One thing that encouraged me when I was considering self-publishing was seeing other authors totals. Some were good. Some were great. Some was pitiful. Still, I think that authors trying to decide if self-pubbing is for them need to know ALL the facts. Even the not so cheery ones. And for this very reason, I had decided I would be forthcoming with my sales figures.
October was a very good month for Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes. Pixel of Ink featured Twenty-Eight and my sales shot up like a rocket. I know that authors can purchase some type of exposure on Pixel of Ink but I had never heard of them before and had definitely not submitted anything to them. Their feature was pure luck. In any case, before Friday, October 7, I was averaging about 30-40 books sales a day. The day Pixel of Ink featured Twenty-Eight, I sold 265 books– 243 Kindle books and 21 Nook (avg Nook per day is 2-3). On Saturday, October 8, I sold 167– 160 Kindle books and 7 Nook. After that, my sales hovered around 70-90 total books sold per day until settling back into the previous 30-40 per day by the end of the month. It should be noted that I had done little publicity for Twenty-Eight other than Tweeting and posting on Facebook links to positive reviews.
During my high selling days, my rankings shot up. At one point I was #217 in ALL Kindle book sales and #8 in Mystery>Women Sleuths and #9 in Romantic Suspense.
October was the first full month that Chosen had been released. I also began a book blogger tour that helped sales, but not as much as I would have liked. Until Tuesday, October 11, I was averaging 6-9 books sold per day. Around then, reviews from the blog tour started coming in and sales jumped up into double digits, starting in the teens and then hovering in the 20’s most of the month. On Sunday night, October 30, Chick-Lit Plus Blog Tours posted their first review of Chosen, a five star, glowing review, and my sales jumped up to 40 for Sunday, October 30 and then 31 total sales for Monday.
I should point out that my sales are often the strongest on the weekends.
I should also point out that while I was initially disappointed with Chosen’s total sales for the month, when I compared them to Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes first full month, I realized that Chosen’s sales were actually better than Twenty-Eight’s. Since I’ve never posted figures before, I’ll post all previous months. Note: As weird as it now seems to me, I didn’t keep daily totals before September. At that time, I began to record sales to see what marketing techniques worked and what made little impact.
TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES
July Official release July 12, although eBooks were available on July 1
Kindle: 122
Kindle UK: 1
Nook: 39
Smashwords: 3
Createspace: 9
My website: 30
Other print: 5
TOTAL: 209
August
Kindle: 374
Kindle UK: 3
Nook: 37
Smashwords: 3
Createspace: 4
My website: 5
Other print: 15
TOTAL: 441
September
Kindle: 665
Kindle UK: 3
Nook: 264
Smashwords: 1
Createspace: 5
My website: 2
Other print: 7
TOTAL: 947
October
Kindle: 1700
Kindle UK: 5
Nook: 76
Smashwords: 2
Createspace: 3
My website: 0
Other (Kindle France): 1
TOTAL: 1787
TOTAL TO DATE: 3384
CHOSEN
September Official release September 21 but eBooks were available on September 18
Kindle: 68
Kindle UK: 0
Nook: 26
Smashwords: 1
Createspace: 3
My website: 7 (includes presales)
Other print: 4
TOTAL: 103
October
Kindle: 529
Kindle UK: 3
Nook: 35
Smashwords: 1
Createspace: 2
My website: 4
Other print: 4
TOTAL: 578 (Note: Twenty-Eight had 441 in sales its first full month)
TOTAL TO DATE: 687
TOTAL TO DATE FOR BOTH BOOKS: 4071
Great information. I appreciate the transparency into the actual sales figures. I’ve often wondered where sales hover for books in the eBook market. Add to that all of the talk about self publishing ebooks, and the glamour one hears associated with it… It’s easy to be enamoured with the idea of self-pubbing an ebook, but numbers like these put some statistical weight on the concept, and make something qualitative seems much more quantitative.
Again, thanks for the info.
Ry
I’m so happy that your sales have been doing so good! Your books are excellent and they deserve to be selling remarkably well. And I think it’s awesome that you’re sharing this with us. It’s something all writers wonder about but few authors write about.
DENISE. That is SO awesome!! Congratulations on your success so far–I know it’s only going to continue to grow 🙂
Denise, those are HUGE increases. I am so happy for you.