Experiment Month One

Background:
A writer friend and I were discussing what kinds of books sold. Then she confided in me that she'd been writing a certain type of book incognito. I was shocked. Flabbergasted in fact since she has books with major publishers as well as small press. I mean, I'm not a prude, but I'm not without my Puritan upbringing like so many other Americans. I even blushed. I said aloud, "I could never write that."

Then she told me how much of her writing income came from this. I was floored. Surely she was making it up. So I started doing some research. I began reading the books and watching their eBook sales numbers. Finally, I threw my Puritan upbringing to the wolves and sat down and penned a Novelette. I'm a pretty decent writer with a strong writing resume, so it wasn't too tough for me. I finished the story the beginning of September and it was edited and released as an eBook October 1. During the month of October I worked on a second. The second was a true Novella coming in at over 14K. It was released October 25.

I've labeled them Novella #1 and Novella #2 to share the detailed results of this experiment with my writer friends. If you want very specific details (titles, pseudonym, genre specifics) you'll need to contact me at swordarkeereon@gmail.com and we can talk about it. Or you can PM me on Facebook. I don't want to compromise my secret identity here.

Novella #1 (8,400 words)
Released October 1, 2010 on Kindle
Released October 2, 2010 on Nook

Price: $2.99
Author Royalty Kindle: 2.00
Author Royalty Nook: 1.94

Kindle Copies Sold: 51
Breakdown - US:       50            UK:    1

Nook Copies Sold:  103

Kindle Profit: $102.00
Nook Profit: $ 200.18
Total Made on Novella #1 Month 1: $302.18


Novella #2 (14,000words)
Released October 25, 2010 on Kindle
Released October 26, 2010 on Nook

Price: $2.99
Author Royalty Kindle: 2.00
Author Royalty Nook: 1.94

Kindle Copies Sold:  20
Breakdown- US: 17      UK: 3

Nook Copies Sold: 460

Kindle Profit: $40.00
Nook Profit: $ 894.01
Total Made on Novella #2 Month 1: $934.01
(actually this is really only one week!!!)

Total Month 1 Income on Experiment: $1,236.19

Some observations:

Nook users seem to buy more of this particular genre and I wonder if it's because once the book is live, so are the covers and descriptions whereas Amazon can take up to a week to import the description. Once Amazon imports the description, your book is no longer in front of readers and your opportunity to lure a reading audience is gone.

I first thought the first 72 hours were the most pivotal and I had to go into several Amazon Kindle user groups to let them know the books were available. I did it incognito as if I were a reader recommending it. Yes, I know that's underhanded, but I don't have an Amazon account as my secret identity and quite frankly don't want everyone knowing about my secret identity because what I'm writing isn't just mainstream, vanilla you-know-what. I've always taken to the taboo in almost everything I do, after all. So upon dropping little recommendations here and there, that's when the most sales were generated on Amazon. Otherwise, sales trickle in at 1-3 copies per day. Most sales seem to happen in the evening hours on Amazon.

This did not hold true for Nook. On Novella #2 the Nook sales spurt started 4 days after the initial release. Something amazing happened and in the space of 24 hours I went from 24 books sold to 100 books sold in 24 hours. The book ended up #143 on BandN's bestsellers in Nook and #5 in Erotica sales on Nook. Don't ask me how it happened. It just did. I've also heard that certain types of stories sell really well, and this particular story has that in it.

I woke up 10/30/2010 to find that Novella #2 was at #138 and #2 on the bestseller list. Still don't know how it happened. I only have a few handfuls of friends and writer friends and a couple editors who know who I am and what I'm writing. They have promised to keep my secret identity secret.

Different types of books generate different types of sales (obviously). Mixing the sacred with the profane... eh, not so much as "experience" type stories.

To really make any substantial money doing this you'd have to generate at least one new story per week and include as many elements that may sell well as possible. My current plan is to release 1-4 of these stories per quarter with no commitment. However, the allure is there. It would be tempting but I would have to give up writing the things I love to write and my readers love to read and I'm not quite willing to do that. Instead, I'll be content throwing a few of these out every few months as an exercise in writing shorts (if anything). Not to mention I clearly have readers in this genre now. I may even play in various sub-genres there with additional pen-names. We'll see. I'm just dabbling.

You may also have to assume that there is a possibility that Nook will eventually be drowning in these stories. So those who got into BandN Nook early with their books will have good sales until everyone is doing it, at which point your sales may be similar to Amazon's. About 10 copies per week per title on average.

I'll post another report at the end of November to track where these stories and their sales are. I fully expect sales to slowly taper off to maybe 20 copies a month or something like that. I have two more of these stories in the works right now. They'll probably be released December/January.