had growth with every month, including this one, so if this truly is the August Doldrums, I'm hoping for a freaking wonderful Christmas  

Weight: 76 - 91 - 204 - 209- 233 - 324 - 336 (w/ 2 days left).

Heh, I've been doing this for seven months. Neat. I'm closing in on 3k lifetime sales on Amazon, too! My 7 months of work are -almost- putting me equal to an Amanda Hocking month, hoohah!

David Dalglish


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Steven L. Hawk said:


> This is my first full month in publication, so I'm still trying to gauge what's normal, good, and great for the book. So far, I've sold 110 on Amazon (105 Kindle, 5 paperback).
> 
> All other avenues have provided a total of one sale.


BT, Steven, thank you for the call out in your interview the other day. It made me all warm and toasty. 

Ed Patterson


----------



## David McAfee

Steven L. Hawk said:


> My sales numbers have decreased from that day obviously, but are still higher than they were prior to the sponsorship.


I would have to agree with this statement. That's been my experience, as well. Had a couple of phenominal days after KND went live, then it slowed down. But still better than it was before KND.

The 20% discount probably helps, too.


----------



## Paul Clayton

I sold about 515 in July.  August I'm up to about 408 so far.  Slowing down a bit.  I do hope to raise my price soon as Smashwords gets the word out to all the vendors.  So far only one has raised the price to where I want it.  And as you know, if Amazon finds the book on sale for less somewhere else, they'll pull it.  So it will be interesting to see what happens when I get the price back up.

In the meantime, I'm working hard on my edit of Calling Crow and will get it out ASAP.


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> I basically track Weight of Blood's sales as the overall 'health' of my series (can't buy book two without buying book one, ya know?). I've had growth with every month, including this one, so if this truly is the August Doldrums, I'm hoping for a freaking wonderful Christmas
> 
> Weight: 76 - 91 - 204 - 209- 233 - 324 - 336 (w/ 2 days left).
> 
> Heh, I've been doing this for seven months. Neat. I'm closing in on 3k lifetime sales on Amazon, too! My 7 months of work are -almost- putting me equal to an Amanda Hocking month, hoohah!
> 
> David Dalglish


That's showing really good growth David. You have to be happy with that. Are your other books in the series keeping pace?


----------



## David Derrico

To you guys who have done the Kindle Nation Daily ads -- can I ask which package you sprung for? And it really recouped that cost and then some? Seeing as how they run between $70 and $230 or something, it seems like you'd have to sell a LOT of extra books just to break even.


----------



## Valmore Daniels

David Derrico said:


> To you guys who have done the Kindle Nation Daily ads -- can I ask which package you sprung for? And it really recouped that cost and then some? Seeing as how they run between $70 and $230 or something, it seems like you'd have to sell a LOT of extra books just to break even.


My reply is here: http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,30592.msg599518.html#msg599518


----------



## Daniel Arenson

David Derrico said:


> To you guys who have done the Kindle Nation Daily ads -- can I ask which package you sprung for? And it really recouped that cost and then some? Seeing as how they run between $70 and $230 or something, it seems like you'd have to sell a LOT of extra books just to break even.


I bought the gold package for Firefly Island, BUT this was at the old, low price. The prices have really gone up. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd spend $230... it's getting really steep.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Sharlow said:


> That's showing really good growth David. You have to be happy with that. Are your other books in the series keeping pace?


Pretty much. About 65% of people who buy book 1 are buying book 2, and about 90% of people who buy book 2 buy book 3. Dance of Cloaks started slow, but it is hitting about 4 sales a day now, which is great.

David Dalglish


----------



## Zack Hamric

It should be an interesting exercise- I bought 3 dates on KND on Sept. 14, 31, and Oct. 15. Should be interesting to see if the bump and falloff on KND is leveraged by continuing to reinforce it every couple of weeks. I'll keep ya posted!

Zack


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

The slow down, BTW is due to the new K3 and new readers getting acclimatized. Fprums have switched attention for a bit from book acquisition to techincal and other K3 questions.

Ed Patterson


----------



## David Derrico

Valmore and Daniel, thanks for the info and for pointing me to the KND thread.


----------



## Steven L. Hawk

Edward C. Patterson said:


> BT, Steven, thank you for the call out in your interview the other day. It made me all warm and toasty.
> 
> Ed Patterson


I meant every word, Ed. My book, my sales, my presence on this lovely forum -- all because of your $0.99 book on e-publishing. 



David Derrico said:


> To you guys who have done the Kindle Nation Daily ads -- can I ask which package you sprung for? And it really recouped that cost and then some? Seeing as how they run between $70 and $230 or something, it seems like you'd have to sell a LOT of extra books just to break even.


I bought the $70 ad. The break even point for a $2.99 book at &0% is 33.3 copies. Before the ad I was selling an average of 1.5 per day. On the day of the sponsorship, I sold 42. In the 4 days since the sponsorship, I have averaged 8.5 sales per day. (But still zero in the UK! LOL!)

I have also been interviewed on Dave Wisehart's blog and received my first 5-star review during this period, so perhaps that had something to do with the numbers, also.

BTW, I'll be featured on The Indie Spotlight this Wednesday!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Steven, you made my day.


----------



## Sharlow

DArenson said:


> I bought the gold package for Firefly Island, BUT this was at the old, low price. The prices have really gone up. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd spend $230... it's getting really steep.


Wow. Is the package everyone buying up to $230? I hope not. That seems ridiculously high. Especially since that's the price of a two week virtual tour on pump up my book. I can see people are getting results... just seems like it's went up way to fast to me. I thought the site said that the sponsorship was to offset the cost of running his blog. $230 a day must really help..lol. I thought $99 was a lot.


----------



## Paul Clayton

Up to $230?  They might be reading this thread.  Probably are.  Anyway, I'm going to look into it.  Let's see, at $230, I'd have to sell about 115 copies above what I normally do to recoup.  Hummm.  And that's at a price of $2.99.  Thing is... if the reach a new plateau, it could be worth it.  Damn...  Just my musing here...  They probably will raise the price to 250.


----------



## Sharlow

Tic toc, tic toc. The last day of the month is upon us. I'm still hoping this will be my best month. That would be nice for the month of August. After all it is the death month right?


----------



## D.A. Boulter

Well, I need 5 sales to make it my best month sales-wise--40.  I think it's already my best month money-wise because of 2 sales at the 70% rate.  Not doing quite as well as I'd hoped, but who knows, September is a new month--oh, oh, along with the dreaded 'no sales in this period' blurb in records.


----------



## Sharlow

D.A. Boulter said:


> Well, I need 5 sales to make it my best month sales-wise--40. I think it's already my best month money-wise because of 2 sales at the 70% rate. Not doing quite as well as I'd hoped, but who knows, September is a new month--oh, oh, along with the dreaded 'no sales in this period' blurb in records.


56 is my best month so far. That was last June. Right now I have 52. So it's close. The good news is that this my best $ month. Thanks to the new royalty as well. So 4 more to tie, and 5 to beat it.


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

146 this month trouncing the 20 I had last month.

Dawn


----------



## Guest

August has been a really odd month for me. I started with lots of sales in the first few days and then I've been in the doldrums on and off. I ended up with 45 sales, which isn't terribel seeing as half of those were at 70% royalty.

Strangely, my new release "Thanatos Rising" only sold 11 copies and 1 paperback whereas my book on weight training and diet sold 12. Previously it's sold 1 kindle copy in 5 months. It also sold a couple of paperbacks too.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Dawn McCullough White said:


> 146 this month trouncing the 20 I had last month.
> 
> Dawn


Isn't that a good feeling?


----------



## Dawn McCullough White

Half-Orc said:


> Isn't that a good feeling?


I'm kind of holding my breath wondering what next month will bring, not allowing myself to feel anything at all, to be honest.

Dawn


----------



## daringnovelist

My novels are still in the doldrums, but my short story collection is at 49 sales so far.  I just need ONE more to make it 50.  (Which would be the highest I've had for a month so far.)

Camille


----------



## Victorine

I'm at 106 so far for this month.  I'm down quite a bit from last month, which was 176.  But I've been slacking on my promotion, so of course that's probably why.  Too much real life going on.  *Sigh*

But next month should be better, my KND short will go out and I'm featured on the cheap kindle reads blog.  Yay!  Plus I've had some bloggers ask to review my book.  Super yay!

Vicki


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I'm at 342 this month, which is on par, but July (because of the Smashword promotion and the sales reports from the outer backs - Nooks, iPad etc) hit a blended 714. Kindle to Kindle (month to month), I'm at 247 for August compared to 297 in July, but it's Augst and its the best of the 3 Augusts I've had. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## R. M. Reed

That does it, I have to get my horror story collection together. Surely that would sell better than the odd genres I am currently trying to market.


----------



## Dave Dykema

My stuff is really in the doldrums this month. I think every single poster did better than I. Maybe it's because my books have been out for over a year, and have already had their moment of glory.

I did really well until the price change. Coincidentally (or not), I also dropped way off once I put my new picture up. Is it too goofy? I sort of liked it because it was goofy, but now I'm starting to rethink it.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

My first book has been out for 3 years and has done beTter this last few months than ever.


----------



## Victorine

Dave Dykema said:


> My stuff is really in the doldrums this month. I think every single poster did better than I. Maybe it's because my books have been out for over a year, and have already had their moment of glory.
> 
> I did really well until the price change. Coincidentally (or not), I also dropped way off once I put my new picture up. Is it too goofy? I sort of liked it because it was goofy, but now I'm starting to rethink it.


LOL! I like your photo. 

Vicki


----------



## julieannfelicity

Wow, you guys are doing a heck of a lot better than me (looks longingly towards the huge group of big sellers)!

I was *Snoopy Dance* excited I exceeded my July sales, which was 18, by selling 21 this month.  I guess I had better get my fingers typing and finish my 'mainstream' book, cause hopefully that'll boost my sales so I can join ya'll.


----------



## daringnovelist

julieannfelicity said:


> Wow, you guys are doing a heck of a lot better than me (looks longingly towards the huge group of big sellers)!
> 
> I was *Snoopy Dance* excited I exceeded my July sales, which was 18, by selling 21 this month. I guess I had better get my fingers typing and finish my 'mainstream' book, cause hopefully that'll boost my sales so I can join ya'll.


That's closer to where I am (or was in June), but the short story collection has had a great time this month.

Camille


----------



## Learnmegood

Learn Me Good has enjoyed a fantastic August, wrapping up the month (unless more sales show up in the next hour) at 278 Kindle sales (that includes one UK sale!) and almost 20 paperback sales.
Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I just don't know how I can do any better in September...


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Learnmegood said:


> Learn Me Good has enjoyed a fantastic August, wrapping up the month (unless more sales show up in the next hour) at 278 Kindle sales (that includes one UK sale!) and almost 20 paperback sales.
> Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I just don't know how I can do any better in September...


By selling 279? Sheesh, so pessimistic about doing simple math...and you're a teacher!


----------



## Learnmegood

You're right.  I do know HOW it could happen.  Just like I know HOW I could make quadruple my salary.  What I don't know is what special alignment the universe could fall into to make it happen...


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Oh, that's astronomy. I'm a math guy. I can't help you on that.


----------



## Victorine

Half-Orc said:


> By selling 279? Sheesh, so pessimistic about doing simple math...and you're a teacher!


Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha PLOP!

I just laughed my head off.

Vicki


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

I sold 16. ie 13 usa and 3 uk, but last month I only sold 3 so it's going up. Also I got two very good reviews this month. I'm cautiously optomistic.


----------



## Cate Rowan

> By selling 279? Sheesh, so pessimistic about doing simple math...and you're a teacher!


Heh, you're a goofball, Orc. I like that.

- Cate, who's hearing crickets on Amazon today after a promising start


----------



## Zack Hamric

Crescent Rising sold 130 for the month- up from 77 in July and 27 in June- Looking forward to September 'cause of heavy marketing scheduled and paperback being on Amazon in mid-Sept...

Zack


----------



## Carl Ashmore

As a new author here (onlytwo and a half weeks in) this has been a very interesting thread. Thank you


----------



## Brenda Carroll

As I have said before, I was born with no math gene and a few other things, but that's another thread... anyhow, I had to quit counting because the number got too big. I'm still in shock to say the least, but of course, I'm ONLY a writer and not REAL author.    A real author's books would be published in hardback and be catching dust on a big table at Books-A-Million. What a life! What a life! I'm melting... melting.... melting...


----------



## Carl Ashmore

Congratulations, then, Brendan


----------



## Victorine

Ha ha ha, Brendan, your post cracked me up.  And congrats on that number getting too big!  Woot!

(Of course, if you really suck at math that could mean you've sold 26...)  Bwa ha ha ha ha!

Vicki


----------



## Holly A Hook

This month (as of now) I've sold 31 books.  In September I sold 5.  If you count Smashwords and B and N, the total eBook sales are up to 38.  (Never had any luck with Smashwords.)

I had a weird spike in sales the past few days.  Sunday I sold 3 books, yesterday 5 and today 2.  Not sure what caused that, though.

I do have more promotion lined up next month so numbers should be even higher then.


----------



## 13893

This is a good time to chime in here.

I published SJ on September 3, and as of this morning I had sold 96 copies at 2.99 including all venues. (Amazon, Amazon UK, B&N, and Smashwords)

I just changed the price to 99 cents. I don't have any promo lined up until November 8 when SJ will be KBBotD. I'll let the 99 cent price stay in effect at least through that, and we'll see what happens.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

LKRigel said:


> I just changed the price to 99 cents. I don't have any promo lined up until November 8 when SJ will be KBBotD. I'll let the 99 cent price stay in effect at least through that, and we'll see what happens.


Slightly off topic, but this kind of caught my attention. A lot of people will talk about how they set their price to 99 cents, but then didn't see a sales increase. This is sort of why. You've set the price to 99 cents. Awesome! But are you telling anyone? Will you get your book added to lists promoting cheap books? Has Booksontheknob noticed you? Does your Book Bazaar thread make it clear the price is lower? Did you *gulp* mention it on the Amazon forums?

Either 2.99 or 99 cents, your biggest difficulty right now is getting people to know your book exists. If you change the price but do nothing, odds are high a lowering in price will result in the same amount of sales, or a slight increase.

A 99 cent price point isn't magical. It is a tool to be used.

David Dalglish


----------



## 13893

Half-Orc said:


> Slightly off topic, but this kind of caught my attention. A lot of people will talk about how they set their price to 99 cents, but then didn't see a sales increase. This is sort of why. You've set the price to 99 cents. Awesome! But are you telling anyone? Will you get your book added to lists promoting cheap books? Has Booksontheknob noticed you? Does your Book Bazaar thread make it clear the price is lower? Did you *gulp* mention it on the Amazon forums?
> 
> Either 2.99 or 99 cents, your biggest difficulty right now is getting people to know your book exists. If you change the price but do nothing, odds are high a lowering in price will result in the same amount of sales, or a slight increase.
> 
> A 99 cent price point isn't magical. It is a tool to be used.
> 
> David Dalglish


Good points, David.

Paula at DailyCheapReads let me know recently she's going to list SJ, so I emailed her to let her know I'd lowered the price. I've put it in my signature line here.

I didn't think about Amazon's lists -- I'll venture over there, thanks. I posted it on my website.

I told Jason to buy it.

I tweeted it.

But you are right, people can't pick it up if they don't know about it. And I'll let booksontheknob know.

Thanks!


----------



## Julie Christensen

Thanks for the post.  I've been wondering about this myself.  I've been live for about 2 weeks and I've sold 18 books in the US and 8 in the UK.  Oh, and one on Nook.  I am hoping that, as these people read, if they like, they will recommend, and sales will grow.


----------



## swcleveland

Just hit 100.  Yeehaa!!


----------



## Carl Ashmore

Yay. Well done cleveland


----------



## JMcGhee

Congrats, Cleveland, first 100!  That's awesome.


----------



## Cliff Ball

I sold 35 e-books this month, the most up to this point was around 15. I've now sold 250, 104 of that was in the last 3 months alone(out of the last 2 1/2 years)


----------



## Sharlow

So how did everyone do this month? I had a pretty good month, but not as good as last month. I was hoping to surpass last month, but no joy.


----------



## MegHarris

I improved quite a bit from last month.  For a couple of months I was too ill to post on the forums much, and that had a negative effect.  Now that I'm posting again, my sales are improving.  I still need to get a new book out there, though.  Nothing sells books like new books.


----------



## nomesque

Including Amazon-discounted freebies: 10600-odd. I'm thinking that might be a rare month...


----------



## 911jason

nomesque said:


> Including Amazon-discounted freebies: 10600-odd. I'm thinking that might be a rare month...


C'mon, glass half-full and all?!


----------



## nomesque

911jason said:


> C'mon, glass half-full and all?!


Glass half-full of extremely rare, vintage wine? 

I'm happy. Very happy. Just not TOO expectant of a month to top that for a while. If I'm wrong, I'll be over the moon... *lol*

Over 1000 non-freebie sales, though, so that was extra nice.


----------



## Carl Ashmore

Wow, that's amazing, Nomad. It's my first month here and with four days to go I've sold 472 copies both in UK and USA. I'm really very pleased with that. Thanks to everyone that's supported my book


----------



## P.A. Woodburn

I put my figures on the other post.


----------



## Victorine

I've just passed 2,700 books sold total.  Wheee!

Vicki


----------



## HP Mallory

This was a good month for me, mainly due to B&N.
I have two books out, both at 2.99. Between both of them, my sales were:

Amazon: 907

B&N: 1854


----------



## 911jason

HP Mallory said:


> This was a good month for me, mainly due to B&N.
> I have two books out, both at 2.99. Between both of them, my sales were:
> 
> Amazon: 907
> 
> B&N: 1854


Hmmm... that's surprising! It seems like those numbers are reversed from what I usually see posted by other authors. Do you have any idea why your B&N numbers are so skewed? Or is it always like that?


----------



## HP Mallory

I don't know. I just uploaded my books to B&N on Oct 7 and sold maybe 11 in the first 4-5 days. Then B&N started ranking me extremely well for "paranormal" related searches and my sales took off. They've started settling most recently but still blowing Amazon's out of the water.


----------



## Victorine

Wow, Congrats on the B&N sales!  Woot!

Well, all of your sales.  You are rockin'!

Vicki


----------



## HP Mallory

Thanks, Vicki! 
Yeah, I was really surprised by B&N. I just hope they continue! LOL


----------



## R. M. Reed

16 US Halloween Skys in the US and 1 UK. It's been less than a month since I released it. I just wish someone would put up a review. I worry that all the people who bought it hated it.


----------



## MrPLD

I've been slack with promoting the last 3 weeks because of being back/forth to the medical centres and it's showing on sales.  Then again I'm still down in the noise-floor when it comes to statistics.  Waiting for the next two books to come out before anticipating any great leaps.


----------



## Julie Christensen

Sharlow said:


> give us some sales numbers, like how many you sold your first month.


I've been up for just under a month on Amazon, about two weeks on BN. I've sold 43 so far. Five on BN, 9 on Amazon UK, and 29 on Amazon in the US. I've gotten one review so far, which I'm happy about because I've heard that you generally average one review for every 100 books you sell.

Good luck with your book! I hope you have a lot of success.
Julie


----------



## Will Write for Gruel

HP Mallory said:


> Thanks, Vicki!
> Yeah, I was really surprised by B&N. I just hope they continue! LOL


Do you think the B&N stuff is due to B&N doing any extra pushing of self-pubbed books on their site since they are relatively new to matching Amazon in that service?

I love your covers, btw. They are real attention grabbers.


----------



## John Hartness

I've certainly seen a big jump since dropping the price to .99 and since having a little more time to promote on these and the Amazon forums. I'm at 21 so far for the month as opposed to 9 last month. I need to see 90 to make the same money, since I priced it at $3.99 last month, but it's possible I guess. Either way it builds a little name recognition for my new book, Hard Day's Knight, which I hope to have out for the Kindle by December 1.


----------



## Sharlow

Well this month was a record month for me so far. The day's not over, but I thought I'd get this thread going. At the moment I have over 80 combined sales this month. The highest for me so far after a year. I'm also now approaching a milestone marker of 500 books sold. 

I'm looking forward to hitting that milestone. It's been a long road, and it's taken me a year to reach it. I should hit it next month at my present rate, so woot for me!


----------



## Julie Christensen

Sharlow said:


> It's been a long road, and it's taken me a year to reach it. I should hit it next month at my present rate, so woot for me!


Woot! Woot! Congratulations.


----------



## Cliff Ball

I sold 50 books this month, twice as many as last month, but, it was a two week period in the middle of the month, and then it came to a sudden halt. I don't know how that happened, and I wish I knew!


----------



## Iwritelotsofbooks

I'm still looking for my first.  How long does it usually take to get your first sale that isn't a friend or family member?


----------



## swolf

In the two weeks since Amulet 2 was published, it's been selling like hotcakes!

Old stale hotcakes.  

Amazon: 2 sales
Smashwords: 8 sales (4 of those being free coupons I gave to reviewers of the first book.)

Woooo!    

From small acorns mighty oaks grow.


----------



## CDChristian

swolf said:


> In the two weeks since Amulet 2 was published, it's been selling like hotcakes!
> 
> Old stale hotcakes.
> 
> Amazon: 2 sales
> Smashwords: 8 sales (4 of those being free coupons I gave to reviewers of the first book.)
> 
> Woooo!
> 
> From small acorns mighty oaks grow.


Ain't that the truth! I've been a wee acorn all this year but I think I've grown a few roots.

NOVEMBER
Amazon-US: 24
Amazon-UK: 1

I've yet to sell more than 42 in a month. It's my goal to beat that...one reader at a time.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

I'll post my numbers up on the November Totals thread that is sure to appear while I am sleeping. Been a great month!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

With November closing, I have hit 418, which isn't bad considering I did about 60% less promoting due to my Dad's passing and my bereavement. My overall sales stands at 8,668 across all titles, and I'm still on track to cross the 10,000 mark by February.

To my readers - thank you, and I shall continue to provide you with quality, inexpensive ebook reads, with 16 out - the 17th coming in February and 10 more works in progress.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## WilliamEsmont

I'm sitting at 38 for the month..with a few hours to go..hoping to hit 40, so if anyone's looking for a thriller...just saying...

Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk


----------



## Victorine

I'm having an amazing month.  I've sold over 2,000!  And it seems to be increasing rather then slowing down for me.  I must have hit that lucky jackpot where Amazon starts promoting me a bunch, because it's nothing I'm doing as far as promotion.  (Other than just hanging out here.  But I think everyone here has already bought the book if it looked interesting to them.)

Vicki


----------



## JumpingShip

Victorine said:


> I'm having an amazing month. I've sold over 2,000! And it seems to be increasing rather then slowing down for me. I must have hit that lucky jackpot where Amazon starts promoting me a bunch, because it's nothing I'm doing as far as promotion. (Other than just hanging out here. But I think everyone here has already bought the book if it looked interesting to them.)
> 
> Vicki


I've sold over 700 this month, so I think I'm going to stay with the 99 cent price and sell the sequel at either $2.99 or even $3.99. I'm happy that I've built readership for the sequel, which was my goal. The fact that I will make a little bit more money than last month is a bonus.


----------



## Holly A Hook

This month for Amazon: 104.  
Amazon.uk: 7
Barnes and Noble: 30 (I'm not sure how that one happened, as I only sold 1 in October.)

Total all time: 199.  I'm 1 away from my goal of 200, and hoping it happens tonight.

I suppose for one book (released at the end of September), those numbers aren't too bad, but I think it'll take a couple more books to really get things going.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Soon...very soon...my Amazon totals will allow me to post this video legitimately.


----------



## Victorine

Half-Orc said:


> Soon...very soon...my Amazon totals will allow me to post this video legitimately.


Woot! That's great!!

I don't want to jinx it, but if my sales continue, I'll be able to say that before the end of December. Shhh, don't tell, so I don't get jinxed.

Vicki


----------



## Sharlow

Julie Christensen said:


> Woot! Woot! Congratulations.


Thanks I appreciate it.


----------



## Sharlow

lacymarankevinmichael said:


> I'm still looking for my first. How long does it usually take to get your first sale that isn't a friend or family member?


It really just depends on so many factors...All you can do is promote and cross your fingers, and hope someone who likes your stuff will come across it. I sold I believe 6 my first month if that helps at all.


----------



## Sharlow

Edward C. Patterson said:


> With November closing, I have hit 418, which isn't bad considering I did about 60% less promoting due to my Dad's passing and my bereavement. My overall sales stands at 8,668 across all titles, and I'm still on track to cross the 10,000 mark by February.
> 
> To my readers - thank you, and I shall continue to provide you with quality, inexpensive ebook reads, with 16 out - the 17th coming in February and 10 more works in progress.
> 
> Edward C. Patterson


I just wanted to say condolences on your dad. I lost mine about 8 years ago. It's never easy. Also, your an inspiration ED. You helped me here on these boards with your words of wisdom when I was starting out, and still do.


----------



## Sharlow

MaryMcDonald said:


> I've sold over 700 this month, so I think I'm going to stay with the 99 cent price and sell the sequel at either $2.99 or even $3.99. I'm happy that I've built readership for the sequel, which was my goal. The fact that I will make a little bit more money than last month is a bonus.


Wow Mary, I didn't know your book took off like that. Did your new cover help you think?


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> Soon...very soon...my Amazon totals will allow me to post this video legitimately.


I was thinking about this video when Vicki said she was over 2000 this month. You two are like in a class by yourselves. I'd definitely think you and Vicki are something to look at as examples. lets not even talk about Amanda.


----------



## sandynight

I've sold 44 this month and got one fan mail looking for anything else I've written. But so far Lying Cop is it. It will be awhile for my second book but I'm working on it.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

In my first month (12/07) I sold 2.

Ed Patterson


----------



## JumpingShip

Sharlow said:


> Wow Mary, I didn't know your book took off like that. Did your new cover help you think?


I think it helped, certainly didn't hurt, but the biggest thing was the price change, and a couple of readers posted on the Kindle forum on Amazon. One person I person I knew had read my book, but I didn't/don't know her that well, so I had no idea she was going to start a thread, and the other was a complete stranger. Her thread had a great title, it said Shame on you, Mary McDonald. lol. It must have caught people's attention.

I also 'liked' Pixel of Ink one day. It's a cool blog and Facebook page that has lots of Kindle related bargains. I liked it because I found some earphones on it that I'll probably buy as a stocking stuffer. Anyway, a few days later, they had my book featured as a Kindle bargain. I had not asked them or anything.

I was just lucky to get a few things like that. J.A. Konrath also posted his 'Authors helping Authors' blog post where he linked to authors who had bought his book the previous month. I know that drove a few sales as I had a spike for a few days after that.

Today my first paid ad is running at the top of the page.


----------



## Steven L. Hawk

I saw that thread on Amazon, Mary.  I'm still jealous.  

I've sold 550 copies of Peace Warrior this month, which pushes me over 1000 total.  Doing the pee pee dance!


----------



## JumpingShip

Steven L. Hawk said:


> I saw that thread on Amazon, Mary. I'm still jealous.
> 
> I've sold 550 copies of Peace Warrior this month, which pushes me over 1000 total. Doing the pee pee dance!


550 is awesome!  Congrats!


----------



## rsullivan9597

The final numbers for November are...drum roll please.....

The Crown Conspiarcy          2,529
Avempartha                      20,571
Nyphron Rising                    1,142
The Emerald Storm                984
Wintertide                            981
Total                              26,207

Though not a total accounting....if I add DTB into the mix...
The Crown Conspiarcy          2,672
Avempartha                      20,659
Nyphron Rising                    1,230
The Emerald Storm              1,059
Wintertide                          1,109
Total                              26,729

A large number of the Avempartha sales were actually "free" once I get the final accounting I'll back those out for an "actual" sold.


----------



## MegHarris

Wow, there have been some amazing sales figures this month!

I had my best recent month-- 1674 sold total.  My bestsellers in US Amazon sales were 350 for In the Mood, 318 for Isn't It Romantic? and 296 for Unwrapped.  All but one of my books improved saleswise (and the one that didn't improve is hardly selling at all; I may just start giving it away).  I also had 52 PubIt sales (my first sales there-- I didn't have any last month, when I first uploaded books to B&N) and 55 Amazon UK sales.


----------



## destill

I'm green with envy after looking at some of these sales numbers. You guys are AMAZING! I think I sold 4 books during my first month. Broke 100 for the first time, last month. Then pulled back to 94, this month. (Amazon only)

So now I'm rethinking my genre.   Actually, I'm rethinking EVERYTHING: bookcover, book description, price, marketing strategies. I have a KB Book of the Day campaign later this month, and a Kindle Nation Daily ad too. 

I'm still waiting for my last two books to achieve "premium status" on Smashwords and get shipped off to B&N, iBookstore, etc.  

In the beginning of my career (15 years ago), I hoped to become a syndicated humor columnist. And just as I was building momentum, newspapers began killing off their humor columns--and then they began dying altogether. Instead of looking for new ways to market my work, I wasted a lot of time trying fit what I wrote into outdated models. I even did a stint as a newspaper stringer, but that was BORING. 

From a "traditional" publishing standpoint, a few top-rated agents previously expressed an interest. But nothing ever materialized. I didn't have a TV talk show or HBO special, which likely would have produced a different outcome. I'm not a stand-up comedian. For some reason, today, it's not enough to just write funny material. Humorists are expected to be on the road, performing. But that's not conducive to my lifestyle. So I'm happy selling eBooks, doing a few speaking engagements, here and there, and self-publishing my work.


----------



## Sharlow

You know, I was content to let this thread die, as the Davids thread has become more streamlined and efficient in reporting how many books people have sold. After looking at the post in this thread, I've decided not to let this die. Thread seems to have a lot of information in it that I think new people here at the boards may need. As such I'll give this a little bump and see if it still had breath in it.


----------



## Kelly Haven

I started last Tuesday and have sold 14 on Amazon and 14 on Smashwords, so 28 total.


----------



## Sharlow

Kelly Haven said:


> I started last Tuesday and have sold 14 on Amazon and 14 on Smashwords, so 28 total.


Well your doing great. When I started I only sold 6 my first month. This thread is so like walking down memory lane. Those who commented over a year ago, should look at their old posts and see how things have changed so fast.


