One Down, Eleven to Go
I’m talking about months of the year. My friend and business partner, J.E. Taylor, was kind enough to send along a link to me yesterday that left me with some questions and a general warm and fuzzy feeling. No, it didn’t show any pictures of puppies or strippers (or strippers holding puppies – but that’s another blog post altogether). It showed a list of the top 100 Indie writers for the month of May, 2013 (Year of the Indie, May 2013). Yep, you guessed it, I made the list at a resounding #77.
77 out of 100. Whoopee, right? Maybe. I don’t know. I don’t know a lot of things about the list, in fact. Is it based on volume sold (not given away), revenue made, or some other criteria I’m unaware of. And for that matter, where’d the numbers come from (meaning – how’d they get them)? For a sample of my work the post has Ice Princess listed, which is the second book in my Wanted series. Currently Ice Princess and Wanted sales in general are down compared to some of my other books (my Voidhawk series and Blades of Leander series, in particular). But that’s not the point, is it?
I believe she has listed around 3,111 books sold, which seems to indicate that’s how the list is populated. That’s my Amazon number (amongst the various US, UK, CA, DE, etc. locations) and doesn’t include other sources. To get inside the top 50 it looks like sales have to exceed 10k. To get near the top? Well over 100k. Although they’re only making $.35 / book (off a $.99 price), so nyah. Okay, .35 * 100,000 = $35,000. According to the chart I’m averaging out at $2.5 (off a $3.99 price) * 3,111 = $7.777.00. Well, I’m here to say that just ain’t true. There are discounts and the fact that most of my books don’t sell for $3.99 even at full price.
So the next question is top 100 out of how many? I have no freaking clue. Conservatively I’d estimate there are probably well over 10,000 independent writers on Amazon. Truthfully, I suspect there are at least 2x – 5x that many, but I have no way of knowing (if anybody else does, please share!). So that strokes my ego a bit.
But in spite of all of those groovy guesstimated stats my sales are still slumping. Ever since March every month is a little lower. My answer is to keep my stick on the ice and skate harder. That means work harder for anyone not from Canada, Michigan, or a place that appreciates hockey. To that end I’ve got Chasing the Dragon coming out in a matter of days and I’m hard at work on The Broken Slipper for a release hopefully in mid to late July.
Chasing the Dragon, for the young and impressionable readers just coming to my blog, is the second book in my Order of the Dragon fantasy trilogy. The Order of the Dragon is a sequel in itself to the Blades of Leander fantasy trilogy. They are books set for any young adult to adult and take on the sword and sorcery fantasy genre full force. Wizards, princesses, dragons, goblins, trolls, giants— you name it, these books embrace it. Although I throw some quirks into the genre as well, including a bazaar troll shaman of mysterious origin and personality that seems to have befriended the main characters. Or at least he tries to keep them from getting bashed too often.
The Broken Slipper, for the young and impressionable, is not for the young and impressionable. It’s book two in my Homeland series and it’s very much an adult oriented book. We’re talking adult themes, adult content, and adult imagery. Heck, it even centers around the adult film / media industry this time around! If that isn’t enough of a clue, it also reintroduces the main characters from my standalone book, Sex Sells. So yeah, read this one when you’ve got some alone time away from the kids – or when you’re looking for a little inspiration to liven up an otherwise dull evening with the significant other.
The Broken Slipper isn’t all about sex. Far from it! It’s about the main character, Special Agent Sarah Ford, and the personal challenges she’s facing trying to recover from her last case (book one in the Homeland series, Forbidden Love) and to figure out what she really wants out of her life. In the meantime she’s also trying to help figure out what sort of illegal activity is being planned and what she can do to stop it. It’s a busy book with a lot going on and I’m having an absolute thrill writing it. Not that kind of thrill either…or at least not much.
Anyhow, my new goal is to try and hit 11 more months of making the top 100. It’s ambitious and probably not going to go well for me given my dipping sales, but I love a challenge!
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 .
