E-publishing income?

FYI:

I self-published through Smashwords and Amazon last Wednesday. I made sure everything was perfect and had 6 beta readers over the course of 8 months before putting it out.

It's been over a week and I admit to doing hardly any promo (other than that little linky on my siggy).

I've only had 6 sales, one of them was a freebie to a friend, and I've only made $9.
So, experience does vary a lot

I've yet to see someone try it and not dramatically increase their sales and income.

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Got it. I agree! My books are priced at $.99 cents. The $2.99 price would definitely bring in more revenue (70% royalty rate vs. 35% royalty rate).

I've only had 6 sales, one of them was a freebie to a friend, and I've only made $9.

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For your first week, with no promotion, I think that's good. We were talking about offering one of the books in a series/trilogy free and then watching as the number of sales increases for the other books. I don't think it is realistic to expect really high numbers when you first put a book up for sale. Directing traffic to the book is key.

merrihiatt said:

For your first week, with no promotion, I think that's good. We were talking about offering one of the books in a series/trilogy free and then watching as the number of sales increases for the other books. I don't think it is realistic to expect really high numbers when you first put a book up for sale. Directing traffic to the book is key.

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I wasn't expecting glamorous sales either, haha.

I think the series plan is excellent for those people who write series . . . I don't (and there is no way that my current book could be a series!), the give the first book away plan cannot work for me.

I continue to be jealous AND highly impressed of and by those of you who are making good money at this.

Since my publisher dropped the e-book version of Gate Walker to .99 about three weeks ago, I think I've made about 20 sales or so, and that's from a stagnant pace. Strangely enough, those sales are NOT reflected on Amazon, since my publisher lists with about nine other outlets. I suspect that all the sales, like its debut (65 sales) came from Fictionwise, and maybe a few other stragglers at other e-book stores. In my book, Fictionwise rules and Amazon totally sucks.

It's an improvement any way I look at it, so I'm quite happy about the income/outcome.

Tri

Donna, I checked out your website and books. Have you considered writing a story about three friends or three curses or three anything? I could see three stories in your genre working very well together. Even three parts of one spell/curse that are not revealed until one spell/curse is lifted. Just a thought.

Congratulations, Tri!

Re : e-Publishing income?

Interesting thread (especially Noah Body's comments, which confirm for me that "there's no easy way to do this"). (BTW : Kudos to Mr. Body... nice to see that somebody's actually making some moolah in exchange for all the hard work.)

So far I've sold less than 50 copies (all told, including both e-Books and conventional paperbacks) of my own Angel Brings Fire series, the first of which was self-published in April of this year... but, largely due to having to contend with a series of "real life getting in the way of semi-pro authorship" problems (such as, most recently, a basement flood...), I've had zippo chance to go out and do any real self-promotion, other than for handing out demo copies to anyone who's interested in the book(s).

How do all the rest of you find time in which to do it, that is, attend all of these book fairs, set up readings, etc.? I have a quite demanding day job as well as all sorts of other commitments. I can hardly find time to walk my dog, much less attend a day-long convention!

It's much more fun to write, than to get people to read what you've written, I suppose...

Cheers

I don't, GodOfABF. I find it far more productive (and good for sales) if I spend my time writing more books and doing the work to get them ready for the world. I put all my time and energy into that. It seems to boost sales to just release more work.

That, and putting up something free for a limited time, are what have started to pay off for me. I've earned just over 1k in the last 3 weeks, which will pay my rent once the money comes in (takes 60 days or so, alas, at least for Amazon to pay). It's a slow build (been doing this for over a year), but this method lets me focus on what I enjoy doing, which is the writing.

I second what Izanobu said. I have been at this a shorter period of time (since September, 2011) and the two things that seem to work well for me are offering the first e-book in a trilogy free and writing more books. I'm working on another trilogy now that is slated for release in February, 2012. The first drafts are almost done, but I will need time to edit, edit, and edit again and then submit to beta readers.

izanobu said:

It's a slow build (been doing this for over a year), but this method lets me focus on what I enjoy doing, which is the writing.

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This.

Success stories happen. But when you look at the details, it's not quick 99% of the time. You should be getting into it for the long haul. (I started out thinking 5 years...)