----------



## Kathelm

This is my first month with the new cover and blurb.  I've still only sold 5 so far, and two of them were with a 100% Smashwords coupon.

The sad part?  This is my best month yet.

(EDIT: Ok, that's not entirely true.  My paperbacks created quite the buzz around the cubicle farm.)


----------



## Kelly Haven

Sharlow said:


> Well your doing great. When I started I only sold 6 my first month. This thread is so like walking down memory lane. Those who commented over a year ago, should look at their old posts and see how things have changed so fast.


Thanks, Sharlow! It's exciting, and I honestly never expected to sell as many as I have, even though it's a small number. There's no secret as to what my stories are about (just look at the covers and titles ). I just didn't think anyone would be interested in them all that much. I guess it's true what they say, sex sells *shrug*


----------



## theaatkinson

such amazing numbers. I've just hit a total of 100 and I'm happy about it. So far this month, I average a book a day. I think that's pretty cool.

2000 in one month? my jaw dropped. really. congrats!


----------



## Sharlow

Kathelm said:


> This is my first month with the new cover and blurb. I've still only sold 5 so far, and two of them were with a 100% Smashwords coupon.
> 
> The sad part? This is my best month yet.
> 
> (EDIT: Ok, that's not entirely true. My paperbacks created quite the buzz around the cubicle farm.)


It gets better! Just hold on and enjoy the ride. I've found this one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. At least it feels that way at times.


----------



## Sharlow

Kelly Haven said:


> Thanks, Sharlow! It's exciting, and I honestly never expected to sell as many as I have, even though it's a small number. There's no secret as to what my stories are about (just look at the covers and titles ). I just didn't think anyone would be interested in them all that much. I guess it's true what they say, sex sells *shrug*


This is so true. =)


----------



## R. Doug

This month has been my best ever.  Thirty-one sales so far.


----------



## Sharlow

R. Doug said:


> This month has been my best ever. Thirty-one sales so far.


Well it's good to hear your sales are finally picking up. This has been my best sales month so far as well. Around 260+ books so far. I'm hoping to get to 300 this month.


----------



## J Dean

Good numbers, all!

I sold... two   Wish I could get my covers changed; I think that has a lot to do with it.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I've sold 486 so far for January. Hope to crest 500. One sale short of 9,700 overall. There shall be a count down to 10,000 in February.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Mr. RAD

J Dean said:


> Good numbers, all!
> 
> I sold... two  Wish I could get my covers changed; I think that has a lot to do with it.


You and me both, J Dean. But let's look at the bright side -- we could have sold only one copy this month or none at all. Though a pitiful sales total, I'm grateful for the few souls who gave this newbie author a chance.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson

November 73
December 272

January - just gone over 2000   

1663 copies of _But Can You Drink The Water?_ sold on Amazon UK 

Thrilled (to say the least)


----------



## stacyjuba

I've been happy with the month that I've been having. In November, I sold 17 copies of my book *Twenty-Five Years Ago Today*. Then in December, I put it for 99 cents for about three weeks. I sold a few hundred. Now that it's back at $2.99, I've sold 350 this month at that price and I've sold 50 Kindle copies of my new book *Sink or Swim*. I've done a lot of participating in Amazon customer forums and I've had some guest blog interviews and features throughout the month, so I think that has all helped, but I've found that the more sales it gets, the more Amazon seems to recommend it and the more people who find it by accident. It's been bouncing between 2200-5000 in the rankings for the past few weeks. It's been staying steady on the historical mystery bestseller list, and at times it is also on the romance list and romantic suspense list.

On Pub It, I just saw that 28 copies have sold this month - I thought it was just two initially, but apparently it takes them awhile to update their accounting.

Am feeling very optimistic that the sales will continue to climb, as I have a lot of online promotions coming up. Fingers crossed! It did take some trial and error, and trying different marketing strategies, before things started to take off.


----------



## Mel Comley

wow! Jan that is stunning, what a leap!

I'm having my best month so far 220 up to today!

Mel


----------



## LeighSaunders

I put my first three short stories up for $0.99 in mid-October, and sold a total of 6 copies that half-month.
I added three more titles (two more $0.99 short stories, one novella at $1.99) in November, and sold a total of 23 copies that month.
In December, I didn't add anything new or do any marketing; (I've been focused working on my new book). A total of 24 copies sold while I wasn't looking.
In January, I added one short story title, and have so far sold a total of 23 copies this month (again, I've done minimal marketing - putting the time into finishing the new book by the end of the month).

So the grand total, for slightly more than three months' self-publishing is seven titles posted with 76 sales.
Of those sales, my novella, *Marriage of Convenience*, accounts for more than half.
Not bad for the first quarter, with mostly short stories up. I'm pleased with the progress 

And now it's time to sign out and get back to work on the book!


----------



## isaacsweeney

I have four ebooks - one short story, two small short story collections, one small nonfiction essay collection. I published them first of this year and I've sold six at 99 cents each.


----------



## sandynight

I've been having an Awesome month. I've sold 245 so far for Jan.


----------



## Basil Sands

January Figures:

1	1917 - A short story	7
2	65 Below	          383
3	Faithful Warrior 105
4	Karl's Last Flight 49

Sales are moving up, about 5x more than last month, hopefully to continue this pattern for the long run.

Part of the jump is that I offered a free Kindle 3 for every 1000 books sold through March. The trend needs to continue for that first Kindle to be given away....and hopefully a dozen more give aways after that.


----------



## LaurynChristopher

I'm having my best month ever -- closing in on my first "100" month (total sales of two titles):

Conflict of Interest 
_When an assassin has work-related issues, someone usually ends up dead... _ A Megan Harris novel

With Friends Like These
_When you make a mess, sometimes it really sucks to have to clean it up... _ A Megan Harris novelette​


----------



## Cliff Ball

So far this month, I've sold 186 copies combined of my three novels. Normally, it would take me about 3 months to get that high. I aimed for 100 sold in one month for the first time, and I blew past that!


----------



## Zack Hamric

Good month so far- up to around 696 total on Amazon...A couple of hundred of those were at .99- That short experiment completely reinforced my belief that .99 is a losing proposition for most writers...

Zack


----------



## Katie Salidas

I'm having a great new year as well with sales!! My Immortalis series has doubled in Kindle sales this month (and that's on top of the Smashwords coupon I've been circulating around for the first book). Along with that, my novella's are picking up steam too. Woo Hoo!!


----------



## Sharlow

So far this is my best month. I hope it will continue this way. I've sold 332 books so far combined sales so far. This is amazing as November was the first month that I even reached 100 sales. December was like 155, and now over 300!!! I'm celebrating! Woot!

It wasn't that long ago that I was just dreaming of reaching 100 sales in a month. Now I'm hoping for 500 next month with realistic goals of doing it. I'm almost sorry to see January disappearing.


----------



## CathyQuinn

I've sold 50 this month! It's my first whole month, so I'm not unhappy, except when I read your numbers.   

35 US sales, 15 UK sales.  But the UK sales are all my .99 book.


----------



## Jennybeanses

I'm ecstatic! I just published The Goblin Market on Friday on Amazon and I've sold 27 copies total this weekend. 25 in the U.S. and 2 in the U.K. 

Logging in my Smashwords sales as well, which are at 10, I've sold a total of 37 copies since Friday. This novel is off to a very good start!! Fingers crossed that it keeps up momentum.


----------



## Jan Hurst-Nicholson

Gee, that's really exciting. Well done!


----------



## Jennybeanses

Thank you, Jan. I'm jumping up and down all over the kitchen!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Good month - at 536 with 2 days to go.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Sharlow

Looks like my final total for the month is 391. Not bad at all! I'm close to an all time sales record of 1k. Should get that in a day or so as I already have 5 sales this month! I hope everyone else is doing well.


----------



## jonfmerz

Actually just enjoyed my first "300" month of total sales combined, with most of those coming by way of my Lawson Vampire series that I finally got uploaded last week.  Sold 64 copies in about 5 days of The Fixer, which was great for me.  The rest of the list did well, too.  I'm hoping it continued - I really want to crack the "1000" Club!


----------



## JL Bryan

I sold 1935 total in January, making it my first month in the 1K club...


----------



## Victorine

Wow, everyone is doing so well!

I sold 21,484 books in January.

My total sold so far is 38,021.

And Sharlow is right, it's fun to look back through this thread and see what I was selling back then.  My first month I sold 7 copies!!

Vicki


----------



## jonfmerz

Wow Vicki!

That's incredible!  Congratulations to you for achieving that!  Talk about inspiring!


----------



## Victorine

Thank you, Jon!

The majority of my sales have come from Dec/Jan.  It's amazing how it can all explode one day.

Vicki


----------



## JL Bryan

Hey Jon,

Your Social Media for Authors really helped me dress up my Facebook page - do you have plans for any more like that?


----------



## tonyaplank

I know, that is amazing, Vicki! Congratulations!! 

I sold 669 this month, making my total just over 4,000.


----------



## WilliamEsmont

522

Best month ever. Not sure how I'm going to top that in Feb.


----------



## Monique

So wonderful to see so much progress by so many!

January was my best month by far. It was also my first full month at $0.99. I sold 4,509 copies of Out of Time.


----------



## Basil Sands

Official tally for January 2011 - 
Amazon        = 602 total between US & UK
B&N            = 5 (only put it out there on 1/27)
Smashwords  = 19 (may not be accurate, but close to this)

Total = 626

Sigh...not in the 1000 Club yet, but maybe this is the month


----------



## Victorine

I think there should be a 100 Club, because selling over 100 books in a month is what we were all striving for back in the beginning of this thread!!

Vicki


----------



## julieannfelicity

Wow! Everyone is doing so well! Congratulations.  

January was the best month EVER for me, as well. I hope the momentum keeps growing!!


----------



## Monique

Victorine said:


> I think there should be a 100 Club, because selling over 100 books in a month is what we were all striving for back in the beginning of this thread!!
> 
> Vicki


I agree. I remember (not too long ago) when I was so excited to even get close to 100 sales in a month.


----------



## Sandra Edwards

Victorine said:


> I think there should be a 100 Club, because selling over 100 books in a month is what we were all striving for back in the beginning of this thread!!
> 
> Vicki


ITA, Vicki!


----------



## jonfmerz

JL Bryan said:


> Hey Jon,
> 
> Your Social Media for Authors really helped me dress up my Facebook page - do you have plans for any more like that?


I did, but my commitments have piled up right now. I might at some point in the future. But I'm glad you found it so useful!


----------



## Basil Sands

Monique said:


> I agree. I remember (not too long ago) when I was so excited to even get close to 100 sales in a month.


Yeah...I remember when I was excited to get to 40....that is to say, last month!

I am just hoping for that wondrous promise of exponential growth that hits so many.  I hope this for us all, because the potential and the audience are both certainly out there.


----------



## JL Bryan

Monique said:


> I agree. I remember (not too long ago) when I was so excited to even get close to 100 sales in a month.


Yeah, I was selling like 20 a month when I first started hanging out here in August.


----------



## Monique

JL Bryan said:


> Yeah, I was selling like 20 a month when I first started hanging out here in August.


Me too.


----------



## 911jason

Wow Monique! 4500!


----------



## isaacsweeney

I sold 8 total in my first month


----------



## Sharlow

Victorine said:


> I think there should be a 100 Club, because selling over 100 books in a month is what we were all striving for back in the beginning of this thread!!
> 
> Vicki


I had been thinking the same thing. lol. I love reading the early day's in this thread. Back when so many of what people on the boards think of as titans these days, and how they were just like every one else with their sales being so low compared today. It shows with time and persistence it's possible to sell hundreds a month and maybe even thousands.


----------



## Monique

911jason said:


> Wow Monique! 4500!




Fight on!


----------



## Sharlow

I just noticed that the start of this thread is January 2010. It's kind of cool to compare it to January 2011 now that we just finished that month.


----------



## JoeMitchell

Monique said:


> I agree. I remember (not too long ago) when I was so excited to even get close to 100 sales in a month.


Me too. September was the first month I first broke 100. It's been rising since then, and I just sold 877 in January, with 2,313 total sales now in 8 months.

Even though I just had my best selling month ever, it seems to be declining steeply. I get all kinds of mixed reviews on my book, especially in this past month. Some people love it and others really really hate it. I think the bad reviews are dragging me down.


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> Not counting the free downloads from smashwords, The Weight of Blood is up to a rockin' 44 sales. Not too shabby for the first 3 weeks its been uploaded (2/1 to 2/20). Hopefully uploading book two will increase the likelihood of people purchasing the first one, and then I'll start working on a website. Also submitted to 4 different review sites. Hoping if/when one or two does a review, that will help as well.
> 
> You know, assuming they don't eat my story alive.
> 
> David Dalglish


Well look at that. This must have been one of your first posts David. 44 sales? Think your breaking that record yet?


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Bwahah, yeah, that is near the end of my very first month. You wanna know what is surreal? This January, I sold the equivalent of my first nine months combined. I'm pretty sure if I could have sent an email to the past, I wouldn't have believed it.  

David Dalglish


----------



## Lexi Revellian

It's great to read about all your publishing journeys - though it will take me some time to get through the whole thread...

I published _Remix _on 9th August 2010. That month I sold three copies on Amazon, and six on Smashwords. Last month, January, I sold 5939 on Amazon, mostly in the UK, and one on Smashwords. Though February has been s-l-o-w so far.

Do any of the rest of you worry that we are experiencing a brief golden age of indies, and the bubble will burst at any moment? I tell myself that even if it does, thousands of people have enjoyed my writing, and that's fantastic.

Lexi


----------



## LB Gschwandtner

WOW. You guys are really rockin' it.

Here're my #s to date:

The Naked Gardener -- 1673 sold on amazon since launch in late July (sold 5 that month & 13 the next).
Smashwords for me is a waste of time totally. A few sold, still have see NO $$ from them (what's that about?)
and cannot figure out how to even publish on B&N the mystery site.

But ...  the growth curve gets interesting.
from 255 in Dec to 842 in Jan and already this month on track to do more (if it keeps up like this @ Lexi)

And I agree @ Vicki, it's interesting to look back at our initial goals a year ago when I hadn't even heard of the Indie phenom & before Karen Cantwell started using her persuasive powers (read nagging) on me.

Onward all!


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> Bwahah, yeah, that is near the end of my very first month. You wanna know what is surreal? This January, I sold the equivalent of my first nine months combined. I'm pretty sure if I could have sent an email to the past, I wouldn't have believed it.
> 
> David Dalglish


I bet. It's cool to look back and see how you grew into one of the titans David, at least to me.


----------



## CaitLondon

JoeMitchell said:


> Me too. September was the first month I first broke 100. It's been rising since then, and I just sold 877 in January, with 2,313 total sales now in 8 months.
> 
> Even though I just had my best selling month ever, it seems to be declining steeply. I get all kinds of mixed reviews on my book, especially in this past month. Some people love it and others really really hate it. I think the bad reviews are dragging me down.


Do not let those bad reviews drag you down. I've been doing this for a long time, and that note about mixed reviews, some love/hate your work? That only means that you are getting a good strong response to your work. If they responded Blah, blah, generic, that is a real barometer that nothing stood out to them in particular and they just had to write something. Anything.

Write fiercely, my friend. Evoking strong emotions means there is real meat in your stories, stirring the reader.


----------



## JL Bryan

Sharlow said:


> Not counting the free downloads from smashwords, The Weight of Blood is up to a rockin' 44 sales. Not too shabby for the first 3 weeks its been uploaded (2/1 to 2/20). Hopefully uploading book two will increase the likelihood of people purchasing the first one, and then I'll start working on a website. Also submitted to 4 different review sites. Hoping if/when one or two does a review, that will help as well.
> 
> You know, assuming they don't eat my story alive.
> 
> David Dalglish
> 
> "Well look at that. This must have been one of your first posts David. 44 sales? Think your breaking that record yet?"


That is such an inspiring post by David, knowing how well he's doing now. It's almost adorable to read it.


----------



## nomesque

JoeMitchell said:


> Me too. September was the first month I first broke 100. It's been rising since then, and I just sold 877 in January, with 2,313 total sales now in 8 months.
> 
> Even though I just had my best selling month ever, it seems to be declining steeply. I get all kinds of mixed reviews on my book, especially in this past month. Some people love it and others really really hate it. I think the bad reviews are dragging me down.


On the bright side, that generally means that you're widening your audience from personal recommendations to impersonal ones. Yes, you'll get more negative reviews, but you'll increase your core audience and your recommendations, too. Your sales may dip for a while, but that will probably just be the section of your wider audience who wouldn't tend to like it, read the negatives from like-minded folk and get put off.


----------



## Sharlow

JL Bryan said:


> That is such an inspiring post by David, knowing how well he's doing now. It's almost adorable to read it.


I agree, and he's not the only one in this thread just starting out. Amanda, Vicki, and a bunch of others. I think we get fixed on how well they are doing right now and forget it wasn't always that way for them. Best part, it wasn't 5 or 6 years ago that they were posting 100 or less sales, It was a year or less.


----------



## JL Bryan

Half-Orc said:


> This month was a banner month (thanks to Red Adept and KB I'm sure). The Weight of Blood, on the final day for sales, just crossed 200, which means over a 100% increase of the previous month. Absolutely incredible. Also managed another 138 sales of The Cost of Betrayal, which means I'm pulling a 3 to 2 ratio on those, which I am also very pleased with. I keep waiting for the magic carpet ride to end, but last I checked The Weight of Blood was 2100 ranked, 38th in Epic Fantasy, so by god it isn't over for at least today.
> 
> Smashwords sales? Five.
> 
> David Dalglish


Aw, I just went back and read the first several pages of this thread (which was months before my time as a KBer). There was Ed Patterson, already offering advice and support to everyone. Dalglish wondering if he'd be able to keep up with a few hundred sales a month. I find myself wondering what happened to those posters who are no longer around, like nostalgia for people I never met...


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Haha. Looks like the magic carpet ride is still going, except now it's an insane roller-coaster with a special effects budget.


----------



## Sharlow

Half-Orc said:


> Haha. Looks like the magic carpet ride is still going, except now it's an insane roller-coaster with a special effects budget.


Well lets hope the ride doesn't end David!


----------



## DonnaBurgess

If things keep going like they have been, I should hit 700 total this week. I uploaded on 12/20/2010. Nada on Smashwords, however.  I've checked Diesel and Kobo and the novel is still not there, despite being approved weeks ago  

To think 6 months ago, I was all about finding an agent, publisher and refusing to purchase a Kindle...Duh!


----------



## Sharlow

winniethepoe said:


> If things keep going like they have been, I should hit 700 total this week. I uploaded on 12/20/2010. Nada on Smashwords, however. I've checked Diesel and Kobo and the novel is still not there, despite being approved weeks ago
> 
> To think 6 months ago, I was all about finding an agent, publisher and refusing to purchase a Kindle...Duh!


It's awesome to see our dreams coming true right before our eyes. 700 sales is a an awesome amount. More then what all naysayers say you can sell if you go Indy.


----------



## StevenSavile

My total sales aren't patch on most folks here, having only seriously invested in the 'indie' aspect since christmas. By my reckoning it's 1500 in total across a few projects - but the more interesting thing is it's 450 since Jan 1... and 99 today... so there's a momentum gathering. I hope.


----------



## N. Gemini Sasson

Lexi Revellian said:


> Do any of the rest of you worry that we are experiencing a brief golden age of indies, and the bubble will burst at any moment? I tell myself that even if it does, thousands of people have enjoyed my writing, and that's fantastic.


Almost every day. My sales have doubled each of the past few months to the point where I'm now selling in a day what first took me a whole month to do. For most of us, it's hard to believe it's possible after years of being passed over by agents or editors. But the gate has opened wide and it's up to readers to decide what they want to read. Like you, I'm just thankful for the ride so far. Maybe this is only the beginning? Either way, I'm thankful to have had the chance to share my stories.


----------



## DonnaBurgess

I think (& hope) the "Indie" train is just now gathering speed. Sales aside, I believe I made the right decision--the indie community is so supportive of one another. It's thrilling to read the growing number of success stories. 

I have the feeling I'm a (very) small part of a kind of revolution! Plus, I'm more motivated to write than I have been in years.


----------



## KerylR

Here's hoping a year from now I'll look at this and giggle.

First six weeks out, 19 books sold.

Let's hope for better numbers in Feb!


----------



## Iwritelotsofbooks

I sold 30 last month, but it was only my second full month.  Hopefully things will pick up soon.


----------



## JFHilborne

My first novel has been out for 7 months. I'm not sure how many I've sold total as Omnilit.com has no way to measure and I haven't yet received a statement from my publisher. I did see an increase in sales in December and then again in January. I'm hoping my second book out in April will help boost sales even more. A lot of my readers have asked "what else have you written?" so I hope that's a good sign. My eBook is far outselling my paperbacks, and I've become more of an eReader myself.


----------



## mesmered

Seeing as I uploaded 48 hours ago, I'm surprised to see that I've sold a number already and only by marketing through Twitter. 

Like a number of people posting, I think it's like being asked 'how much do you earn?' Not only that, as in bricks and mortar stores, some books WILL sell really well, some won't. But you don't see JK Rowling or even new authors talking about how many they have sold. I for one, only a newbie both in print and e-book, would hate my sales bandied about and made public.
I think the best information listed above is the parallel between sales and rankings. Then an author can work out if the book is even worth keeping in distribution. Just a thought.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I'm almost ready for a count down just going over 9,800 across all titles for all times. That 10,000 mark is on the horizon. And all I wanted was one reader. I guess I got one, and then another and another and . . .

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Christopher Bunn

Wow. This thread just makes my jaw drop. Enough said.


----------



## Sharlow

Christopher Bunn said:


> Wow. This thread just makes my jaw drop. Enough said.


Hopefully in a good way?


----------



## rsullivan9597

I've not seen the big jump in January that many have reported but still better than the month before.

December 10,700
January 11,050


----------



## Christopher Bunn

Sharlow said:


> Hopefully in a good way?


Yeah, in a good way. In a dazed, incredulous, eyes-glazing-over good way.


----------



## Sharlow

Victorine said:


> Wow, you guys are selling like gangbusters! I'm fairly new to all of this... my book hasn't been up for sale long. (About 2 weeks.) So I'm still in my single digits for sales. I'm almost to 10 though! Wheeeee!
> 
> I'm hopeful things will pick up.
> 
> Vicki


Hey Vicki. Remember this? Lol, I'm still loving walking through memory lane.


----------



## Sharlow

So how was your month? Was February one of the dreaded low sales months for you, or did you have a banner month?
How many milestones did you hit, and for the record how many books have you sold over all? 

As for me, this has been a banner month. I've sold over 2,000 books so far, and they are still selling. So I'll have to update this after midnight for me.  I also made the milestone of 3,000 books sold over all. At this rate I'm hoping to have made it to 5,000 books sold by the end of May. Good goal I think, oh and one more thing. I'm #2 in the Gothic romance genre, with a all time high ranking this month of #372 so far. My sequel to Fallen Blood that I just released is #15 on the Gothic romance genre. All in all a very good month for me.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

369 sales (low month despite the whammo weekend rush I had), but my total stands at 10,181.  

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## A. S. Warwick

I managed 15 sales - but it was my first full month, and the second novel has been out less than a week.  From looking at other peoples sales reports, that is what many of them started out doing.

Give it 6 months and I may be able to start paying a few bills.


----------



## MegHarris

February has been my best month so far.  I sold about 14,000 books this month across fourteen titles (under two pen names).  The majority of my sales were on PubIt this month.


----------



## Valmore Daniels

Sharlow said:


> So how was your month? Was February one of the dreaded low sales months for you, or did you have a banner month?
> How many milestones did you hit, and for the record how many books have you sold over all?
> 
> As for me, this has been a banner month. I've sold over 2,000 books so far, and they are still selling. So I'll have to update this after midnight for me. I also made the milestone of 3,000 books sold over all. At this rate I'm hoping to have made it to 5,000 books sold by the end of May. Good goal I think, oh and one more thing. I'm #2 in the Gothic romance genre, with a all time high ranking this month of #372 so far. My sequel to Fallen Blood that I just released is #15 on the Gothic romance genre. All in all a very good month for me.


Sharlow, do you feel there is an after-effect of your pumpupyourbook tour? (I'm still waffling on whether to do another one) And super congratulations!


----------



## Sharlow

Valmore Daniels said:


> Sharlow, do you feel there is an after-effect of your pumpupyourbook tour? (I'm still waffling on whether to do another one) And super congratulations!


Thanks Val! You know I'm really not sure. I don't know if my quick rise of sales is due to the tour or not. The book I was on tour for did OK. (30 sales and then dropped back to it's original sales quickly.) But it was Fallen Blood which took off. I keep wondering if people decided to take a chance on my 0.99 book rather then my $2.99 one, or what.

At this time I would say no. You however seemed to get really good results from it, so it might be in your interest to try it again. Ask Katie how her tour went. She was on tour the same time I was.


----------



## scribblydoodler

Still in a sort of daze. Seems like only yesterday I was posting on the one sale a day support thread. I published my picture book on 5 Feb. Sales to date (28 February) = 108. That's a fairly good start, I think.  "They laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian. They're not laughing now." (Bob Monkhouse - Comedian)


----------



## Jnassise

Just over 2200 for February.  Up about 500 from the month before.  Roughly 7000 over the last six months, with the real pickup only starting in December.


----------



## isaacsweeney

I sold two or three more in February than in January. Just published in January, so I'm happy about that.


----------



## Steven L. Hawk

I've sold approx. 1100 so far this month with a half day left to go. A slight dip from my 1300 sales last month. I don' have my actuals in front of me right now, but I'd estimate overall sales of almost 5000 since last July.

One book at $2.99.

I hope to pen the final chapter of my sequel, _Peace Army_, tonight. Hopefully it will give me a push/pull effect when it launches in April.


----------



## David &#039;Half-Orc&#039; Dalglish

Just barely crossed 7500 sales for the month.


----------



## Lexi Revellian

This has been a strange month for me - up in America, down in the UK. Just the one book, though another should be ready in a month or two.

Thanks to all my readers!

US: 618
UK: 3057

Total over 16,000 since last August.

Lexi


----------



## theaatkinson

some of these numbers are staggering and I'm very impressed and inspired. I'm pumped to say i just made 101 sales this month for Feb. I hope March is as good.


----------



## JimC1946

DonnaBurgess said:


> I think (& hope) the "Indie" train is just now gathering speed. Sales aside, I believe I made the right decision--the indie community is so supportive of one another. It's thrilling to read the growing number of success stories.


Amen. For the last year, I've read nothing but indie books.


----------



## MosesSiregarIII

For some reason my sales numbers always end in 1/2. 

Anyone else get that?


----------



## Sharlow

theapatra said:


> some of these numbers are staggering and I'm very impressed and inspired. I'm pumped to say i just made 101 sales this month for Feb. I hope March is as good.


your sales are climbing. I'm sure March will turn out to be better. I've heard February is a slow selling month.


----------



## theaatkinson

Sharlow said:


> your sales are climbing. I'm sure March will turn out to be better. I've heard February is a slow selling month.


thanks for the encouragement, Sharlow. It's appreciated. grin


----------



## Rick Chesler

Not sure how many have sold yet, because my new thriller, kiDNApped releases today!

http://www.amazon.com/kiDNApped-ebook/dp/B004P8JOF0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298993271&sr=1-1


----------



## Sharlow

Rick Chesler said:


> Not sure how many have sold yet, because my new thriller, kiDNApped releases today!
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/kiDNApped-ebook/dp/B004P8JOF0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1298993271&sr=1-1


well congrats on that Rick. Welcome to the Indy revolution!


----------



## Decon

Well Mr Sharlow, we meet again. I have to say that it was through many of your posts on the author site, Authonomy, that I have finally uploaded two of my books.
I uploaded Lunch Break Thrillers, my not so short stories book 2 weeks ago and my Thriller book, Survival Instinct (The darkside of dating.) one week ago. After a few false starts, due to changing covers etc. I've sold 18, more or less even between .com and .co.uk. in Feb.

I am quite pleased with that. Hopefully you are right about Feb been a slow month

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA60U6 Lunch Break Thrillers

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P8K2S8 Survival Instinct


----------



## Sharlow

Decon said:


> Well Mr Sharlow, we meet again. I have to say that it was through many of your posts on the author site, Authonomy, that I have finally uploaded two of my books.
> I uploaded Lunch Break Thrillers, my not so short stories book 2 weeks ago and my Thriller book, Survival Instinct (The darkside of dating.) one week ago. After a few false starts, due to changing covers etc. I've sold 18, more or less even between .com and .co.uk. in Feb.
> 
> I am quite pleased with that. Hopefully you are right about Feb been a slow month
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004OA60U6 Lunch Break Thrillers
> 
> http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004P8K2S8 Survival Instinct


Hey! I'm sure your sales will grow. Most people seem to snowball effect over time, with lots of up's and downs. It took me 6 months to sell 35 in one month. That was May of last year. Today I have sold 344 since the start of this month. So be patient, get to know people around here and soak up all the info you can. Make sure you have a web presence, and promote yourself where you can. Once you build a fan base and climb up on the best sellers list, you should see your sales start to snowball. Good luck, and think of this as a long term investment. This time next year you should be selling hundreds at the very least, and thousands if everything goes well and you have great covers/blurb/book, and a little luck.


----------



## Mainak Dhar

My books have been on the Kindle store for less than a week- and honestly am a total novice at both publishing on the kindle store and also what makes books tick here. So far, 9 sold....but as I said, just the beginning. As they say, the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step- and for any writer, the journey to thousands sold starts with the first sale


----------



## Karly Kirkpatrick

I've sold 367 copies of my book since November 1, 2010. Not stellar numbers, but increasing every month!


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> Hey! I'm sure your sales will grow. Most people seem to snowball effect over time, with lots of up's and downs. It took me 6 months to sell 35 in one month. That was May of last year. Today I have sold 344 since the start of this month. So be patient, get to know people around here and soak up all the info you can. Make sure you have a web presence, and promote yourself where you can. Once you build a fan base and climb up on the best sellers list, you should see your sales start to snowball. Good luck, and think of this as a long term investment. This time next year you should be selling hundreds at the very least, and thousands if everything goes well and you have great covers/blurb/book, and a little luck.


