Four years published - Self published sales information
Happy Anniversary . . . (s)
So, on November 24th, I celebrated (completely forgot) my 4th anniversary of self-publishing. On November 30th, I celebrated my 18th wedding anniversary with my wife. Fortunately, I didn't forget that one.
Self Publishing
I decided to finally get around to writing a book in January of 2010, just as I had planned to do 20 years earlier. 2 things got me to finally do it. I discovered Smashwords and decided I'd give self publishing a try, and I turned 40, at which point I realized I needed to accomplish something instead of making excuses why I hadn't.
I'm addicted to writing books to the degree that I now become anxious when I haven't written for a few days. It's the second most important thing in my life after my family. I intend to do it for the rest of my life.
In these four years, I've written 24 original works (8 novels, 2 novellas, 4 short stories, and 10 children's books). I've published 29 titles (4 compilations and an illustrated version of the Emo Bunny that Should)
2014 is the first year I haven't published a book. Difficulties in life have hampered my writing and all other aspects of being a successful self-publisher. However, things have settled to a large degree and I'm writing more again.
Success
As far as success, I consider that I became a successful writer after I finished my first book, "Rojuun". As for professional success, I've sold over 13,000 books in the last 4 years. That makes me a low-level midlister in the self-publishing industry I believe. It's hard to say. There's not a lot of sales info in the publishing world. All the companies and most authors believe that sales are a matter of national security *sigh*.
I've decided to share my sales with anyone who's interested. I've broken it down by book and by sales. There are others who have sold far more, and many who would love to have half this number. I can tell you that it's taken a crazy amount of work to do this well, and if I had done more work I would have sold more.
If you are writing your own book, you can look at these numbers for information, but keep in mind that they are just the numbers of one author. If you write, I hope you do it because you enjoy it and not to measure yourself against anyone else.
Sales by book
Rojuun (sales) 380 Anilyia 2853 Kethril 2441 Willden Trilogy omnibus 1092 Dralin 586 Ebudae 1312 Pelya 1146 Wyvern 770 Liselle 461 Rain Glade 224 Alien Coffee 292 Emo Bunny Illustrated 91 Collection 401 Collection 2 14 Wings of Fantasy 597 Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend 117 Test Pilot 217 Don't Ever Change 105 Storage Room in the Grey Void 13 Emo Bunny that Should 149 Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy 221 Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow 27 Unholy Cow 72 Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies 176 Phairyphant 27 Naughty Nanoworms 20 Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm 8 Steampunk Roo 24 Pow the Panda 8 Grand Total - Sales 13844 Rojuun 52968 Dralin 15272 Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend 34386 Test Pilot 34186 Don't Ever Change 37393 Emo Bunny that Should 96090 Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy 40569 Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow 28544 Unholy Cow 29862 Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies 58936 Phairyphant 8 Naughty Nanoworms 9 Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm 1754 Grand Total - Free Giveaways 429977
Sales by store
Store Total Amazon 8742 Smashwords 527 Apple 2464 B&N 1707 Kobo 250 Sony 43 Createspace 61 Blio 8 Library Direct 16 Oyster 6 Grand Total - Sales 13824 Amazon 233720 Smashwords 50180 Apple 97707 B&N 45680 Kobo 3361 Sony 2831 Blio 82 Library Direct 4 Oyster 4 Diesel 43 Page Foundry 14 Grand Total - Free Giveaways 433626
Disparity in numbers
There is a slight disparity between the total sales by store and by book. I would estimate that there is a 1% total error margin in the numbers. With 29 titles available through 15 distributors over the course of 48 months (I could show you the number of sales of each book by month in each store, but there’s not enough room here) I haven't sorted out sales by country, though that information is available to a degree. I'm also on Wattpad, but I haven't added the download info from there at this point.What to expect in the future Currently, I'm 30,000 words into Liquid, the second book of the Wyvern Trilogy. I hope to be done early next year if I can strangle enough time to write. After that, I have hundreds of books in my mind waiting for their turn.The project that I'm truly excited about is that I've submitted "Dralin" to be published as an audio book. If that goes well, I intend to make the entire Ryallon series into audio books and possibly even the Demented Children's stories.
*** Well, thank you for reading my books and allowing me to share my demented imagination. I wish you all the best.John H. Carroll
So, on November 24th, I celebrated (completely forgot) my 4th anniversary of self-publishing. On November 30th, I celebrated my 18th wedding anniversary with my wife. Fortunately, I didn't forget that one.
