December has rolled around, which means I’ve reached the end of my first month as a published author. As many of you who follow this blog are writers as well as readers, and might be considering taking the self-publishing route yourselves in the future, I thought it might be interesting, and maybe useful, if I shared my sales numbers along with info on what promotion I did to get there.
So, without further ado…
Sales and Earnings
- Copies sold: 34 (Kindle – 16, Paperback – 16, Kobo – 2)
- Earnings: $92.70
- % to Profit*: 8.0%
(* How much I’ve earned back so far of the cost of producing the book.)
Now for some caveats:
- These figures aren’t for exactly one month: the e-book edition of ASCENSION POINT was available from October 21st, while the paperback wasn’t out until November 7th. Close enough for my purposes, though.
- I’ve recently discovered that it takes Smashwords up to two months to report sales from the retailers that it distributes to (Barnes and Noble, Apple, etc). I could have sold a few there, but I won’t find out for a while.
- A LOT of these sales were to friends and family, probably as many as half. That isn’t going to happen every month, of course, so it wouldn’t surprise me if December’s numbers were lower as a result.
Promotion
Not a huge amount, to be honest. Here’s a breakdown:
- I talked about the book a lot on this site, of course, which I think generated a few sales.
- I posted to my private Facebook profile that the book was out, which got a lot of interest from friends. I sold ten copies in the two days after that post which I can directly attribute to it, I think.
- I bought an ultra-cheap five-day run as an ‘Indie New Release’ on Flurries of Words for $5. Hard to tell what impact this had, as it overlapped with the bump from the Facebook post.
- Every time the book got an Amazon review, I tweeted it, e.g. ‘Another 5* review for #AscensionPoint’ then the link to the review. No idea if these prompted anyone to buy a copy.
So all told, a decent start to my writing career. I’m very happy, and I’m looking forward to seeing what December brings!
DAN HARRIS: 10% SCI, 90% FI 
Thanks for this information – I’ll soon be seeing my novel up on Amazon and it’s good to know someone else’s experience.
I’m glad you found it interesting! Thanks for commenting, and good luck with your book.
Sounds like you’re doing well for yourself! My earnings are nowhere near as much, though I suppose that may depend on the price of the book itself?
Yeah, pricing is the eternal question for indie publisher/authors. My ebook is $4.99, which is higher than the millions congregated at the $2.99 price point. I think five dollars is good value for a full length novel which has been professionally edited, with a professional cover design.
And it’s still cheaper than an ebook by a big name author – ten, fifteen dollars is common!
What price did you choose to publish at, if you don’t mind me asking?
Well, I was advised to go for $0.99, but that felt a little too cheap for me. I set it to $1.60, but occasionally I do tend to think about raising it up a bit. Maybe with my next book though. 🙂
It’s quite a common tactic to have a first book priced quite cheaply to draw readers in – they can affordably see if they like your style, and then go on to buy your higher-priced work if they do.
Best of luck with whatever path you take! 🙂