Wrapping up 2020

Whew, I made it out of 2020 alive and with my sanity intact... mostly.  Time to wrap that puppy up and shove it into storage.  Here's how my writerly year shook out...

I wrote 73044 new words last year.  For the most part, that was finishing Cinder Ugly and writing Duke Noble .  I also laid some words down on several other books - another SCIU novel, the Arthurian UF thing, a quirky thing, and an attempt to start a sequel series to the model books.

I edited and published two books last year - Ugly and the Beast and Cinder Ugly.  That brought my total number of published novels to 15.

In sales, it was not a good year.  I sold a grand total of 65.39 books for a whopping $79.89 - an average of $1.49 a book. The only book I didn't sell any copies of was Project Hermes.  :sigh:  Of course, I didn't do any paid advertising last year for the nine free or sale things I did.  It was all on me and I didn't have the heart to do much marketing.  

I had five freebies.  I moved 359 books that way. 

Goals for the new year?  Well, I'm trying to take it day by day.  Lord knows my goals for last year didn't pan out.  And I quote: "If I can swing that, I'd like to see Ugly and the Beast and Cinder Ugly hit your ereaders in 2020.  I'd also like to get another SCIU and another Dennis Haggarty at least written, if not out there in public."  I did get UatB and CU out to the world.  As for the other two... umm, no.

This year, I will get Duke Noble's first book finished and out there.  Yes, I hope he will be a series.  No, I have no clue where I'll go after this one is in the can.  I still want to get another SCIU and another Dennis Haggarty out there.  Then there's the idea I had for more from Jeni Braxxon.  We'll see what happens.  I'm not promising anything but Duke at this point in time.

Other than that, the hope is to just keep plodding along and not let whatever happens this year derail me as much as last year's events derailed me.  

How was your 2020?  Do you have plans and goals for this year?  What are they?

Once Upon a Djinn Sale Wrap-up

Gah I overslept.  And I didn't set this up beforehand, so bear with me.

I wanted to talk this morning about the sale that just wrapped up last night.  I'm not sure if any of this is interesting to anyone but me, but here goes...

The sale ran from 12/23 through 12/27.  Wish in One Hand was free and the other 3 genie books were 99c/99p each.  

Books moved:

WIOH - 82
IDW - 3
UWC - 3
WHTF - 3

No page reads yet. 

To achieve that, I posted to 16 different Facebook Groups, 2 MeWe groups, 3 FB pages I own, and my MeWe page.  I know of two different people who posted about my books as well.  

I made $5.82.

Now, before you think that's depressing news, it's actually not totally gloomy.  I mean, it isn't great, but looking on the bright side, that's pure profit there.  And it's more money than I made on books in five other months this year.  

(Yeah, I am blowing smoke up my own wahoo, but it's early and I don't feel like being bummed out, so there.  =op)

Anyway, there was a sale.  I moved some books.  There are 88 new chances out there in the world for people to read and enjoy my work.   Maybe the freebies will spark someone enough so they'll buy the rest of the series and then buy the model series and then the rest.  Fourteen other books for them to read.  Yay.

The rest of this week will be devoted to getting my 2021 spreadsheets up and running.  I might talk about that on Wednesday.  I'll also be writing on Duke Noble.  I rolled over 30K words last night.  Woohoo.

Now, on to more coffee before my brain implodes.

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 12/12/20

Well, hello there.  Fancy meeting you here.  It's almost the end of the year, ya know, and we're coming to the end of these wrap-ups for 2020.  (I have a flare for stating the obvious, doncha know.)

I picked up four new ebooks this week - paranormal mystery, UF, paranormal romance, romance.  And I have one book left from before - a thriller.  No new hardcopies this week.

Books Read:

82) Drop Dead, Gorgeous by Mike Jastrzebski (12/6/20) - Supernatural Mystery*# - 5 stars.  New to me and while it does have loads of ratings, it doesn't have many reviews, which is too damn bad.  Free off the ENT newsletter.
Review: "Wow, that was a really fun story. I loved the characters and the premise was interesting. It was well-written with an intriguing plot. Plus, it hearkened back to the old noir crime novels I love. Supernatural mystery for the win."