Self Publishing
I decided to finally get around to writing a book in January of 2010, just as I had planned to do 20 years earlier. 2 things got me to finally do it. I discovered Smashwords and decided I'd give self publishing a try, and I turned 40, at which point I realized I needed to accomplish something instead of making excuses why I hadn't.
I'm addicted to writing books to the degree that I now become anxious when I haven't written for a few days. It's the second most important thing in my life after my family. I intend to do it for the rest of my life.
In these four years, I've written 24 original works (8 novels, 2 novellas, 4 short stories, and 10 children's books). I've published 29 titles (4 compilations and an illustrated version of the Emo Bunny that Should)
2014 is the first year I haven't published a book. Difficulties in life have hampered my writing and all other aspects of being a successful self-publisher. However, things have settled to a large degree and I'm writing more again.
Success
As far as success, I consider that I became a successful writer after I finished my first book, "Rojuun". As for professional success, I've sold over 13,000 books in the last 4 years. That makes me a low-level midlister in the self-publishing industry I believe. It's hard to say. There's not a lot of sales info in the publishing world. All the companies and most authors believe that sales are a matter of national security *sigh*.
I've decided to share my sales with anyone who's interested. I've broken it down by book and by sales. There are others who have sold far more, and many who would love to have half this number. I can tell you that it's taken a crazy amount of work to do this well, and if I had done more work I would have sold more.
If you are writing your own book, you can look at these numbers for information, but keep in mind that they are just the numbers of one author. If you write, I hope you do it because you enjoy it and not to measure yourself against anyone else.
Sales by book
Rojuun (sales) 380 Anilyia 2853 Kethril 2441 Willden Trilogy omnibus 1092 Dralin 586 Ebudae 1312 Pelya 1146 Wyvern 770 Liselle 461 Rain Glade 224 Alien Coffee 292 Emo Bunny Illustrated 91 Collection 401 Collection 2 14 Wings of Fantasy 597 Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend 117 Test Pilot 217 Don't Ever Change 105 Storage Room in the Grey Void 13 Emo Bunny that Should 149 Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy 221 Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow 27 Unholy Cow 72 Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies 176 Phairyphant 27 Naughty Nanoworms 20 Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm 8 Steampunk Roo 24 Pow the Panda 8 Grand Total - Sales 13844 Rojuun 52968 Dralin 15272 Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend 34386 Test Pilot 34186 Don't Ever Change 37393 Emo Bunny that Should 96090 Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy 40569 Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow 28544 Unholy Cow 29862 Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies 58936 Phairyphant 8 Naughty Nanoworms 9 Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm 1754 Grand Total - Free Giveaways 429977
Sales by store
Store Total Amazon 8742 Smashwords 527 Apple 2464 B&N 1707 Kobo 250 Sony 43 Createspace 61 Blio 8 Library Direct 16 Oyster 6 Grand Total - Sales 13824 Amazon 233720 Smashwords 50180 Apple 97707 B&N 45680 Kobo 3361 Sony 2831 Blio 82 Library Direct 4 Oyster 4 Diesel 43 Page Foundry 14 Grand Total - Free Giveaways 433626
Disparity in numbers
There is a slight disparity between the total sales by store and by book. I would estimate that there is a 1% total error margin in the numbers. With 29 titles available through 15 distributors over the course of 48 months (I could show you the number of sales of each book by month in each store, but there’s not enough room here) I haven't sorted out sales by country, though that information is available to a degree. I'm also on Wattpad, but I haven't added the download info from there at this point.What to expect in the future Currently, I'm 30,000 words into Liquid, the second book of the Wyvern Trilogy. I hope to be done early next year if I can strangle enough time to write. After that, I have hundreds of books in my mind waiting for their turn.The project that I'm truly excited about is that I've submitted "Dralin" to be published as an audio book. If that goes well, I intend to make the entire Ryallon series into audio books and possibly even the Demented Children's stories.
*** Well, thank you for reading my books and allowing me to share my demented imagination. I wish you all the best.John H. Carroll
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
L.E.
(new)
Dec 09, 2014 10:23AM
That's wonderful! And your books are wonderful too. Please keep up the amazing work. You're my favorite author.
reply
|
flag
Thank you, L.E. :) I'm making some good progress on the next book this week. It's getting fun and exciting.I'm thrilled that I'm your favorite author too. It feels really good to hear that.
