(Note: I’ll provide a free copy of the book of your choice to the first person who figures out the terribly clever joke I’m making with the picture on this post.)
I just took a few minutes to sit down and figure out exactly how my books have done this year. I’m going to put the take-away right up at the beginning so you don’t have to wait for it: I have indisputably lost money playing at writer this year. Lost a lot of money, actually. Now, the good news is that most of the money that I’ve lost wasn’t actually mine, since the grant I got last year paid for everything, but that money would still be in my pocket had I not spent it on writing-related stuff. (Well, actually, no, it wouldn’t, because I got the grant specifically so that I could play writer this year.)
Do I care? Actually, no, I don’t, but I won’t be hiring professional artists to do book covers again anytime soon until I figure marketing out. At any rate: here is all the data I can pull together on how my books did this year, and some musing on what works and what doesn’t. The long and short of it is, I think I’m probably pretty good at getting people to download stuff for free. I’m less good at getting people to spend money on my books. That’s the part I ought to work on.
I released two books this year: The Benevolence Archives, Vol. 1 released on Amazon on May 10th and everywhere else a couple of months later, and Skylights released everywhere on September 29th. I have high hopes that the BA novel will release in the first quarter of 2015– I’m hoping for mid- to late March– or very early in the second quarter, and I have a fourth book in the works for later in 2015. Vague plans exist for the next BA installment in early 2016, with a possible follow-up to Skylights coming after that. So I’ve got plans. We’ll see how they work out.
Anyway. We’ll start with pure sales. The Benevolence Archives has, as of today, sold 56 copies, all but two of which were through Amazon. The other two were through the iTunes bookstore. Skylights has sold 36 copies– two through iTunes, ten through Smashwords, and the remainder through Amazon. It is possible that there are sales that I don’t know about through non-Smashwords or Amazon distributors, because of the way they report sales to Smashwords, but it’s unlikely that that amounts to more than one or two. If I include my payment from the story I sold to the World Unknown Review, I’ve made… wait for it… $215.89 from my book sales in 2014. This, as I’ve already said, doesn’t come close to representing profit. Nowhere near it. I’m not telling you how much I’ve spent. I might next year when I’m spending my own money.
Free downloads have been a bit more interesting. I have given away four copies of Skylights, all through Smashwords, and 550 copies of The Benevolence Archives. BA has done well at Smashwords; it’s responsible for 102 of those free downloads. 91 people have downloaded the free chapter of Skylights through Smashwords; that chapter is available just about everywhere but only Smashwords lets me know the number of downloads. I really wish Amazon gave me access to that number but they don’t. My books were downloaded, one way or another, 646 times in 2014.
People go back and forth on the value of having a free book out there. As you can see (and this will surprise no one) my books move a lot more copies when they’re free. It’s possible that BA is just that much better than Skylights, but I think it’s the price. Very soon I will have the novel available, and my hope is that the free novella will drive sales to my other (non-free) books, especially the ones that are sequels. I don’t know if this is a wise decision, but comparing sales of BA 2 to Skylights will be very interesting. For now, I’ll take the exposure over the money– I feel like it’s more valuable in the long run at this time. And considering that Skylights has had four and a half fewer months to sell and costs 166% of what Benevolence Archives does, I think there’s some evidence that I’m on the right track here. It’s hardly conclusive, but it’s evidence.
Here’s my Amazon author rank, by the way. My best day? My first day on the market:
For those of you who don’t know this– a single sale can make the difference between an author rank of #650,000 and the high six figures. Two sales in a day will usually break you into the top 100K. A day of no sales will lose you 30-40K in ranking or so. There’s an enormous amount of volatility built into those rankings, and I suspect most Amazon authors are selling no more than one or two books a week. Remember something: I’ve never had a day of double-digit sales. Not once. Even the day BA launched. And that day was good for #35,792. My high day of free giveaways was 290 downloads, which had me briefly at #1 in the world for free science fiction books.
Here’s the thing: I can easily imagine someone looking at these numbers, particularly that $215.89, and thinking “Man. That was not worth the effort.” And… well, I can understand that. My perspective, on the other hand, is that in April of 2014 I had never convinced anyone in the world ever to pay me money to write words and as of right now there have been ninety-three instances of human beings deliberately giving me their money for my writing. And not at gunpoint or anything! My mom can’t be all of those people. My books have been downloaded six hundred and forty-six times. This is insane! I don’t know 646 people! I cannot pretend that this is bad news. Now, do I hope I do better next year? Yes, definitely. But for my first seven months as an author? I’m not complaining at all.
I was going to muse about marketing a bit, but this sentence is going to push this post over 1000 words already, so maybe I’ll save it for later this week and call it “How to Sell Books Online,” like I know what I’m doing.