Sharlow,
I just spent the last 5 hours reading this tread. And OH MY GOD! So impressive! And what this has taught me is how much I am underachieving. I published 4 books last year. The first book was based on a video blog that got over 3 million views and was supported by a social networking site that I own that has 5000 members that were basically devoted to the topic. I was on Jerry Springer's game show Baggage on the Game Show Network to promote the book. I have a book trailer that has 11,000 views, and my books have gotten glowing reviews.

However, last month I sold a total of 10 copies of my 2 most popular books. And I was content with that because for each of the last 3 months I took home $100 in royalties. Man, that's a joke in comparison to the increase that you and many of the others have gotten over the same period. HA!

The only reason I came to check out the kindle blogs was because yesterday I released a new book that I priced at $2.99 and I was wondering what I could expect. You have opened my eyes to the fact that I am clearly doing a lot of things wrong! Wow!

What's your experience been with price points? Have you tried higher prices? All of my past books have premium pricing because they are specialty books and all of their competitors (only the Happiness book has competitors) are priced higher.


----------



## SashaSavage

I sold barely 200 copies in February but it was also my first month. I've done some advertising on a few sites so I'm hoping my numbers will improve.


----------



## Michael Robertson Jr

REGRET has been on sale for almost exactly 1 month and I've sold 57 copies across Amazon, BN, and iBooks. Hopefully it'll keep rising.


----------



## Gone 9/21/18

February 7 was the one-year anniversary of when I started my indie author venture by uploading my mystery to Amazon's DTP. That made me curious enough to try to add up all my sales since then, not as of the 7th but as of the end of February. The fact that I don't have the figures from Smashwords' distribution may roughly balance out the extra February days, but still the figure I came up with isn't exact. So - 12,500.

When I started, I desperately needed a certain amount of supplemental income and expected to have to get a part time job to bring in that income. Putting out that first book was just in the faint hope of bringing in some amount that would help. In fact I began earning the needed amount in June of 2010 and for the last three months have earned 6 times the needed amount. There are no words for how grateful I am to be a small part of our indie revolution. It's not only for the bestsellers that this business has been a life-changing dance-around-the-computer success.


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> As for me, this has been a banner month. I've sold over 2,000 books so far, and they are still selling. So I'll have to update this after midnight for me. I also made the milestone of 3,000 books sold over all.


I have to mention that I have been so haunted... I mean inspired by your increase in sales that I have decided to drop the price of my book *'Everybody Has Those Thoughts So It Doesn't Mean You're Gay' * to 99 cents for the month of March. The way I see it is that last month I only sold 2 kindle, 1 paperback, and 1 B&N for that book. That is only about $15 in royalties. That's not much to lose. And that book could be a loss leader from my Everybody Masturbates books which everyone tells me should be jumping off the shelves.

The only possible hitch is that I have no idea who my audience is for that book on Kindle. Well, I guess I will just put it out there, post on the Amazon forums, maybe get it listed on a few of the 99 cent blog sites, and see what happens. But if anyone has any other ideas for marketing that book, PLEASE let me know.


----------



## Sharlow

Cristian YoungMiller said:


> I have to mention that I have been so haunted... I mean inspired by your increase in sales that I have decided to drop the price of my book *'Everybody Has Those Thoughts So It Doesn't Mean You're Gay' * to 99 cents for the month of March. The way I see it is that last month I only sold 2 kindle, 1 paperback, and 1 B&N for that book. That is only about $15 in royalties. That's not much to lose. And that book could be a loss leader from my Everybody Masturbates books which everyone tells me should be jumping off the shelves.
> 
> The only possible hitch is that I have no idea who my audience is for that book on Kindle. Well, I guess I will just put it out there, post on the Amazon forums, maybe get it listed on a few of the 99 cent blog sites, and see what happens. But if anyone has any other ideas for marketing that book, PLEASE let me know.


I'm glad this thread has inspired you. It's why I keep bumping it at the end of each month. I think this thread has a lot of info for those just starting out on this path in publishing. There's a lot more info here then just numbers. Wow it took you that many hours to read this thread?! Didn't realize it was getting that big...

Three things I believe that lead to my book sale increase. 1) Cover, cover,cover. I can not stress that enough. Price does effect sales as well, but I find to many of us get wrapped up emotionally about our covers. We stop looking at them rationally because our daughter or grandson made it for us. Or we make it an extension of ourselves like our manuscripts, and feel offended when people don't like the cover, just as we do about our writing. So if your sales are bad and your price isn't to high/low, then if your books are great, try a new cover.

2) Price... It's surprising how much a good book with a great cover can hold back people from trying it. One of the first things new authors seem to want to do, is to sell there books for a price they think is fair. Not realizing that as a new author, people will not flock to them Like their James Patterson. They don't have the name recognition, and to be honest, people will spend their money on those people first. You need to give them a good reason to take a chance on your book, after they look at it's cover and blurb. That price maybe the only thing keeping them from buying your great book. As authors, I think we get so wrapped up in 'OUR' one book, and forget that we can write more books. We all don't start out making $80,000 a year when we start our first job in life. Why then do we think our first book should?

3) Genre... The dirty word. Some genre's are more popular then others these days. As time goes by they will change again, but not necessarily as fast as some people want them to. I like to think of genres as fields of work. There was a time that butcher jobs were in abundance and paid well. Not anymore, or for that matter milk men. Like genres things change... They get down sized..literally.

Anyways welcome to the board. Look around and try some of the suggestions on this board. See if any help in your sales. There are more ways to increase your sales then what I mentioned, these are just the ones that helped me. Good luck!


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> I'm glad this thread has inspired you. It's why I keep bumping it at the end of each month. I think this thread has a lot of info for those just starting out on this path in publishing. There's a lot more info here then just numbers. Wow it took you that many hours to read this thread?! Didn't realize it was getting that big...


It took me 5 hours and at 4am I skipped from April to October. It was great though.

So you say Cover, Price and Genre huh? Ultimately you're right. Other people are a better judge of it than I am, but I think I got the cover and genre properly aligned. That makes me think that price might be an issue. I created my covers to be attention grabbing, and I think they are. And I am positive that there is a niche in the marketplace for my first 4 books. That only leaves price.

Hmmm, I wonder what I can do on that front? I've read a lot about .99 cent versus 2.99+ pricing. I did read someone else's experience where they put their book on sale for .99, increased the price after a month and retained their 300+ increase in sales. Perhaps that is someting that I should consider for my Everybody Masturbates books. Because In my heart I just know that there is an extremely large market for it. I don't know if it's on the Kindle, but I do sell as many kindle versions as I do paperback. Hmmm...


----------



## Sharlow

Cristian YoungMiller said:


> It took me 5 hours and at 4am I skipped from April to October. It was great though.
> 
> So you say Cover, Price and Genre huh? Ultimately you're right. Other people are a better judge of it than I am, but I think I got the cover and genre properly aligned. That makes me think that price might be an issue. I created my covers to be attention grabbing, and I think they are. And I am positive that there is a niche in the marketplace for my first 4 books. That only leaves price.
> 
> Hmmm, I wonder what I can do on that front? I've read a lot about .99 cent versus 2.99+ pricing. I did read someone else's experience where they put their book on sale for .99, increased the price after a month and retained their 300+ increase in sales. Perhaps that is someting that I should consider for my Everybody Masturbates books. Because In my heart I just know that there is an extremely large market for it. I don't know if it's on the Kindle, but I do sell as many kindle versions as I do paperback. Hmmm...


I would try it. That's the beauty of Indy publishing. you have the freedom to do as you please, and find what is best for your books. If it doesn't work out, then I'd come back to your covers and blurbs. You can always start a thread and see what the other authors here think about your covers.


----------



## Sharlow

Cristian YoungMiller said:


> It took me 5 hours and at 4am I skipped from April to October. It was great though.
> 
> So you say Cover, Price and Genre huh? Ultimately you're right. Other people are a better judge of it than I am, but I think I got the cover and genre properly aligned. That makes me think that price might be an issue. I created my covers to be attention grabbing, and I think they are. And I am positive that there is a niche in the marketplace for my first 4 books. That only leaves price.
> 
> Hmmm, I wonder what I can do on that front? I've read a lot about .99 cent versus 2.99+ pricing. I did read someone else's experience where they put their book on sale for .99, increased the price after a month and retained their 300+ increase in sales. Perhaps that is someting that I should consider for my Everybody Masturbates books. Because In my heart I just know that there is an extremely large market for it. I don't know if it's on the Kindle, but I do sell as many kindle versions as I do paperback. Hmmm...


I have to say...I'm reminded of this Red Dwarf episode every time I read your book covers title. Here's the clip...






The part I'm talking about is the discussion of the taboo subject, and David smirking....


----------



## plumboz

Almost one thousand ebook sales of Boomerang so far this year. A sprinkling of paperbacks sold during that time period. Over ninety percent of the ebook sales and all of the paperbacks were sold in the UK for some reason. Nice to have the opportunity to offer it over there.


----------



## Cliff Ball

1025 total novels sold since July of last year.


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> I have to say...I'm reminded of this Red Dwarf episode every time I read your book covers title. Here's the clip...
> The part I'm talking about is the discussion of the taboo subject, and David smirking....


Haha! Yes, I get that a lot. But if no one talks about it, kids will keep growing up thinking that they're freaks because they are the only ones doing it. While the truth is that there are at least 6 or 7 of us around that partakes in the self-pleasure. 

So I've done it. All of my Everybody books are now .99 cents. I will keep it there for about 2 months. Afterwards I will definitely increase the 2 masturbation books. I will probably lose about $150 but maybe it will pay off in the long run.

It's funny, I don't feel nervous, just sad. The chance of seeing no bump at all and then having to admit to my friends that these books were bad ideas is high. Oh well. We'll see.


----------



## Sharlow

Cristian YoungMiller said:


> Haha! Yes, I get that a lot. But if no one talks about it, kids will keep growing up thinking that they're freaks because they are the only ones doing it. While the truth is that there are at least 6 or 7 of us around that partakes in the self-pleasure.
> 
> So I've done it. All of my Everybody books are now .99 cents. I will keep it there for about 2 months. Afterwards I will definitely increase the 2 masturbation books. I will probably lose about $150 but maybe it will pay off in the long run.
> 
> It's funny, I don't feel nervous, just sad. The chance of seeing no bump at all and then having to admit to my friends that these books were bad ideas is high. Oh well. We'll see.


I'm sure it will work out. It just takes time, and like I said, genre/covers etc can effect your mileage.


----------



## shavens

My novel, Farr Point, went live on Kindle and nook this past Tuesday about 10:30 AM.  As of now, I've sold 22 on Kindle and three on Nook.


----------



## JROCK

Well, I've only really been at this for a month, but I've sold 12 ebooks of my series Dinosauria. Not bad so far, I guess. I've also sold 10 on Smashwords of the same series. I have Part I of the series on Smashwords for free, and downloads for that have not slowed much at all, which I thought it would, even though its free - almost 800 in a month, and that has helped generate interest in the rest of the series. (I also got my first fan email the other day, it was awesome!)...


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> I would try it. That's the beauty of Indy publishing. you have the freedom to do as you please, and find what is best for your books. If it doesn't work out, then I'd come back to your covers and blurbs. You can always start a thread and see what the other authors here think about your covers.


Ok, it's done. I have reduced the price of all of my kindle books. Now all of my Everybody Masturbates books are 99 cents. And Part 1 of my novels are also 99 cents. My complete Happiness novel is 4.99 down from 9.99. And my 'The First Day After Life' novel is 3.99.

Of course, my Everybody Masturbates book has been at 99 cents for about 8 hours now and still no sales. Haha! I'm kidding... kinda.  I am going to keep everything at the current price for at least 2 months and re-evalutate then.

But I have to say that I'm a little surprised that with all of the promotion that I'm doing, I still haven't gotten a first sale on my 'The First Day After Life' novel. I kind of thought that with such a low price point and a cover that screams "a story about the afterlife", I would atleast have one by now. Oh well.


----------



## shavens

Update: 30 on Kindle, seven on Nook = 37 in the first week.


----------



## Sharlow

shavens said:


> Update: 30 on Kindle, seven on Nook = 37 in the first week.


Very nice!


----------



## A. S. Warwick

Managed my first sale for the month - woo hoo.  Had hoped to improve on last months, and while there is still time, it will have to pick up a fair whack.


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

I've sold 4 of my Everybody Masturbates books since I've reduced the price to 99 cents. That is the most that I've sold in a day. So that is certainly a good start.


----------



## CJArcher

I just blogged about my sales numbers since starting 6 weeks ago: http://cjarcher.blogspot.com/2011/03/6-weeks-and-counting.html. Here's the crunchy numbers part of the blog:

The Adventures of Miss Upton and the Sky Pirate - 34 copies (6 weeks). Price has fluctuated but mostly been at $2.99.
The Mercenary's Price - 79 (4 weeks and 4 days). Priced at $0.99.
Honor Bound - 35 (3 weeks and 2 days). Priced at $0.99.

They're Amazon US sales only. I'm quietly pleased.


----------



## Decon

After 3 weeks I have hit the short story top 10 in the UK, but I'm finding it hard to make sales in the America, although all the stories are set in the US. Last time I looked I was on 80 sales after 3 weeks.


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> Three things I believe that lead to my book sale increase.
> 
> 1) Cover, cover,cover. So if your sales are bad and your price isn't to high/low, then if your books are great, try a new cover.
> 
> 3) Genre... The dirty word. Some genre's are more popular then others these days.


Hi Sharlow,
I don't know if you've seen my thread http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,57842.0.html but I took your advice again. I have had no sales for my latest release *'The First Day After Life'* so I came back to this post. As a result I had an artist redesign my cover.

Actually, RazzleDazzle saw my thread and did 2 mock ups for me for fun and everyone on the thread liked one of them so much that I bought it from her. And also Nathan suggested a cut down of my description and I'm using that too. I will probably get the final draft for the cover back tomorrow and it will be in my signature. So that will be cover, blurb and price. I have no control over genre for that one.

However, after everyone was so exceptionally helpful for that book I posted my 'Happiness Thru the Art...' book saying that I was considering a redesign. Nathan was again very helpful in making me understand how much it makes humor book readers shy away from the book. So I've come up with a new title and description. And I'm hoping that RazzleDazzle can come up with another winning cover.

The book's new name will be *'Happiness May Vary'*. And for this one I am changing the genre. It is going from sexual instruction to a humor novel. Actually it was always a humor novel, but I layed the book smack in the middle of both genres. So people looking for sexual instruction didn't feel like mine was the best book to help them and humor readers were scared off by the title. And I can give you the credit for directing my thoughts in this direction.

Whether it gets me more sales or not, I know that both books are now stronger for having followed your advice. So thank you for taking the time to reply to me and my 3 posting ever on KB. I absolutely appreciate it!


----------



## Sharlow

Cristian YoungMiller said:


> Hi Sharlow,
> I don't know if you've seen my thread http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,57842.0.html but I took your advice again. I have had no sales for my latest release *'The First Day After Life'* so I came back to this post. As a result I had an artist redesign my cover.
> 
> Actually, RazzleDazzle saw my thread and did 2 mock ups for me for fun and everyone on the thread liked one of them so much that I bought it from her. And also Nathan suggested a cut down of my description and I'm using that too. I will probably get the final draft for the cover back tomorrow and it will be in my signature. So that will be cover, blurb and price. I have no control over genre for that one.
> 
> However, after everyone was so exceptionally helpful for that book I posted my 'Happiness Thru the Art...' book saying that I was considering a redesign. Nathan was again very helpful in making me understand how much it makes humor book readers shy away from the book. So I've come up with a new title and description. And I'm hoping that RazzleDazzle can come up with another winning cover.
> 
> The book's new name will be *'Happiness May Vary'*. And for this one I am changing the genre. It is going from sexual instruction to a humor novel. Actually it was always a humor novel, but I layed the book smack in the middle of both genres. So people looking for sexual instruction didn't feel like mine was the best book to help them and humor readers were scared off by the title. And I can give you the credit for directing my thoughts in this direction.
> 
> Whether it gets me more sales or not, I know that both books are now stronger for having followed your advice. So thank you for taking the time to reply to me and my 3 posting ever on KB. I absolutely appreciate it!


Your very welcome. I hope it all works out for you. Just remember, sometimes it takes time to see results. It took me a year, and the average on these boards is around 6 months. So if you see great results faster then that, then be encouraged.


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> Your very welcome. I hope it all works out for you. Just remember, sometimes it takes time to see results. It took me a year, and the average on these boards is around 6 months. So if you see great results faster then that, then be encouraged.


I was just reading that thread about when people saw sales take off, even though I have to be on the set of Torchwood at 8am. I think that with my 2 redesigns that I can rest comfortably knowing that the best possible product is out there. I was having a lot of distress because I didn't see my books reacting like how I feel they should have. But now I can just sit back and say "if people don't buy them now, then it's not really because of me, it's because of the market. And perhaps if I'm patient, the market will change."

By the way, here is the new title and description for what was the Happiness Thru the Art of... Penis Enlargement book. What are your thoughts?

_*'Happiness May Vary'*
Some people find happiness by listening to their hearts, others their minds, but Ben listens to his alcoholic, verbally abusive penis and things don't work out quite as planned. 'Happiness May Vary' is a story about what happens when two heads are not necessarily better than one.'_


----------



## Mainak Dhar

Been on the Kindle store for exactly one month today. Sold 9 copies in the last week of Feb and so far have sold 65 in March. Hanging in there and with a new book launch next month hoping for a bigger pick up in sales. Taking a lot of the lessons sharwd to heart- did the cover for Line of Control myself but for my new novel getting it professionally designed.


----------



## J. Carson Black

I know some folks are squeamish about numbers, but this is a business for a lot of us.  We're feeling our way.  And seeing people come from selling 3 books in a month to over 10,000 a year later can only be inspiring. It gives me hope.  These are not isolated instances, either.  

What that does is give me a goal.  Last month, I sold 135 books - a huge jump up from the 17 I sold the month before.  About that time I came to the Kindle Boards.  I saw what was possible and I started to raise my sights.  I'd heard from a friend that once you hit a hundred, your numbers would double.  That could be apocryphal, but the stories I saw here weren't.  And I thought, instead of doubling, I should try to get to 500 like other folks have.  And I started to make moves that would help me get there - like dropping the other two books in my series down to 99 cents.  And boom!  I sold 300+ books in one day!  Hopefully, that's a whole bunch more people reading my books, which is the whole point.  

Thanks to KB, instead of doubling 135, I am in the high 600's and taking aim at 1000.  And so far, I'm on track to get there. If I sell 37 books a day to the end of the month, I'm golden. 

If I didn't know this was possible, I wouldn't have taken the actions I did.  There's value in knowledge, and in my opinion, there's nothing crass about it.  

Thank you guys!


----------



## Sharlow

Cristian YoungMiller said:


> I was just reading that thread about when people saw sales take off, even though I have to be on the set of Torchwood at 8am. I think that with my 2 redesigns that I can rest comfortably knowing that the best possible product is out there. I was having a lot of distress because I didn't see my books reacting like how I feel they should have. But now I can just sit back and say "if people don't buy them now, then it's not really because of me, it's because of the market. And perhaps if I'm patient, the market will change."
> 
> By the way, here is the new title and description for what was the Happiness Thru the Art of... Penis Enlargement book. What are your thoughts?
> 
> _*'Happiness May Vary'*
> Some people find happiness by listening to their hearts, others their minds, but Ben listens to his alcoholic, verbally abusive penis and things don't work out quite as planned. 'Happiness May Vary' is a story about what happens when two heads are not necessarily better than one.'_


That sounds pretty good. My only worry about your books are that people may shy away from them. There not exactly taboo, but I know a lot of people that might be uptight about there subject matter. But what can you do? I'm sure there's people out there that like this type of humor, so just take your time. Your book will find it's audience.

Don't fall into the trap that so many people do. They change the art or title or even the price and then freak out if they see a dip in sales, or if in 3 day's to 2 weeks their not selling thousands. The thousands will come, they just have to be patient. The publishing word has always moved in slow motion. Today with Kindle publishing every thing is lighting fast compared to before, and yet, it is still insanely slow at times.


----------



## Bob Mayer

Atlantis on track for 2,000 on Kindle this month with Chasing the Ghost on track for 1,000
the rest of the books catching up.


----------



## Sharlow

J. Carson Black said:


> I know some folks are squeamish about numbers, but this is a business for a lot of us. We're feeling our way. And seeing people come from selling 3 books in a month to over 10,000 a year later can only be inspiring. It gives me hope. These are not isolated instances, either.
> 
> What that does is give me a goal. Last month, I sold 135 books - a huge jump up from the 17 I sold the month before. About that time I came to the Kindle Boards. I saw what was possible and I started to raise my sights. I'd heard from a friend that once you hit a hundred, your numbers would double. That could be apocryphal, but the stories I saw here weren't. And I thought, instead of doubling, I should try to get to 500 like other folks have. And I started to make moves that would help me get there - like dropping the other two books in my series down to 99 cents. And boom! I sold 300+ books in one day! Hopefully, that's a whole bunch more people reading my books, which is the whole point.
> 
> Thanks to KB, instead of doubling 135, I am in the high 600's and taking aim at 1000. And so far, I'm on track to get there. If I sell 37 books a day to the end of the month, I'm golden.
> 
> If I didn't know this was possible, I wouldn't have taken the actions I did. There's value in knowledge, and in my opinion, there's nothing crass about it.
> 
> Thank you guys!


I agree with you. I congratulate on your success. It seems you've learned a thing or two since coming to the Kindle boards. I always like to tell people, that coming here is like going to collage and learning what you need for your chosen profession.

Also, part of the reason I keep this thread alive is because of the hope this thread brings. If you read it in it's entirety, you will See people like Half-Orc David, or Vicki, or even Amanda coming here and sharing their first few month's of publishing and what their experiences are. How can you not feel encouraged to follow the growth cycle of some of our best selling Indy's here on the boards. How many new people here are going to be just like them this time next year, with next years crop of new authors ooing and aweing their accomplishments.


----------



## Sharlow

Bob Mayer said:


> Atlantis on track for 2,000 on Kindle this month with Chasing the Ghost on track for 1,000
> the rest of the books catching up.


Sounds like Indy publishing is being good to you Bob!


----------



## Megan Duncan

In 2 days I have sold 7 books


----------



## A. S. Warwick

I'm up to 5 for the month - 2 on Amazon, 3 on Smashwords - though with 150 odd free downloads as well.  I'd hoped I'd go up on last months numbers, not down.


----------



## Shelia A. Huggins

14 in Feb (published on Amazon Feb 14th; all Amazon sales)
7 so far in March (all Amazon sales; added B&N this month, and just added Smashwords)

Total sales so far: 21. (Oh and one five-star review on Amazon which makes me giddy so I have to keep mentioning it. Forgive me everyone it it starts to bore you.)

I'll keep sharing here and on my blog: http://www.peelingcheek.wordpress.com.


----------



## Vivi_Anna

Let's see...

first book up on Feb 18th - 

sold 40 in Feb, up to 29 so far in March

I'm hoping to see 40 in March, then my new story will be out April which I'm pricing at .99 and we'll see what happens. Excited about the possibilities


----------



## wildwitchof

BN is almost nil, so these numbers are Amazon US for my one title:

First month (Feb): 15
Second month (March 1-22): 56

This leap has really got me feeling optimistic. I credit this board (tagging, Tweeting, posting) with so much of (what I consider) success. So thanks everyone!

Next month I'll publish a second title, a full-length novel, and I'm curious to see the impact on sales. People say three is the magic number but I've got a ways to go on that one  . . . m u s t    k   e   e  p  writing!


----------



## DeAngelo

5 sales so far on Amazon. I'm focusing more on my other 5 books than promoting this one so that might be affecting sales.


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> That sounds pretty good. My only worry about your books are that people may shy away from them. There not exactly taboo, but I know a lot of people that might be uptight about there subject matter.


Well, what I think that I've learned from this board is that if you take away the obstacles, readers respond to good writing and interesting stories. If nothing else that is what I can promise readers with 'Happiness May Vary'. I really can't do much past that.



> Don't fall into the trap that so many people do. They change the art or title or even the price and then freak out if they see a dip in sales, or if in 3 day's to 2 weeks their not selling thousands.


No, I promised myself that these are the changes that I needed and succeed or fail, I will not freak out. There kids have graduated from college. It is now up to them to find their own future. I'll help, but ultimately I've done all that I could do and I'm at peace with that.

Oh, and I've stopped checking sales for the kindle. If they sell, they sell. If the don't, they don't.


----------



## Javier Gimenez Sasieta

Hi!

My book is a thriller, written in spanish, and I´m selling arround 20 books per week, but it fluctuates a lot.

Cheers,

Xabier


----------



## Ian Hocking

This is an interesting post. I'm afraid I haven't read all of the replies - only so much time in a day!

My book Déjà Vu has been available for about two weeks. In that time, I've sold 22 units in the United States and 22 in the United Kingdom. However, I sold only two or three for the first week in the US, and had a steady trickle of two or three in the UK. I seem to have sold about ten copies today in America and I'm not sure why.

The biggest upsurge I've had so far is following my guest blogging over at a major UK publisher's blog

Early days, and I'm not in this for the money (it's the sanest way to think of these things) but rather to have people read the book.

Cheers
Ian


----------



## Saffina Desforges

Just passed 10,000 for March. In total (been out properly since Jan 2011) 13,500 across .com & .co.uk Amazon


----------



## Raven Mardirosian

Just started out -- doing much better on B&N / Nook and Smashwords than Amazon. Patience, patience!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Nearing 11,000 across all books. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Sharlow

I see everyone is doing great here. There's 6 days left of the month, and I'm fast approaching 5,000 sales for the month. I'm hoping to still make it before the month is over. I need a little over 800 sales to make it to 5k. My fingers are crossed!


----------



## Cliff Ball

I'm coming up on nearly 1500 sold across all 4 novels.


----------



## Sharlow

Now I need a little more then 700 to make it to 5,000 this month.


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> Now I need a little more then 700 to make i to 5,000 this month.


Go Sharlow Go! I'm cheering for you. 

I have an update even though it doesn't involve actual numbers. I have been good to my word and I have not looked at my sales report for almost 2 weeks. But while doing some research I stumbled onto my book *'Everybody Masturbates'* at #103 in adult humor and *'Happiness Thru the Art of... Penis Enlargement'* at #167 in adult humor.

I would imagine that it doesn't take a lot of sales to make it to #103 in adult humor. But that would be the highest that the books have ever been. I'm not actually sure if they were even on the list before. The odd thing would be that before the price drop, the boys' and girls' books had virtually identical sales numbers. But I couldn't find the girls' book anywhere in the top 170. I'm not sure why that is.


----------



## Sharlow

Cristian YoungMiller said:


> Go Sharlow Go! I'm cheering for you.
> 
> I have an update even though it doesn't involve actual numbers. I have been good to my word and I have not looked at sales report for almost 2 weeks. But while doing some research I stumbled onto my book *'Everybody Masturbates'* at #103 in adult humor and *'Happiness Thru the Art of... Penis Enlargement'* at #167 in adult humor.
> 
> I would imagine that it doesn't take a lot of sales to make it to #103 in adult humor. But that would be the highest that the books have ever been. I'm not actually sure if they were even on the list before. The odd thing would be that before the price drop, the boys' and girls' books had virtually identical sales numbers. But I couldn't find the girls' book anywhere in the top 170. I'm not sure why that is.


Thanks for the support! I'm less then 500 away from my goal of selling 5,000 books this month. So it's still do able. Wish me luck.


----------



## Sharlow

Last day of the month. Here's to everyone having a high selling day! I'm looking forward to April, as March really started slowing down the last week or so of the month. I'm hoping that April will revive everyone's sales. Didn't we hear that March is a slow month, or are we all just hoping?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

This month 671 (I expect at least 5 more sales today), for a total across all 17 title of 10,854. Not the best month, but up there.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## KerylR

Well, I'm at sixteen for the month.  But I was at 11 last month, so things are heading in the right direction. And in the last ten days something like 10 of those sixteen were bought, so it seems like sales are starting to pick up.

As of this point, I'd certainly like to see more sales, but I've only got the one book, it's only been out three months, and the price point is 3.99 so I'm not too worried about sales being low.  

Here's hoping next month I can hit one sale a day!


----------



## diopolis

This site is so revealing! I have no illusions that I'll get rich publishing my works, but I do hope to get it out there to a few people. I've just started on Smashwords and have had a little luck. Thank you all for sharing your experiences.


----------



## henning

Eric C said:


> Tomorrow I will likely break 1,000 in books sold (at $1.99). My first sale was about six months ago.


Congrats! That's pretty respectable for the first six months ever, imho.


----------



## Carol (was Dara)

My single novella has been on sale for roughly one week but I'll join in anyway. Sales so far:

Kindle US: 23
Kindle UK: 3
B&N: 5
Smashwords: 0 (but I was only approved for their premium catalogue yesterday, so no distribution to Apple, Sony, etc yet).
Total for my first week: 31

I'm pleasantly surprised because I had expected to start out with something like 5 sales per month. Dare I be optimistic enough to hope for 100 in my first month? Probably not. I don't want to jinx myself.


----------



## CathyQuinn

This is my third whole month and I sold just over sixty total, with my three books combined. Not a lot, but it is double what I sold last month...


----------



## bnapier

Mine are slow going...

The Masks of Our Fathers has been live for about a month and I think I'm averaging only a sale or so a day.  THAT part is frustrating, but the little bits of positive feedback I am getting on it are encouraging.

13 Broken Nightlights has only been out for 4 days and sales have just started slowly trickling in.

A Mouth for Picket Fences (poetry) is handled by my publisher, so I won't see any numbers from that until the end of the quarter.

Thanks for sharing, everyone.  Seeing such success stories is pretty encouraging.


----------



## Sharlow

Sounds like were getting some good snowball effects this month. Congrats to everyone. Welcome to all the new people with their first and second months of sales. Hold on, the ride just keeps getting better.