DNFs:

12/11/20 - romance. Free.  I read this about 2/3rds of the way through and then I realized there was no way I was going to be able to give the book more than 3 stars, no matter how it finished.  So I stopped.  I mean, there was sooo much unnecessary stuff in there.  The author could've trimmed a lot and had a much better book with fewer pages.  One I probably would've read all the way through.  =o( 

Currently reading... the thriller left over from earlier in the month.  I'm not loving it, so I'm not sure if this will become a DNF today.  

How did your reading week go?  Anything awesome to report?

Talking Marketing Again

Okay, so I did the free thing for Dying Embers.  That ended yesterday and I saw 49 copies move out to readers.  Two more than the last time I did the freebie thing for DE.  Remember, this is sans paid advertising, so no huge numbers, but hey, it's something. 

Additionally, I have had Fertile Ground and Early Grave on sale for 99c each since Sunday and that sale is still on through Saturday.  (The logic behind Amazon letting you have a sale for 7 days but only free for 5 days escapes me.)  To date, I've sold 3 copies of FG and 2 copies of EG.  Plus there were some page reads for FG that I hope will continue.  

Facebook finally forced me to go with their new format, which makes advertising in FB groups a wee bit different.  Actually, it's a smidgen easier once you get the hang of it.  (The only good thing I've found about new FB, so far.)  Unfortunately, one of my go-to groups went to approving every post before it posts and the administrators aren't quick about approvals, so I won't be posting there anymore.  I get why they're doing it, but the delay harshes my game.  I also found and joined a new to me group I hope will find me some new readers.  :fingers crossed: 

If you want to sell through FB without giving FB money, posting in book groups is about the only way.  I mean, I've paid FB for ads and never saw a sale, so why pay them more?  That and I refuse to throw any more money their way.  I'd leave FB entirely if I could get the same return on posting at MeWe or elsewhere.  Hell, I'd pay MeWe if I thought I could make money there.  We'll see what it looks like in 2021.

In other news, I'll be doing another sale thing starting next week.  Not sure which book(s) I'll be doing.  Stay tuned.  Might be Accidental Death and Natural Causes.  We'll see.

I came across a potential new reader out and about in the world the other day.  But she only reads hardcopy books.  I stopped by and saw her this week, with books in the car, but I chickened out on actually trying to sell her any.  I'm so bad at hand-selling my books.  Thank goodness for Amazon.  (Although I rarely ever sell paperbacks even then.)

Okay, that's about it for me.  Any questions?  Anything to add? 

2019 Sales and Marketing Wrap-up

Happy New Year!  Well, that's another year in the can.  I can't say I'm sorry to see 2019 go.  :waves buh-bye:  Let's just go ahead and get this wrap-up out of the way so we can put 2019 away.

It was not a banner year for the whole writing/selling books thing.  I had hoped to get two books out in 2019, if I remember right.  That didn't happen.  I started the year in a slump and it pretty much lasted all year.

I did get Ugly and the Beast written.  I also got it kind of edited.  Then I started Cinder Ugly and the wheels came off.  I wrote part of a Space Bunny thing.  I also did some noodling around with ideas for another SCIU and another Dennis Haggarty.  I participated in NaNo and got another big chunk written on a YA fantasy I started 6 years ago.  Oh, and I started a short Christmas story involving the genies.  Not much to crow about considering there were 365 days in there with which to work and how little I actually worked on writing.

In the selling books arena, here are the numbers.  It's easier to deal with numbers sometimes.

Total sales $: $469
Total copies sold: 484

Not as much money as last year, but better than 2017, so I'm not crying into my coffee too much.  With no new books hitting the market, I should be happy I got that many sales.  This year, I did roll over 3K books sold over the entirety of my publishing life.  It averages out to 603 books and $712 a year.  (2015 was a big year, so it skews the average.)  Woohoo.

