Category Archives: Books

The Evolution of Sales for a Self-Publishing Author

Books, Business, Self-Publishing, Writing, , , , ,

I recently spent some time analyzing how many sales I’ve had through Amazon. Keep in mind, this doesn’t count sales through other services (just Amazon). But what I discovered was kind of fascinating, because if you haven’t been paying attention to it, the information kind of sneaks up on you and tries to stab you in the back. Or at least jumps out from the shadows and says “boo!”.

For the record, I’ve been selling books on Amazon as ebooks since 2008. Granted, hardly a single one sold back then, but I was trying to sell one book (Thompson’s Bounty) way back then. Shortly after, Innocent Until Proven Guilty came along, and then a few years later, everything else sort of exploded into print. What’s interesting is that if you look at the numbers (and yes, most people know I’m a number crunching kind of guy), you’ll discover that in 2008, combined with 2009, I sold 9 copies of Thompson’s Bounty. And that’s it. In 2010, I sold 7 books, mixed between the first two I mentioned earlier. And then 2011, well, just kind of went nuts. I sold 181 books, spread out over 8 different titles. 2012 was a little less successful with 135 books sold. Strangely enough, 2013, of which we are only in June, has had 110 sales. Not counted were 77 sales that occurred just last month, so you can see that 2013 has already surpassed both 2011 and 2012, and we’re not even halfway through the year.

As for money, that’s increasing as well, which makes sense when you follow the number of sales.

The quandary for me in publishing has always been trying to figure out how to sell to more readers, or at least how to get readers to at least know my books exist. I wish I could say I’ve found the answer to that, but I haven’t yet. But I’m still searching, experimenting and performing ritual sacrifices to The Shania in hopes of figuring that out.

Anyway, not much of a post about the usual stuff, but as I rarely discuss the business side of the craft, I thought I would share this with you all (which by “all”, I obviously mean my two stuffed animals who make up my readership).

The book giveaway for The Ameriad

Books, Self-Publishing, Writing, , , , , , ,

Last night, the book giveaway for The Ameriad finished on Goodreads. I’d like to think it was successful as 669 people requested the book, and now I have to send out 10 copies of it to the winners chosen by Goodreads. At the same time, 264 people added the book to their “to read” lists, although some of those people may have already taken that option before the contest, and there’s no guarantee that any of those people are ever going to read the book, as they may have just added it as a part of the contest. The interesting thing so far is that no copies have sold as a result of the contest SO FAR, which leaves me wondering about the usefulness of this marketing opportunity.

My next novel to be given away is Thompson’s Bounty: A Ship Out of Time, and it is at the very beginning of its contest at 50 entries and 16 people wanting to read it. Little by little, I’m wondering if this whole thing is even worth it, as the market seems very sided against a writer trying to make a living.

The Ameriad is free all this week on Amazon Kindle

Books, Writing, , , ,

The_Ameriad_Cover_for_KindleMy novel, The Ameriad, a humorous, mythological parody that re-tells the founding of America by the survivors of Troy, is going to be free all this week on the Amazon Kindle.  You can access the page for this book here. This deal ends Saturday.

A paperback copy of the book is also being given out through Goodreads; actually, 10 copies are being given out free. All you have to do is sign up for the contest on Goodreads here.  This contest ends at the beginning of next month.

Did I mention that both choices are free?

I should also point out that my novella, Mapping the Silence of Dreams, is now available on Kindle as well. It’s dark fantasy involving the dream sphere when a scientific team accidentally brings something back from our dreams.  You can find it here.

At wit’s end with writing

Books, Business, Technology, Writing, , , , , , , , ,

I honestly don’t know what to do. I can’t seem to get anyone interested in my writing. It’s not because it’s not good enough; it’s mainly because it’s not famous enough, and it’s never going to be “famous” enough because no one reads it.

I guess what gets on my nerves is that I tend to support all of my friends and colleagues on their social networking sites, but rarely is that ever reciprocated. I’ll give a thumbs up to someone’s ridiculous cat picture or to someone’s latest “look how cute my baby is” photo. But rarely does that get returned.

I have about one friend on my social networking sites who I am very thankful for because she’s always supporting me with my writing. Probably more than she should ever have to. But she’s a rarity. I sometimes wish there was more I could do to support her, but I try.

Recently, I published probably the most important book of my career. To give it the credit it’s due, I need to hype the hell out of it because the publishing world is not the same place it was a decade ago. Publishers don’t support you. Writers are pretty much on their own, and unless they were Stephen King-level of famous a decade ago, they’re pretty much stuck with trying to make an impact in a world that has the attention span of a five year old.

So, I have been trying everything possible to get people interested in this book. For the first time ever, I created a book trailer and put it on Amazon and Youtube. It’s really funny and entertaining. The people who have seen it, all ten of them, love it. If you start to get my drift, I now can’t get people to watch a Youtube of a promo for a book that they aren’t interested in reading either. Basically, a writer trying to get traction today is essentially screwed.

The tragic part of trying to make it has a lot to do with the mechanisms that drive the whole industry now. In order to advertise my book anywhere, you generally have to have at least 4 to 5 reviews that are 4 stars or above (averaged). So, if you don’t have people who already read your book and reviewed it, you can’t get advertising for it so that people can actually read it and review it. And if by some chance you got those first five reviews and then could pay for some advertising, you then have to get dozens of reviews before you can actually start hitting a breaking point of where people will ever even notice that you’ve written a book. If you’re unknown, kind of like I am, then you’d probably get better results standing on the corner and throwing copies of your books at passing cars, hoping to hit one, blinding the driver so that he has to stop after running into a flagpole.

Anyway, here’s a last look at the video I created for this campaign.

 

Novella and poetry collection available for free on Amazon all this week

Books, Writing, , , , , ,

My novella, All Roads Lead to Pine Bush, the story of a travel writer who discovers all of his articles keep leading him to the same place, is available for free on Amazon for the next five days.  You can get it here.

My poetry collection, License to Quill, is also available for free for the next five days on Amazon.  The collection, which includes the epic poem License to Quill, is written in the mind of a young teenage runaway who escapes an abusive childhood, only to end up on the mean streets of downtown San Francisco.  You can get it here.  It is also available in paperback as well, but obviously not for free.

So, please go to Amazon to get free copies of these for your e-reader. All I ask is that if you like them, please review them. It’s the only way people are going to know they exist.