----------



## FictionalWriter

I don't consider myself new but I only have two books out since Jan 2010, so keep that in mind when you see my numbers. Also, these are numbers I got from my editor this week since I have no access to them because these books are published through Kensington. But these are for only the digital copies sold and I'm using them as a gauge for when I publish my own books this year. 

In Jan & Feb I sold 5k of my first book, SINFUL SURRENDER. This puts the total I've sold of this book around 10k. Most of the sales have come after the release of my second book.  For Jan & Feb I sold over 7k of A TASTE OF DESIRE. I probably won't be getting anymore numbers until I get the royalty statement, which won't be until December.


----------



## JodyWallace

I am new to indie sales with the release of a backlist title I just did, and I don't even want to report the numbers *laugh*. Let's just say...less than. But a couple of my small press books are doing pretty well. Rise, tide, and float my boats! And thanks, everyone else, for all the good & varied sales news. It's invigorating.


----------



## CJArcher

These are some great numbers everyone's reporting! Don't be discouraged if your figures aren't so good. Books take off at different rates and it's unfair to compare genres IMO

I'm happy to report my March sales are 347 for 3 books at Amazon US. I'm not counting my 4th book as it only became available yesterday and has a single sale. The majority of these sales, over 200, are for The Mercenary's Price which is a 99 cent novella. March is only my 2nd full month and I'm pretty excited by these figures. Hopefully they'll be higher in April!


----------



## Derek J. Canyon

You can check out my sales reports on my blog: derekjcanyon.blogspot.com.










I'm an unknown, unpublished author and I released my first ebook back in October. Six months later, I have 3 books out and I've sold 2120 copies and made about $1858.


----------



## Ursula_Bauer

Derek J. Canyon said:


> You can check out my sales reports on my blog: derekjcanyon.blogspot.com.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm an unknown, unpublished author and I released my first ebook back in October. Six months later, I have 3 books out and I've sold 2120 copies and made about $1858.


I love your graphs! And congrats, looks like the #s are heading up for you!


----------



## J.R. Thomson

I would be interested if a formula could be worked out where you could estimate the number of books sold based on the number of reviews
a book has.


----------



## julieannfelicity

The Kindness of Strangers has successfully reached 773 readers!! So excited!!


----------



## J.R. Thomson

Derek J. Canyon said:


> You can check out my sales reports on my blog: derekjcanyon.blogspot.com.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I'm an unknown, unpublished author and I released my first ebook back in October. Six months later, I have 3 books out and I've sold 2120 copies and made about $1858.


I couldn't resist and just bought a copy of Dead Dwarves Don't Dance purely on the title...


----------



## Saffina Desforges

Derek - I personally have a copy of your Format your book for Kindle and can say that it has made the process very easy! So, I am responsible for a notch somewhere in that pretty graph!

Well, I can't believe I am reporting these figures, but here goes:

One book (Sugar & Spice)

Jan 2011 - 156 Amazon UK/16 US
Feb 2011 - 2,300 UK/US 650
March 2011 - 12,750 UK/US 1990
April - who knows!  

Yet - B&N 1!


----------



## Mainak Dhar

Am new to the Kindle world- my work first went up on Feb 22- one day after my birthday. As good a time as any for new beginnings, I guess. In that one week in Feb I had only 7 sales. Just closed March with 111 sales for the month. Nowhere near where many of you have reached but happy at the acceleration and doing what is the best advice to get from this forum- keep writing!


----------



## Selene Coulter

My three short story (very short!) compilations have gone live on 07/03, 14/03, 24/03 roughly. (I've tinkered with them here and there quite a bit).

So in my first, not quite full month, I've sold 28 copies.

But I've also participated in the Smashwords March promo and currently have a short story available for free on Smashwords (to see if this'll translate into any B&N sales). Between them I've had 544 downloads (and that's over the space of 1 week).

So not too shabby given they aren't novels... but let's see how a full month goes.


----------



## Derek J. Canyon

Tightwad press: "I couldn't resist and just bought a copy of Dead Dwarves Don't Dance purely on the title..."
You have fallen right into my sinister trap! 

Saffina, thanks for buying the book! I'm happy it was helpful to you. For other people interested in the book:

Format Your Ebook for Kindle in One Hour - a step-by-step guide


----------



## Cristian YoungMiller

Sharlow said:


> Sounds like were getting some good snowball effects this month. Congrats to everyone. Welcome to all the new people with their first and second months of sales. Hold on, the ride just keeps getting better.


I like your renaming of your thread. That is definitely how it can be best used as a resource.

By the way, I can't help but notice that you haven't posted your final numbers for the month.


----------



## Sharlow

Did I forget to post them here? I had a little over 5,000 sales. something like 5,048 or some such, I can't find the paper that I wrote it on, and I'm to lazy  to add them up again. I'm hoping for better numbers this month, or at least similar numbers as March's.


----------



## Sharlow

I haven't bumped this in awhile, so I thought I would for all the newer people on the boards, just in case there were people who hadn't red this and had this same question.


----------



## sportourer1s

About 50 since october


----------



## 41419

First month:

153 - 2 titles, both single short stories, one released May 4th, the other May 21st


----------



## gregoryblackman

First week, three book sales within an hour of being uploaded.  Since then I have not had a single say.  I have changed my genre listing a few times, any ideas?

Thanks,

Gregory Blackman


----------



## AmandaBixby

I published my first(about 85 pages) historical romance on May 23 and sold 18 for the month.  I published my second book (290 pages) about a month later.  My sales were 174 for the month of June.  With both books live I have sold 118 books so far this month.  I have seen my sales continue to go up.  

I sell more on some days and less on others. I have gotten good reviews and bad reviews.  I think it all comes down to the genre that you write.  I think romance buyers tend to read more books more often and buy on impulse.  I am not afraid to tell my numbers, I am so happy that I am doing something that I have always wanted to do.  I was discouraged after being turned down by publishers and agents, now I am encouraged to keep pushing myself.  

What I say now...I have always been a writer but now I'm also an author.  I think writing is in the soul, but being an author is in the numbers.  No matter what your sales--You are still a writer.


----------



## EC Sheedy

Sharlow said:


> I haven't bumped this in awhile, so I thought I would for all the newer people on the boards, just in case there were people who hadn't red this and had this same question.


I'm glad you bumped this thread--and that I found it! I have been reading, reading, reading... I put up a short story, OVERKILL, and a novel, ONE TOUGH COOKIE, about a month ago, and I've had about 35 sales in total. No reviews tho.  I'm not so good at promo... I haven't put the book or story up anywhere other than Amazon for now, and I think I'll leave it at that until I learn the ropes. (Or at least some of the ropes 

I am very grateful to all those who shared their sales and experiences. This is a new world for many of us.


----------



## Sharlow

EC Sheedy said:


> I'm glad you bumped this thread--and that I found it! I have been reading, reading, reading... I put up a short story, OVERKILL, and a novel, ONE TOUGH COOKIE, about a month ago, and I've had about 35 sales in total. No reviews tho.  I'm not so good at promo... I haven't put the book or story up anywhere other than Amazon for now, and I think I'll leave it at that until I learn the ropes. (Or at least some of the ropes
> 
> I am very grateful to all those who shared their sales and experiences. This is a new world for many of us.


Your welcome. I'm glad this old thread still serves a purpose!


----------



## Lynn Mixon

My erotic romance Will of the Gods has been available for a bit more than a week and has sold 17 paid copies. I added it to Smashwords and 150 copies have been downloaded free as part of their summer sale. I have no idea how those numbers will develop over time, but I'm hopeful they go up as reviews start coming in.


----------



## J. Carson Black

In two to three days I will hit 210,000 books sold since January. Most of those sales were from May forward (I sold 32 in January, 77 in February, 135 in March, and 1258 in April). Before January, I'd sold just shy of 110 books _total_ in seven months.

You can start from anywhere. When I came to the Writers' Cafe I saw what was possible, and it made me work harder and smarter. Coming here was the turning point. I will be eternally grateful to the folks who posted big numbers and got me used to the idea.


----------



## SBJones

Its been a month now since I launched Requiem.  B&N I have 6 e-book sales and 1 paperback.  Amazon I have 12 e-book sales and no idea on paperbacks.  I have sold 6 paperbacks through my own website as well.  

This coming weekend I have my first book signing at a cafe.  From the free advertising, phone calls, email, and facebook event I am guessing a minimum of 15 paperbacks will be sold.


----------



## GerrieFerrisFinger

Ursula_Bauer said:


> I love your graphs! And congrats, looks like the #s are heading up for you!


THE GHOST SHIP has been out about a month and I've had 30 sales. I guess I need to promo more. Some days are better than others.


----------



## Carol (was Dara)

I'm glad this old thread got bumped. It's fun and encouraging reading other people's numbers and seeing what I may (if I'm lucky and work hard) have to look forward to one day. 

My first self-pubbed book has sold a little over 2,000 copies since it came out in March. Sales have actually slowed down a little lately, making me wonder if it's hit it's stride already. But I'm preparing to put two more out and hopefully when I have several self-published titles in the same genre out they can push each other on.


----------



## Sharlow

J. Carson Black said:


> In two to three days I will hit 210,000 books sold since January. Most of those sales were from May forward (I sold 32 in January, 77 in February, 135 in March, and 1258 in April). Before January, I'd sold just shy of 110 books _total_ in seven months.
> 
> You can start from anywhere. When I came to the Writers' Cafe I saw what was possible, and it made me work harder and smarter. Coming here was the turning point. I will be eternally grateful to the folks who posted big numbers and got me used to the idea.


That's just incredible... It's what dreams are made of!


----------



## Theresaragan

I love that this thread has been going for over a year. 

J. Carson Black, those are some incredible numbers. wow!

I have released five books since March, 2011, and I am close to 23,000 books as of today. Very exciting!


----------



## chris41336

Awesome, awesome thread!

My book THE OBSERVER was released Jun 10, 2011 (last month), and it sold 28 copies that month. That was with mild advertising including some paid facebook ads targeting my audience that I do not think I wil be doing again.

This month so far, July 1-July27, I have sold 18 copies only =(. Then again, there are always good and bad months.

That brings my total to 46 when you add in the one book I sold on Goodreads. Here's hoping to posting some high numbers one day. I really want to know how you guys did it. I would love to sell that many books! Even a book a day I would love to see.


----------



## Sharlow

chris41336 said:


> Awesome, awesome thread!
> 
> My book THE OBSERVER was released Jun 10, 2011 (last month), and it sold 28 copies that month. That was with mild advertising including some paid facebook ads targeting my audience that I do not think I wil be doing again.
> 
> This month so far, July 1-July27, I have sold 18 copies only =(. Then again, there are always good and bad months.
> 
> That brings my total to 46 when you add in the one book I sold on Goodreads. Here's hoping to posting some high numbers one day. I really want to know how you guys did it. I would love to sell that many books! Even a book a day I would love to see.


A book a day is a very doable goal I think. With just time you should reach that goal soon enough.


----------



## JumpingShip

Between my two books, I'm right around 29,000 sold since June 2010. However, about 22,000 of the sales have come in the last few months, so those of you feeling down, keep that in mind--you can get a huge surge at any time! In addition, I've had another 54,000 free downloads of the first book.


----------



## TheUselessGod

First month was fantastic...I released it late in the month and sold about ~25, not bad for a first novel out of nowhere.
Then it straight up died. I think it was 10 the next month, and...3 last month.  
This was with minimal advertising minus blogging and a few indie site reviews (most of which promised reviews and then never got around to it). 
I'd do the short story thing but I am AWFUL at writing short stories. I do Fantasy and YA and that's about it. 
I'm hoping that, with releasing a YA Fantasy series later this month, things will pick up. We'll see!


----------



## Amanda Brice

My book has been out for 3 1/2 months, and I'm closing in on 1000. 

I released on the 15th of April, so I only had half a month for that first one, and I sold 64 copies.


----------



## Pnjw

My book went live on July 25th and I've sold 38 copies in ten days. I'm feeling pretty good about that. Most have been from people I know though, so we'll see what happens the rest of the month.


----------



## Sharlow

I think I'll bump this for all the new people that may be interested in this old thread. We get so many new people on this board and most people seem the think this thread has some good info in it. For me it's nostalgic.  I like looking back at the past two years and seeing just how far some of us have come.


----------



## RedTash

I'm all ears.


----------



## I love books

Victorine said:


> June has been awesome to me... I've sold 440 so far this month. I am amazed. I'm two sales away from hitting the 600 all time sales mark. Wow. I am so blessed.
> 
> Long live the Kindle!
> 
> Vicki


Wow, talk about an inspiring story!!!  June 2010 Victorine felt so blessed (rightfully so) for selling 600 books. Today, a year and three months later, she is a NY Times Bestselling author with 115,000 copies sold of that same novel Not What She Seems. And Victorine is an Indie author! Way to go, Vicki!! You give hope to the rest of us. Wishing you and everyone here great success. Anything is possible. 
All the best,
Shadonna
PS. Thanks for bumping and re-posting this encouraging thread, (Martin) Sharlow!


----------



## arodera

I am very happy with my sales on Amazon. Far are modest, especially considering that my book is in Spanish, but the result is still very satisfactory.

In July I sold a few copies, tripled that amount in August and now, in Septembre, I'm almost doubling the figures for the previous month. So little by little I hope to continue improving and maintaining lists of best-sellers in Spanish. To see if it encourages many people to read my novel and rising in the rankings!

Greetings.


----------



## David Derrico

Hi guys … I haven't been around here much lately (been way too busy with the day job that pays the bills), but it was fun looking back over this old thread and seeing how far all of us have come.

For the record, I passed 10,000 paid sales a few months ago, which was a pretty exciting milestone for me. Sure, it pales in comparison to some, while others might look at it with envy. But we're all on our own path, taking it at our own pace, and it's not a competition. And there should be enough success stories here to inspire everyone.


----------



## R. Doug

In that case I'll keep quiet, lest I discourage the newbies.

But it hasn't been pretty.


----------



## cblewgolf

R. Doug said:


> In that case I'll keep quiet, lest I discourage the newbies.
> 
> But it hasn't been pretty.


@ R. Doug, I don't get it. You have 87 reviews, 62 4* or 5*, a decent cover, good blurb, what happened?
I noticed your reviews stopped 7 months ago, how were sales back then? What have you done differently?


----------



## CathyQuinn

Real life took over completely a few months ago and I haven't even been following my sales. But I got my first $100 check in the mail recently, which was awesome, even if it won't buy me much! :-D

But during my months away, something weird happened: my US sales almost vanished, but my UK sales really picked up! I have no idea what happened either side, I have been doing no promotion at all.


----------



## CosmicHerb

I'm really happy with my sales of my Dubai book so far, and am hoping the upwards trends continue. 

In July 2011 (I released in on 7th) I sold 91 total (4 a day)
In August I stold 157 (5 a day)
In September I sold 290 (10 a day), but it really took off over the last week or two after a review in a Dubai blog and an updated version with a new cover and a lot of editing/corrections.
In October (first 5 and a half days) I have sold 139, which is 25 a day!

It is now ranking top of Middle East in Travel, it is in the top 5 of all Travel, and has broken the top 300 of all UK Kindle sales. Excited? Just a bit!

I am now torn between pushing even more on the marketing side and finishing another book/writing another book to get on there...and I check my sales figures far too often, getting frustrated when they don't move!


----------



## Sharlow

Time to bump a very old thread. I realize most everyone has seen this already, but then again we get new people with this question almost daily. So without any more delay here's my bump.


----------



## jnfr

Good to see you, Sharlow. I was just thinking about you yesterday. Hope you're doing well.


----------



## Sharlow

jnfr said:


> Good to see you, Sharlow. I was just thinking about you yesterday. Hope you're doing well.


Doing better. I was actually out and about for the first time. Had to go get tags for my van that had expired back in September. Thanks for thinking of me!


----------



## jnfr

That's good to hear. It's nice to see you posting.


----------



## soesposito

Great thread...just goes to show there is no "typical" experience. I guess you just have to keep writing books & keep experimenting! My recent release "Karma's A Bitch" was live on 11/12. It's sold 69 copies in those weeks. I didn't do any big blog tour, but I did spend a lot of time just putting it out there on goodreads & all the social media sites I frequent.


----------



## Sharlow

soesposito said:


> Great thread...just goes to show there is no "typical" experience. I guess you just have to keep writing books & keep experimenting! My recent release "Karma's A Bitch" was live on 11/12. It's sold 69 copies in those weeks. I didn't do any big blog tour, but I did spend a lot of time just putting it out there on goodreads & all the social media sites I frequent.


I haven't had to much success from blog tours. There's definitely a trickle in sales that seems to happen when I'm doing one, but not enough to be sure. But they do say it's more about the promotion then the sales when it comes to tours.


----------



## Sharlow

My old forgotten thread. It seems like there are a lot of new people here again so maybe this thread would be of interest for these authors again. It always cheered me up when my enthusiasm was low.


----------



## Lisa Grace

Shadonna said:


> Wow, talk about an inspiring story!!!  June 2010 Victorine felt so blessed (rightfully so) for selling 600 books. Today, a year and three months later, she is a NY Times Bestselling author with 115,000 copies sold of that same novel Not What She Seems. And Victorine is an Indie author! Way to go, Vicki!! You give hope to the rest of us. Wishing you and everyone here great success. Anything is possible.
> All the best,
> Shadonna
> PS. Thanks for bumping and re-posting this encouraging thread, (Martin) Sharlow!


Very Cool I haven't been around that long, so this thread is an eye-opener.


----------



## [email protected]

It is an eye opener.


----------



## KCHawkings

Well... I guess since I've now published a book I can post here...

I published The Sphinx project on 28/02 and in the first week I sold a grand total of 35 copies.

Seeing all of the stats is so inspiring... hopefully one day someone will think the same about mine.


----------



## Cheryl Douglas

This is a great thread. So inspiring to see the success so many indie authors have had.


----------



## Sharlow

Cheryl Douglas said:


> This is a great thread. So inspiring to see the success so many indie authors have had.


I agree, and I like to come back to this thread every so often just to inspire me to keep going. I haven't met with the same level of success as some of the people on this thread has, but it still gives me that push to keep on reaching for the stars.


----------



## Jeroen Steenbeeke

Including free give-aways: 448
Excluding them: 37

I'm open to suggestions


----------



## Sophrosyne

I just finished adding my July numbers in, and this is what I've got so far in 2012:

Freebies: 77,606

Sales: 14,560

Borrows: 1,441

Since July marked the end of my first full year, (I published the book before July, but I didn't let anyone know about it until July, because I wanted to work the bugs out), now I'm curious as to what my numbers are if I add in the months in 2011!


----------



## Sophrosyne

Holy cow, I just added all my numbers together:

Sold: 16,934

Borrows: 1,524

Freebies: 79,962


----------



## Sharlow

Wow those are some impressive numbers. 2012 has not been so good to me as 2011 so far. Luckily there's still a few month's left to see that turn around. With the release of an awaited sequel to my most popular series and several other books being worked on, I'm hoping that will improve my numbers before the end of the year.


----------



## 41413

Goodness, this is an old thread.

It's fun going back to last year's numbers and see authors who took off right afterward.

Also, congrats, Sophrosyne.


----------



## Pnjw

The end of this month marks my one year anniversary.

I just added up all my books sold:

20774

Holy chowderbuckets! It's been an amazing year, that's for sure.


----------



## Sharlow

smreine said:


> Goodness, this is an old thread.
> 
> It's fun going back to last year's numbers and see authors who took off right afterward.
> 
> Also, congrats, Sophrosyne.


Yeah I always debate on if I should let this thread die. But with Davids experiences and Victoria's as well as Amanda's and HP Mallory's all written in it, I find it hard to let it die sometimes. Plus it seems like this question is asked every month by new people. So....


----------



## 41413

Oh, no judgments here. It's cute going back to the beginning and seeing that Dalglish guy lose his mind over 25 sales. A few pages later, and he's yawning about 7500 sales in a month.   Times, they are a-changing.


----------



## Sharebear

I'm glad you didn't let it die! It's my first time seeing it and I have to say it's totally inspiring.
I am not there at all, but maybe at the end of my first year I will be moving towards my goals.
Thanks for the push guys.


----------



## stephaniehale

I haven't had time to read all the posts here, but what an inspiring thread. I'll be coming back to this one often.


----------



## yomatta

I know what I'm reading before bed tonight....


----------



## phil1861

Jan to June, 2012, novel
print: 40
print freebies: 15

eBook borrows plus sales: 1500
eBook freebies: 20,000

May to June, short story
eBook sales: 10
eBook freebies: 250


----------



## AmberC

I just added because I was curious what our totals were after seeing this thread. 
3 months self publishing, over 800 sold. 
32,000 freebies as of tonight.


----------



## Shayne Parkinson

I didn't get around to checking my totals for a while, and when I did I was pleasantly surprised (okay, gobsmacked) to find that I've passed 100,000 paid sales.


----------



## Sophrosyne

Gobsmacked! That's the word I've been searching for!  

Thank you and congratulations, everyone! And you know the best thing? We're only halfway through the year! Here's to doubling our numbers by December!


----------



## Ann Chambers

This thread is awesome. It should not be allowed to die. It's great reading through and seeing people's progress.

I just completed one full year at the end of June, and I early July passed 6,000 paid sales. not nearly as good as a lot of people, but I think cookbooks are a hard sell because there is just so much free content on the web.

This year I'm focusing on fiction and have two titles that come out in August, so I'm hoping for even better numbers after year 2!


----------



## ChristinaGarner

WOW. I hadn't ever seen this thread before tonight. How inspiring! My numbers aren't nearly as impressive as most, but I'll add them once I get them tallied.


----------



## Rachel Schurig

Sharlow said:


> Yeah I always debate on if I should let this thread die. But with Davids experiences and Victoria's as well as Amanda's and HP Mallory's all written in it, I find it hard to let it die sometimes. Plus it seems like this question is asked every month by new people. So....


I hope it continues to be bumped periodically. I love looking at the older posts and comparing that to how people are doing now. So inspiring and cool!


----------



## arvel

Wow, this thread is inspiring. It really shows just how much things can change.


----------



## Sharlow

Well I'm glad there are so many people that are still inspired by this thread. Hopefully it will never die and continue to inspire. Especially as all the new people now will one day be those that people will look back to for inspiration.


----------



## Sharebear

So I did the addition today and it's approx 650. I started back in December so I haven't quite hit a year yet, but this month marks my one year anniversary for writing, just not publishing. With two new releases coming up, I hope to hit 1000 in a couple more months.
Thanks for the inspiration, and although my number is very small compared to most, I hope it helps someone else out.


----------



## R. Doug

I sold a copy this month.


----------



## H.M. Ward

> I just researched and found a way to tie Amazon ranking to sales:
> 
> Kindle Store Sales Rank of 20 = 500 or so sales a day.
> Rank of 200 = 50 or so sales a day.
> Rank of 1000 = 15 or so sales a day


I don't think is accurate any longer. One of my titles consistently sells 50 per day and is hanging out around 3,000 in the kindle store. Any chance someone has updated numbers to confirm?

My 1st title up launched with a fanbase of 8,000 facebook fans. I sold 300 copies the 1st month. By the end of the 3rd month, it was in the top 200 overall. Since then it's sold over 20,000 copies (not including freebies). I haven't counted the rest of the series yet. I started marketing my book from the day I finished writing it, before I had an agent, before I finished editing it. Turned out to work rather well. My other titles that aren't related to this series didn't have such a strong start. Just posting b/c a lot of ppl wonder if FB does anything. It did for me. Other titles that I didn't promote and used a pen name sell 1-2 copies per week. Thought that's a pretty good benchmark for comparison purposes. I'm a nobody and I'm rather antisocial. This is about as chatty as I get.  Before twitter and fb, the idea of networking sounded like hell. haha.

Good luck!


----------



## Senseidoji

You all make me feel really, really insignificant. I sell around 3 a month. I don't know what I am doing wrong.


----------



## 41413

brinacourtney said:


> So I did the addition today and it's approx 650. I started back in December so I haven't quite hit a year yet, but this month marks my one year anniversary for writing, just not publishing. With two new releases coming up, I hope to hit 1000 in a couple more months.
> Thanks for the inspiration, and although my number is very small compared to most, I hope it helps someone else out.


Congrats, Brina! Very respectable. Here's to many more in the coming months.


----------



## 41419

I forgot about this thread!

I passed a milestone a few days ago, and this seems the appropriate place: 5,000 books sold. Indeed, I passed it at speed, and I'm closing in on 6,000 pretty quickly. August was my best month last year, and this year it's already my record month. 

The surge isn't going to last (already tailing off), but wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!


----------



## Zelah Meyer

I have deleted this post as I do not consent to the new Terms of Service that Vertical Scope are attempting to retrospectively apply to our content.  I am forced to manually replace my content as, at time of editing, their representative has instructed moderators not to delete posts or accounts when users request it, and Vertical Scope have implied that they will deal with account deletion requests by anonymising accounts, which would leave personally identifying information in my posts.

I joined under the previous ownership and have posted over the years under different Terms of Service.  I do not consent to my name, content, or intellectual properties being used by Vertical Scope or any other entity that they sell or licence my data to.


----------



## Daisy Dexter Dobbs

I can’t tell you how very much I loved reading this thread! It’s been about a year since I’ve been here on the boards. As you can see by my sig line, I have no books available at the moment. I did have 2 indie books for about 4 months last year that I removed because they need rewriting (originally written almost a decade ago & sorely out of date). They did surprisingly well for such a short time.

As of a few days ago I finally (halleluiah!) got the rights back to all of my books from my publishers (about 30 books total). I’m beyond thrilled and excited to indie-publish these books, but also feeling rather overwhelmed by the prospect of all the rewriting and updating ahead of me. :-o

This wonderful, marvelous, positive thread is EXACTLY what I needed to see today. It’s made me realize that all my effort will be worth it in the end. I just have to be patient and remain positive. Thank you all so much for your generosity in sharing your numbers and experiences. I can’t wait until I can share mine with you too!


----------



## teashopgirl

I started dabbling with KDP in June 2011 and got serious about it in January 2012. Since then, I had never added up all my sales numbers. My general guess was that I'd sold around 6,000 books. Turns out I was correct: 6,107 titles sold or borrowed through KOLL to date (give or take 50). 

About 90% of that is through Amazon. In addition to these sales/borrows, I've given away about 40,000 books as well...probably more, but in that neighborhood.


----------



## Victorine

Victorine said:


> Wow, you guys are selling like gangbusters! I'm fairly new to all of this... my book hasn't been up for sale long. (About 2 weeks.) So I'm still in my single digits for sales. I'm almost to 10 though! Wheeeee!
> 
> I'm hopeful things will pick up.
> 
> Vicki


Heehee. It is fun reading through this thread. I'm over 155,000 sales now.


----------



## R. Doug

Victorine said:


> Heehee. It is fun reading through this thread. I'm over 155,000 sales now.


I got my copy.

You've done _very_ well, Victorine. And I'm so glad for you.


----------



## PaigeAspen

It's taken several days, but I did it! I read the entire post!!!

First published May 19, 2012

May 2012 - 3 sales
June 2012 - 7 sales
July 2012 - 16 sales
Aug to date - 6 sales

Total of 32 sales and $45.41

Thank you to all who paved the way!

Paige


----------



## Shayne Parkinson

Victorine said:


> Heehee. It is fun reading through this thread. I'm over 155,000 sales now.


 

It's good to have an historical record of your "almost to ten" stage!


----------



## PaigeAspen

Just wanted to check the "notify me of replies" box so I can keep track of the thread!


----------



## The 13th Doctor

Was just about to log off for the night when I spotted this thread.

Having just passed my first year anniversary as a published writer, here's my paid sales data (for some reason, Amazon are reporting I made no sales - free or otherwise - in August when I published my first book, despite me remembering I did make sales  )

Sep - 4
Oct - 15
Nov - 13
Dec - 24
Jan - 8
Feb - 8
Mar - 6
Apr - 8
May - 13
June - 4
July - 7

On the other sites (Smashwords, B&N, etc) I've made a total of 15 paid sales.


----------



## VMendy

Wow, you guys are awesome. I'm in nonfiction, so I don't believe I will ever have the success that you guys have. Congrats!!
Anywho...I just published July 6..

July 6- 31 139 sales, 11 borrows
August so far- 57 sales, 14 borrows

I don't know if this is good or bad. I'll pretend I'm doing fantastic so I can have a bowl of chocolate ice cream as a reward.
Vickie


----------



## MeiLinMiranda

Senseidoji, submit your book to Victorine's Why Is This Book Not Selling (see her sig). First glance tells me you need a new cover and blurb, right away. Good luck!

ETA: I crosses the 6,000 mark this month.


----------



## eBooksHabit

Started at the end of March 2012...

March was 4 books (all family and friends).
April was 2 books (too busy that month),

Did 790 in May, 729 in June, 4953 in July, and 1815 in August so far (11th).

This is sales+borrows.

Thanks for everyone being willing to share!


----------



## Pearson Moore

I had just north of 10,100 sales by June 4 of this year.  The total is probably close to 12,000 now, since I seem to be selling about a thousand a month.  It might be a little lower since July was a low month, but August so far is rebounding nicely.


----------



## Writerly Writer

Daisy Dexter Dobbs said:


> I can't tell you how very much I loved reading this thread! It's been about a year since I've been here on the boards. As you can see by my sig line, I have no books available at the moment. I did have 2 indie books for about 4 months last year that I removed because they need rewriting (originally written almost a decade ago & sorely out of date). They did surprisingly well for such a short time.
> 
> As of a few days ago I finally (halleluiah!) got the rights back to all of my books from my publishers (about 30 books total). I'm beyond thrilled and excited to indie-publish these books, but also feeling rather overwhelmed by the prospect of all the rewriting and updating ahead of me. :-o
> 
> This wonderful, marvelous, positive thread is EXACTLY what I needed to see today. It's made me realize that all my effort will be worth it in the end. I just have to be patient and remain positive. Thank you all so much for your generosity in sharing your numbers and experiences. I can't wait until I can share mine with you too!
> 
> (I write erotic romantic comedy as Daisy Dexter Dobbs and contemporary romantic comedy (non-erotic) as Susan Bodendo.)


Oh my gosh. What I wouldn't give to be you. 30 books! What an achievement. I wish you all the best.