Dollars spent on marketing: $316
Sales $ earned from paid ads: $353

So, I finished the year in the black on paid marketing, but not by much.  If it weren't for marketing, I wouldn't have sold much in 2019.  I mean, take the $353 off the $469 and you get $116 worth of books sold without any paid advertising. 

Average per book income: 97c

Considering that I only sold 24 books at full price, I'm amazed I averaged that much.  I attribute it to Page Reads, which, while not netting me the same dollars as selling a full-priced book outright, certainly nets me more than a discounted 99c book.  I sold 316 books at the sale price of 99c, of which I get about 64c.

Speaking of Page Reads...

Number of books sold through the KU program: 72.82
Dollars earned through Page Reads: $126.04

And the majority of that can be attributed to paid ads.

It's getting harder and harder to sell books as a self-published author.  For me, anyway.  I'm sure there are writers out there doing much better than I am.  They're probably dropping new books at least 4 times a year, spending a bunch more on marketing, and have more social presence than I do.  I can only do what I can do, so I'm trying not to come off as whiny.  Like I said, this was a hard year but not the worst year ever.  Sure, I'd like it to have been better.  Who wouldn't?

My goals for the year ahead depend mostly on having the funds to pay my editor.  If I can swing that, I'd like to see Ugly and the Beast and Cinder Ugly hit your ereaders in 2020.  I'd also like to get another SCIU and another Dennis Haggarty at least written, if not out there in public.  Beyond that, I can't commit to anything.  Not yet.  I hope to under promise and over deliver.

Ah, hope. It's a thing.

Do you have any questions for me?  How was your 2019?  What are you hoping to accomplish in 2020?

Free Book Numbers

Since I had Project Hermes listed for free this week, I got a little curious about the numbers.  Oddly enough, I'd never actually looked at the numbers for my freebies before.

Let's hop into the wayback machine...

2015:  I listed Dying Embers as free in March and moved 356 copies.  I also sold 26 copies of it that month.  Since there were no other books published at that point, that was all DE.

2016:  I did quite a few freebies in 2016.  The biggest one was for DE, during which I moved 2431 copies.  That was February.  I also had a freebie for PH (then BloodFlow) during February and moved 127 copies.  In March, I listed AD for free and moved 759 copies.  FG was free in August - 100 copies.  WIOH was free in both September and October - I assume for one day each month - and 321 copies went out the door.  All told, I gave away 3738 copies in 2016.

2017:  I held two freebies for WIOH only.  I moved 858 copies and then sold 75 copies of the next three genie books - on sale during the freebies for WIOH.

2018: In March, I put AD for free and moved 118 copies - after which I sold 4 copies of NC.  Then in April, I listed DE as free again and 1007 went out the door.  Residual series sales for FG and EG ended up being about 40 books.

2019:  In February, I put Unequal for sale for a day.  Moved 22 copies.  Afterward, I sold one copy of UEQ and one copy of Blink of an I.  This week, Project Hermes was free for three days.  161 copies went out the door.  Since there isn't any book that relates directly to PH, I don't expect a lot of movement, but there's always a chance for KU reads and other sales.  :fingers crossed:

All told, I've given away 6260 books since 2015.

Sometimes, I see an uptick in sales of the book I made free.  Sometimes I get sales for other books in the same series.  Every rare once in a while, other unrelated books get sold because of a freebie promo I've run.  It's hit and miss.

Personally, I hate giving anything away.  But I understand that sometimes giving books away helps sell books.  And I have to remind myself that the people who get my books for free might not have slapped money down to buy them because I am an unknown author to them.  Once they give me a try, they may go on to buy my stuff. 

As a reader, I rely on free books to feed my reading addiction.  The budget's so slim right now I can't afford to try new authors, so I pick them up during freebie promos.  And if they're good, I try to find space in the budget to buy their subsequent books.  That's kind of how the freebie promo is supposed to work.

