Sales Report for March 2012

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

Sales Report for January 2012

This is going to be brief, since I don't really have much to say.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the next step of the journey -- earning money. As many of you know (or should, by this point), I published the first installment of an ongoing, serialized story on January 9th. It's available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, the iBookstore, and Kobo (still waiting for it to show up on Sony's bookstore) for $0.99 in eBook format.

I want to get two questions out of the way from the start:

1. No. I haven't sold very many yet. Just because it's out there doesn't mean people have found it yet.

2. Just because it hasn't sold very many yet doesn't mean it won't further down the line.

This is a long road, a journey that takes years -- even after making a successful (or even profitable) first publication.

So, with that in mind, I bring you my sales figures for January. I'm planning on doing this each month, not because I want to brag, but because I want to provide a window into the life of a writer taking the first steps on his career. (I'm getting better at this openness thing, right? Right?)

Hopefully, we'll be able to watch an upward trend toward viability over the next few months/years/decades. But I'm not in a position to make any promises.

All I can do is report the information.