I learned about kboards and it changed everything

I'm not sure where I heard about the kboards. I think it must've been a Hugh Howey post about kindle unlimited. I know I checked the site out yesterday and my mind is blown.
NOT by the content. I barely had time to browse that. BUT the first thing it said was to put in my author information. That author info requested my total sales.
I had no idea what my total sales were. I wasn't even concerned really. (See post about 10-yr plan from Sunday.)
Still the board asked, and I thought that was probably information I needed to know, so I set out looking for it.
The numbers I have are strictly from Amazon.
They blew me away.
What I learned is my first six months publishing in 2011, I sold a grand total of 40 books.
And then as I added titles regularly those numbers improved. To date I've sold over 8,000 books from 12 titles. The last year sales have fallen off. I hope that changes now that I'm ready to start publishing again. (See multiple entries about frozen shoulder and how when your left arm quits, it's hard to write.)
The books that sell the best surprised me, too.
My Mary Beth Lee YA paranormals (My guilty pleasure. I love them so much.) don't sell very well at all, even though they get great reviews.
My YA historical sells like crazy. My Mary Beth Lee inspy romances sell.
My Liz Lee romances sell...especially my small town romances.
All the books sold significantly better when I was on KDP Select...which I am using again. The free days had a measurable impact on sales overall.
All that have sold have done so on their own without advertising from me except here and on my Facebook page (see 10-yr goal from post yesterday).
I didn't count the borrowed books, although there were hundreds.
Wow.
I realize 8k books isn't some ginormous number. It's not anywhere near a list...I figure Honor and Lies, the YA historical, has made an Amazon list with its numbers. It sold over 1k one month. CRAZY!
Still, Amazon did this for me. Gave me an outlet to pursue a dream. How cool is that?!
Last year when I was gearing up to push for one new release a month before my arm quit, I asked a question on an indie loop and Marie Force--who is always so incredibly giving of her time and expertise--said to focus on the writing when you're first starting out.
Since then I've seen several other successful indie authors suggest having four-five books ready to publish before you put anything up.
That's what I've been working on the past few months. I never want my readers to go months and months without new content from me again.
If you're a writer reading this looking for self-publishing direction, I can tell you after three months of publishing regularly, my sales numbers went up hundreds and in some cases thousands. It is important.
So that's that.
I know my numbers now.
And I'm glad.
Thanks for asking kboards! That question changed my life.
<3
********
Sign up for my newsletter here. No spam, just news.