----------



## EC Sheedy

johnkellyjr said:


> I sold 10...which is up from 6 from a few months ago. New cover and blurb did nothing for me. What is weird is, people on KB who have read (and bought) the book based on the sample say it's a funny book. I hate marketing with a passion, it took the wind right out of writing sails, and I've been in the doldrums ever since. Also, I get a perverse satisfaction in raining on people's parades. I don't know why, I attribute it to watching too much Addams Family as a child. I could never quite figure out the family tree, who's uncle is Uncle Fester? And where does Grandamma fit in as the matriarch? Oh well, I'm off to put a light bulb in my mouth...I can't light it up, but it keeps me from saying stupid things that normally get me punched in the nose.


If it makes you feel any better, my son is reading AMAZOMBIA right now. And he's lovin' it.  He's reading it on his Samsung note, doesn't own a kindle/ipad. He says he's going to be looking for more of your books. (Damn hard biz this epubbing. One book at a time.)


----------



## JRTomlin

dgaughran said:


> I forgot about this thread!
> 
> I passed a milestone a few days ago, and this seems the appropriate place: 5,000 books sold. Indeed, I passed it at speed, and I'm closing in on 6,000 pretty quickly. August was my best month last year, and this year it's already my record month.
> 
> The surge isn't going to last (already tailing off), but wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!


Woohoo! Congrats, David.

I think I passed a milestone last month but I always wait to get the monthly report before I add it up.


----------



## Nicole Ciacchella

I was doing the happy dance earlier today because I hit my 250th sale for The Eye of the Beholder!  It was published April 29, and here's the breakdown:

The Eye of the Beholder (Published 4/29/12--started in KDP but allowed it to lapse in July)

April: 0 
May: 22 sales, 0 borrows
June: 71 sales, 8 borrows
July: Amazon: 94 sales, 9 borrows
      B&N: 3 sales
      Kobo: 0 sales
August MTD: Amazon: 62 sales
                 B&N: 1 sale
                 Kobo: 0 sales

Creators (Published 7/14/12--currently KDP)

July: 2 sales, 0 borrows
August MTD: 0 sales, 0 borrows

As you can see, Creators is languishing in obscurity.   I'm publishing another novel later this month (Creators is the prequel), so I'll do some free runs with Creators to see if I can get that series off the ground.  I think the thing that's really hampering me with that book is that I published it under my real name, while The Eye was published under a pen name, so it didn't drive sales from those who liked The Eye.

I'm honestly 100% shocked by how well The Eye is doing.  My pie-in-the-sky goal was to sell 100 copies of it, which I figured I might be able to do in a year, if I was lucky.  I did exactly one giveaway with The Eye, but I didn't publicize it and, as far as I can tell, it didn't generate any publicity or later sales for me.  I really have no idea how it's taken off.  I've done some marketing, but burned out on it in the last month or so and, truth be told, it's selling better now that I don't bother with marketing.

I'm also obviously not having much success with B&N and Kobo, and I'm thinking about leaving The Eye on those two for another month or two, unpublishing, and going back to being exclusive to Kindle.  With the new series, I'm planning on sticking with KDP for the long haul.

I think I'm just a living example of the random nature of this business.


----------



## Ilyhana Kate Kennedy

This has been a very helpful thread for a newbie wallowing around in how to get a book moving, and learning how the game works. 
I'd really love to see some input from other authors writing and illustrating children's picture books. I suss that we're up against a wall of free books.
I've sold 13 copies of Imagine That! since launching in April and only 1 was Amazon driven. Some 700 copies have "sold" as freebies through KDP. 
Cheers, Ilyhana


----------



## MosesSiregarIII

I sold 3,985 copies of my novel in its first year, and then hit 4,000 sales two days later.


----------



## kcmay

I'm at 101,746 as of June 30.


----------



## Sharlow

Victorine said:


> Heehee. It is fun reading through this thread. I'm over 155,000 sales now.


Ah the good ol'days!


----------



## ruecole

Cool thread! It's amazing to see the success some of the members here have had!

Here are my results thus far for posterity:

May 2012: 9
June 2012: 5
July 2012: 59
Aug 2012 (so far): 57

Do I wish I had more sales? Of course. But am I happy with the results so far? Yup. 

Rue


----------



## Victorine

ruecole said:


> Cool thread! It's amazing to see the success some of the members here have had!
> 
> Here are my results thus far for posterity:
> 
> May 2012: 9
> June 2012: 5
> July 2012: 59
> Aug 2012 (so far): 57
> 
> Do I wish I had more sales? Of course. But am I happy with the results so far? Yup.
> 
> Rue


Hey, the number is going up. You can't beat that!


----------



## MrPLD

Hrmm... starting again from the bottom here... moved 20 copies of "My Boyfriend is a Zombie" since last week's release, but really really hoping that climbs up to at least 1/day.


----------



## ruecole

Victorine said:


> Hey, the number is going up. You can't beat that!


Yup! I'm hoping for 100 sales in September! 

Rue


----------



## Margo Karasek

Wow. This thread's amazing! Here are my #s for posterity. 

I published my only title on May 25, 2012. I sold: 

May 2012:      5 
June 2012:  175
July 2012:    53
Aug 2012:    456 (so far)  

I also gave away about 20,000 freebies in June. 

It has been a pretty wonderful 3 months


----------



## Rachel Schurig

Margo Karasek said:


> Wow. This thread's amazing! Here are my #s for posterity.
> 
> I published my only title on May 25, 2012. I sold:
> 
> May 2012: 5
> June 2012: 175
> July 2012: 53
> Aug 2012: 456 (so far)
> 
> I also gave away about 20,000 freebies in June.
> 
> It has been a pretty wonderful 3 months


Look at that jump in August! Go Margo!

Did you do something different this month? Lots of people find August to be very slow, way to buck that trend!


----------



## Margo Karasek

Rachel Schurig said:


> Look at that jump in August! Go Margo!
> 
> Did you do something different this month? Lots of people find August to be very slow, way to buck that trend!


An ENT promo helped A LOT. It helped me get good momentum even after it was over. Of course, I must also give credit to Scarlett Rugers and her fabulous new cover.

And, yeah, I was expecting August to suck and it turned out to be my best month yet, by far. It just proves that in this business, you really never can tell when opportunities will come up.


----------



## eBooksHabit

Started at the end of March... hit 10,000 net sold+borrow a day or two ago...


----------



## ruecole

Margo Karasek said:


> Wow. This thread's amazing! Here are my #s for posterity.
> 
> I published my only title on May 25, 2012. I sold:
> 
> May 2012: 5
> June 2012: 175
> July 2012: 53
> Aug 2012: 456 (so far)
> 
> I also gave away about 20,000 freebies in June.
> 
> It has been a pretty wonderful 3 months


Wow, Margo! Look at you!

I've given away about that many freebies, too, but haven't seen the sales. I think this really shows the difference between the popularity of short stories and novels. 

Rue


----------



## Artemis Hunt

One year anniversary of self-publishing for me. Hit 100,000 sales three days ago.


----------



## ChrisWard

Started with a short story in January and have sold about 150 total now.  Only one novel up though which is almost universally ignored.  My biggest seller has sold about 45 copies.  Things are heading in the right direction but I think I must write in the wrong genres.


----------



## arvel

Artemis Hunt said:


> One year anniversary of self-publishing for me. Hit 100,000 sales three days ago.


Congratulations!


----------



## Senseidoji

MeiLinMiranda said:


> Senseidoji, submit your book to Victorine's Why Is This Book Not Selling (see her sig). First glance tells me you need a new cover and blurb, right away. Good luck!
> 
> ETA: I crosses the 6,000 mark this month.


I have been considering changing the art. The book is a fantasy novel, and the art looked more like the cover of an embroidery magazine. The blurb, well, I am really not good at that and will take more time to figure that out. But thanks for the tips.

Here is the new cover: I hope you like this one. I believe it fits the book better. 








The actual cover has the by line on it for me, for some reason Photobucket is screwing things up......again.


----------



## Artemis Hunt

arvel said:


> Congratulations!


Thanks so much!


----------



## arvel

I actually haven't added my numbers to this, so I guess I will. 

I started in July. 

July 2012 - 402
August 2012 - 738 (so far)

Edit: To fix net sales.


----------



## Sharlow

Artemis Hunt said:


> One year anniversary of self-publishing for me. Hit 100,000 sales three days ago.


That's fantastic! 100,000 sales is something I can only dream about right now.


----------



## Cherise

August 2012: 1 (Thanks, Craig!)     (The book was only up for 2 days in August.)
As of September 7, 2012: 1 more! Yay! A stranger bought my book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Senseidoji

Cherise Kelley said:


> August 2012: 1 (Thanks, Craig!)  (The book was only up for 2 days in August.)
> As of September 7, 2012: 1 more! Yay! A stranger bought my book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Isn't that one of the best feelings.


----------



## Simon Haynes

From September 2011 to July 2012, 4300 ebooks and 40,700 freebies. July was twice any earlier month, and ten times higher than the first two months. August '12 is the same as July, but is not included.

My ebooks are priced at $3.99-$4.99, except for the shorts at 99c and an omnibus at $8.99.

Edit: *4500 sold and 44,500 freebies.* My B&N figures were in the wrong column.


----------



## SunHi Mistwalker

The Shelter: 303 copies sold (99% sold since March 2012) I'm polishing the follow up novel now. This is by far my most popular story.

After The Darkness Series: 49 copies sold (since April 2012) I release every 60 days so I figure sales will pick up once all six episodes are posted. I just posted episode three August 30th. Whether sales pick up or not, this little episodic is close to my heart. I love it, so I plan on continuing no matter what. That's not to say I don't love my other stories, I do.

Erotica: 23 copies sold (since the last week of July 2012)

Stageplays: 23 copies sold (since March 2012)

Nonfiction book: 1 copy sold 

With the exception of my nonfiction book, everything is under 10k words or less. I figure once my novel is published sales will skyrocket. Oh, well let's just say I hope&#8230;


----------



## That one girl

SunHi Mistwalker said:


> The Shelter: 303 copies sold (99% sold since March 2012) I'm polishing the follow up novel now. This is by far my most popular story.


Post-apocalyptic is hot right now. Congrats on those sales.

July 2011 to May 2012: About 150 books sold over three titles; gave away about 400
June 2012: 60 sold; 472 given away
July 2012: 287; 3,753 given away
August 2012: 606 sold; 4,861 given away
September 2012 (so far): 63 (and no promos coming this month, so it probably won't improve)

I'm pretty pleased with the "books given away" to "books sold" ratio.


----------



## Pavel Kravchenko

T.S. Welti said:


> Post-apocalyptic is hot right now. Congrats on those sales.
> 
> July 2011 to May 2012: About 150 books sold over three titles; gave away about 400
> June 2012: 60 sold; 472 given away
> July 2012: 287; 3,753 given away
> August 2012: 606 sold; 4,861 given away
> September 2012 (so far): 63 (and no promos coming this month, so it probably won't improve)
> 
> I'm pretty pleased with the "books given away" to "books sold" ratio.


Guess "pre-apocalyptic" is not so hot. Haven't sold a copy in about three months. Haven't really promoted since I stopped with Select, though. Trying to focus on writing.


----------



## Dave Dykema

T.S. Welti said:


> I'm pretty pleased with the "books given away" to "books sold" ratio.


In my experience the giveaways do tend to lead to sales. For those that haven't tried it yet, it's something to consider.


----------



## SunHi Mistwalker

T.S. Welti said:


> Post-apocalyptic is hot right now. Congrats on those sales.
> 
> July 2011 to May 2012: About 150 books sold over three titles; gave away about 400
> June 2012: 60 sold; 472 given away
> July 2012: 287; 3,753 given away
> August 2012: 606 sold; 4,861 given away
> September 2012 (so far): 63 (and no promos coming this month, so it probably won't improve)
> 
> I'm pretty pleased with the "books given away" to "books sold" ratio.


Hey! I'm writing in a hot genre? It's about time.  You're numbers look awesome! I really need to get together a more effective marketing plan so I can join your club.  BTW, I can't wait to get Darklandia.


----------



## GWakeling

Mine are never going to be eye popping, but here goes:

March - 2
April - 3
May - 7
June - 5
July - 18
August - 8 (so far - not all Smashwords completely updated yet)

They're going in the right direction - sort of!


----------



## Amanda Leigh Cowley

Wow, I'm glad I discovered this thread. Some amazing numbers here   It's really inspiring to see how everyone else is doing.

Here's mine:-

76,000 word novel, published mid-July 2011 (99c)

First year (to end of June 2012)  - 956
Jul  - 630
Aug - 961
Sept so far - 165
TOTAL = 2712

The vast majority of my sales are from Amazon UK and August was my best month yet. I sold more books then than the whole of the first year (although the daily average has dropped this month). 

The next book in the series should be out in October, and after seeing how others have done when more books are published I'm excited to see what this does (or doesn't  ) do to my numbers.


----------



## That one girl

SunHi Mistwalker said:


> Hey! I'm writing in a hot genre? It's about time.  You're numbers look awesome! I really need to get together a more effective marketing plan so I can join your club.  BTW, I can't wait to get Darklandia.


I should get a marketing plan together, as well. I'm putting some promotions together for Parallel Spirits and No Shelter in October and early-November. I suck at the marketing stuff. Maybe one of these days we can put together a post-apocalyptic promo across various authors.


----------



## TexasGirl

Just had a third book cross the 1000 sales mark. The first took three years. The second took two. This last one did it in 10 months.

High hopes for the others!


----------



## Nicole Ciacchella

I'm finding that the genre in which you write makes an *enormous* difference.  

For instance, when I made The Eye of the Beholder free for a day, over 500 copies were downloaded without me doing any marketing at all.  When I made Creators free for the day yesterday, just over 100 copies were downloaded in the U.S., and the book made it to #69 in the top 100 free books for its subcategory.  I didn't pay attention to The Eye's ranking when I did the free run, so I can't do an apples to apples comparison, but I was completely shocked that what feels like so few downloads made Creators crack the top 100.

The funny thing is, when I decided to self-publish, I was sure the Contributor series (of which Creators is part) would have wider commercial appeal.  I just published Contributor a few days ago, so it's early to really try to glean any details, but I've sold two copies thus far.  I was sure The Eye would languish in obscurity and was pleased when it sold 22 copies (U.S. and Europe) in the first month.  My goal was to sell 100 copies of it in a year.  Since its May 2012 publication, I have sold 404 copies and counting.  

Now, the thing I *really* care about is people reading my books.  Would I love to achieve Hugh Howey status?  You betcha!  But I did not go into self-publishing as a get rich quick scheme, though I do hope to make a living wage so that I can write rather than having to become a wage slave again when my kids are both in school.  I already wanted to write across several genres, so seeing the difference between my books has just made me adjust my plans as to which books I'm going to release and when, and it's made me want to explore the genres so I can find which ones are more commercially successful.  That way, I can write books I like that will pay the bills, and still write books that may not pay the bills, but about which I feel strongly.


----------



## SunHi Mistwalker

T.S. Welti said:


> Maybe one of these days we can put together a post-apocalyptic promo across various authors.


I would love to do this. We should plan something soon! PM me.


----------



## Nicole Ciacchella

SunHi Mistwalker said:


> I would love to do this. We should plan something soon! PM me.


Oh! I would SO be on board with this! Creators and Contributor are part of a post-apocalyptic series, and I'm working on another book in the series right now. I'd be more than happy to do cross-promotion, etc. on my blog, FB fan page, etc.


----------



## FictionalWriter

My historical romance AN HEIR OF DECEPTION came out April 23 of this year and has sold 25,200 copies to date.


----------



## Rykymus

I published the first episode of my sci fi series on December 19th, 2011. I currently have 4 episodes out, with the fifth one due early October. As of 2359 on September 10, 2012, I have sold 100,006 copies worldwide at $2.99. Dreams do come true. My thanks for all the great advice from these boards.


----------



## alawston

I published my debut collection of short stories on Smashwords on 26/03/2012, with a Kindle edition following on 04/04/2012 when I read the Smashwords info properly.

As of this moment, I have sold 73 copies worldwide at an average of $0.99. I've almost earned myself a single hardback book.

Dreams can come... no, I think I tip my hat to just about everyone on this thread. Well sold, chaps!

In all seriousness, I'm pretty happy with my sales. Most of the stories had a previous life in small press magazines, ezines and contests, so putting them together in an ebook was more of a general shop window for my work than an assault on planet Bestseller.


----------



## Romana Grimm

Last Friday I published my gay romance "Wintermelodie" (German) on Amazon and sold 66 copies to date. That's my personal bestseller, although this story has neither paranormal elements, nor even a hint of BDSM or raunchy, erotic sheet-twisting. That, more than anything, shows me that there's obviously an audience for small stories about ordinary topics (mine is Christmas). Not everybody follows the mainstream, but even if they do, there's apparently always room for another book by some unknown indie


----------



## alawston

So you've almost overtaken my sales in less than a week - I'm definitely writing in the wrong genre!


----------



## James Snow

Not nearly enough  It's early days for me and I'm happy with my sales so far. I've done little to no promotion work currently and I'm hoping that when I finally get the time to start promoting some of my work some sales will start to filter through. 

I've found so far that for every one book I sell on Amazon two sell on Smashwords.


----------



## alawston

James Snow said:


> Not nearly enough  It's early days for me and I'm happy with my sales so far. I've done little to no promotion work currently and I'm hoping that when I finally get the time to start promoting some of my work some sales will start to filter through.
> 
> I've found so far that for every one book I sell on Amazon two sell on Smashwords.


Pretty much the exact opposite for me!


----------



## Romana Grimm

@alawston: I was surprised myself, but very pleasantly so, of course. I really was afraid that it would be too boring for the gay theme-reading community, but then again a lot of them _are_ women, so maybe the romantic approach isn't so very "wrong" for the genre after all  (And to be honest, personally I'm not a fan of topics like ostracism, AIDS and what have you. Just a nice love story with a little drama and lots of fluff ... that's what I like to read when the days get shorter. Perhaps other people think so as well, which would be cool )

In direct contrast, my newest novella "Thaw of the Firedancer"( which is also gay-themed) is set in very popular genres like fantasy and paranormal romance, but hasn't moved a single copy since uploading it yesterday, compared to 6 or so on the first day for "Wintermelodie". To me it is clear that it's nearly impossible to predict what will sell and what won't, and at which point. *shrugs*


----------



## James Snow

Romana Grimm said:


> @alawston: I was surprised myself, but very pleasantly so, of course. I really was afraid that it would be too boring for the gay theme-reading community, but then again a lot of them _are_ women, so maybe the romantic approach isn't so very "wrong" for the genre after all  (And to be honest, personally I'm not a fan of topics like ostracism, AIDS and what have you. Just a nice love story with a little drama and lots of fluff ... that's what I like to read when the days get shorter. Perhaps other people think so as well, which would be cool )
> 
> In direct contrast, my newest novella "Thaw of the Firedancer"( which is also gay-themed) is set in very popular genres like fantasy and paranormal romance, but hasn't moved a single copy since uploading it yesterday, compared to 6 or so on the first day for "Wintermelodie". To me it is clear that it's nearly impossible to predict what will sell and what won't, and at which point. *shrugs*


I know how you feel. Some of the books I write I predict will be great sellers sell barely anything and the ones I write that I think will pretty much flop sell loads. Very hard to predict what will sell and what won't and then theres the promotion side. I've been tagging other authors works in the tagging thread in the hope that mine will get tagged and maybe sales will boost. Hopefully in the next couple of months I'll have a more accurate idea of sales per book on different platforms.


----------



## 41413

Rykymus said:


> I published the first episode of my sci fi series on December 19th, 2011. I currently have 4 episodes out, with the fifth one due early October. As of 2359 on September 10, 2012, I have sold 100,006 copies worldwide at $2.99. Dreams do come true. My thanks for all the great advice from these boards.


Hot damn. I have about twice as many books as you do and a quarter of the sales. I want to grow up to be like you!  Good job, seriously.


----------



## Cherise

August 2012 - 1
September 2012 - 10


----------



## ruecole

Go Cherise!

Unless I get a whole lot of sales overnight, my goal of 100 sales for September has ended up in the toilet. So far I've sold 16 copies. 

On the bright side, that's still more than I sold my first month!

Rue


----------



## A.A

Just counted up all the month-to-date sales. No idea how to count up the books of previous months.

September to date: 446
(Mix of 99c and $2.99 books - but around 3/4 at 99c)


----------



## JETaylor

September has been good - I hit over 1100 sales this month.  The freebies put me over 2k.


----------



## Kristine McKinley

September was my first month I sold 48 with 645 free downloads


----------



## the quiet one

Book #1 became available on September 22 and I've since sold 41 in the US and 3 in the UK. I'm not in Select (yet) so no borrows/freebies to report. Pretty happy with that for a first book and under 10 days on the market.


----------



## teashopgirl

I sold around 875 books for September. That includes sales, rentals, and three other channels besides Amazon.

1/3 of those were at 99 cents, about 1/3 at 2.99 and 1/3 at 3.99. 

I'm pretty pleased with that. Curious to see my report in a couple weeks; I'm honestly not sure what the income would be (my guess is around 1.5k) because I switched prices on my top sellers mid-month and I don't know exactly what was counted as what.


----------



## jennybizz

I started selling books in January of this year (2012) and have thus far sold 612 books and given away thousands. Last month was my slowest month since I started. Not sure what went wrong there.  

But, I'm back on the horse - writing and doing more promotion! Hope to hit the 1,000 sold mark soon!


----------



## Chris Northern

Some, I guess.


----------



## chrisstevenson

I'm mostly trade published but I decided to take a back-list title and breathe some life into it. It had a horrible cover, not befitting the genre or subject matter--some guy stripping in front of a wispy blonde gal who looked like a ghost. Guh, it reeked erotica. It was a _paranormal romance/thriller_ that used time-travel--not a ghost story at all. And the title was horrendously unfit and confusing. I asked for an early release from my publisher (oh, yeah, it can happen), got it, then got the formatting and cover art done. It's only been up for less than two months and I'm on the Select thing. So far about 18 copies and two borrows. I've gone through a couple two-day free trial periods, giving away about 1,400 books.

That book, brought out by a pretty good e-publisher, sat for 18 months without a sale, and I pushed that baby _hard_.

The way I see it, I'm 18 copies sold and somebody, anybody can read that story now, and I couldn't be happier. My agent is stagger-submitting four of my books, and I've got three more finished and polished, along with four more out-of-print titles. I AM SO TEMPTED to pull the lot from the agent and get every single one of them formatted and up on Amazon. I only wish I had known about the KDP program much sooner than this. I discovered Konrath's blog just recently and found out what this was all about. And Hugh Howey made an appearance at our writing group, and I was very impressed. I'm just glad I tried this out. But I've got that new car smell and I'm just dying to get that engine broken in.

With that, I'll red-shift and hope to report later.


----------



## Rachel Schurig

I passed the 60,000 mark in September! 61,583 to be exact   I published the first book of my series in July 2011 and sold about 200 copies across the series in 2011. Things took off in January of this year. The vast majority of my sales, more than 61,000, have happened since January.

It's been a life changing year


----------



## 41413

Rachel Schurig said:


> I passed the 60,000 mark in September! 61,583 to be exact  I published the first book of my series in July 2011 and sold about 200 copies across the series in 2011. Things took off in January of this year. The vast majority of my sales, more than 61,000, have happened since January.
> 
> It's been a life changing year


That is fantastic, Rachel. And totally well-deserved.  I think it's only going to be up from here!


----------



## Rachel Schurig

smreine said:


> That is fantastic, Rachel. And totally well-deserved.  I think it's only going to be up from here!


Thanks, smreine! Regardless of what happens next, I'm enjoying it while it lasts (she says from a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic )


----------



## Victorine

Rachel Schurig said:


> I passed the 60,000 mark in September! 61,583 to be exact  I published the first book of my series in July 2011 and sold about 200 copies across the series in 2011. Things took off in January of this year. The vast majority of my sales, more than 61,000, have happened since January.
> 
> It's been a life changing year


You go, girl! That's fantastic!


----------



## AmberC

Yay Rachel! Yay cruising the Atlantic! Woot woot.


----------



## Adam Kisiel

I hope you are really cruising the Attlantic - you should enjoy your huge success.


----------



## Savannah_Page

Rachel Schurig said:


> I passed the 60,000 mark in September! 61,583 to be exact  I published the first book of my series in July 2011 and sold about 200 copies across the series in 2011. Things took off in January of this year. The vast majority of my sales, more than 61,000, have happened since January.
> 
> It's been a life changing year


Congratulations, Rachel!! You are a rockstar and, as I've said several times, you are a _huge_ inspiration to a fellow indie chick lit writer like myself.  So happy for you and so happy you got to go to England!! You deserve it. Keep up the awesome work, and thanks for sharing your stats/info. These boards and authors offer so much helpful advice and tidbits. Very much appreciate it.


----------



## Hugh Howey

Rachel Schurig said:


> Thanks, smreine! Regardless of what happens next, I'm enjoying it while it lasts (she says from a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic )


Best. Post. Ever.

Congrats, Rachel! Awesome stuff!


----------



## Rachel Schurig

Hugh Howey said:


> Best. Post. Ever.
> 
> Congrats, Rachel! Awesome stuff!


Thanks Hugh, it was a pretty darn awesome experience! I went to England to research my next book (tough life) then took a cruise back across the pond to get home, like they did in the old days. It was great, I spent most of the days writing while sitting out on deck watching the ocean pass by 

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I love hearing about all the indie successes on these boards. KB is a huge part of why I started self-pubbing.



Savannah_Page said:


> Congratulations, Rachel!! You are a rockstar and, as I've said several times, you are a _huge_ inspiration to a fellow indie chick lit writer like myself.  So happy for you and so happy you got to go to England!! You deserve it. Keep up the awesome work, and thanks for sharing your stats/info. These boards and authors offer so much helpful advice and tidbits. Very much appreciate it.


Thank you, Savannah, and I'm so happy you posted cause I had no idea your new book was out! Just bought it! Yay!


----------



## Savannah_Page

Rachel Schurig said:


> Thanks Hugh, it was a pretty darn awesome experience! I went to England to research my next book (tough life) then took a cruise back across the pond to get home, like they did in the old days. It was great, I spent most of the days writing while sitting out on deck watching the ocean pass by
> 
> Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I love hearing about all the indie successes on these boards. KB is a huge part of why I started self-pubbing.
> Thank you, Savannah, and I'm so happy you posted cause I had no idea your new book was out! Just bought it! Yay!


Thanks for the support, Rachel!! I hope you enjoy it. Your trip sounds AMAZING! and I can't wait to see what you write next as the byproduct of your adventure. I've already told the hubs that next Christmas is being spent in Paris b/c I need to do book research. LOL (When my baker protag goes to Paris, _naturally_ I need to go back there again for some research so I can write that book properly. A business trip...)


----------



## Rick Gualtieri

Noticed an awesome thing this AM. Was checking sales and realized that I had broken 1000 sales in a calendar month for the very first time...even more awesome considering its only the 10th.  

It's been a slow build for me, but I'm super excited to see it starting to catch on.


----------



## the quiet one

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Noticed an awesome this this AM. Was checking sales and realized that I had broken 1000 sales in a calendar month for the very first time...even more awesome considering its only the 10th.
> 
> It's been a slow build for me, but I'm super excited to see it starting to catch on.


Congratulations, Rick!


----------



## Rachel Schurig

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Noticed an awesome this this AM. Was checking sales and realized that I had broken 1000 sales in a calendar month for the very first time...even more awesome considering its only the 10th.
> 
> It's been a slow build for me, but I'm super excited to see it starting to catch on.


Awesome, Rick! And getting closer to the holiday season, hopefully sales will continue a steady climb!


----------



## Rick Gualtieri

Rachel Schurig said:


> Awesome, Rick! And getting closer to the holiday season, hopefully sales will continue a steady climb!


Thanks Rachel, likewise much awesomeness for you. I'm jealous of the cruising.


----------



## rachael

I'm jealous of the numbers, never mind the cruising! 

I opened kindleboards, saw the thread and thought you know, maybe I have the courage to post my numbers, yes, I think I do. Then I saw 60,000. And, yup, lost my nerve. Of course such numbers give us other writers hope. And then I see Rachel (the other spelling!) has a series, and I write stand alone books. And I lose faith and nerve so easily. Someone posted an amazing review for my latest book on Saturday. By yesterday I was already back to the yawning black hole. Why is ___never enough?


----------



## MGalloway

rachael said:


> I opened kindleboards, saw the thread and thought you know, maybe I have the courage to post my numbers, yes, I think I do. Then I saw 60,000. And, yup, lost my nerve.


If it means anything, some of us are at the other extreme. For example, I have yet to sell thirty books...across four titles...after having e-books available for over a year and a half.


----------



## rachael

It does mean something, Michael. Thank you. I have a glorious ability to wallow. 

I don't have ebook #s for The Wind Seller and Tent of Blue because they're traditionally published. Well, I get something every 6 months that requires a PhD in who-knows-what to decipher.

The Fishers of Paradise published August 19 and I sold 39 on .com and 4 in the U.K. In September I sold 22 on .com. However, I have a feeling all of those sales are from people who have read my paper books. I seriously doubt I've reached anyone new.

There, I've confessed, I feel liberated and free now, she says, shaking her hair.


----------



## Sharebear

Rachel Schurig said:


> Thanks, smreine! Regardless of what happens next, I'm enjoying it while it lasts (she says from a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic )


Pure awesome!
Congrats!


----------



## Savannah_Page

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Noticed an awesome thing this AM. Was checking sales and realized that I had broken 1000 sales in a calendar month for the very first time...even more awesome considering its only the 10th.
> 
> It's been a slow build for me, but I'm super excited to see it starting to catch on.


Rick, that is pure awesomeness right there! When I make 1,000 sales from one book, _period_, I'm going to be celebrating all the way to the nearest Louis Vuitton store as a personal "I did it!!" Silly goal, but it's something to shoot for.  Goodness! 1,000 in a calendar month. Ah, sigh. I dream...