What about you?  Have you tried freebie promos for your books?  How did they work out for you?  If you haven't tried them as a writer, do you use them as a reader to find new authors? 

SCIU Sale Wrap-Up

As the year progresses with no new books to show for it, the sales get weaker and weaker, so I probably shouldn't expect much.  You need to be constantly putting forth new material.

Anyway, I said I'd share the results of the latest sale, so here we are.

First, an update on last month's OUAD sale.  It finally made enough money to pay for the ad I placed.  And with page reads still coming in, I'm ahead a little.

Now, the SCIU sale.  It ran from the 10th through the night of the 16th.  Dying Embers was 99c, Fertile Ground and Early Grave were $1.99.  I placed an ad with Bargain Booksy that ran on the 12th for DE ($55).

As of this morning, I sold just under 36 copies of DE, 5 copies of FG and 5 copies of EG.  I'm still seeing page reads, but the hope of actually paying off the ad is slim.  Which kind of blows but like I said, not unexpected. 

Overall, I'm still ahead on ad revenue, showing a 8.91% profit.  $271 spent on ads.  $297.50 earned off ads.  That'll change a little as the month progresses and page reads continue to come in, but not in any major way.

I didn't keep track of rankings this time.  At one point, DE made it into the 300s in its genre specification and into the teen-thousands in overall books.  Not quite enough to effect sales greatly. 

Prior to the ad, I had no sales this time around.  I fell down on the job of pushing on FB.  That may account for lower sales from the ad because the rankings of all three books were so poor when the ad came out.  I made a pretty, new graphic that seemed to get a lot of Likes on FB, but didn't really equate to more sales. 

Could be that because one of my pre-ad push days was Sept 11th the pre-sales fell apart.  It wasn't really a great day for book buying or looking at ads.  But when I set my sale dates, it wasn't even on my radar.  My mistake. 

Anyway, live and learn. 

Not sure what lies ahead for marketing this year.  I have sales penciled in for October, November, and December.  Whether I'll be able to advertise remains to be seen.  Gotta make money to spend money to make money... Ad infinitum.

As for overall sales for the year, I just passed the 400 books/$400 mark.  Not sure if I'll pass last year at this rate, but I've already passed 2017, so this won't be my worst year ever.  That's gotta count for something.

And that's it.  Any questions?

July Sales Wrap-up

Well, I said I'd give you a breakdown of the month, so here it is.

This past month, I held 5 sales, starting on the 4th and ending on the 29th.

Sale #1 - Project Hermes.  No advertising other than FB Group posts.  Sold 3 books.  No page reads.
Sale #2 - Blink of an I.  No advertising other than FB Group posts.  No sales.  No page reads.
Sale #3 - Sleeping Ugly.  No advertising other than FB Group posts.  Sold 2 books.  No page reads.
Sale #4 & #5 - Accidental Death and Natural Causes.  Paid $55 for an ad for AD, and did all the FB Group posts.  To date, AD sold 39 books, had 2.45 books worth of page reads, and had one return.  NC sold 17 books and very few page reads so far.  The ad has not paid for itself yet, but we'll see if the page reads keep coming in.

It was a long and tiring marketing month, but I don't regret doing it.  If I hadn't done it, I'm sure I wouldn't have sold nearly as much.  Like way not as much.  The ad is only $11 short of paying for itself, and that's not as bad as it could've been.

Now, these ads usually pay for themselves with my sitting around praying for page reads.  I think what happened here is that there were only two books in the series.  When I did the same ad for the SCIU books - a three book series - the ad paid for itself.  When I did the same ad for the OUAD books - a four book series - the ad more than paid for itself.  (Noting, of course, that I only advertised the first book in each series.)

Of course, all these sales and discounts have dropped my per-book average to 96c.  But that was to be expected.  I wish I could sell more books at regular prices, but you know what they say... If wishes were fishes, we'd all eat like kings.

