My book sales data, Nov 2010 - April 2012

This is how many sales I’ve had by title per month.  Each author is has different strengths and weaknesses.  Genre also affects sales.  I write fantasy, which does not have as large of a fan base.  If I were writing romance, then these numbers might have been two or three times as high . . . although I suck at romance, so they might have been worse.
One of my biggest strengths is the fact that I’m fairly prolific.  I’ve published these books and short stories in addition to having a full time job and spending time with my family.
I don’t market or social network anywhere near as much I should.  There are so many sites to request reviews, and forums to talk about your book, that a person could spend the rest of their life marketing one book.  I prefer to work on the next, so I do minimal marketing.
My primary form of marketing is free short stories.  This gets people to know my name and brings a steady trickle of sales to my other titles.  You may notice that sales jump in January 2012.  That’s when I made Rojuun free and it drew sales to my other fantasy novels.
I’m going to add total downloads for each of my freebies at the bottom.  Tracking how many were downloaded each month is impossible due to insufficient reporting.  Apple does not report downloads of free books at all.  Kobo has not reported free downloads since August 31st.

Nov 2010  (Published “Rojuun” Nov 24 and “Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend” Dec 27)
Rojuun: 7 Smashwords
Dec 2010  (Published “Test Pilot” Dec 24)
Rojuun: 5 Smashwords, 2 Apple
Jan 2011 (Published “The Emo Bunny that Should” Jan 24)
Rojuun: 2 Smashwords, 3 Apple, 1 B&N
Feb 2011 (Published “Don’t Ever Change” Feb 24)
Rojuun: 2 Smashwords, 8 Apple, 3 B&N
Mar 2011 (Published Rojuun to Amazon March 26)
Rojuun: 8 Smashwords, 11 Apple, 8 B&N
Apr 2011 (Published “Anilyia” April 6 and “Zachary Zombie” April 19) (Published Anilyia to Amazon April 7)
Rojuun: 7 Smashwords, 3 Apple, 3 B&N, 3 AmazonAnilyia: 7 Smashwords, 3 Amazon
May 2011 (Published “Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend”, “Test Pilot”, “The Emo Bunny that Should”, “Zachary Zombie”, and “Don’t Ever Change” to Amazon May 5)
Rojuun: 2 Smashwords, 1 Apple, 9 B&N, 31 AmazonAnilyia: 2 Smashwords, 8 Apple, 2 B&N, 18 Amazon
June 2011
Rojuun:  2 Smashwords, 6 Apple, 7 B&N, 15 AmazonAnilyia: 2 Smashwords, 5 Apple, 3 B&N, 16 Amazon
July 2011 (Published “Kethril” July 17)
Rojuun: 4 Smashwords, 4 Apple, 5 B&N, 58 AmazonAnilyia: 4 Smashwords, 5 Apple, 3 B&N, 12 AmazonKethril: 5 Smashwords, 1 B&N, 7 Amazon
Aug 2011 (Published “Alien Coffee” August 31)
Rojuun: 2 Smashwords, 8 Apple, 22 AmazonAnilyia: 1 Smashwords, 4 Apple, 1 B&N, 17 AmazonKethril: 1 Smashwords, 7 Apple, 1 B&N, 23 Amazon
Sep 2011 (Published “Drippy the Peg-Legged Rainbow” September 20)
Rojuun: 1 Smashwords, 4 Apple, 4 B&N 7 AmazonAnilyia: 2 Smashwords, 2 Apple, 2 B&N, 6 AmazonKethril: 2 Smashwords, 3 Apple, 3 B&N, 29 AmazonAlien Coffee: 2 Smashwords, 3 Apple, 3 B&N, 29 Amazon
Oct 2011 (Published “Unholy Cow” October 3, “The Complete Willden Trilogy” October 8, “Dralin” October 16, “A Collection of Stories for Demented Children” October 21, and “Attack of the Sugar Plum Fairies” October 21)
Rojuun: 1 B&N, 11 Apple, 9 AmazonAnilyia:  6 Apple, 4 AmazonKethril: 1 Smashwords, 3 Apple, 8 AmazonAlien Coffee:  2 Smashwords, 3 B&N, 13 AmazonWillden Omnibus: 4 Smashwords, 11 AmazonCollection of Stories for Demented Children: 13 Amazon
Nov 2011 (November suuuuuuucked for sales directly through Smashwords. I’m really not sure why.)
Rojuun: 2 Apple, 5 AmazonAnilyia: 4 Apple, 3 AmazonKethril: 5 Apple, 2 B&N, 7 AmazonAlien Coffee: 3 Apple, 4 B&N, 20 AmazonWillden Omnibus: 3 Apple, 5 B&N, 10 AmazonCollection of Stories for Demented Children: 1 Smashwords, 24 Amazon
