Time for a little admin

[David]

For just over a year now I've done plenty of writing, some cover design, and in a fashion some promotional work. Inspired by other authors' organisational skills, I decided I was going to learn how to work excel to keep a tally on how many books I've actually sold. The result was a little disappointing: in my mind I had sold well over a hundred; in actuality it was 74.

I don't know if this is reasonable for 14 months or poor.

Just wondered if others might want to share, or offer opinions, or generally join me in feeling glum.

[Jim]

Let's be honest, unless you've started writing chick lit, romance, or perhaps detective thrillers, your figures are probably about par for the course :-(

[Richard]

As, apparently, are mine: 67 in 13 months. But I'm certain every sexagenerian man has a great chick lit novel in him somewheres. It's just a matter of finding it.

[David]

Richard wrote: "As, apparently, are mine: 67 in 13 months. But I'm certain every sexagenerian man has a great chick lit novel in him somewheres. It's just a matter of finding it."

What I fail to understand is why anyone would want to read a book about someone shining a torch on a baby hen :~/

[Lynda]

What genre do you write in, David, and how many books do you have out?

[Marc]

I'd say that was about average. The problem remains one that has nothing to do with the quality of your book but of discoverability. How do people utterly unknown to you come to browse your work in the first place? How do they hear that you've got books out? It doesn't matter what your reviews say if people don't stop by on your book to read those reviews in the first place.

Like you I've done a lot of different marketing ploys and quite honestly none of them really work to any significant degree. There's little point in feeling glum about it. This is the realm of self-publishing. This is what we opt into voluntarily when we publish a book. You just have to battle on. It is (hopefully) a career, that your first book is just the start and that by the third or fourth on release you have eager readers already keen to receive it because they've read your others.

[David]

Lynda wrote: "What genre do you write in, David, and how many books do you have out?"

So far, fantasy: One stand alone Alloria, and the 1st and 2nd of a trilogy Fuel to the Fire & Ruler's Desire, the 3rd of which will be published soon. Soon after that will be my venture into the different genre of psychological thriller.

[Lynda]

I've just checked Fuel to the Fire. It's competitively priced, has good reviews (if only a few), and you're cover isn't bad - though I think your typography could use some work.

My suggestion would be to put it in KDP Select - if it's not there already - and have a free run. This might work better once the third is out, but even so you do have a sequel for people to buy.

Obviously you will need a plan of campaign if you go this route. You'll need to advertise/promote on lots of sites (most of which are free if your book is free) to get the most out of your run, and then monitor it very carefully while it is free.

Forgive me if I've overstepped the bounds with my comments and feel free to ignore them.

[David]

Good advice Lynda, which I will take on board, thanks. A free promo that coincides with the release of the 3rd book is definitely on the cards.

[David]

Thanks for the input Marc. I agree with what you say; just keep writing, especially if you're enjoying it. Not too, glum, to be honest :~)

[Marc]

David wrote: "Thanks for the input Marc. I agree with what you say; just keep writing, especially if you're enjoying it. Not too, glum, to be honest :~)"

If authors aren't enjoying writing I'm not sure why they'd be doing it. Sure there are troughs along the way, but if it's a torture for any writer, I'd offer that they maybe don't pursue it.

[Rosemary (grooving with the Picts)]

If it's torture for the writer odds on it ain't much fun for the reader either!

Joy in writing is readily apparent, in my opinion (as a reader!)

[Marc]

Rosemary (the Fourth Plinth) wrote: "If it's torture for the writer odds on it ain't much fun for the reader either!

Joy in writing is readily apparent, in my opinion (as a reader!)"

Very good point!

[Andy]

The other good thing about KDP select is the Countdown deals, so you could drop the book to 99p/c rather than list as a freebie. I've read mixed reviews about freebies as a lot of folks download everything they can find for free and don't get around to reading them (or buy book 2 as a consequence). Just getting books into the top 40 of its genre can have lasting positive effects also, so if you can get a handful of folks to buy your book at the same time it could be beneficial (don't think that's being too sneaky).

[David]

I'm still a little reluctant to go with select, as I'm just starting to see sales pick up on Smashwords: 4 last month, as opposed to 1 on Amazon.

[Andy]

I might give Smashwords another go, but over a three month period last year I had more "borrows" on the Zon than I did sales on Smashwords.

[David]

Amazon is ahead overall with 74. I've sold 12 in total on Smashwords, but to be fair I never really promote the fact that they're on there.

[Tim]

Here's a chart showing my sales to date.



Monthly numbers are in blue, cumulative total in red. This is across all platforms and all territories, for ebooks only. My best month was August (35 copies) when I had a 99p promo. This was immediately offset by a massive slump in September (coinciding with my 1* review). That was my worst month ever, until February just gone.

You can see a blip in december - this was due to the Countdown deal, which gained me about 10 sales, but no long-term impact (and no crash either, like happened in September).