GodOfABF said:

Interesting thread (especially Noah Body's comments, which confirm for me that "there's no easy way to do this"). (BTW : Kudos to Mr. Body... nice to see that somebody's actually making some moolah in exchange for all the hard work.)

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A piddling $1,170 for October 2011, so don't start singing the praises yet.

And I don't do anything special with regards to advertising. Would never go to a book fair or do a reading--really, would anyone want to hear me belt out a story about flesh-eating zombies in my basso profundo?--there's just not enough ROI there. (Notice I did pass up Comic Con, which was likely the best opportunity for this kind of stuff...if I was truly interested, that is.)

Izanobu has it right. Write more books. That's the best thing for you.

And don't fall into the Book Country trap.

Sorry for the unholy thread resurrection, but I've posted my 2011 sales right over here. Numbers cited are for only 8 months of 2011, as I won't receive royalties for November and December until 2012. Final take was just over $15,000. For what it's worth.

Thanks, that's interesting, and well done.

Great news! I was hoping for 1,000 sales a month to give me $2,000 a month in income. That's my first goal.

I have 6 books/collections self-published and I make about $200/mo. So depending on how popular your books become you could make that much. But I think part of the issue these days is marketing your book(s). I have friends who market like crazy and they make more than I do.

Noah Body said:

Sorry for the unholy thread resurrection, but I've posted my 2011 sales right over here. Numbers cited are for only 8 months of 2011, as I won't receive royalties for November and December until 2012. Final take was just over $15,000. For what it's worth.

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Wow! That's awesome! Good for you!

I've had two e-novels published (both last year) and I've sold maybe thirty of the first and ten of the second (it's only been out a couple of weeks). I have no illusions of massive sales although one always has to have hope but the thing is, some did sell and I've gotten a couple of decent reviews, so there it is.

If I've learned anything, it's not to expect too much. Sure, I wish 500000 people would buy my books and wouldn't it be great...but this is reality and not fantasy. All it means is I have to work a lot harder, write better, and keep submitting.

Noah Body said:

Remember, it appears my experience is somewhat different from the "masses" of folks who try this. I can't believe I'm not on the median, because I'm usually not this fortunate.

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I've had the same experience so far. Completely agree with everything you've posted. The key is to keep writing and producing and to balance this time with social media promotion. The fear is not knowing how long it will last. I keep waiting for that downturn. I hope it will hold off for one more month or two.

Kudos on being generous with your advice and transparent with your earnings. I know I'm not the only one who appreciates it. And mega-congrats. I hope you continue to earn a decent wage with your work (and that you get that Gulfstream one day).

hughhowey said:

I hope you continue to earn a decent wage with your work (and that you get that Gulfstream one day).

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Congratulations to both of you! I look forward to a day when I can reach those types of sales numbers. So far, nowhere close.

And you could always get a Citation for less than a Gulfstream... ;-)

Nah, if I have to go mid-size, I'll do a Lear 60XR.

I've generated a bunch of titles over the past 18 months, in short story and novel format. My results in detail are available here.

In short, I made about $40K last year from self-publishing, the vast majority of that in ebooks. It's a little less right now, down to about $3K per month, but that's been consistent for several months now and I'm leaving my day job in Mark to pursue this full-time.

I'm no Konrath, and in fact have signed with Bell Bridge Books for one of my most popular properties to gain insight into how to tell a better story and craft a better novel, but I'm more than thrilled with the way the last couple of years have gone for me.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

Sorry for the thread resurrection folks, but I thought I'd do a quick drive-by update.

Firstly, as most of us know by now, Mr. Howey has ascended and now sits beside God. No, he hasn't died, but he's gone where no other indie writer has gone before, and that's Hollywood.

For myself, I want to report that May 2012 generated Amazon-only earnings of about $10,700. June has obviously just started, but forecasting daily averages should kick that close to $15,000. My two new releases have done a great job in generating lift for the two previous zombie releases, and they're doing great business once again, after falling into the low 100s for monthly sales.

Sales of non-zombie titles have ticked very slightly upward, but not enough for me to get all worked up over.

Pleasant surprise: B&N finally became a four digit earner for me.

That is all.

Wow, that's very cool, Noah! Congratulations, and keep up the good work.
Nick