For now I'll keep on checking out everyone's numbers here. It's so inspiring and encouraging. And it's so neat to see how indie authors can really make something of self-publishing! I haven't crossed into double digit sales for any of my books yet this month, but it's only the 11th. I have a new release out and the first in my chick lit series is on a 99 cent sale for a while, so maybe that'll help with sales. Shall see... Thanks for sharing, everyone!


----------



## Jeroen Steenbeeke

Including freebies and print (since November 2011): 463


----------



## Rick Gualtieri

Savannah_Page said:


> Rick, that is pure awesomeness right there! When I make 1,000 sales from one book, _period_, I'm going to be celebrating all the way to the nearest Louis Vuitton store as a personal "I did it!!" Silly goal, but it's something to shoot for.  Goodness! 1,000 in a calendar month. Ah, sigh. I dream...


Thanks, Savannah! This seemed just as impossible to me only a few months back. Bottom line: you never know when things will take off or Amazon will give you a push.

And it's not so silly of a goal. I'm thinking this month will go towards my new PC fund...that's the geek equivalent to Louis Vuitton.


----------



## Savannah_Page

PC fund, Rick, sounds like a great plan! 

Right now I'm sitting at "it's impossible! It'll never happen for me." But, you're right...we never know. Sometimes I think that some of those nasty ratings or reviews are the end of my career before it's even gotten started. LOL But I've got to be patient, keep the faith, and just keep on writing.  Enjoy the success! That's so exciting!!


----------



## nigelw

I've managed to sell 1100 of Eden Relics in just over two months and 700 of Welsh Gold in three weeks. All through Kindle downloads - can't be a****d with the traditional publishing runaround (not that they'd get published by them any way - so why bother?)


----------



## btsc99

Published on Amazon only, 24th August 2012, 7 sales, all UK.


----------



## Sharebear

Rick Gualtieri said:


> Thanks, Savannah! This seemed just as impossible to me only a few months back. Bottom line: you never know when things will take off or Amazon will give you a push.
> 
> And it's not so silly of a goal. I'm thinking this month will go towards my new PC fund...that's the geek equivalent to Louis Vuitton.


Rick, I love your covers, they totally grab my eyes!


----------



## Jon Olson

ReeseReed said:


> I first published in mid-November, and had 18 downloads on Amazon. In December I had only 13. But so far in January I've had 41. However, I've only had one download on Smashwords since December.


I think this is normal for the first couple of months. I would guess "average" would be a rank in the 80,000 to 100,000 range. But that's just a guess.


----------



## Cherise

I have sold a grand total of 24 books at $7.99 eBook and $16.99 paperback (non-fiction).

August 1
September 10
October 13


----------



## Senseidoji

I am thrilled, I sold 25 in October, which is huge considering my highest month previous to that was 7.


----------



## Sally C

I did the happy dance a few weeks ago, when I passed 13,000 for this year....


----------



## DCBourone

Feel like this has been mentioned,

but recently noticed number of backlist

classics, Huxley Brave New Word, others,

recently selling as ebooks at very attractive

virtually promotional price points.  Has to have

some considerable effect.


----------



## WilliamEsmont

27386 since I started in Jan of 2011.


----------



## LarryWilmot

150 in my first 3 months.  Which by some amazing maths is 50 a month on average. I guess that's not too bad.  The thing I like the best is that before I descovered KDP, I had these books in my head, which were going no where at all. And now the first two are on sale, and I'm writing no 3 and doing research for 4 and 5.  It's always good to get a start on that bucket list!!


----------



## Trevor H Cooley

Book one came out in May 2012. It was slow at first but when I put book two out in July, things really kicked into gear. Since July, my three books have sold just over 11,000 copies in kindle format.


----------



## alawston

I've sold 86 copes of Something Nice, I gather the Salmagundi has already sold about the same number, maybe even a few more...


----------



## Cherise

I have sold a grand total of 33 books since I started indie publishing on August 28, 2012:

August 1
September 10
October 13
November 9


----------



## jnfr

Congratulations! May you sell many more.


----------



## 鬼

I started up my own small press in late August and got started. 

Aug 28
Sept 108 
Oct 143
Nov 182


----------



## JETaylor

I've surpassed 12,000 sales on all fronts, of which Amazon is the lionshare.  

This number doesn't include giveaways - if you counted those I've exceed 200k downloads now.  

Most of my sales occurred between May of 2011 when I took over my books and opened the publishing house. Prior to that, I think I had only one month where I exceeded 100 sales and that was April 2011 when my first BOD at ENT went live.  Prior to that I think my best quarter was around 15 books.  

Patience. 

Along with writing more books and publishing on my schedule helped.


----------



## the quiet one

My book just hit 1,000 net sales on day 73 of publication.


September44October502November420December34*Total**1,002*

All from Amazon, and all but 5 are from .com. Should have the second book out in the next 10-14 days.


----------



## Pnjw

As of November 30th, I've sold 41,502 books. I'm looking at the 50K mark for January that will be 18 months.


----------



## alawston

Well, six weeks since I last posted on this thread, I've sold... six more copies. I'm up to 92 copies of _Something Nice_. I think it's safe to say short story collections are not big sellers


----------



## Neil Ostroff

First month is always high when I release a new book. Numbers vary month to month. There seems to be no rhyme or reason. Heavy promo affects sales, but not by much in the grand scale.


----------



## Quiss

I'm trying to catch up to AJ, since we started around the same time. 
So far I'm lagging!

I just passed 600 sales since August, mostly for Only Human. The Catalyst is just brand new. Then again, so is AJ's new title.

I don't count giveaways because you can't know who actually read them. And it's all about reading, isn't it


----------



## Cherise

I have sold a grand total of 65 books since I started indie publishing on August 28, 2012:

August 1
September 10
October 13
November 9
December 32


----------



## Rayna Corday

I started exactly three months ago:

Oct - 118
Nov - 112
Dec - 177

Not a terrible start... but in a year's time I'll want an extra zero on the end of those totals.


----------



## Kathleen Valentine

I posted this elsewhere but I'll repeat it here: I've been checking all day and I just sold my 38,000th book for 2012. That is with 24 titles (including 2 boxed sets). I was hoping for a little more but that isn't bad.

So, because of the great November and December I had in 2011 that means I've sold 52,000 books in the past 14 months. This does not count paperbacks and PDF downloads.

My pricing is:
Novellas/novelettes: .99 - $1.99
Short story collections: $2.99
Full length novel (over 100k): $3.99
Knitting singles: $5.00
Knitting collection: $8.00
Boxed Sets: $5.99 & $8.99

Onward to 2013!

I should add that none of mine are erotica. Mostly they are psychological suspense or romantic suspense with a few love stories and, of course, knitting.


----------



## Incognita

For 2012, my sales are at 6,320 (Amazon ebooks only...I haven't added up the sales yet from the other retailers, or my paperback sales). This is across 10 titles and doesn't count my three books that are still with a digital-first publisher. Most sales were from June through December, with December definitely being the high point (a hair shy of 2K books sold this month).

I can only hope that the trend will continue. Fingers crossed!


----------



## Becca Mills

Deanna Chase said:


> As of November 30th, I've sold 41,502 books. I'm looking at the 50K mark for January that will be 18 months.


Woo-hoo!!! 

ETA:


Kathleen Valentine said:


> I posted this elsewhere but I'll repeat it here: I've been checking all day and I just sold my 38,000th book for 2012. That is with 24 titles (including 2 boxed sets). I was hoping for a little more but that isn't bad.
> 
> So, because of the great November and December I had in 2011 that means I've sold 52,000 books in the past 14 months. This does not count paperbacks and PDF downloads.


Woo-hoo again!! Approaching/hitting/surpassing that 50K mark is just awesome.


----------



## Margo Karasek

On Christmas day, I celebrated my 7th month anniversary. In those months I managed to sell about 1700 copies (might be more but I stopped counting so precisely after I hit the 1000 mark ). Best of all, I actually managed to sell some print copies. I have done nothing to promote those, figuring no one would shell out that much cash on an unknown author with so many other options in the same price point. But two months after coming out with a print version, I've sold books!


----------



## djnash

I sold my 100th copy today (NYE) having published in mid-September.


----------



## Al Dente

As of this very moment, I have sold a grand total of 552 print books and ebooks. Most of those were through Amazon. 22 were through Smashwords and one was through Sony. I started on July 24th of this year, and my numbers have continued to grow.

July - 4 
August - 27
September - 45
October -  136
November - 179
December - 161

There is a slight drop in December's numbers for several reasons. First, I sold more print books in November. Second, most of my titles were taken out of select and placed in multiple channels. Some of those channels still have not reported, so December could be higher. Last, I raised the price on some of my books to $2.99. I got more money out of fewer sales.

I'm hoping that 2013 is a much better year. Still, I feel like I have gotten off to a very good start.


----------



## Rayna Corday

IDK where it's coming from, but I just got a massive jump in sales over the last hour-and-a-half (of the year!)... and it's going to put me over 200 for the month. heh.


----------



## 41413

Rayna Corday said:


> IDK where it's coming from, but I just got a massive jump in sales over the last hour-and-a-half (of the year!)... and it's going to put me over 200 for the month. heh.


Yay for you! And how interesting.  Which books have jumped?


----------



## Rayna Corday

smreine said:


> Yay for you! And how interesting.  Which books have jumped?


Thanks.

Many Bredators, a bunch of tuskmen (the Tales fantasy bundle), and nearly 20 black babysitters - my worst cover, but my best seller


----------



## Al Dente

Woot!

I didn't exactly have a big bump, but I did just sell one additional book and had to update my December numbers!


----------



## katdeans

I'm new to this as I just joined Kindle boards yesterday. It's actually be wonderful to see the different books that people put up on their posts. I've even bought a few, which wasn't really the point of joining as my Kindle is already bulging! But so many good books, so little time...

Anyway... I think with Smashwords it's a accumulative thing. I started with them in July of 2011 and they aggregate out to Nook, Barnes & Noble and Apple. Plus a few more smaller ones like Diesel. I don't get sales figures from these distributors (only from Smash - from which I sell an average of 10 a month) but by the money they send every month I seem to do okay with the other venues. My books are at the lowest price point though - .99 cents and are around 60 - 65 thousand words so I don't tend to charge much. 

Amazon is my main forum for sales, bless them. In the first month of joining I sold 62 books but now sell an average of 10 thousand a month there - some months more, some months less. But I have a lot of titles up. And historical romance is a popular genre. I'm actually branching out into paranormal historical romance next (if that's even a genre) and I would love to look at putting up some of my urban fantasy stuff but I've been focusing on one specific line. Maybe later in the year.  

Indie publishing is a wonderful way of getting your work out there but it requires a lot of discipline and hard work. However I am sure everybody will agree that it's well worth it because it allows you to do something you love. And there is something very gratifying about doing something you always dreamed of doing. I wish you all the luck in the world with it.


----------



## angelperezfreeman

bogof the cat?!
absolutely brilliant. like Captain Pugwash's Master Bates and Seaman Staines...for children.
this guy is a genius. btsc99.
no-one one else can see this.
you can't can you?
oh well.
apf


----------



## Ryne Billings

At this point, I've sold 3,188 copies altogether from June 20, 2011 to right now. That's four books and total and all through Amazon (I sold less than 10 copies through other venues before I went into Select). I'm disregarding copies borrowed through KOLL and free copies too.


----------



## JumpingShip

I've sold 51,000 books since June 2010. It took about six months to sell the first thousand. I only had one book at that time. That book is still my best-seller, but the others, which mostly come after it in the series, are doing pretty well too.


----------



## PorterlanceBooks

I started almost exactly 13 months ago (December of 2011), when I was about to become homeless.  My previous home business that had supported me for many years tanked due to the economy.

Since I began publishing books on Kindle, I've sold around 16,000 books and made close to $40,000.  The Muse Saga is still my biggest seller.


----------



## the quiet one

Published my first book near the end of September 2012. At some point yesterday I hit 2,000 paid sales.


----------



## strath

I hate you all. Not really. 

I signed on to brag that I sold one over night. The first in 3 days. 'Had that after xmas slump but Janurary seems to be picking up. So, maybe it's true for all those in the slump.

Congrats for all of you that are selling so well.


----------



## Sharlow

Congratulations to everyone who is selling their books. I think it's a fine testimony that Indy publishing does work. I can still remember all the people that said don't do it. It will never work out and you will never sell anything. I'm glad I didn't listen, and I'm thankful for the thousands of readers that have taken the time out to read my books!

If anything this thread tells the world that it is possible to write and sell your books even if the rest of the world says no.


----------



## H.M. Ward

Passed 100,000 ebooks sold last month! WAHOO!!!


----------



## Sapphire

PorterlanceBooks said:


> I started almost exactly 13 months ago (December of 2011), when I was about to become homeless. My previous home business that had supported me for many years tanked due to the economy.
> 
> Since I began publishing books on Kindle, I've sold around 16,000 books and made close to $40,000. The Muse Saga is still my biggest seller.


You know what they say: The luckiest people seem to be those who work the hardest. It sounds like you were due some luck, and it sounds like you worked very hard to achieve it. Keep on writing and keep the roof over your head.


----------



## Hugh Howey

holly w. said:


> Passed 100,000 ebooks sold last month! WAHOO!!!


Holy cow! That's a milestone!


----------



## H.M. Ward

Hugh Howey said:


> Holy cow! That's a milestone!


Thanks! It snuck up on me.


----------



## sarracannon

Yay! Holly!!! I bet you double that in the next few months . You're on fire. So proud of you and totally excited!


----------



## H.M. Ward

sarracannon said:


> Yay! Holly!!! I bet you double that in the next few months . You're on fire. So proud of you and totally excited!


Thanks Sarra!!!!


----------



## Diane Patterson

It's really heartening to start at the beginning of this thread and see some of the numbers people like David Dalglish were posting. YES, I know things have changed drastically since then (see also: doom and gloom threads), but as my first month on Amazon draws to a close, I can say to myself, "See, self, it's possible! You can do this! Sit your butt back in that chair and get writing!"

Thank you, everyone who posted their numbers!


----------



## S. Shine

Started publishing on January the 25th and so far 41 sales and 1 borrow, and 2 returns.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Looking forward to March and releasing my 21st Book. A new book generally stimulates the whole pack. 

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## William Meikle

Some nice round figures. 30 months, 45000 sales.


----------



## Wag-a-muffin

35.

Yes, I know. Move over Stephen King.


----------



## Sharlow

Diane Patterson said:


> It's really heartening to start at the beginning of this thread and see some of the numbers people like David Dalglish were posting. YES, I know things have changed drastically since then (see also: doom and gloom threads), but as my first month on Amazon draws to a close, I can say to myself, "See, self, it's possible! You can do this! Sit your butt back in that chair and get writing!"
> 
> Thank you, everyone who posted their numbers!


That's one of the reasons I needed this thread way back when. My first month was like 6 or 8 book sales. So I really needed to see what other peoples experiences were. It really helped me to see that I could do this too.


----------



## Cherise

287


----------



## William Meikle

An update -- 34 months, 53,000 sales.


----------



## trublue

7 months-30,000 books sold.


----------



## Zenferno

Great thread!  Hadn't seen this one before now.  I've been writing/publishing for about 2 months now, with just a couple of titles and here are my numbers:

April: 12
May: 69
Jun: 80

What I've learned in my very short time as a writer: if you have only a few titles, pump out a new book before the ranking of the others drop off a cliff (my biggest rookie mistake - wasting time checking stats and so on and not writing more).  Link everything together, from book to book to author profile and back etc.


----------



## Not Here

I'm two months and a week in now. Just hit 600 sales total.   Things have gone far better than I expected.


----------



## Marti talbott

Just hit 51,021 sold, not counting freebies, in Kindle .com - 3 plus years.


----------



## SEAN H. ROBERTSON

Applause to all. 1500+ sold here in 2+ years. Grateful!


----------



## Fast Typist

Started April 2012.  Sold about 4200 in 2012, have sold about 2100 so far this year.


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

22 titles published with 19,711 in circulation since November 2007.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## Zoe Cannon

Started 8 months ago, 531 books sold.


----------



## NicoleSwan

About 100 in 18 months, though I had to take a break for 12 months due to medical issues :\    Now I'm back, revamped some covers, pushing things like OWT out again, hopefully pick up some traction once more.


----------



## Adrian Howell

6 months in, 800 copies.


----------



## Al Dente

I'm 11 months in and have sold roughly 1800 books so far. It's been a fun ride and I hope things keep going up from here!


----------



## Ryan Sullivan

I started this month and I'm on 12.


----------



## Mel Comley

I've been going almost three years and just had my best month ever thanks to massive sales in the UK. Nice to know the market over there has increased considerably over the last few years.

The thing is never to get disheartened, these things come in cycles, aim to achieve more sales each month and you won't go wrong.

Also just keep writing and putting up new books, that's the key to all this.


----------



## Cherise

501


----------



## Raquel Lyon

Congratulations on passing your 500 milestone, Cherise!


----------



## Not Here

4 months in and 755 sold.


----------



## 41413

Cherise Kelley said:


> 501


WOO HOO! Congrats!


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

Well, I've been in this for 5 and a half years and have 22 books out there and my 100 or so books a month dwindled down to 30 in July. So, I moved all my titles over to KDP Select so I could use the 5 free days per quarter feature (which of course for me is 110 days per quarter) and my sales doubled ovein August to 60, BUT from the FREE promotions of my books (so far 12 were offered for free in 2 day campaigns), I had *6,403 * new readers download in August. I had just gone over 20,000 in circulation two months ago, and now I'm at 26,515 and $24,000 in sales. I think I'll stick with these 100% discount promotions (the other titles will be offered in September and October - a mix and match). My name is out there again and new readers have far more value to me than just plain ol' sales. And sales went up. It was the first time I made over $100 in 2 years. (I used to net $180-$250 a month, which did pay a bill or two, but again I'm one of those "artiste" types, who doesn't depend on it for a living - only as a legacy).

I'm also gaining valuable marketing details on Free book promotion. (As y'all know, readers just don't take a book because it's free - there's just so much room on the kindle). But I noticed in series books, the natural push from one FREE book to a sold book. I also noticed many title are sold after a FREE promotion of the same title. (I have some theories on that one, but give me a month or so). Poetry can't begiven away. And reviews count - I have over 300 over them, and the multiple five-star books topped 1,000 takers, while the few reviewed ones didn't fair as well. Length is a factor. The longer books with fewer reviews got a couple of hundred downloads, while shorter ones with multiple reviews averaged 700 or so. Although I had 1,100 downloads of one of my big suckers over the 2 day stretch (and 8 sales on it two after that), but it has 32 reviews, mostly 5 and 4 stars. I'm still playing with the combinations and also researching the 70 or so KDP Select marketing outlets on the web. Just poking at them now. Haven't really resorted to anything fancier than promoting on Kboards, Facebook, Twitter and ye ol' Amazong Meet Our Authors groups (in US and UK) and the Englishebuche section in Germany, where many of our armed forces shop while stationed there.

I'll keep all posted.

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## RJ Kennett

Launched 7/17/13, only 1 title.

July: 50 sales, 0 borrows.

August: 250 sales, 22 borrows.

September (so far): 8 sales , 1 borrow.


----------



## Cherise

Rlyon said:


> Congratulations on passing your 500 milestone, Cherise!





smreine said:


> WOO HOO! Congrats!


Thanks, you guys! 
I tell you what: interacting with everyone is just as much fun as selling books.  I mean that. It's why Dog Aliens 2 took so long to write, but yay! It's finally shaping up! I think I'll have it out October 7.


----------



## johnlmonk

I've sold about 40 so far.  But I have some moves I'll be making soon that should move books 

Cheers


----------



## blakebooks

26 months. 300K sales. 22 novels. 26 by year end, if all goes well, not counting co-authored works or anthologies.

Can't really complain.


----------



## R. Doug

Hey . . . I sold a copy last month.


----------



## Indecisive

I published my novella about 9 months ago. I've had 21 paid sales, mostly in the first week or two, probably mostly to friends and family, and 27 free downloads at Smashwords, most using the free coupon I sent to my friends and writers' groups. 

I went into this with the idea that this was a practice book. I hope for more from the next book. 

My most recent paid sale was in March.


----------



## Sharlow

ameliasmith said:


> I published my novella about 9 months ago. I've had 21 paid sales, mostly in the first week or two, probably mostly to friends and family, and 27 free downloads at Smashwords, most using the free coupon I sent to my friends and writers' groups.
> 
> I went into this with the idea that this was a practice book. I hope for more from the next book.
> 
> My most recent paid sale was in March.


It took me almost 6 months before I sold my first 30 books. So your still doing good. I remember selling 6 books in my first 2 weeks and being ecstatic that someone wanted to read my stuff. 4 years later and I'm still selling books. So keep up the good work, sales will come. Sometimes in bursts. For me it's been a lot of bursts, ha-ha.


----------



## jdrew

All I can say is congratulations to all of you who are selling books at a pace that keeps the smile on your face.  I am at about 65, a paltry sum compared to many of you.  Keep it up and keep reporting in.


----------



## KevinH

A little over 7000 over the past 5 months, from two novels and one novella. I'm hoping to publish a few more items in the very near future.


----------



## Zenferno

I've sold about 368 since I started in May.  That's based on 5 short stories.


----------



## Ismcrazy

My book released the end of June this year (2013)

June Sales: 7
July Sales: 95 (800 Free Downloads)
August Sales: 45
September Sales: 220+ (I updated the cover and changed the blurb and ran some marketing)


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

June sales = 33 (and 128 free downloads)
July sales = 40 (and 18 free downloads)
August sales = 62 (and 6,403 free downloads) 
September sales (so far) = 107 (and 4,423 free downloads)

what a difference KDP selects (and putting all 22 titles on it mid-August) and still going strong

Edward C. Patterson


----------



## The 13th Doctor

Started publishing in August 2011.

2011 - 79 paid sales
2012 - 145 paid sales
2013 so far - 119 paid sales.

These cover Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, etc. I'm only now getting my act together when it comes to promoting/marketing, and I'm definitely seeing a small increase in sales.


----------



## Ryan Sullivan

Ismcrazy said:


> My book released the end of June this year (2013)
> 
> June Sales: 7
> July Sales: 95 (800 Free Downloads)
> August Sales: 45
> September Sales: 220+ (I updated the cover and changed the blurb and ran some marketing)


I started in June as well. _How do I get your numbers?_  (Link me?) lol


----------



## 71089

I started in July 2013:

July: 115 sold - 4 novellas - estimated earn 30/40 dollars
August: 550 sold - 7 novellas - estimated earn 220 dollars
September 1150 sold (estimated: 1400 by the end) - 9 novellas & 2 collections - estimated earn 1000+ dollars


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

I started in November 2007

Ed Patterson


----------



## Wonkatonka

Ismcrazy said:


> My book released the end of June this year (2013)
> 
> June Sales: 7
> July Sales: 95 (800 Free Downloads)
> August Sales: 45
> September Sales: 220+ (I updated the cover and changed the blurb and ran some marketing)


Whatever marketing you did seems to have helped a lot. What'd you do, if you don't mind my asking?


----------



## HarryK

blakebooks said:


> 26 months. 300K sales. 22 novels. 26 by year end, if all goes well, not counting co-authored works or anthologies.


Wow that is really impressive! BTW I am trying to get through Jet (which I am enjoying so far), but some guy named Jim Butcher keeps interrupting!


----------



## Hugh Howey

ClarissaWild said:


> I started in July 2013:
> 
> July: 115 sold - 4 novellas - estimated earn 30/40 dollars
> August: 550 sold - 7 novellas - estimated earn 220 dollars
> September 1150 sold (estimated: 1400 by the end) - 9 novellas & 2 collections - estimated earn 1000+ dollars


This might be the fastest career launch I've seen to date. Mega-congrats!


----------



## nico

Started late November 2012. Numbers for Amazon US only—all paid books.

Nov 2012: 336, 1 novella
Dec 2012: 5886, 1 novella, 1 novel
Jan 2013: 2781, 2 novellas, 1 novel

And someday i hope we can match or exceed that. It hasn't been as explosive since.


----------



## HeyImBen

I hit the _Self Publish_ button on February 27th.

February: 1
March: 122
April: 58
May: 406
June: 1227 (2nd book released)
July: 2526
August: 930
September: 202 and fading quickly


----------



## HarryK

HeyImBen said:


> I hit the _Self Publish_ button on February 27th.
> 
> February: 1
> March: 122
> April: 58
> May: 406
> June: 1227 (2nd book released)
> July: 2526
> August: 930
> September: 202 and fading quickly


Wow, July was a great month for you! Did you do anything in particular around that time other than releasing your second book? Similarly, were your jumps in Jan-Feb and Apr-May accompanied by any activity on your part in terms of marketing?


----------



## 71089

Hugh Howey said:


> This might be the fastest career launch I've seen to date. Mega-congrats!


Hehe thanks!  I've done my best copying the marketing/cover/blurb/title/pricing techniques you guys at kboards have  so I have much to thank y'all for.


----------



## mariehallwrites

I started publishing in July of 2012 and am at 78k and some change books sold.


----------



## Lydniz

I published my first title (full-length novel) on March 15.

Mar: 64
Apr: 1782
May: 2217
Jun: 1756
Jul: 1257
Aug: 834 (eek!)

I published my second at the start of September and so far I've sold 832 of the first one and 438 of the second.


----------



## Marti talbott

First title published July, 2010, 26 titles now, four outlets (Amazon, Kobo, B&N and Apple)  

June 2852
July 3248
Aug. 4252
Sept. so far 2970

Just proves that September is a bad month for everyone. Hurry up, October.


----------



## 71089

Martitalbott said:


> Just proves that September is a bad month for everyone.


Not for me XD


----------



## Marti talbott

ClarissaWild said:


> Not for me XD


Uh, "for most of us."


----------



## HeyImBen

HarryK said:


> Wow, July was a great month for you! Did you do anything in particular around that time other than releasing your second book? Similarly, were your jumps in Jan-Feb and Apr-May accompanied by any activity on your part in terms of marketing?


Hey Harry! I can't really explain it. My second book really took off first in the UK in mid June, and soon
after in the US. I'm thinking it was riding some popular "also bought" coat tails. I ran a 2 day freebie
for my first book in early July and promoted it like crazy. I can't tell you how many free book submission
forms I filled out. Millions? That definitely helped with momentum for the first book. I ran an ENT
promo for my first book in May and another for Killing Chase on August 2nd, but by then sales had started to slow. 
I'm hoping the Bookbub magic can kick-start things again in October.


----------



## HarryK

HeyImBen said:


> I'm thinking it was riding some popular "also bought" coat tails.


Aha! That will be my plan. I shall ride the "also bought" coat tails all the way to success.


----------



## ER Pierce

127 so far this month.


----------



## R. Doug

The Super Guppy Revisited


----------



## NoahPorter

Drumroll please..... a whopping 2 sales!

But, I just released last week and was on a 5 Free Day kick, where I gave away several thousand. Maybe that will somehow translate into sales...but judging from what I've been reading on these boards, that seems like a long-shot, at best.


----------



## SLFleming

I published my first book in mid-July. 

July: 130+ sales (Most following free promo of 1800+ free downloads on 7/24-25) 

August: 1500+ sales

Sept: 1290+ sales so far

But numbers have dipped for the past few days, so not sure if I'll top or meet August's total.


----------



## JRTomlin

Is it terrible that I honest to God don't know any more? I should but--I just haven't added it up in months.


----------



## Cherise

JRTomlin said:


> Is it terrible that I honest to God don't know any more? I should but--I just haven't added it up in months.


I think this means your answer is "enough."


----------



## Steve W.

SLFleming said:


> I published my first book in mid-July.
> 
> July: 130+ sales (Most following free promo of 1800+ free downloads on 7/24-25)
> 
> August: 1500+ sales
> 
> Sept: 1290+ sales so far
> 
> But numbers have dipped for the past few days, so not sure if I'll top or meet August's total.


*jaw drops* Could you please give me some tips? How did you do that? What promotions have you done? I'm very, very impressed. First book, not even three months in and already 3000 sales? Awesome!


----------



## SLFleming

Steve W. said:


> *jaw drops* Could you please give me some tips? How did you do that? What promotions have you done? I'm very, very impressed. First book, not even three months in and already 3000 sales? Awesome!


Thanks! I wasn't sure, but having read a lot about it since publishing I know to be very happy with how it's doing. I didn't do a lot of promos--Bookgoodies and maybe a couple of other places ran my free promo and an author interview, but I didn't yet have enough reviews or time before the start date for the bigger sites. I'm a member of a message board called Homesteading Today and knew a lot of the people on the Survival board would like my book (post-apocalyptic with some prepping), so when it was free I told them about it. A bunch of them left me very nice reviews, so I think that helped.

I managed to get one review from indiebookdesigns.com, and some people I don't know tweeted about having read it, but otherwise I have no idea. The post-apocalyptic genre is popular now (although I've loved it since I was a kid)--maybe that's why?
Also, I've gotten a good bit of reviews, mostly 5 star, and I pinky swear I only know five of the people who've left one.

I wish I did know, so I could keep the momentum going!


----------



## RJ Kennett

SLFleming said:


> Thanks! I wasn't sure, but having read a lot about it since publishing I know to be very happy with how it's doing. I didn't do a lot of promos--Bookgoodies and maybe a couple of other places ran my free promo and an author interview, but I didn't yet have enough reviews or time before the start date for the bigger sites. I'm a member of a message board called Homesteading Today and knew a lot of the people on the Survival board would like my book (post-apocalyptic with some prepping), so when it was free I told them about it. A bunch of them left me very nice reviews, so I think that helped.
> 
> I managed to get one review from indiebookdesigns.com, and some people I don't know tweeted about having read it, but otherwise I have no idea. The post-apocalyptic genre is popular now (although I've loved it since I was a kid)--maybe that's why?
> Also, I've gotten a good bit of reviews, mostly 5 star, and I pinky swear I only know five of the people who've left one.
> 
> I wish I did know, so I could keep the momentum going!


Yeah, you're kicking some tail. I've been watching your bestseller's rank, along with Rachel Aukes' "100 Days in Deadland", since we all launched in the same genre within about a week of each other. I'm doing all right by most measures, but both of you are stomping my numbers. For now!


