290

When I first realized I could self-publish Rome's Revolution, I started dreaming about how much money I would make when I sold thousands of copies. Kind of like when you buy a lottery ticket.

At the time, the e-book was on sale for 99 cents and I was on the 35% royalty plan which meant I made 35 cents per copy. I miscalculated how many books I would have to sell in order to make the minimum requirements to get a check from Amazon and mistakenly believed it was 290 copies.

So I started a spreadsheet called 290 units.xls and started tracking my sales. I added in a column for the paperback and then a column for the Nook and then a column for iTunes and pretty soon had to add formulas.

As I was writing The Ark Lords, I became afraid that 99 cents was too low so I raised the price to $4.99 for Rome's Revolution. This allowed me to sell The Ark Lords for $2.99 and not undercut Rome's Revolution.

Then I decided to publish a book I wrote 8 years ago called Future Past, not because it was great but because I already knew how to e-publish. So I added a third tab to my spreadsheet and then a fourth to keep totals.

Now with Rome's Evolution, I had to add a fifth tab and the spreadsheet is getting very complex.

But I still call it 290 units.xls and I am proud to say I have finally, finally sold 290 units! All I have to do now is sell 10,000 times that and the lottery dream will come true.