Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Sales Report

I think I mentioned that I would put up sales numbers from time to time, I think a week out from the release of my novelette is long enough to share, just in case anyone is interested.

Amazon Sales - U.S. = 12
B&N Sales   -   U.S. = 2
Amazon Sales - U.K = 2
Total Sales    -          16

That's pretty not bad I think, I have this up for sale on Goodreads too, but have no idea how that thing works, or even recall choosing to put it up there. I meant to put it up on Smashwords this past weekend, but some out of town guests put a wrench in that plan.

Now, I would count Michael Offutt, Alex Cavanaugh, Cindy Borgne and Ellie Garratt as mostly responsible for those 16 sales. In fact, I think I can account for at least 14 of those 16 sales just from folks who mentioned they got a copy when visiting this blog. So I think it's a bit unrealistic to expect sales like that to continue forever. However, I will post numbers again so we can all see for ourselves how I am doing.

The story I'm working on now, which when finished will be a novella, was something I began with the idea of self publishing firmly in mind. It will be a great deal longer than the previous story. Once it's out there I'll see if I can get them to drop the price of the original story to nothing and see if that causes changes in the number of sales/downloads. That will be at least a month from now though. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

Again, not complaining, not bragging, just trying to be open about the process. God knows I've not been able to shut up about any other part, don't know why I would start now.


19 comments:

Deborah Walker said...

Great. Thanks, for being so open. And congratulations, here's to lots more sales.

Andrew said...

I'm about halfway through. I'll post a review when I finish. Which may be months and months from now if I can't get this stupid formatting for the Kindle to work out :/

PT Dilloway said...

I think you've got two more B&N sales than I've ever got. Not sure why that is.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

That's still good!
Don't rush - when the other story is ready, let's perfect it and then set up some kind of marketing plan for you so the next book gets a lot of notice.

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Congratulations on the success. It may have something to do with reviews too. Amber Argyle says that every review accounts for ten sales on Amazon.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

I'm always interested in these kinds of numbers. And no, it's not bad at all! I read somewhere that 1000 is the key number, after that it spreads a lot faster.

Rusty Carl said...

Deborah - Sure, no reason to be secretive about it. Although, this did not post when I scheduled it to... again. Stupid scheduling feature, it never does what I want it to.

Andrew - If you're halfway, just remember than it's all downhill from there. And the kindle formating - do you mean with your book or mine? I've never read from the kindle for PC app so I don't know what that's like. If it's your book then, sorry, I was pulling my hair out trying to get my formatting acceptable.

Rogue - Something that totally slipped my mind when I posted this. The first sale was to me. I forgot I got one to see what it would look like. The page breaks didn't look right on the preview for nook and they have this little note that says the page breaks will look different in the published version. I assumed it would turn out okay, but decided to purchase a copy for my nook app just to see... it was screwed up after all.I had to do it again. But, it still counts as a sale. I've really only sold one. I'm not sure who bought that one.

Alex - Yes, I wanted to have something out there with my name on it and had A Dead God's Wrath collecting dust so I put it up. I have no idea about marketing the thing, I feel like I do that whole business wrong. I don't like it. But I will try really hard to make the story as tight as I can before releasing it to the whole world.

Michael - I really appreciated your review. Not only was it very favorable, but you put that thing up all over the place. I do owe you a huge debt of gratitude.

Rusty Carl said...

Karen - A thousand? Geez, I'll let you know in June of 2022 when I pass that mark.

Tonja said...

That's probably a realistic start. I think you'll do very well over time.

Angie said...

Cool. Sixteen in a week isn't bad at all. Good luck with it!

Michael Offutt, Phantom Reader said...

Damn...I just checked out the cover art you did for Andrew over at his blog. My jaw dropped. Your art is seriously professional grade. How did you do that? WOW.

Life, Liberty and Accountability said...

16 is better than zero! Sales are sales, keep up on the grind!

Rusty Carl said...

Tonja - Well, here's hoping, No biggie either way though. It is what it is.

Angie - Agreed, I don't expect to see another week like that again anytime soon though. It's almost entirely online friends who made the purchase to support me. Much appreciated but not sustainable.

Michael - Wow. Thanks a ton. I'm stressing out over another one I trying to do now though. Really struggling... Glad you like Andrew's cover. I probably could have saved a ton of time on that one if I had any idea what I was doing when I started though. Such are the pains of learning.

Kid - Wise words. I'll do what I can.

M.J. Fifield said...

I just purchased a copy of A Dead God's Wrath the other day. I haven't started to read it yet but I'm looking forward to it. I love the cover art.

Ellie Garratt said...

Perhaps you could do a blogsplash when your novella comes out - maybe ask if anybody would like to feature it on a certain day?

Congratulations on the sales!

Briane said...

Rusty -- that's pretty good for a week, without a major push from a publisher.

I heard about your book from Michael Offutt, so you should push it more, but Michael's review got me to "wish list" it on my Kindle, and I'll buy it eventually and give it the Rum Punch Review treatment; I'm just not buying a new book right now. It sounds really good.

I'd be happy to have you do a guest post on The Best Of Everything -- http://www.troublewithroy.com. It gets about 3,000 hits per month, and other authors have done guest posts, too.

(You other readers -- drop me a line, as well, and get your own guest post. thetroublewithroy[at]yahoo.com, subject line: TBOE Guest Post )

Golden Eagle said...

Congratulations on your sales! That's not a bad number at all.

Rusty Carl said...

MJ - thanks for buying, and thanks for liking the cover art. I just realized that the hat silhouette creates an optical illusion. He's supposed to be looking at his left knee... some people think he is looking off into the distance. So odd.

Briane - Looks awesome, I'll give you a yell. Although, you didn't respond to my last email, what gives?

Eagle - The more I think about it the more I think it's actually a rather high number. I wouldn't expect to see a week that good again anytime in the near future. Thanks for your encouragement.

Andrew said...

I mean mine. I can't get that epub thing to work correctly. It may just be that I don't know what I'm doing, or it may be that there is some technical issue. Either way, I don't know enough to know which it is.
heh