----------



## Steve W.

SLFleming said:


> Thanks! I wasn't sure, but having read a lot about it since publishing I know to be very happy with how it's doing. I didn't do a lot of promos--Bookgoodies and maybe a couple of other places ran my free promo and an author interview, but I didn't yet have enough reviews or time before the start date for the bigger sites. I'm a member of a message board called Homesteading Today and knew a lot of the people on the Survival board would like my book (post-apocalyptic with some prepping), so when it was free I told them about it. A bunch of them left me very nice reviews, so I think that helped.
> 
> I managed to get one review from indiebookdesigns.com, and some people I don't know tweeted about having read it, but otherwise I have no idea. The post-apocalyptic genre is popular now (although I've loved it since I was a kid)--maybe that's why?
> Also, I've gotten a good bit of reviews, mostly 5 star, and I pinky swear I only know five of the people who've left one.
> 
> I wish I did know, so I could keep the momentum going!


Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Is your book part of a series or is it a stand-alone novel?

Here's wishing you continued success


----------



## SLFleming

rjkennett said:


> Yeah, you're kicking some tail. I've been watching your bestseller's rank, along with Rachel Aukes' "100 Days in Deadland", since we all launched in the same genre within about a week of each other. I'm doing all right by most measures, but both of you are stomping my numbers. For now!


For now, indeed!  Guess who just borrowed your book on her Kindle?


----------



## RJ Kennett

SLFleming said:


> For now, indeed!  Guess who just borrowed your book on her Kindle?


Well, thank you! Let me know what you think!


----------



## SLFleming

Steve W. said:


> Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Is your book part of a series or is it a stand-alone novel?
> 
> Here's wishing you continued success


Thanks. I'm halfway through the sequel now (although the first could be a stand-alone). I don't see it being any more than two books, but I'm also working on a story about one of the characters that I plan to offer for free during the wait.


----------



## SLFleming

rjkennett said:


> Well, thank you! Let me know what you think!


Will do!


----------



## HarryK

I haven't made a single sale all year...but then of course, I don't have any books out so it's not cause for concern. Yet.


----------



## hyh

I released my first book about 3 & half weeks ago: a middle-grade canine mystery, 1st book in a series. I've sold about 200 books so far, across all platforms. 80% of sales are on Amazon. B&N and Apple are my next best platforms. 

I've been really lucky to get good reviews quickly, especially from parents & teachers (I invested in a Net Galley co-op and so far, it's been a good investment - I primarily did it coz I heard it's a good way to get to teachers & librarians and for children's books, you need to get to the gatekeepers)

I've had a lot of delays sorting the paperback edition out, which is very frustraing as a lot of fans have said they're holding off buying the ebook because they want "a real book" instead. I keep reading here about how paperback is a waste of time & never sells...but I don't know if this holds as true in the children's market. Seems to me most kids still prefer or can only read on paper - and most parents still prefer their kids to stare less at screens. Anyway, my paperback is finally out on Amazon UK now (sold 6 copies so far) and waiting for it any day now on Amazon.com - so hoping to make up some lost ebook sales there (although much lousier royalties!)

I know I've probably started very well for a really tough category in self-publishing but sales have really slowed this week and I'm terrified that they're just going to drop to zero & die and I'm going to be a "one-second-hit-wonder" !!   

Hsin-Yi


----------



## SLFleming

H.Y. Hanna (Big Honey Dog Mysteries) said:


> sales have really slowed this week and I'm terrified that they're just going to drop to zero & die and I'm going to be a "one-second-hit-wonder" !!


Sales have slowed here as well, and I'm feeling the same way. Nothing to do but keep on keepin' on, right?


----------



## Lia

SLFleming said:


> Sales have slowed here as well, and I'm feeling the same way. Nothing to do but keep on keepin' on, right?


Your title is compelling, and your cover is absolutely stunning -- j'adore that moody shade of lapis blue. It really is gorgeous. I don't blame readers for picking it up.


----------



## SLFleming

Lia said:


> Your title is compelling, and your cover is absolutely stunning -- j'adore that moody shade of lapis blue. It really is gorgeous. I don't blame readers for picking it up.


Thank you! I made it myself--with a lot of cursing at Photoshop involved.


----------



## Lia

SLFleming said:


> Thank you! I made it myself--with a lot of cursing at Photoshop involved.


Wow! 

I would never peg that as a DIY! You done good, girl. Really, the depth of the color is what really makes it pop. I see a lot of really enticing cover art here, BTW. You guys are seriously rocking! 

I thought about making my own cover, but then I thought about all of the time I would have to spend with it -- not to mention getting my Photoshop skills back up to speed. I have two weeks off during the holiday break and plan to do nada but sit in front of the computer futzing with this program.


----------



## SLFleming

Lia said:


> Wow!
> 
> I would never peg that as a DIY! You done good, girl. Really, the depth of the color is what really makes it pop. I see a lot of really enticing cover art here, BTW. You guys are seriously rocking!
> 
> I thought about making my own cover, but then I thought about all of the time I would have to spend with it -- not to mention getting my Photoshop skills back up to speed. I have two weeks off during the holiday break and plan to do nada but sit in front of the computer futzing with this program.


Yes, hours and hours of font searches, stock photo searches and Photoshop fighting. If you're anything like me, you might need the whole two weeks! But I like stuff like that, so I didn't mind, really.


----------



## JRHenderson

H.Y. Hanna (Big Honey Dog Mysteries) said:


> I invested in a Net Galley co-op and so far, it's been a good investment - I primarily did it coz I heard it's a good way to get to teachers & librarians and for children's books, you need to get to the gatekeepers


Hsin-Yi, please forgive my ignorance, but what's a "Net Galley co-op"?


----------



## JRTomlin

My sales are extremely slow this month, but they really good in June when we put out The Shadow Gypsy. At the moment, I am a lot more concerned with finishing this current novel which has, frankly, been rather kicking my arse.


----------



## Lia

Heh! I just realized that I haven't answered the question! 

I have sold 10 units on Amazon (ebooks) in 48 hours, without telling anyone about it. What's weird is that the book went live around midnight, and the sales trickled in sometime during the wee hours of the morning. Who's up at that time, downloading books to their Kindles?  

Anyway, this is a long way of saying I'll know more when I officially announce my book's release, not only on Amazon, but on all other outlets. I'm really nervous about this. It's my first indie rodeo.


----------



## hyh

JRHenderson said:


> Hsin-Yi, please forgive my ignorance, but what's a "Net Galley co-op"?


Don't apologise - I was ignorant until a short while ago! 

If you do a search on "Net Galley co-op" in the archives (top RH corner) - you will find previous discussions on this - and I think I recently saw a new thread from someone starting a new one up.

Basically, Net Galley is a place where "proper" reviewers can request free copies of your books - so people such as bloggers with big followings, professional reviewers, journalists, booksellers and (this was the key for me) teachers & librarians. It doesn't mean they WILL review your book - you still have to attract them via cover & blurb and it doesn't mean you'll get good reviews - but at least it's additional opportunities to get reviews (and most of them post to multiple platforms, such as Amazon & Goodreads). You upload the ebook format of your book + cover image to Net Galley and it just sits there waiting for people to find it.

To have your book in Net Galley as an individual is pretty expensive - I think it's about $600 for 1 book for 6 months...or you can buy a yearly subscription (for multiple titles) which is a few thousand dollars, I think (sorry - can't remember the exact figure now!)...so what people have done is get together in a co-op where they can split the costs of the yearly subscription. So for 20 authors in a co-op, that means each author only has to pay $300 or something for one slot for the whole year. You can rotate as many titles as you like into your own slot - so you can put several of your titles up for review. I was very lucky to find a group with an empty member place when I was just about to launch my book so I could join the co-op (and even luckier that I joined the group 1/3rd of the way in and only had to pay "pro-rata" for the remaining 7months, so I've only paid $175 for my slot, which is a good way to test Net Galley without investing a huge amount). So far, I feel that it's been a very good investment - and I'm planning to rotate my next title into the slot when it's published.

Hope this helps! 
Hsin-Yi


----------



## Wansit

H.Y. Hanna (Big Honey Dog Mysteries) said:


> people such as bloggers with big followings, professional reviewers, journalists, booksellers and (this was the key for me) teachers & librarians. It doesn't mean they WILL review your book - you still have to attract them via cover & blurb and it doesn't mean you'll get good reviews


Hsin-Yi have you seen a push from those teachers and librarians? I get a ton of NetGalley requests from both but I can't see the value of approving them. Most don't have blogs or post reviews on any site like Amazon/BN. They all profess to recommend books to librarian book buyers or in the classroom but there's nothing tangible to that. Most Indies don't get orders from libraries and I can't remember the last time a teacher recommended a non-classic/vetted work of literary importance to their students so what's the deal?


----------



## hyh

Wansit said:


> Hsin-Yi have you seen a push from those teachers and librarians? I get a ton of NetGalley requests from both but I can't see the value of approving them. Most don't have blogs or post reviews on any site like Amazon/BN. They all profess to recommend books to librarian book buyers or in the classroom but there's nothing tangible to that. Most Indies don't get orders from libraries and I can't remember the last time a teacher recommended a non-classic/vetted work of literary importance to their students so what's the deal?


Wansit - I've only been on Net Galley for about 3 weeks now (and had 4 reviews from it so far) so I'm afraid I can't really tell yet!  So far, 3 of the ones I got have posted their reviews to Amazon, Goodreads & LibraryThing...so it's been worth it from that point of view, I guess. And one of them was a teacher who said he will be adding my book to his school's wishlist for next year (but I guess I'll have no way of knowing if that comes through).

I guess the thing is I probably will never know but as a children's indie author, your means of marketing your book to the gatekeepers are so limited anyway that I thought it was worth it as an extra avenue. So I don't know how it rates as an investment for converting more sales - all I can hope is that it increases my book's exposure to the "right" people. And if it's true - from what I read here - that you only get 1 review from 1,000 sales from strangers, then I guess it's been worth it for getting reviews on Amazon & Goodreads, that are not "trolls". 
* I actually don't approve the requests myself - the lady who runs my co-op does that and I think you can be fairly strict - like only approve those who have X number of followers or promise to post Amazon, etc, or are bona fide librarians, to stop those who are just there to get free books.

Sorry - I don't know if I've been very helpful! 
Hsin-Yi


----------



## Wansit

I love this thread and so I went back in time to see authors over the years. Not THAT FAR...just 2012 or so. MAYBE 2011. I almost never share numbers because they're so small but I take heart at extremely successful authors happy with 50 sales starting out. 

October-to-date: 700.


----------



## CJArcher

I just saw this thread and thought I'd post it in for the first time (don't think I have before). I passed 100k indie sales this month (I'm not counting the Montlake sales in that total). I've been self-publishing since Jan 2011 so it feels like it's taken a long time compared to some on these boards.


----------



## Wansit

CJArcher said:


> I just saw this thread and thought I'd post it in for the first time (don't think I have before). I passed 100k indie sales this month (I'm not counting the Montlake sales in that total). I've been self-publishing since Jan 2011 so it feels like it's taken a long time compared to some on these boards.


You did! It's on Page 29 and quite inspirational looking at what you've accomplished from 2011 to 2013.



CJArcher said:


> I just blogged about my sales numbers since starting 6 weeks ago: http://cjarcher.blogspot.com/2011/03/6-weeks-and-counting.html. Here's the crunchy numbers part of the blog:
> 
> The Adventures of Miss Upton and the Sky Pirate - 34 copies (6 weeks). Price has fluctuated but mostly been at $2.99.
> The Mercenary's Price - 79 (4 weeks and 4 days). Priced at $0.99.
> Honor Bound - 35 (3 weeks and 2 days). Priced at $0.99.
> 
> They're Amazon US sales only. I'm quietly pleased.


----------



## Ryan Sullivan

I've made 4 sales so far this month! I hope more are on the way.


----------



## Philip Gibson

20 sales
2 borrows


----------



## Lana Amore

October, my first month publishing was 58 sales

So far in November I'm up to 76, if I can get another story out, I'm hoping for 100.  A couple of .99c sales book cover change/blurb fixing boosted me.


----------



## jdrew

CJArcher said:


> I just saw this thread and thought I'd post it in for the first time (don't think I have before). I passed 100k indie sales this month (I'm not counting the Montlake sales in that total). I've been self-publishing since Jan 2011 so it feels like it's taken a long time compared to some on these boards.


Posts like this give the rest of us hope. Keep it up, CJ and thanks for posting.


----------



## Elliott Garber

I published my first (and only) short story through Amazon Select back in July and was just inspired to go count up sales for the last few months:

July 2013: 82
August 2013: 48
Sept 2013: 9
Oct 2013: 17
Nov 2013: 22

For a grand total of 178, all priced at $2.99. I told myself it would be worth it if I could sell at least 100 copies, so everything on top of that has been a fun surprise!


----------



## hyh

Elliott Garber said:


> I published my first (and only) short story through Amazon Select back in July and was just inspired to go count up sales for the last few months:
> 
> July 2013: 82
> August 2013: 48
> Sept 2013: 9
> Oct 2013: 17
> Nov 2013: 22
> 
> For a grand total of 178, all priced at $2.99. I told myself it would be worth it if I could sell at least 100 copies, so everything on top of that has been a fun surprise!


Elliot - do you mind if I ask you how many words your short story is? It's just that I've been reading so much on here about pricing for shorter pieces and it seemed that you could only charge $2.99 for erotic stories coz of the premium for "sex" - so I was very interested to see that you're managing to sell a short story at $2.99 - and it seems from your reviews, not getting any backlash from readers complaining that it's too short for the price.

I've got some short pieces (10K words) and am loathe to price them at 99c since you really don't earn anything at that price point unless you're selling LOADS  but I'm also worried about pricing them at $2.99 because of the backlash & negative reviews from readers complaining about the length...I've seen a lot of reviews like that on Amazon for other authors here. 

Just curious what made you brave enough to go with $2.99! 

Hsin-Yi


----------



## Elliott Garber

H.Y. Hanna said:


> Elliot - do you mind if I ask you how many words your short story is? It's just that I've been reading so much on here about pricing for shorter pieces and it seemed that you could only charge $2.99 for erotic stories coz of the premium for "sex" - so I was very interested to see that you're managing to sell a short story at $2.99 - and it seems from your reviews, not getting any backlash from readers complaining that it's too short for the price.
> 
> I've got some short pieces (10K words) and am loathe to price them at 99c since you really don't earn anything at that price point unless you're selling LOADS  but I'm also worried about pricing them at $2.99 because of the backlash & negative reviews from readers complaining about the length...I've seen a lot of reviews like that on Amazon for other authors here.
> 
> Just curious what made you brave enough to go with $2.99!
> 
> Hsin-Yi


Hey, great to hear from another "dog" author!

Sure, it's right around 5000 words. I went through a lot of internal debate when I was doing the pricing too. Eventually I decided to go with Dean Wesley Smith's recommendation for $2.99 (http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=9457) and I think it's worked pretty well for me. I may be kind of a unique case because I'm not writing in a genre that already has a lot of (or any, really) short stories. Someone who is interested in buying books about military working dogs, war, veterinarians, etc, is probably used to paying for whole books that are more expensive because they're traditionally published. So my price at $2.99 can still seem like a bargain.

Another factor is that I'm assuming most of my readers are people who have found the story either directly through my website or through the various military working dog communities that have discussed it. These buyers are less likely to be as sensitive to price as the average browser on Amazon.

Good luck!


----------



## hyh

Elliott Garber said:


> Hey, great to hear from another "dog" author!
> 
> Sure, it's right around 5000 words. I went through a lot of internal debate when I was doing the pricing too. Eventually I decided to go with Dean Wesley Smith's recommendation for $2.99 (http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/?p=9457) and I think it's worked pretty well for me. I may be kind of a unique case because I'm not writing in a genre that already has a lot of (or any, really) short stories. Someone who is interested in buying books about military working dogs, war, veterinarians, etc, is probably used to paying for whole books that are more expensive because they're traditionally published. So my price at $2.99 can still seem like a bargain.
> 
> Another factor is that I'm assuming most of my readers are people who have found the story either directly through my website or through the various military working dog communities that have discussed it. These buyers are less likely to be as sensitive to price as the average browser on Amazon.
> 
> Good luck!


Hi Elliot - so sorry for my late response!! I'm in the final throes of publishing a Christmas novella and things are crazy hectic (don't know - maybe it gets easier as you get more experienced but life seems to stop for me in the last 2 days before a book gets published, while I'm racing to coordinate everything! ;-) )

Anyway, thank you for responding to my question and sharing all that info (and nice to meet a fellow 'dog author' too!  ) . It was very interesting what you said and it's great that you're managing to sell a short story at that price without a backlash.

I also followed Dean Wesley's Smith's pricing guide when I launched my first book and priced it "high" compared to what other debut indie authors were doing ($4.99 instead of $2.99) - in my case, I was lucky to have a blog audience that was very supportive with initial sales so price didn't seem to be such an issue then. But as sales have slowed after the initial boost, I've been feeling under pressure to drop the price so that I'm more in line with other indie authors...

I've tried it at $2.99 this month (Nov) and although sales have increased slightly, it's really hard to say if it's because of the lower price, the follow-up from a Book Blast ad I did in Oct, the pre-Christmas shopping rush or the fact that - due to an Amazon glitch - I'm back in the HNR list for some weird reason... I wish I had a clearer idea of the effect price has had on my sales. As it is, it hasn't increased enough to make up for the royalties lost at the higher price...but a lot of people keep telling me that at this stage in my career, I should be focusing more on selling more units than on making money - just to get my book out into more hands, to spread the word about my series. Hmm...the lost royalties still nark me, though! 

Now I'm playing with the idea of raising the price slightly to $3.99 for Dec... although I'm also scared of losing my recent slight increase in sales. Argh! 

Hsin-Yi


----------



## jdrew

Slow November for me but I made my first sale in the UK.  I wonder what that means.


----------



## JV

Looks like this month I'm going to easily break one thousand sold. Just these past two days I've done well over 100. Fingers crossed!


----------



## Not Here

Very excited! Just hit 3000 today.


----------



## belindaf

WOW! Some impressive numbers in here.


----------



## Cherise

715 since August of 2012


----------



## Usedtoposthere

Can I ask a question? Is it OK if somebody has been lucky, to share their numbers and how they account for it (besides "magic"?) I am so often hesitant. On the one hand, around August 2012 when I was first planning to publish and reading up, it seemed like all I read was, "it doesn't work, you'll be lucky to sell 100," etc., and I almost gave up before I started, thinking it was pointless.

But then, does it just seem like bragging? Or is it helpful to hear what somebody did that magically DID work? Is it encouraging, or discouraging? Or both? 

(And my name isn't Colleen Hoover, I'm not talking about that level, just about doing a lot better than you thought you would.)


----------



## Justawriter

I love hearing people's success stories and how they did it. I've learned so much from coming here and soaking up all the info people so generously share. 

So, how did you do it? What has worked well for you? What were your early months like, compared to now? Is there anything you'd do differently?


----------



## Usedtoposthere

PamelaKelley said:


> I love hearing people's success stories and how they did it. I've learned so much from coming here and soaking up all the info people so generously share.
> 
> So, how did you do it? What has worked well for you? What were your early months like, compared to now? Is there anything you'd do differently?


OK, here's mine. Still haven't cracked the big numbers, but doing well. 143,000 so far, since September 2012.

Put up 3 books to start (because I write fast, wrote them in 9 months, and I was planning to go the trad publishing route. Ha ha ha. Needless to say, nobody wanted me, decided to publish myself before I had 4 unwanted books!)
Week 1: sold 40 books. 
Week 2/Months 1-4: Tried the KDP Select "free days" thing with 3 days. Gave away abt 14,000 books and sold 2,000 books that month; continued at about that level for first 4 months. Another free offer at Thanksgiving got me about 32,000 downloads; Book 4 out in December.

Month 5: Tipping point. Did 2 things: put Book 1 on a 5-day free promo from Jan. 1-5, and kept it at 99 cents after promo. BookBub picked it up unbeknownst to me, #1 in the free store, 92,000 downloads. Then, at 99 cents, it sold 10,000 more copies, got to #85 overall on Amazon, and the other books started selling big (for me) too, 20,000 sales in January overall.

Since then: up & down, from about 8,000-17,500 sales/month. When sales have lagged, I've done another promo and they've always worked. Otherwise, have done book tours on all the books. Have done some ads but I stopped, other than promoting my promos, because they don't seem to do that much. I put out a new book every 3-4 months, and that's helped too.

I don't do much marketing, other than keeping up my website, posting on Facebook & Twitter, and the above. Trying my first Countdown 99-cent promo later this month. I do wonder about staying in Select, but the promos have worked so well, as recently as a month ago, I'm hesitant to change.

Really, I think it was "Escape to New Zealand" that got me off the ground, plus the promos and starting with 3 books. It's funny, because "New Zealand rugby" was why the biggest agent I managed to interest eventually turned me down. "Not a good hook." But, hey, she was in good company. EVERYBODY turned me down. I had absolutely no reason to think that I would succeed.

So that's my story. I hope it is helpful and encouraging. I certainly don't think I write better than anybody else or that there's anything earth-shattering about my books. They're entertaining, I hope. I hope I do that well and that I'm getting better. But I really can't account for it beyond "luck."


----------



## Not Here

Rosalind James said:


> But I really can't account for it beyond "luck."


Don't discount yourself here. You wrote books that people what to read and sometimes that's the key. It's not luck, it's marketing.  Major congrats and in a year, I hope to be where you are. Put out my first full length novel in Sept. and since I've sold about 2500 of the full lengths. First day in and this month is already proving to be my best. I think it's good to hear positive stories. Something to keep us going. Thanks for sharing.


----------



## Cherise

1001 since August of 2012


----------



## belindaf

I have sold 4,992 books since 2/2011. I've given away over 25,000. I am a prawn. LOL


----------



## Indecisive

I think that Countdown sale brings me up to 160!


----------



## AriadneW

As of this morning 6387 since the end of January.


----------



## CarrieElks

205 since 12th November.


----------



## Philip Gibson

Rosalind James said:


> Can I ask a question? Is it OK if somebody has been lucky, to share their numbers and how they account for it (besides "magic"?) I am so often hesitant. On the one hand, around August 2012 when I was first planning to publish and reading up, it seemed like all I read was, "it doesn't work, you'll be lucky to sell 100," etc., and I almost gave up before I started, thinking it was pointless.
> 
> But then, does it just seem like bragging? Or is it helpful to hear what somebody did that magically DID work? Is it encouraging, or discouraging? Or both?
> 
> (And my name isn't Colleen Hoover, I'm not talking about that level, just about doing a lot better than you thought you would.)


I love the story of how it worked out for you while keeping it fairly simple, for example not going the permafree route but just using the Select free days and Bookbub.

By the way, I was pleasantly surprised to see all of your attractive covers appear in an unsolicited email sent to me by Amazon today.


----------



## Sarah Stimson

130 since I published on 26th November.  6 of those were Kindle, the other 124 were paperbacks. 127 of those were UK sales.

Given that my paperback is non-fic and priced at £9.99 and the Kindle at £7.99, I'm pretty pleased with that.  

It's also made me determined to get my novel finished (which I will not be pricing anywhere near those prices!)


----------



## Lydniz

That's amazing, Sarah. Congratulations! I guess you really do practise what you preach.


----------



## Sarah Stimson

Thanks Lyndiz!  I put it all down to PR and getting bloggers to review ARCS - all the press and blog coverage I've had has definitely driven sales.  All the coverage was in the UK.  No coverage in the US = very few sales.


----------



## ChrisWard

Sarah Stimson said:


> 130 since I published on 26th November. 6 of those were Kindle, the other 124 were paperbacks. 127 of those were UK sales.
> 
> Given that my paperback is non-fic and priced at £9.99 and the Kindle at £7.99, I'm pretty pleased with that.
> 
> It's also made me determined to get my novel finished (which I will not be pricing anywhere near those prices!)


Wow, that's a lot of paperbacks, congrats! I average about one per fifty ebook sales.


----------



## ChrisWard

Wow, you guys are awesome. December is my first 50 plus sales month since August, although I had three promos (Bookblast, KBT and a random one called eReaderBuddy) on the 16/17 and they all massively underperformed. With a new release, a Select promo from 26th to 30th and another KBT on the 30th on a different book I'd hoped to be closer to 200. Looking unlikely, but another new release in Jan might help.


----------



## jdrew

Good for all of you who are more successful than I am.  Still, I'm approaching 100 which will be a milestone for me.  All those with much higher sales inspire me to keep working at it.  And since I should have a new book coming out this Spring, I'm guessing that will help too.


----------



## Al Dente

I have sold roughly 2,100 books since August 2012. It's not a huge number, but I'm doing better every month. Oh, and back in June when I thought I had 1800, that was a miscount. I'm pretty sure it was several hundred less than that. Oh well!


----------



## Sharlow

Well everyone I use to push this thread all the time. I've noticed a lot of questions being asked on the board since I came back to it. So I thought maybe I should necro this old thread. After all there's a lot of good information in here. Anyways enjoy!


----------



## MonkeyScribe

I especially like reading the threads from people who had sold 50 or 100 books who, a year later, have some amazing story to tell. Maybe some of the earlier posters could copy their old responses with updates. That would be fun to read.


----------



## Tim_A

In May 2013 I published my first book.
1st month:
2013 (6 & a bit months): 143

In 2014 I published 2 novelettes and a second novel

2014 (10 months): 257

for an all sales total of 400.

I've had a total of 4 borrows.


----------



## Lydniz

Wow. In September last year I'd sold just over 9,000 books. I've sold - ahem - a few more than that now.


----------



## MatthewBallard

I'm 10 months into my journey. I've published 2 books and have sold somewhere between 6,000 to 7,000 books. Book 3 to come out in January or February.


----------



## Kassidia

One!  

You should've seen the happy dance.  It was truly ridiculous


----------



## Ceinwen

I'm six months in and I've sold 300 something (ebook and paperback), had 400 something borrows and around 10k downloads. It's definitely not enough to even think about living off, but for my first novel I'm over the moon


----------



## Bilinda Ní Siodacaín

Within spitting distance of 250,000 books sold.


----------



## Elizabeth Ann West

I made a spreadsheet finally of all amazon sales. I'm not going to bother with other places Cancelled was on, I know that number is like 100 or less, and add to this about 200 paperbacks.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i9tCrzZctNnucllTkxyRtTRrvN1_yu6Rb2xfmbr_RPY/edit?usp=sharing

All in all: 4,329 sales ; 1,960 borrows ; 55,031 freebies (back in the day).


----------



## Steve W.

Bilinda Ní Siodacaín said:


> Within spitting distance of 250,000 books sold.


*bows* teach me, master


----------



## jdrew

Ceinwen L. said:


> I'm six months in and I've sold 300 something (ebook and paperback), had 400 something borrows and around 10k downloads. It's definitely not enough to even think about living off, but for my first novel I'm over the moon


Ceinwen, sounds like a better start than a lot of authors, some of whom have gone on to get to sales levels that sustain life.


----------



## Becca Mills

What a great thread. Those early posts are from the dawn of self-publishing. Decades from now, some scholar will discover and study this thread in order to chart the rise of indie.


----------



## CJArcher

I always loved this thread! I think I posted somewhere early on, many moons ago.

Update: I've been doing this a little more than 3.5 years, and last month I passed 200,000 sales. Slow compared to some on here, but steadily increasing every year.


----------



## anniejocoby

I just passed 50,000! I've been at this for about 16 months.


----------



## Dobby the House Elf

I'm almost at 5,000 most of them coming in the last few months. I might actually be there now... haven't checked.


Congrats to everyone above! ^^


----------



## LoriP

From June 2013 to June 2014, I sold 159 books... Then I decided to experiment, which lead to a new pen name and a new focus.

From July 2014 to now, I've sold over 5,000. *Happy Dance*


----------



## Shayne Parkinson

When this thread began in January 2010, I'd been self-publishing for almost a year and my answer would have been 160. By the time I *did* answer, two years later, it was 100,000. Now: nearly 500,000. I'm very happy.


----------



## Guest

I've sold about 3,000 ebooks since 2011. I feel so small.


----------



## alawston

I've sold 298 books since March 2012. That's spread over 3 titles:

Something Nice: 168
Killing Me Softly: 10
Story of My Escape: 120

Casanova's catching up with the short stories quickly (it was released a good 18 months after Something Nice), possibly because it's also available in paperback. It's also the first of my books to sell more overseas than in my native UK 

I bet you feel a bit less small now, Kitten


----------



## Guest

Shayne Parkinson said:


> When this thread began in January 2010, I'd been self-publishing for almost a year and my answer would have been 160. By the time I *did* answer, two years later, it was 100,000. Now: nearly 500,000. I'm very happy.


I would be happy, too 
Congrats!


----------



## Shayne Parkinson

Thanks, Stella!


----------



## Guest

Shayne Parkinson said:


> Thanks, Stella!


You are welcome!


----------



## Sharlow

Well I'm glad to see that this old thread is still useful and inspiring. It's good to see that others are still making it here on the kindle boards.


----------



## Michael Buckley

A little over one 1,500 sold and maybe 30,000 free downloads. I sold 1000 over three months a little over a year ago after only writing for a month. for 1.89 a copy


----------



## C. Gockel

I've never actually kept track of how many books I sell. I have kept track of how much I've earned.


----------



## CJArcher

Shayne Parkinson said:


> When this thread began in January 2010, I'd been self-publishing for almost a year and my answer would have been 160. By the time I *did* answer, two years later, it was 100,000. Now: nearly 500,000. I'm very happy.


Congratulations on the half million sales, Shayne! You're such a lovely person and a quiet achiever. It's great to see your NZ historical books doing so well.


----------



## Eskimo

I've sold 6,000 since Feb. 2013. Given away 150,000+.


----------



## Steve W.

David Chill said:


> I've sold 6,000 since Feb. 2013. Given away 150,000+.


150K+ That is an impressive number!


----------



## Wayne Stinnett

Started writing in 1987, first published on 10/8/13, and just went over 50K.


----------



## Shayne Parkinson

CJArcher said:


> Congratulations on the half million sales, Shayne! You're such a lovely person and a quiet achiever. It's great to see your NZ historical books doing so well.


