Transparency in Indie Publishing: Month 2
So, it's been nearly two months since I started self-publishing The Steam and Steel Chronicles. Sales for March were pretty much on par with sales of February, but the good news is that the past two days, since publishing The Great Healion Race, I've seen a good increase in sales. And not just for The Great Healion Race, but also for Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris.
Everyone I've talked to who has read the book has liked it (or loved it). I've had a couple of good reviews (and am still waiting for a couple more to come out). I had a really positive review from Geranium Cat's Bookshelf, which resulted in a few Kindle UK sales.
I also made it (briefly) onto a couple of the Kindle bestseller lists: the Historical Fantasy list in the UK I reached a high rank of 45 (I think), and I reached #95 on the US Kindle store in Historical Fantasy. If anyone knows of a way to track your rank on the various genre lists (other than checking back a few times a day), let me know. All the resources I've found only track your overall sales rank.
The numbers above are good, because one of my goals was to reach one of the top 100 lists before my birthday (which is later this month). So that's one self-publishing goal down.
So, without further ado, here are the numbers for March:
Amazon US
Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris: 11
The Great Healion Race: 4
Total: 15 books
Amazon UK
ATUAF: 4
TGHR: 1
Total: 5
Barnes & Noble
ATUAF: 5
TGHR: 0
Total: 5
Smashwords
ATUAF: 3
TGHR: 0
Total: 3
So the total numbers stand at 22 copies of Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris sold, and 5 copies of The Great Healion Race (which was released on 3/30). I'm now selling four times as many books on Kindle as I am on Barnes & Noble, which was an interesting shift. Of course, with numbers this small, there's not really enough data to draw any kind of statistically accurate conclusion.
The Geranium Cat's Bookshelf review was the only review I had this month, and I was really pleased with it. I can attribute all of my UK sales to that review, either directly or indirectly.
Now, the numbers above don't tell the entire story. I actually had a bit of a sales slump in March, but on the day I released The Great Healion Race, I had six sales, and the day after I had five. If a rate of 5-6 sales a day keeps up, I'll be quite happy with my April numbers.
Other marketing efforts this month included participating in Sample Sunday on Twitter, and occasionally tweeting about the books. I don't know if that's made a difference or not.
My schedule until the middle of May is going to continue to be pretty crazy, so I'm not sure what kind of marketing efforts I'll be able to do between now and then, other than the occasional tweet and trying to keep up with the Facebook page. I'm also hard at work on Book Three already, which I hope to release either at the end of June or sometime in July.
