Well, we're a couple months into this whole indie publishing project now, so I suppose it's time for another checkup.
As I said last time, I'm not posting these to brag, but to give a picture of how a career begins to take form and grow into a profitable and sustainable lifestyle. No idea when that'll happen, but I will get there in time. So, if you're reading this today, I'm hoping you'll hang in there with me. If you're reading this from the future (following a major publication or award, I'm sure), I hope this gives you a picture of how long it took me to get there.
Right, now with the numbers. I have yet to figure out an easy way to report all this information, so I'll stick with the overly long listing method.
"Reserved for War: Paradise Remnants Episode 1"
Kindle: 2 ($0.70)
Nook: 0 ($0.00)
Smashwords: 0 ($0.00)
"Divided by Victory: Paradise Remnants Episode 2"
Kindle: 0 ($0.00)
Nook: 0 ($0.00)
Smashwords: 0 ($0.00)
"Armed for Battle: Paradise Remnants Episode 3"
Kindle: 0 ($0.00)
Nook: 0 ($0.00)
Smashwords: 1 ($0.56)
"Antebellum"
Kindle: 0 ($0.00)
Nook: 0 ($0.00)
Smashwords: 0 ($0.00)
So, for March, we have a total of 3 sales earning me $1.26. Lets set that up against the numbers from previous months:
January: 6 ($2.36)
February: 4 ($1.61)
March: 3 ($1.26)
Yeah, not all that encouraging as a general trend. Diminishing sales is usually a bad thing, right?
But I'm trying not to be discouraged. Three months does not a career make, after all. And I'm sitting here with no outside advertising (like, from magazine or novel publications) leading readers to my indie material. That's something I aim to remedy in the coming months, but it's a process that takes time.
The other, more encouraging trend that I've noticed, however, has to do with which items are selling. While I may have only sold 13 copies in the past three months (hey, I broke double digits, awesome!), it's important to note that 9 of those copies are of the first installment -- "Reserved for War." What I take this to mean is that people are starting to see a series developing through my consistent releases and feel an urge to take a look. Whether or not they enjoy that first installment enough to continue reading (or to spread the word!) remains to be seen. And while this is hardly enough data to really prove anything (yet), I still find it an encouraging sign that the plan behind my whole gamble of "episodic releases" might actually be working.
That's all I have to say for this month. Now I'm off to prepare another release (slightly late due to Easter. Sorry.)
Until next time...
-joshua kehe
but that's wrong. I've bought the first three from Smashwords.
ReplyDeleteHm. Good point, maybe it wasn't clear above. The numbers in this post (as broken down by title) are ONLY for March. Previous months' sales are only included in the totals toward the end. Sorry if that's confusing.
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