The release of my Socko shorts at the end of December and the end of January had zero knock-on effect for the novel (as mentioned, Feb was my worst sales month ever, just 3 sales)

[Marc]

SP books do seem to die off in sales very shortly after their release. My 4th novel published in October has stopped selling already.

[David]

Marc wrote: "SP books do seem to die off in sales very shortly after their release. My 4th novel published in October has stopped selling already."

I wonder: is it because their are only a few readers prepared to give self published authors a go, or that other readers just aren't aware of the books?

[David]

At least the graph is impressive, Tim, and you've sold more than twice as many books as I have.

[David]

My worst month was June 13: zero sales. Looking at Tim's graph, it's because reader's who would have potentially bought my books were buying his ;~)

[Tim]

I think most of the problem is visibility and traction. I can't get onto any of the lists that actually sell books, because I don't have enough reviews *on .com* and none of the lists that I can get onto have any selling power.

The free lists and averts have been worth exactly what I paid for them, i.e. nothing. The paid adverts have simply not earned out, generally costing me between £2 and £10 per £1 sold. (Facebook is just a money sink - you can throw loads of money at it and it has no effect whatsoever).

After 10 months, selling the book is still costing me money: All my sales are directly attributable to some act of marketing, but I can't make back the cost of that marketing, yet alone pay back a single penny towards the actual costs of writing, editing and producing it.

[David]

That's tough, Tim. In light of that, I can't really complain, as my expenditure to date is zero – man hours not included of course.

[Andy]

I've tried to spend money on advertising on Bookbub but they wouldn't have me, sniff. I've also spent about thirty quid on here which added book 1 to quite a few shelves but only a handful of extra sales. Facebook advertising was a waste of coin, as I moaned in the café. I received a friendly one star last month that slowed things down for a week or so, but I'm back at my normal rate again. Borrowing numbers have been slowly increasing month on month, making it difficult for me to justify giving Smashwords another poke.

[Jim]

I've sold my first ever books on smashwords (two).

I just don't sell in the US, not even a 10th of what I sell in the UK

[Andy]

I'm the exact mirror of Jim in terms of where sales occur, with the US being my BFF. In fact in February .de outsold .co.uk.

[David]

My sales have just started to rise in US, not by much, but it's in the right direction. I'm around 5:1 in favour of the UK, plus a smattering of sales in Germany.

[Jim]

I think I had a sale in .Fr

But the Americans just don't seem to like my stuff

[Tim]

I didn't think I did at all well in the US, but when I totted up the numbers for that graph, I discovered that US sales make up nearly 40% for me. Instinctively I would have said it was around 1 in 10!

[Tim]

Yet I can't get the US reviews...

[Jim]

I think my US reviews are from wise UK reviewers who post their reviews onto .com and .co.uk

[Tim]

Most of mine are too. But not everyone will do it.

[Marc]

for some reason I get more reviews from US readers than UK, even though UK outsells US.

[Lynda]

My US reviews are exactly half my UK ones (and some of them are duplicates of the UK ones, so I suppose they don't count.)

Either way, it a bugger of a job to get them and the further into the series, the fewer the reviews. I have 3 full length books in my main series, and UK reviews are 48/13/8, whilst in the US it's 24/8/3

[David]

Have a listen to this interview with Hugh Howey, and especially the bit about him giving it ten years to get anywhere.

http://rockingselfpublishing.com/epis...

I think you have to see this as a long term business and not even think about making significant sales until you have several books out.

[Richard]

Sold 18 copies of my first book last year, only 3 of which as a direct result of a free offer in April. With the launch of the sequel last month, I dropped the price of both to $0.99, and got 50 new sales so far. So, in terms of income, any increase in sales is wiped out by the decrease in royalties. Not too encouraging.

The plan now is to resume normal prices and then publish a perma-free spinoff novelette, packaged together with a sample chapter from each novel, on Smashwords & Amazon, to see whether this has any effect on sales. If by next January my cumulative total has passed the 100 mark, I’ll have achieved my objective for the year. Getting it up into the 1000s is probably going to take a fair bit longer.

[Lynda]

David said:
Have a listen to this interview with Hugh Howey, and especially the bit about him giving it ten years to get anywhere.

http://rockingselfpublishing.com/epis...

I think you have to see this as a long term business and not even think about making significant sales until you have several books out.


Bless the man. He's young. I may not have ten years left.

[Tim]

Nor me, if I can't put food on my plate! lol

[David]

Lynda wrote: "Bless the man. He's young. I may not have ten years left."

You could always come back and haunt people until they buy your books.

That's my plan, anyway.

[Shaun]

Sales are fickle things. I have good months and bad months. The past couple of months have been relatively good.

[Karen]

Love that graph, Tim! I've almost finished totting up total sales. Think I'll hve to have a go at a graph now.
Sales did go down over Christmas/New Year, but I've not had a new book out for a while - it won't be ready to launch till April.
Pre-ebook sales I think were a lot less - tho I need to dig out my files in the loft to check.