Next month, I hope to do something with Wish in One Hand.  Not sure what or when.  And the longer I take to decide, the fewer my options are for advertising.  One place is already booking ads for September because August is sold out.  Umm, yeah, missed that opportunity again.  I might do a whole 4th anniversary of WIOH thing.  I'm playing with the idea of making it free again.  I just hate paying for advertising on free books.  Bleh.

Anyway, that's the wrap-up for my July sales spectacular.  Any questions?

Twenty-Eighteen in Retrospect

What can I say about 2018?  It's a blur?  It was busy?  :shrug:  It was what it was.  And now it's time to wrap it up.

I'm still plugging along out here in Self-Publishing Land.  And I met my publication goal.  This past year saw 4 new books published, which brings me to a grand total of 13.  The books in 2018 were Blink of an I, Early Grave, Sleeping Ugly, and Unequal.  One suspense, one paranormal, and two dystopians.

Sales this year were better than last year, but I threw a lot more money at advertising.  I spent $330 on ads in 2018 and made about $470 directly linkable to those ads.  Sales overall went over $600 for the year.  (Yeah, that's the right amount of zeroes.) That was about $300 more than I made in 2017, so I'm calling it a win.  I also went over $3K total sales for the whole shebang and have sold over 2500 books in the four years I've been publishing.  No clue how many books I've given away.  I don't track that.  It depresses me.

Of course, with all the discounts I had this year, my average $ per book went down to $1.12 from my overall average of $1.22.  I didn't hand sell a single book in 2018, though, so I don't have those tugging my averages up.  Gave away a few, but didn't sell any.

A while back, I raised the prices on a majority of my books to make them more in line with other books of the same genres and quality.  It didn't really make a difference in how many books I was selling but when a book did sell at regular price, I made a bit more scratch.

The books didn't gain that many more reviews this year.  I treasure the ones I did get, but I wish there were more.  Then again, who doesn't?

If you're interested, here are the 'copies sold' numbers as of last night:

DE - Overall: 1003.82 / 2018: 152.15
AD - Overall: 572.63 / 2018: 87.12
WIOH - Overall: 363.89 / 2018: 100.76
PH - Overall: 88.06 / 2018: 15.46
IDW - Overall: 124.14 / 2018: 25.54
FG - Overall: 136.89 / 2018: 54.60
UWC - Overall: 81.69 / 15.89
NC - Overall: 28.22 / 2018: 14.57
WHTF - Overall: 53.04 / 2018: 14.87
BOIA - Overall/2018: 11.36
EG - Overall/2018: 49.23
SU - Overall/2018: 12.19
UEQ - Overall/2018: 4.40

Umm, yeah.  Kind of depressing.  Makes my brain hurt.

But I'm still plugging away.  They haven't beaten me into submission yet.  However, I'm at a loss to figure out what I'll be doing in the year to come.  Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  Something has to change, I guess.  Not sure what.  With the slow start I'm looking at, I can be fairly certain I won't be publishing 4 books again.  If I can get two or three out, I'll be pleased. 

On the upside, my books are out there and people are reading them.  Not as many people as I had envisioned when I started this mad ride, but more than it could've been.

All in all, 2018 wasn't horrible.  Still, here's to a better 2019 for us all.

Sale and Marketing Wrap-up

The sale for Accidental Death ended at midnight the 26th (which is the first minute of the day, not the last - a point which confuses me to this day).  It was a Kindle Countdown Deal with only one price point - 99c.  After which, it returned to its regular low price of $2.99.

The sale started at midnight on the 19th.  On the 19th and the 20th, the only advertising I did was through FB, Twitter, and this blog.  I sold one book on the 19th and one book on the 20th.

On the 21st, I had an ad go out through Bargain Booksy.  Ad cost $55.  The ad hit their site at 7am CST and their newsletter reached me at 11am.  I saw one sale before 11am, and that was in Australia (at full price because Amazon doesn't allow KCDs in AU).  Once the newsletter hit inboxes, my sales began to climb.  I saw 53 sales for AD on the 21st and 3 for Natural Causes.