Indie authors: how am I doing? How are you doing?
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Welcome to infinitefreetime dot com 
When I started back in 2012, I was selling FAR more book than I am now. I’m now on my 5th book. It seems with every book I release, it gets harder to sell. But every day that goes by more people are releasing books…so the market is harder and harder. I made 2K last year…I’m lucky if I made 500 this year.
I greatly appreciate your honesty.
And I have NO clue what your picture is about. 🙂
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I think you’ve got me beat, and I released four older titles in 2014. My giveaways are always popular. The next step must be paying people to read them. I may have recovered enough to pay for the cover art on one book. I’m going to keep forging ahead. Every boy needs a hobby.
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I had no new releases in 2014, so can’t really compare. The three books I’ve published so far continue to sell to the tune of about 100 each per year. Like you, my investment far outweighs the profits, but I’m hoping it’s a long-term investment, and I enjoy writing them. When you get this marketing thing worked out, let the rest of us know, would you. Your photo wouldn’t have anything to do with feeling whipped, would it?
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No, but you’re on the right track. 🙂
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I’m glad you aren’t letting your 7 month sales beat you. I certainly think you have the right perspective as a new author. I hope you have continued success.
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I was going to guess “Don’t cry over spilt milk,” but that’s not milk, is it? And it’s not really spilt.
Well congratulations on the exposure in any case!
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Y’all do not listen to enough hiphop.
That’s a hint.
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Still no idea. And you’re right, I don’t listen to much hiphop. In any case, thanks for the hint. Maybe someone else will get it.
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Don’t beat yourself up. The pancakes are going to be delicious!
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I’d have to ask my clone for specific numbers regarding book sales; I don’t have access to that information at the moment.
General overview: Two books so far, one published in early May of this year and the other in early July, so the second one is not quite at the six-month mark. (It’s my understanding that, if you’re an indie author, ANY sales during the first six months after a book’s release means you’re doing okay. Sell more than fifty, and you’re doing VERY well.) Lots of downloads whenever either book was offered for free. Very few reviews, though, so we didn’t see much benefit from giving copies away. The first book has eight reviews on Amazon; the second has two. On Smashwords, the first book has two reviews, and the second has only one. Decent reviews, at least, if you discount the one obviously from a troll. (I consider it trollish behavior to claim that an author is LYING about his “day job” profession.) We’re currently looking into getting new cover art, to see if that helps increase sales.
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Do you mean the second six months after? In other words, launch book in January, sales after July are good? Or are there just THAT MANY indie authors on Amazon that I’m not aware of, and some people literally aren’t selling at all? Neither of my books have ever fallen below #800K or so, and may not have hit that low mark; I don’t know if there’s a way to find out just how many books that’s actually out of. If I’m at #600,000 out of twenty million books, I’m not feeling too bad about it, y’know?
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Yes, there are some indie authors who are literally not selling anything at all in the first six months after their e-book’s release, or they are selling perhaps one or two copies in that time. Some of them NEVER sell more than a handful of copies, for various reasons. Sales tend to pick up after six months, once word of mouth has had time to have an effect, if the book is in any way good (meaning at least readable instead of looking like a string of text messages sent by an inebriated chimpanzee). And of course having more than one book out also helps.
Short version: For a new indie author, you’re doing well.
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Well, you sort of answered a q I had sent in email.
I am very happy to say I am one who purchased and gave you money for both BA (before it was free) and Skylights. Um, I have yet to read Skylights (sorry had a kid dropped off on my front stoop and I read mostly Harry Potter and the Wimpy Kid stuff).
I could tell you that marketing is basically useless. Don’t waste $$ on it, especially yours. However, all my lovely opinions are best left to emails 😉
You had a great year, profit or not.
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Darkness Concealed has been out for 3 months now, and I’ve sold 24 copies, 16 of them pre-order or day of release. In sum, I’ve made back about half the money I spent on the book ($150 for the cover). My expenses have been offset by the money I’ve made from editing ($225 this year), and that will likely increase over time as well.
For me, I’m doing this with a long-haul approach anyway. I’m obsessive about quality, leading to long timelines of writing (the first Nikolay novella might release in March…more than a year after I started the first draft; Darkness Revealed is on a 9 month release track that might get thrown off by work hours). So I’m stuck with the One Book for a good while longer.
My hope is that as my number of works increases over simply “1”, I’ll get more consistent sales as people are able to buy everything I’ve got out there, read one or two, and gab endlessly about them. Having one book to sell is a really hard sell for building an audience.
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You’re giving it away on your website, too, aren’t you? Do you have any idea how many free copies are out there?