CJ, thank you so much! You made my day - not to mention making me a bit weepy, in a good way.


----------



## jillb

I started writing my 1st book in Sept '14, published Oct 14'14 - Sold 17 + 12 borrows. Free: 1211


----------



## G.L. Snodgrass

My first book was published Aug 4 2014. I have published 3 other novels and 6 short stories since then. (All written over the last 4 years). Sales = 1762, Borrows = 1299, Free = 3012.

A lot more than I anticipated.


----------



## susan_illene

I published my first novel in January 2013 and have released a new one about every 5-6 months (not including shorts).  The total sold as of right now for my four full-length novels is 62,846.  The total for my two novellas is 20,239.  Grand total for all six works I have out is 83,085.  I should say the bulk of my sales came from this year, especially with the release of the third full-length novel of my series in the spring.


----------



## bobbic

Now I'm a little weepy, in a bad way. Until I ran across this thread, I'd never actually sat down and figured out how many I've sold. It was certainly an eye opener. I also realized yesterday that this is my THIRTY year anniversary as a published book author, so that makes these numbers even sadder. Granted, I did take a time-out for a few years working at other things, and none of my previous books are still in print, but still.

So, since Sept. 2011, I've sold around 398 "e-units" and gave away 3,744. Plus a few paperbacks. These are a mix of short fiction, novellas, one longer novel and one short non-fiction book on cooking with herbs. The cooking booklet outsells EVERY thing else. Sigh. The second best-seller is a play script, a vampire spoof.  Total income through October was $448.49. UGH.

I spend a lot of time on social media, blogging, doing interviews, etc. One thing, not many of my books are related and the short stories bring in very little money after the Amazon cut.  Still, I'm glad I did this because it shows me that I have to seriously do something else OR crank out a heckuva lot more short stories.  FWIW, November is looking like a good month, but most sales are shorts.


----------



## Sharlow

November has been pretty rough for me so far. But in essence I'm kind of starting all over with a couple of year break since I started this thread. I need to check my sales since 2012 and then I'll get back to here. 

But I just wanted to encourage everyone to keep up the good work. I still remember the thrill of someone I didn't know buying my first book. I never thought that was going to happen. I started writing to relieve stress. I never intended to publish anything. I had always heard about how impossible that was.

Then I discovered online sites like Authonomy, and from there I stumbled on Kindle publishing. I thought it was a scam at first and not until I did some research and discovered this board at the end of 2009 did I actually try and publish something. Back then it was a scary decision as everyone said it would ruin your chances of ever being published if I did that. But until I joined Authonomy I hadn't even considered publishing before. So I'm sure it wasn't as big a scare for me as for some others. My first month back in 2009 I think I sold 6 or 8 books. Not sure, but it was a big surprise to me. It's been a fun journey and I look forward to where it may bring me tomorrow.


----------



## Sophrosyne

I just put these numbers together a few days ago for an agent. So, of last week, this is my life-to-date:

130,898 free e-books
53,776 paid e-books (probably closer to 54K by now)
810 audiobooks
350 print books

I started publishing in the summer of 2011, but I just started with audiobooks this summer.


----------



## bobbic

Shayne Parkinson said:


> When this thread began in January 2010, I'd been self-publishing for almost a year and my answer would have been 160. By the time I *did* answer, two years later, it was 100,000. Now: nearly 500,000. I'm very happy.


Interesting--I didn't know there was a category for "Family Life" under Genre Fiction. Looks like you found a great niche. :-D


----------



## Kassidia

First month publishing, 25 books sold.


----------



## Shayne Parkinson

bobbic said:


> Interesting--I didn't know there was a category for "Family Life" under Genre Fiction. Looks like you found a great niche. :-D


That's one of my keywords on that book, which means it gets slipped into that category. I'm not sure how many people find it via that route, though. I'd say it's mostly seen via its main category, Historical Fiction, and via keywords like New Zealand.


----------



## Drake

Kassidia said:


> First month publishing, 25 books sold.


That's a great start!


----------



## bobbic

Shayne Parkinson said:


> That's one of my keywords on that book, which means it gets slipped into that category. I'm not sure how many people find it via that route, though. I'd say it's mostly seen via its main category, Historical Fiction, and via keywords like New Zealand.


Hi Shayne,

Yeah, I often wonder about those micro-niches, how many people actually search on them. I expect there aren't a lot of books written about NZ, so that's a good niche for you, too.


----------



## JETaylor

My first book was published in July of 2010:

260,118 free e-books
19,339 paid e-books 
313 audiobooks
163 print books

The free books include short stories as well as first in series books that are permafree. 
In total, I have 20 novels and 2 short story compilations


----------



## LyraParish

I just pulled my report. I've sold a little over 11500. First published January of 2014  I'm not quite at my year yet.... and I'm actually shocked. I never was curious to know the total until this thread. Wow.


----------



## J.T. Williams

Since August 2014 I have sold appr. 20 copies. I ended up with enough $ to buy a few cups of coffee! (once borrows were figured in.) Considering it is a short story collection of 20k words priced at .99, I have no complaints. I look forward to early next year when my trilogy is out!


----------



## Wayne Stinnett

53,286 sold and 16,485 given away.


----------



## Sandy Raven

Hi all,

In the spirit of sharing numbers, I'd like to add to the stats. I write Historical Romance. I self-pubbed my first title in 11/2012. I have released three full novels and one novella since. The fourth full novel will be coming out soon (January-ish.) I have never put a title free until mid-October of this year with the first full novel in my series. (I did this to drum up sales and interest before the fourth book's release.)

My husband has kept very good records for me, so I know exactly how many of each title has sold and at which vendor. This weekend I will hit 100,000 sales AND in about a week (if my downloads don't just crash for no reason,) I will have 100,000 free downloads of that first title alone. So I'll probably have (virtual) cake this weekend as I celebrate! 

Sandy :-D


----------



## jillb

1st book published 6 weeks ago. I have 48 sold/borrows so far


----------



## Crime fighters

850 since July, 2014. If I include numbers from the two collections I'm in (a boxset and an anthology), those numbers are closer to 4500-5000. On average, I'm making about $150 a month, so I have a lot of work to do in 2015. I'm aiming for 12 full length novels (split between two pen names) and 26 shorts for my erotica pen-name. *

*I currently only have two names, and will be launching the third one after I have the first six books written.


----------



## H.G. Suren

I haven't sold any copy this month. The sales just stopped in a day and whatever I do, I can't sell any book.


----------



## Abalone

Roughly 3K shorts since May, I think it was.


I actually have had a few readers email me on my faux name author account and cuss me out, telling me I should convert the 20 page short into a full length novel.


----------



## jdrew

My latest book, _*Foxworth Terminus*_, was just released and has sold a few already. It's on sale for 99 cents and today, it is the featured book at KBoards so hoping for a boost.

​
And in the UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PG072T6


----------



## SkyScribe

Very nearly 200,000 paid sales. For a while now I've stopped counting the actual units in favor of focusing on the real revenue generated.


----------



## Sharlow

Been a long time since I posted this thread. It may no longer have any relevance. But what the heck, maybe someone will still find some merit to this old thread I use to do.


----------



## Jarmitagetheauthor

I'm not sure if this thread is inspiring or depressing Haha
I've sold about 1300 books since Jan 2014 which is a tiny amount. However I sold more books last month than I did in my whole first year so things are going in the right direction. I'm launching a new pen name after I finish the third in a trilogy  so I'll see where that takes me


----------



## BeMyBookBaby

I love this thread. It reminds me that people have to start off small. 😍


----------



## Guest

In late 2012 roughly Sept.-Dec.,I sold about 3500 books. Perhaps a bit more, it's hard to remember exactly. Since then, (counting audio) I'm estimating that it's approaching 400k sold.


----------



## Sharlow

@Jarmitagetheauthor  I think it's a little of both. When this thread first started, I was so envious of everyone who were selling 100 books a month. After all at that point, my biggest month had been only 8 books sold. But it also became very inspiring as people who joined the thread and showed what could be done.

@BeMyBookBaby  This is so true. One of the lessons I learned as well. Also, the second one was that you must keep publishing more books. That is if you don't want to slide into obscurity.


----------



## Matt.Banks

Noob question, but how is everyone keeping track of sales over such a long period? Excel?


----------



## D-C

Sharlow said:


> @Jarmitagetheauthor I think it's a little of both. When this thread first started, I was so envious of everyone who were selling 100 books a month. After all at that point, my biggest month had been only 8 books sold. But it also became very inspiring as people who joined the thread and showed what could be done.
> 
> @BeMyBookBaby This is so true. One of the lessons I learned as well. Also, the second one was that you must keep publishing more books. That is if you don't want to slide into obscurity.


(*sneaks in* - OMG I LOVE your gif avatar! *sneaks out*)


----------



## Usedtoposthere

Matt.Banks said:


> Noob question, but how is everyone keeping track of sales over such a long period? Excel?


I don't. I just track my gross income and my expenses for my accountant. That's my measure. For one thing, if you have borrows, you'd have to turn those into "equivalent books sold" for every book. For another, the # of books you sell at 99 cents on a price promo don't equal the same number sold at $4.99. And the tradpubbed books don't equal the indie books, and German books on which I earn a low royalty don't equal the same book in indie English, and audio doesn't equal ebook, and . . .

Money's my only measure at this point. I can guess to within maybe 100,000 how many I've sold, but that's all.


----------



## PenNPaper

Year to date this is how many units I've moved:

Free: 152,131 Paid: 106,381 Audio: 16782


----------



## Dhewco

Since I launched my book in March, I've sold 11 (technically 12, but one of them was to my mother and I don't count that) and had 600 pages read.

I'm looking forward to making new numbers when my next book comes out. I wish everyone success.


----------



## Wayne Stinnett

I started a spreadsheet to track sales, when I got my first KDP report in November, 2014. It didn't get much use at first. By the end of the year, I added an auto-sum cell for year to date books sold. When I set up the new spreadsheet for January, I added a cell below that for total books sold and have carried those numbers over to new monthly spreadsheets ever since. I don't know why exactly. Just to be able to answer a question like this, I guess.

As of this moment, I've sold 129,014 ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks. I've also given away 210,591 more ebooks. In KU, I've had 22,064 borrows under KU1 and 20,415,617 pages read under KU2. I hope to double the number of sales by the end of the year.


----------



## Sharlow

@Matt.Banks I painstakingly did it by hand originally. Then at some point I decided it was just to hard.  Now I use Book Report.

@D-C  Thanks! I like it as well! =)


----------



## Abalone

About 53K since late 2013. I write a novel every 4-5 months. I wish I could write one at least each month like much more popular and famous authors.



Wayne Stinnett said:


> I started a spreadsheet to track sales, when I got my first KDP report in November, 2014. It didn't get much use at first. By the end of the year, I added an auto-sum cell for year to date books sold. When I set up the new spreadsheet for January, I added a cell below that for total books sold and have carried those numbers over to new monthly spreadsheets ever since. I don't know why exactly. Just to be able to answer a question like this, I guess.
> 
> As of this moment, I've sold 129,014 ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks. I've also given away 210,591 more ebooks. In KU, I've had 22,064 borrows under KU1 and 20,415,617 pages read under KU2. I hope to double the number of sales by the end of the year.


Nearly 20.5M page reads? Even using a conservative KENPC rate, that's very impressive! Go Wayne! You've come a long way, my friend. And I still love your books. Keep up the awesome work. The decision to stop trucking was a great one.


----------



## KathrynMcMaster

I released my book in February 9th, 2016 and have sold 922 copies so far. Paperbacks - 45. The Kindle price is set at $4.99 and the paperback is $9.99. I was in KDP Select, where I had more than 8000 downloads, but now have decided to opt out of that and go wide. I may change my mind, and go back to KDP Select after looking at the sales. 

There is a formula to getting good sales. It is not a hit and miss thing. One has to apply certain strategies.


----------



## MeredithAcker

I published my first full-length novel in March. So far I've had one sale. Womp womp. Not too worried about it -- I'm playing the long game. I'll start doing more active promoting when book 2 comes out in June.

(I published a couple of short stories in Nov/Dec and got a handful of sales & downloads on each. I thought a full-length novel would be easier to sell -- shows what I know!)


----------



## jdrew

Looks like some authors are doing quite well.  I passed 1000 books sold recently, a new personal milestone.


----------



## Yayoi

Wayne Stinnett said:


> I started a spreadsheet to track sales, when I got my first KDP report in November, 2014. It didn't get much use at first. By the end of the year, I added an auto-sum cell for year to date books sold. When I set up the new spreadsheet for January, I added a cell below that for total books sold and have carried those numbers over to new monthly spreadsheets ever since. I don't know why exactly. Just to be able to answer a question like this, I guess.
> 
> As of this moment, I've sold 129,014 ebooks, paperbacks, and audiobooks. I've also given away 210,591 more ebooks. In KU, I've had 22,064 borrows under KU1 and 20,415,617 pages read under KU2. I hope to double the number of sales by the end of the year.


Hi Wayne,

Sorry if I missed it, but how many books do you have in total and since when have you started publishing? Your numbers are impressive. Thanks.


----------



## Wayne Stinnett

Yayoi said:


> Hi Wayne,
> 
> Sorry if I missed it, but how many books do you have in total and since when have you started publishing? Your numbers are impressive. Thanks.


I started writing my first book in June, 2013, based on some short stories I wrote in the '80s. The first one was published in October of that year. Besides the nine now in my sig line, I have a box set of the first three and the first book in a new series now published and am working on the second, plus a non-fiction now. It'd be nice if we could add more than nine books to the sig line.


----------



## bnapier

KathrynMcMaster said:


> There is a formula to getting good sales. It is not a hit and miss thing. One has to apply certain strategies.


Would you care to share what your strategies are?


----------



## Edward C. Patterson

72,000


----------



## NikkiSolo

I'm the epitome of a prawn, but I'll share my stats anyway. Since March 2016, I have published 3 titles, sold 17 on Amazon, 1 on Draft2Digital. Given away 149. Made $13.20


----------



## Moticom

Since putting my debut book up on Amazon on 1 June 2016 I've had 14 sales in total, 13 UK and 1 US. I've also had 52 free downloads. It's a start I suppose, and although it's small everyone has to start somewhere!


----------



## Sharlow

Looks as if people are still selling. That's good. My sales ever since I got sick and stopped writing have been almost nonexistent. I'm trying to get back into writing on a regular basis, but it;s been hard. I just got out of another hospital stay. I cant seem to stay out of the damn place... =(


----------



## smashthegamestate

David Hurrell said:


> Since putting my debut book up on Amazon on 1 June 2016 I've had 14 sales in total, 13 UK and 1 US. I've also had 52 free downloads. It's a start I suppose, and although it's small everyone has to start somewhere!


I'm in the same boat. My first book's been up for 2 weeks. Under 10 copies sold. 30 free downloads. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01J9SAEUE#navbar


----------



## jdrew

So far this year I've sold 199 copies of all my books combined. None of them are new releases. On August 21 I have a new epic fantasy coming out that is currently available for pre-order, not that it's getting lots of pre-orders. Anyway, I've read over and over the best way to generate more sales is publish another book. We'll see if that holds up.


----------



## P.A. Thomas

Just released my first book a few days ago and AFAIK I haven't had a single sale or KENP page read. Little bummed out about that. Tweaked the blurb a bit and still nothing. Running a Facebook ad and so far 50 people have clicked through (Most of them female, so part of the blurb tweaking was to emphasize that there are indeed female characters and protagonists in the book; in fact the ruling class of the society is women.) but no buys yet.

I am a little concerned that the reporting isn't working right, since a friend of mine did borrow the book using his Amazon Prime membership and came to me the other day saying he could see all the chapters in my book and was worried that I was giving it away for free. I was under the impression that scrolling through the file would trigger KENP reads at least, even if he hasn't actually read the book? That's the only reason I suspect reporting errors but I could be wrong.


----------



## Annie J

Thumper said:


> I think you may find, that for many writers, that question is right up there with "So, how much did you pay for your car?" and "Hey, how hefty is your paycheck?" There's also the _what if the IRS sees this_ panic (though we all declare all income, right?) I understand the curiosity, but don't be disappointed if most don't answer...
> 
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> If it helps, last year I sold roughly 22,000 Kindle books, spread out over 8 titles.
> 
> 
> 
> Kindle sales accounted for roughly 30% of my per-copy sales, although that trend may reverse itself as more people are buying Kindles and seeking cheaper books for it. The money is still in print...again, a trend that has the potential of changing.


_How many have you sold_, of course, doesn't correlate to _how much did you earn? _

The IRS --in the UK, _the Inland Revenue_--wouldn't be able to calculate it. Well, they would, but only unfairly, probably stabbing at a guesstimate based on current prices!

I agree, though; many authors wouldn't answer, but I can't see any real risk to anyone as the changes in our books' pricing mean that selling 30,000 copies can mean earnings of--well, £30,000--or perhaps fourfold that! Given that payments land in our bank accounts, I am unsure tax evasion is that easy anyway.

I launched my first novel in mid-February and have sold 7,000 copies and had 1.5m page reads. In paperback terms, I have probably sold around 100.


----------



## Sharlow

Hello all. I'm sure most of you don't remember me, but I was recently lurking here, and thought about how much these boards have changed since I was a regular here. I always found it encouraging to see what was possible and how many people were able to start with nothing and succeed.  Over the years this thread was a big inspiration for people like me.

So I hope you can enjoy this necro, and maybe you can add to this for future generations!


----------



## jb1111

Thank you for bouncing it back. I joined this forum just over a year ago, and it's interesting to get a glimpse into the indie scene circa 2010 versus now.

It seems a lot has changed.

Good luck in your writing endeavors.


----------



## C. Gockel

I've never counted how many books I've sold. 

I do check to make sure my conversion ratios are where they should be month-to-month. That's it.


----------



## Wayne Stinnett

In all formats, from all sources, somewhere around 370K sold. I say somewhere, because I don't track paperbacks that I sell in bookstores or book signings. Total online sales, as of Wednesday, were 362,422. Plus another 523.904 given away free in promotions.

If you don't keep track of daily sales, and keep records of what happened on each day, how can you look back and see if an advertisement worked or was a dud? Gotta love spreadsheets.


----------



## Michael Houston

Wayne Stinnett said:


> somewhere around 370K sold.


Teach us your ways, master.


----------



## Wayne Stinnett

Michael Houston said:


> Teach us your ways, master.


The seven BookBub features between April and December of 2014 were a big plus. And the 17 since then didn't hurt either.


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## Michael Houston

Thanks, Wayne. I've heard BookBub mentioned as a big one before, so I'm definitely going to be checking it out. Big congrats on the success.


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## Sharlow

Been awhile, I hope this post is still interesting.


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## Dopabeane

I launched 7 books on December 13th (four horror anthologies, three fantasy novels). Sold about 800 as of an hour ago, with about 100k page reads. 90% of sales and 95% of page reads belong to the horror books, though, and most of the sales were at a 0.99 price point. Still, I'm excited to see what happens. I've got another 7-book release scheduled for February (6 horror books this time, plus the first book in a thriller trilogy). Hoping to see similar results. I'll be heartbroken if it was a one-off occurrence.


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## Hayden

Dopabeane said:


> I launched 7 books on December 13th (four horror anthologies, three fantasy novels). Sold about 800 as of an hour ago, with about 100k page reads. 90% of sales and 95% of page reads belong to the horror books, though, and most of the sales were at a 0.99 price point. Still, I'm excited to see what happens. I've got another 7-book release scheduled for February (6 horror books this time, plus the first book in a thriller trilogy). Hoping to see similar results. I'll be heartbroken if it was a one-off occurrence.


I've seen a fair few people say that Horror is a hard sell, but you sound to be doing great. How much money does all that roughly come to?


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## L-Writer

140 sales for my debut romance novel, released this month, but I think I'm losing money in promotions
no reviews so far.

And I want to ask you about something, does the sales show on the dashboard reports when someone buy it through KU or it's considered a free sale, if so does it show as a free sales on sales reports


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## CassieL

L-Writer said:


> And I want to ask you about something, does the sales show on the dashboard reports when someone buy it through KU or it's considered a free sale, if so does it show as a free sales on sales reports


In KU you get page reads and won't know how much you're getting paid for them for sure until the 15th of the next month. If you scroll down on the main reporting dashboard screen you'll see page reads are listed separately in their own graph.

The estimated monthly earnings in the beta report does give an estimate of all earnings, including your page reads income, though. That number is based on what they paid per page the prior month.


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## solo

Christopher Meeks said:


> Sales is an interesting topic because it's one I've shied away from--from myself. That is, sales reports come in and I think, "That's it?" and until recently I didn't keep any records. Boyd Morrison's "The Ark" is the mark that many people aim for. If you want to see what the top authors do on Kindle, J.A. Konrath has a blog stating numbers at http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2009/06/amazon-kindle-numbers.html. Basically, top sellers are selling twenty-five books or more each day. Edward Patterson said something many postings ago that selling one book a day was a good realistic goal for him, per title. That's what I've aimed for with my literary short story collections (they have humor, so that helps their appeal). My first Kindle book, "The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea," a collection of short stories, came on in September, and I've sold 222 copies by the end of December, which averages 2.1 books per day. For short stories, I'm thrilled. At times the book has been in the top five of short story collection sales. My well-received play, "Who Lives?", whose production in March was sold out most nights here in Los Angeles, has sold 7 copies in six weeks, so that's a little over one per week. The other books are somewhere in between, but most haven't been on more than two months. I ended the year with 333 sales on Kindle.
> 
> I just researched and found a way to tie Amazon ranking to sales:
> 
> Kindle Store Sales Rank of 20 = 500 or so sales a day.
> Rank of 200 = 50 or so sales a day.
> Rank of 1000 = 15 or so sales a day
> 
> From my experience, a ranking of around 4,000 is about twenty sales a day. I'm thrilled when any of my four books hits a ranking under 10,000 on Kindle. On Amazon itself with printed books, I'm thrilled when I'm below 60,000. A sale of a book or two a month lands you in a ranking just over a million. If one's ranking is over two million, it's virtually never selling.
> 
> For yourself, you have to look at what genre your book is in. If it's literary, for instance, don't expect a lot of sales. If it's a mystery, that's a hot-selling genre for Kindle. As Konrath notes, "I believe the product description should sing, but the genre of the book may be more important than the description. I think my best and most provocative description is for the poem book, which is selling poorly. Category listings and keywords seem to be just as important, if not more important, than the description, because this is how people browse for titles."
> 
> In browsing this thread, I'm seeing that many people may be selling 15 books per month per title, which may be the most realistic expectation. However, one thing to keep in mind is something that book-promotion specialist Carolyn Howard-Johnson says: you're not selling books, you're building a career. Make sure each book you bring to market is something you're proud of. You want to brand yourself as a quality writer. At some point, someone might sing the praises of your books, and sales will surge. That's one thing I've discovered. I can write all day every day about my books, but it has only a hundredth of the power of someone else writing good things about my book.
> 
> --Christopher Meeks


Appreciate the words, Christopher. Especially this - _*Edward Patterson said something many postings ago that selling one book a day was a good realistic goal for him, per title. *_ Puts things into perspective. Though I believe KU rules do prohibit giving out specific sales figures?

Let me add that there will be some books that will stand out from the rest of your works. Hopefully, the selling books would draw readers into checking out the others. It also depends on the genre. Some are so crowded, that you'd need a snowplow just to get to the CR/WC/Washroom. My genre, which is fantasy and science fiction, is especially tight. A ranking of 30k on the Amazon BSR gets you into a 200 ranking in your fantasy genre even though the book is selling 10 to 12 ebooks per day and 3k to 4k in KU reads.

Happy new year everybody!


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## solo

Michael Houston said:


> Teach us your ways, master.


I'm second on the Padawan queue.

Add: Master Wayne, if it's not too much to ask, when did you start publishing? Just to get the proper perspective of the figures you quoted. Thanks.


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## 鬼

Just over 65K in 2019. Majority are paperbacks.


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## notjohn

My first two novels sold in excess of 100,000 copies. They were published by Doubleday and Heineman in hardcover, mass-market paperbacks by Avon, Pyramid, Arend (that was a translation), and Jove (that was a movie tie-in).

My most recent non-fiction book sold about 60,000 copies. It was published by a university press, then by HarperCollins, and most recently through KDP Print. 

Several but far from all of my self-published titles have sold in excess of 1,000 copies, which I regard as a splendid result. I have one book that sold exactly one copy, not counting the copy I bought, and several that have sold fewer than 100 copies.

In my experience, you will always do with a traditional publisher than through self-pubbing.


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## Wayne Stinnett

solo said:


> I'm second on the Padawan queue.
> 
> Add: Master Wayne, if it's not too much to ask, when did you start publishing? Just to get the proper perspective of the figures you quoted. Thanks.


My first novel was published on October 8, 2013, just over six years ago. I quit my job and went full time, two weeks before publishing the 4th novel in June, 2014. Since then, I've added 12 more to that series (writing #17 now) and 5 in a spinoff series, plus one non-fiction. I passed $1M in gross revenue in four years, and just went over $2M on New Year's Day.


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## solo

Wayne Stinnett said:


> My first novel was published on October 8, 2013, just over six years ago. I quit my job and went full time, two weeks before publishing the 4th novel in June, 2014. Since then, I've added 12 more to that series (writing #17 now) and 5 in a spinoff series, plus one non-fiction. I passed $1M in gross revenue in four years, and just went over $2M on New Year's Day.


OMG. Grand Master Wayne (_kindly note the promotion_), that's incredible. I just started September 2017 and I am still on a part-time/hobby basis. Still an independent. You've set a very HIGH bar for us newbs. I reached 10M reads, roughly 30k total ebooks and print (mostly EB), for around 14 books. I do try to see if I could write in other fantasy genres. Nothing to lose. Though I am releasing my first science fiction this January 2020 (first try, and a bit of hard science in it). But that's nowhere near your early years. I am... stupefied.

Thanks for the reply. Really appreciate it.


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## Wayne Stinnett

solo said:


> OMG. Grand Master Wayne (_kindly note the promotion_), that's incredible. I just started September 2017 and I am still on a part-time/hobby basis. Still an independent. You've set a very HIGH bar for us newbs. I reached 10M reads, roughly 30k total ebooks and print (mostly EB), for around 14 books. I do try to see if I could write in other fantasy genres. Nothing to lose. Though I am releasing my first science fiction this January 2020 (first try, and a bit of hard science in it). But that's nowhere near your early years. I am... stupefied.
> 
> Thanks for the reply. Really appreciate it.


I'm really a mid-lister. There are a LOT of writers who have sailed far beyond my coastal waters. Currently, I'm earning just over $1K a day and I'm ranked #871 on Amazon. This past July, when I had a double release and a BookBub featured deal, the highest author rank I achieved was #128. I earned $73K that month. Imagine what the top 100 writers are doing.


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## notjohn

Does anyone actually BELIEVE the sales figures posted here?

Come on, guys! We know how many books are sold with a sales rank of 230,000!


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## Indiecognito

I've sold 110,000 books(ish) and racked up somewhere north of 25 million pages read. A lot of those sales happened early on (2015-2016) and fluctuations happened when I experimented with going wide. Sales are going up again, now that I've made a change in genre, and I couldn't be happier.

Notjohn, I remember you from the KDP boards. Why are you accusing people of lying? That seems...not in the spirit of this board.


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## 30yearoldboomer

Just north of 100,000. Majority of those sales were from 2013-2016.


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## LijahPhoenix

notjohn said:


> Does anyone actually BELIEVE the sales figures posted here?
> 
> Come on, guys! We know how many books are sold with a sales rank of 230,000!


If you're referring to Wayne, maybe you should take a look at the sales ranks of his 21 other books


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## Wayne Stinnett

LijahPhoenix said:


> If you're referring to Wayne, maybe you should take a look at the sales ranks of his 21 other books


Or the preorder that just went up two days ago. It debuted at #167 and is currently #528. These are pretty poor compared to the last four which debuted in the top 100. Or he might be referencing my last release, nearly two months ago. No wait, it's #1272 on Amazon.

Book Report isn't super accurate and doesn't include audiobook sales, but you get the idea.


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## solo

Wayne Stinnett said:


> Or the preorder that just went up two days ago. It debuted at #167 and is currently #528. These are pretty poor compared to the last four which debuted in the top 100. Or he might be referencing my last release, nearly two months ago. No wait, it's #1272 on Amazon.
> 
> Book Report isn't super accurate and doesn't include audiobook sales, but you get the idea.


Been away for a while. But what can say but - TA-DAH!

Am still 2 and a half years into this, primarily because I love writing fantasy and sci-fi. It's not a full-time thing. Though my KDP pages read is now north of 10M. So I guess people are reading what I wrote. But Master Wayne is definitely up there among people to follow. And no, you're not the Christmas star over Bethlehem. But seriously, I am thankful you've stayed grounded.


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## TexasGirl

I thought it would be fun to quote this early post from 2010. Oh how things have changed...

Rank of 1000 takes 100 sales these days. Or KU downloads, read or not.



Christopher Meeks said:


> I just researched and found a way to tie Amazon ranking to sales:
> 
> Kindle Store Sales Rank of 20 = 500 or so sales a day.
> Rank of 200 = 50 or so sales a day.
> Rank of 1000 = 15 or so sales a day
> 
> From my experience, a ranking of around 4,000 is about twenty sales a day. I'm thrilled when any of my four books hits a ranking under 10,000 on Kindle.


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## BT Keaton

Not doing so great on sales I don't think, but I'm mostly okay with that.  

At my last tally, my book has sold 646 copies since its release 3 months ago.  


*edit: sorry, I forgot to add IngramSpark's numbers!


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## ChrisWard

b.t. keaton said:


> Not doing so great on sales I don't think, but I'm mostly okay with that.
> 
> At my last tally, my book has sold 646 copies since its release 3 months ago.


That's a great number, you should be pretty stoked.


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## markpauloleksiw

Everyone should be proud of their achievements as author regardless of sales rank or how much money they make.

The business side is one thing. The "love of writing" side is another.  Sometimes the two circles intersect but, not always. Remember why you do what you do.

I judge myself based on growth and seeing sales gradually increase. My first novel sells more 2+ years out than it did in its first 3 months. Find your sweet spot.

Mark


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