Over the next few days, I had some sales every day with little additional advertising.  I did put out a couple of things to FB groups on Friday, but whether they caused sales or not is hard to tell.  I did a full-on blast Sunday afternoon across all my usual FB groups - a sort of 'time's running out, buy now' thing - but I didn't have an extra sales as far as I can tell.

Pages reads started on Thursday and have been chugging along since.

The ad paid for itself on Saturday, which is the primary goal of paid advertising for me.  Everything after that is gravy.

November was shaping up to be one of my worst sales months ever.  I'd only sold 1.29 books before the sale.  Since the sale, I've sold over 75 books, saving this month from the pits.

I've also seen some pages reads for books not in the Dennis Haggarty series, which certainly helps.  Someone read all of Early Grave, someone else started In Deep Wish and then, I assume, went over to read Wish in One Hand. 

As for the rankings I was tracking...  AD started out the sale at 943,000 in all books  and reached a high of 6401.  In its genre category, it went from somewhere in the 2100s to a high of 28th in Hard-boiled Mystery and #36 in Noir.  That was Thursday morning.  It's been steadily falling since, but with additional sales trickling in, the fall isn't as fast as it could be.

Here's the graph (because I'm a nerd):

Rank in Thousands

Natural Causes also got a boost in rank.  But I didn't start tracking it until it had already risen in the ranks, so there's not really a baseline.  It did reach 68443 in all books and 281 in HB/Noir.

All in all, I'm pleased with the results.  The rest of this month is gravy.  Not a lot of gravy, but better than it had been.  So, it's all good.

Thanks for reading along.  I hope following this helps you in some way.  Now, I've got to start planning my next marketing ventures for December before I get left out.  Wish me luck.  ;o)

Wrapping Up 2017 in Book Sales

Last year was not a bonus year for selling books, lemme tell ya.  And, from what I've heard, I wasn't the only one.  All I can say is we have to keep motoring along and hoping for the best.  The alternative is unacceptable. 

Okay, now for the wrap-up. 

In 2017, sales (through individual sales and Kindle Unlimited page reads) were as follows:

All books: 261.95
Dying Embers: 37.01
Accidental Death: 16.78
Wish in One Hand: 45.53
Blood Flow: 3.05
In Deep Wish: 48.16
Fertile Ground: 17.01
Up Wish Creek: 41.68
Natural Causes: 13.65
Wish Hits the Fan: 38.16

Umm, yeah.  I did say it wasn't a banner year.  Of course, it also wasn't a big year for advertising.  I only spent $111 on ads.  Which might have something to do with the lack of sales.

Outgo for the year was just over $1500.  Income for the year was just over $300.

For all three years of publishing, I've sold 1971.40 books.  I had hoped to clear the 2K mark this year, but that wasn't to be.  The grand totals for each book are:

Dying Embers: 851.66
Accidental Death: 485.50
Wish in One Hand: 263.13
Blood Flow: 72.60
In Deep Wish: 98.61
Fertile Ground: 82.28
Up Wish Creek: 65.81
Natural Causes: 13.65
Wish Hits the Fan: 38.16

And because I sat down and did the numbers, here's how the finances have worked out for the entirety of my publishing journey thus far...

Spent about $8600 and made about $2500.  As Hubs likes to put it, that income means Dying Embers and most of Accidental Death are paid for.  Thinking about it this morning, it's more like a Ponzi scheme - with newer members paying older members, so it looks like it's funding itself when it's not. 

Anyway, I don't mean for this to be discouraging or sound like a whine.  It is what it is.  As long as I find the funds to publish books, I will continue to publish books.  Right now, that means working part time as a contract computer person.  I do spreadsheets and troubleshooting, and most of the money I make there goes into an account to pay for editing and cover art.  Whatever it takes, right?