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At one point, I’d counted 12. I have to grep the server access logs for counts, and that’s a little unwieldy. I’m looking into other solutions.
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I appreciate your honesty very much, Luther, as it represents the experience of many if not most of us these days. At the same time, in my case, I stopped paying attention at some point because in all honesty the truth was just too discouraging after pouring out what I felt was my soul. I decided to look at it as an ongoing test to see how much I care about writing and whether I’m truly willing to do it for no other reward than the act of writing itself. If you can do that, I figure, then anything good that happens is just a bonus. I’m still working on it.
Still, it’s very good information, if only so that people don’t expect too much or feel that a lack of commercial success equates to any kind of artistic judgment. Because I know with 100 percent certainty that a lot of what’s supposedly coming out of the “volcano of shit” is leagues better than a lot of the “literature” that pads the best-seller lists. Van Gogh sold one painting in his entire life. Thank god he didn’t listen to the “market.”
Anyway, hats off to you. This is the new commiseration. This is the new “world of writing.” Success is going to look like a very different beast, and to my eye, you’re achieving that. Believe me, I know that doesn’t buy a cup of coffee, but it is something. Keep up the good fight.
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Reblogged this on William Reichard and commented:
Great honesty here. This is what writing looks like today.
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This is fascinating for me. For my third novel (published 5 Dec 2014) I kept the page numbers down, set the text and did most of the artwork myself. I ordered a litho print run of 300 (much cheaper per copy than POD), and spent more than I should (£300) having it converted to ebook. I hand sold nearly 200 print (I make a real profit on these and unexpectedly sold almost all remaining copies of my second, 2008, novel in the process) before the official publication date. I’m within a whisker of covering my printing costs. So far Amazon have ordered 14 print (so they’ve probably sold 13, all at a loss to me), 12 have sold on Kindle (a long way to go to cover costs). None on iTunes. I have not offered it free, but I have sent out free review copies. I’m a wallflower on Twitter and use Facebook for friends only. My blog and my website are the only online advertising tools and I’m not exactly high profile.
I’m one of your two iTunes buyers of Skylights – my current very enjoyable reading! [though next novel please use an en- or em-dash not double hyphens]. I bought it because of your explanation of the two different kinds of Science Fiction interested me and I enjoyed the excerpt you posted and I enjoy your blog.
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That’s fascinating– you were able to format it for print yourself, but needed to pay someone for the ebook formatting? For me, it’s been precisely the opposite– I’ve sat down several times to get SKYLIGHTS ready for print and ended a few hours later each time with a headache and an attitude problem. What have you been doing to move the print copies?
As far as the dashes, I blame Word. Word’s handling of dashes is so aggravating and inconsistent that I moved to double hyphens forever because at least I could keep it looking the same throughout the book. 🙂
(And I’m really glad you’re liking the book. I’m starting to think you may secretly be a science fiction fan, though, because you said the same thing about BENEVOLENCE ARCHIVES, if I remember right…)
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I used Adobe InDesign for the text, with a few days of hands-on tuition, but I’m a Mac person and it all felt familiar. InDesign turns out an EPUB file and I should have been able to suss the chapter heading links for myself and avoid the ebook costs… To sell print: article in village paper, big local launch in Nov with personal invitations and cakes (61 copies); go on a writing course (9 copies); email everyone I know, and those who no-showed the launch party, with flyers (20-40 copies); talk in local ‘home’ (3 copies); launch day 5 Dec signing at local Farm (sic) shop (10 copies); half page spread in city paper, village Winter Fair (stand and freeze, 23 copies); Farm again (6 copies); send flyers in many Christmas cards (20 plus orders still coming). There are also 18 copies out to various bookshops S or R, 14 out to Amazon. Of 315 copies, 94 remain. 12 copies of older novel sold too. Hand-selling price has slowly risen from £6 to £7.50 (RRP £8.50). [Re en-dashes, please find a way — shouts amateur. Mac – alt plus minus/hyphen — shift alt minus/hyphen].
In Skylights I love the technical detail, the conversational tone, the really fluid writing, the lack of deliberate anxiety inducing stuff (interesting-exciting but not see-that-toddler-approaching-the-fire-and-the-father-going-to-answer-the-door over 5 pages stuff). I like that it could all be real and it is certainly human. Haven’t got to BA yet, must be someone else.
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Sorry about that; I was thinking of J.P. McLean. In my defense, your last names rhyme. 🙂 And I will do my best to fix all my dash issues with the new book. Last thing I need is punctuation issues taking people away from my narrative.
(Removes two examples of double-dashes from preceding paragraph)
I’m impressed at your efforts in selling your paper books. I’ve gotten pretty good about being comfortable with advertising online, but finding a way to market my work in the real world somewhere would probably be helpful.
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