The Thing Nobody Wants to Talk About
Kind of like Voldemort’s name – nobody is supposed to speak it out loud. I’m talking about the gorilla in the room that everyone is pretending doesn’t exist. I’m talking about the thing that we all want to talk about so badly, but everyone seems to be afraid to do it. I’m talking about selling books.
I’m fed up with it. What horrible thing is going to happen if you pipe up and report your sales? Is it going to doom your books to a superstitious whirlpool of anonymity? Are you afraid people are going to find out that you sell too many books so they won’t buy anymore of yours? All I can say is get a grip.
I have 31 books available right now, with the release of Soul Mates earlier this week. Of those 3 are freebies (Wanted, Dark Earth, and Voidhawk). For the months of January and February I averaged a little over $200 per book. Now that’s misleading because I have some books that might bring in $20 – $40 a month (Human Nature, Sex Sells, Bound, Voices, and my 7 Vitalis novellas) and a precious few that are much higher (Child of Fate, Victim of Fate, Silver Dragon, Ice Princess, and Bounty). In the middle ground I can usually count on my Voidhawk series to pull in anywhere from $200 – $800 per book, totaling $1500 – $2500 for the 5 book series. My Lost Girls series puts in a good fight too, although I really think it’s a better series than the sales indicate. Anyhow, I float between $700 – $1000 a month on those four books for the first two months of the 2013.
Having said all that, 2013 is starting out a hell of a lot better than 2012 did. The question is why? The answer is, “Beats me!” I haven’t done anything in 2013 that I didn’t do in 2012, other than having more books available. I try to publish a book a month, and that can be pretty daunting what with having a full time day job and a family. I’d love to go the James Patterson route and find some co-authors to work with, but I’m probably a long ways away from being cool enough for that yet.
Writing a book a month can be done though, the trick is in finding the right people to help. My wife helps me with the audiobook creation process we just began, for example. I have an extremely talented cover artist by the name of Willsin Rowe. Last I heard Willsin wasn’t taking on any new clients but there are plenty of other talented artists out there aching for some work. I also have a small army of editors at my beck and call to point out the stupid mistakes I make when my eyelids are so heavy that I can’t even see what my fingers are putting on the computer screen (yes, that happens, especially with this miserable time change).
Do I do any promotion or marketing? Not really. I infrequently harass my Twitter followers, but no more often than a randomly selected book tweet every couple of hours. I keep my Facebook and web site updated regularly. And I blog. 2 – 3 posts a week is my goal, usually about my writing or trying to help out other writers who are feeling overwhelmed.
My goal is to make writing my day job and I’m very dedicated to making that happen as soon as I can – in a responsible manner. To that end I’ve been even more mystified by what’s happening in March for me, but even if the cause for the effect is unknown, it’s worth mentioning.
March started off with a whopping 142 books being sold on the first day for me. For some reason the first day of each month is always good, but then it typically drops off. It hasn’t been 142 books good since April of 2012 though. So I was excited. Solid numbers kept coming in as they days passed. I sold over 100 books each day for a week, then they dipped into the 80s. As a caveat, these numbers are a combination of Amazon US and Amazon UK sales. I move small quantities in Germany and Canada and also make some sales on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. Amazon is where the money is though, so it gets most of my focus.
So after a “low” selling weekend that had my bubble bursting they jumped back up to 116, 141, and 121. In the past weekends were better selling days than weekdays, so that deepened the mystery for me. To continue reducing things to pure numbers I’m averaging 113 books a day right now for the month of March. Great, but what’s that mean? I’m not really sure, to be honest. Oh, I’ve got my forecasts and calculations but until the month is over I’m not willing to take anything to the bank. Suffice to say it could be a very good thing.
Most of you are probably staring at that number with wide eyes and open mouths. I know I used to. Who am I kidding, I still do! Keep in mind that’s the royalty share I get from Amazon, but the deals I’ve worked out with my editors and cover artist means I turn around and give them a cut of that. I’m not complaining, they’ve worked hard and deserve it. From the beginning I shared my desire to help them and myself achieve a sustainable level of income from writing (and editing and being artistic). Then there’s taxes chewing into it as well – those I will complain about!
Now there’s a chance that you see $6k a month and make a rude noise. Chump change, you’re thinking. To you I say, “Bite me.” If sales keep up at and continue to rise it will make March the first month where my writing income has exceeded the income from my day job. Gross, not net. That’s pretty damn exciting – but is it sustainable?
To reach my long term goal of writing being the day job I need to sustain sales at or above that level. Right now I’m not throwing the cargo door open and jumping out of the plane because my parachute isn’t secured. At this point I don’t even have a parachute, in fact! I’ve got a lot of bills to pay down first, most of it in the form of paying off education for my day job that in hindsight wasn’t necessary. Ah well, it’s nice having multiple degrees if only for bragging rights.
Now if only I could figure out what happened that made my book sales increase. Is it a seasonal thing or is it something else? It’s almost impossible to get any other writers to own up to what their numbers are. Joe Konrath is like a lighthouse on a rocky shore for sharing his trials and tribulations. Sadly, I only recently started reading his blog and found the merit of many of his ideas.
Over the months and years I’ve shared my attempts to advertise and be a successful writer. I’m no expert and I’ve got a long ways to go, but in some coming posts I’ll try to put together some tips and tricks that I’ve used, as well as things that didn’t work. Hindsight is a powerful tool, and hopefully one that will help people who are starting to write or trying to decide if they want to write make some progress. It is hard work, but if you’ve got the right mindset it’s definitely worth it.
Now I need to go and find some wood to knock on, salt to toss around, and maybe even a few chickens to bleed to make sure my numbers don’t plummet!
To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com .