But if you're thinking about doing this self-publishing thing, understand that it isn't a get-rich-quick endeavor.  It isn't even a get-rich-slow one.  It's a labor of love, perhaps.  It means finding satisfaction in knowing people out there are reading your books when they weren't able to before you self-published.  It also means finding satisfaction in knowing you've done this thing.  You.  Not an agent.  Not a publisher.  You.  And yes, it is pretty satisfying.  Heh, it kind of has to be, doesn't it?

For the year ahead, I have plans to publish 4 books.  Right now, they will be Blink of an I (due out in February), Early Grave (hoping for May or June), Sleeping Ugly (August or September), and either the fourth book in the Dennis Haggarty series or another dystopian (November or December).  This is pretty firm in my head, but as always, it's subject to change.

Any questions? 

2016 Publishing Wrap-Up

For all intents and purposes, 2016 was my second full year of self-publishing.  Here's how everything shook out in the year...

First off, I published 3 more titles, bringing my total of published titles to 7.  In Deep Wish went live in March.  Fertile Ground went live in May.  Up Wish Creek went live in September.  Natural Causes was supposed to be live in November, but due to a case of burn out (I crashed and burned), that didn't happen.

Copies sold:
In Deep Wish = 50.44
Fertile Ground = 65.28
Up Wish Creek = 24.07

Umm, yah.

My other titles sold as follows in 2016:
Dying Embers = 300.39
Accidental Death = 46.58
Wish in One Hand = 154.07
Blood Flow = 51.79

As you can probably guess, I did some advertising for Dying Embers and some for Wish in One Hand.  I also did some advertising for Blood Flow, but the numbers don't bear that out quite as well.

All in all I sold 692.63 books in 2016.  500 of those were whole books (490 ebooks, 3 print books) and 199.63 were books in KU pages*.  As for KU, this year people read 79650 pages worth of my books.  Sounds like a lot, but like I said, it only works out to about 200 books.

Last year was, of course, better.  I finished 2015 with 1016.77 books sold and only 4 books available.  But my advertising budget was bigger last year.  I expect that accounts for most of the difference in sales numbers.

Here's the month by month:

January = 15.28
February = 30.40
March = 90.97
April = 28.13
May = 193.41
June = 115.04
July = 44.57
August = 20.46
September = 19.56
October = 10.30
November = 94.39
December = 30.11

You can tell where I did advertising and/or promotions.  

This year I averaged $1.14 per book.  Last year, I averaged $1.34 books.  I attribute that to selling more paperbacks last year and having more 99c sales this year. 

If you're still with me after all that, here're the grand totals for my 2 year self-publishing experience...

Total Books Sold = 1709.40
DE = 814.65
AD = 467.82
WIOH = 217.59
BF = 69.55
IDW = 50.44
FG = 65.28
UWC = 24.07

This has netted me just over $2100.  We won't talk about what I've spent - mainly because I would rather not look at that data right now.  Let's just say it's enough to pay off Dying Embers and part of Accidental Death.  Woo.

As always, my experiences may not be your experiences.  I post this to show others what the hard numbers are, so they can be informed about going the self-publishing route.  It ain't the easy road to wealth and happiness.  At least it hasn't been for me.  Good thing this is a labor of love.

Sometimes I wonder whether I should've just continued to try and get traditionally published.  Then I hear about another publisher going belly up and screwing both readers and writers.  That shit totally makes me happy where I am, even if I'm not shooting toward the top of the bestsellers lists and buying a new car with my profits**. 

Anyway, if you purchased any of my books, I'm totally grateful and I hope you enjoyed the read.  If you get a chance, leave a review on Amazon for me and/or rate it on Goodreads.  I'd really appreciate that, too.


*I use formulas for each book - Pages Read divided by Total Pages - to calculate how much of a book someone in the Kindle Unlimited subscription service has read.

** In case you're wondering, I drive a 2003 Chevy Cavalier.  It looks like hell, but it's only got 70K miles and it runs like a dream... :fingers crossed it lasts at least another year:  :knocks on wood, too, for good measure: