Wednesday 21 August 2013

My Second Month as a Self-published Author - Sales Figures Included


It’s been two months since I released my first novella, Crash, as an ebook. Here is my experience so far. 

Obsessed!
So I’m still checking my sales figures more frequently than is healthy. I wonder if that will ever change. 

Reviews
I’ve only had one one-star review still but I have had three two-star reviews on Amazon.com My most recent two-star review came a week or so back and that’s really affected my sales on Amazon.com. Fortunately my novella is doing much better on the other side of the pond. I currently have thirteen reviews and ten of them are five-star. As a result, my book is selling much better in the UK. 

Amazon Top One Hundred Charts
Since its release, Crash has consistently been in the top one hundred post-apocalyptic novels. It has fallen out on a couple of occasions but it hit an all time high at number twenty today. 



Sales
I was happy with my sales for about the first six weeks and then they started to slip. It’s hard to know why, but the most recent negative review seems to have had an impact in the US. So what I decided to do was drop the price to $.99 to see if it affected sales. Yesterday I sold twelve copies in one day. Most of those were in the UK. The sale price is until the beginning of September, although if it goes really well I may extend that. I’m not aiming to make money on my first book, I just want to get it in the hands of readers and remain visible on Amazon. When my second and third books in the series come out, I intend to make this book permanently free. 

Figures
While I like Kobo’s ethos and a great review came from a Kobo reader, I have only had three sales on Kobo in six weeks. I’ve had one hundred and fifty-three sales on Amazon. I’ve had nothing on Smashwords and they were a pain to get the formatting correct for. 

Overall
So since the first month I’ve hit the milestones of one hundred and one hundred and fifty copies sold. I’ve experimented with price and seen a marked difference when I drop it. I’ve had Amazon’s dominance confirmed to me, and I’ve developed a thicker skin while learning how I can become a better writer. I’m pleased with my sales so far, although I’ve been warned that books fall off a cliff at some point.