Self-publishing payments

It’s about time for the quarterly payment from Smashwords, where most of my self-publishing income comes from.

Here’s a little look at the 2012 figures so far:

Jan: $24.63

Apr: $15.74

July: $173.34

July was good, right?

Now look at September:

September: $423.38

I’ll just put that in bold: $423.38

Please note that I have not added any more self-published titles this year. These figures are from the same two books: The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife and Reckless Runaway at the Racecourse. I have had other books published with Entangled and I think this is what has really pushed these sales figures. Initially, I was mostly selling through Amazon. Now I sell about 10 times as many at Barnes and Noble as I do at Amazon. Those aren’t my friends – B&N basically only sell to the US. They are people who’ve read my other books, liked them, and looked to see what else I’ve written. That is AWESOME.

The payments are always made in arrears, so I already have an idea of what’s coming next quarter. In the last six weeks, Reckless Runaway has been free as a promotional experiment. I’ve sold $126.60 worth of just The Tycoon’s Convenient Wife. By the way, Reckless Runaway is no longer free, though this hasn’t yet trickled down to B&N or (I think) Amazon US. If you want to try it out, do it now!

I get quarterly payments from Smashwords and Entangled. That means that my regular income is supplemented two months out of every three with my book royalties. It’s almost getting to the level where I am not worrying about paying the bills. Almost.