Dec 2011 (Made Rojuun free on Smashwords. Once again, sales sucked through Smashwords.  I just don’t know why November and December were so bad there.)
Rojuun: 1 B&N, 2 Apple, 8 AmazonAnilyia: 9 Apple, 1 B&N, 7 AmazonKethril: 11 Apple, 1 B&N, 5 AmazonAlien Coffee: 1 Apple, 6 B&N, 20 AmazonWillden Omnibus: 1 Smashwords, 6 Apple, 4 B&N, 10 AmazonCollection of Stories for Demented Children: 2 Apple, 4 B&N, 39 Amazon
Jan 2012 (Amazon price matched Rojuun for free, Rojuun sales after this through Amazon are Amazon UK, which hasn’t pricematched.  You may noticed the jump in sales for the rest of the Willden Trilogy through Apple, B&N and especially Amazon.)
Rojuun: 4 AmazonAnilyia: 3 Smashwords, 29 Apple, 7 B&N, 126 Amazon, 1 SonyKethril: 2 Smashwords, 22 Apple, 7 B&N, 91 Amazon, 1 SonyAlien Coffee: 6 B&N, 24 AmazonWillden Omnibus: 9 Smashwords, 39 Apple, 10 B&N, 84 Amazon, 2 SonyCollection of Stories for Demented Children: 1 Smashwords, 9 B&N, 22 Amazon
Feb 2012
Rojuun: 3 AmazonAnilyia: 1 Smashwords, 16 Apple, 19 B&N, 98 AmazonKethril: 1 Smashwords, 14 Apple, 16 B&N, 85 AmazonAlien Coffee: 2 Apple, 2 B&N, 6 AmazonWillden Omnibus: 7 Smashwords, 23 Apple, 17 B&N, 109 AmazonCollection of Stories for Demented Children: 1 Smashwords, 5 Apple, 3 B&N, 20 Amazon, 1 Kobo
Mar 2012
Anilyia: 8 Smashwords, 27 Apple, 9 B&N, 72 Amazon, 1 SonyKethril: 5 Smashwords, 22 Apple, 7 B&N, 53 Amazon, 1 SonyAlien Coffee: 1 Apple, 4 B&N, 14 Amazon, 1 KoboWillden Omnibus: 11 Smashwords, 27 Apple, 24 B&N, 77 Amazon, 1 SonyCollection of Stories for Demented Children: 1 Apple, 2 B&N, 23 Amazon
Apr 2012 (Published “The Emo Bunny that Should - Illustrated Edition” April 6)
Anilyia: 27 Apple, 21 B&N, 53 Amazon, 1 SonyKethril: 7 Smashwords, 25 Apple, 19 B&N, 51 Amazon, 1 SonyAlien Coffee: 1 Smashwords, 1 B&N, 15 AmazonWillden Omnibus: 7 Smashwords, 34 Apple, 11 B&N, 90 Amazon, 1 SonyCollection of Stories for Demented Children: 1 Smashwords, 2 Apple, 4 B&N, 16 AmazonIllustrated Emo:  1 Smashwords, 4 Amazon
May 2012 (Published “Ebudae” May 13)
This data is incomplete, so I’m not going to add it.
These are my current totals of sales as of the date of the post.  There are a few Smashwords and B&N sales from May included.
Rojuun (sales) 295
Anilyia 692
Kethril 545
Willden Trilogy 659
Dralin 285
Ebudae 8
Emo Illustrated 6
Demented Collection 189
Alien Coffee 194



Total Sales 2873






Unexpected sales:
These are sales for books published to Amazon that I wanted to be free.  It takes a while for Amazon to pricematch.  These are legitimate sales for which I earned money, even though I wanted to give them away for free.
Titles that shouldn't be free

Emo Bunny 147
Zachary 66
Drippy 15
Unholy 21
Attack 52
Blue Haired 37
Test Pilot 22
Don't Ever Change 44



Total unexpected sales 404



Grand Sales Total 3277

In addition, I sold 250 books through Amazon in May that isn’t included in these numbers.  I don’t know how many I sold through Apple, but it’s been running 30-80 per month this year.
Free downloads
These are all the downloads of stories I give away for free.  Free books help readers to become accustomed to my name.  They also link readers to all of my other works.
Rojuun 22728
Emo Bunny 64087
Zachary 28852
Drippy 12288
Unholy 10845
Attack 23905
Blue Haired 23798
Test Pilot 12769
Don't Ever Change 23063



Total Free 222335


I hope all of this information will help other Indie Writers to understand what to expect.  Sales for most people start out slow and gradually increase. A big key is that the more you write, the more likely you are to sell books.
All my best,
John H. Carroll