Self-publishing by the Gutter
- Thread starter Norman D Gutter
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June sales: 20 total, of 7 different titles. Nine of those sales were of my two new releases. Here's the table.
So nice to see the Feb-May logjam break. For a larger version of the table, click here.
So nice to see the Feb-May logjam break. For a larger version of the table, click here.
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You're on your way to fame and fortune and I can say "I knew you way back when..." lol
Seriously, love to see that you're getting your work out there and that you're building a fan base. I hope you have many more books and sales in your future.
Seriously, love to see that you're getting your work out there and that you're building a fan base. I hope you have many more books and sales in your future.
Time to report on July.
I added one book, a short story in my fledgling series on an unconventional woman CIA agent.
sold eight books, seven of them e-books. So not as good as June but better than most months this year.
I sold a paperback of my latest novel to a friend this morning, so August won't be a goose egg. Hopefully I'll complete the work on a professional essay and publish it in August, thus expanding my Genre Identity Disorder.
Here's the sales table. If it comes in too small I'll edit in a slightly larger one.
ETA: Yeah, here's a little larger table than the first one. Hope it's okay. A little longer than AW guidelines on the width but okay on the height. You can see the full sized one at my blog.
I added one book, a short story in my fledgling series on an unconventional woman CIA agent.
sold eight books, seven of them e-books. So not as good as June but better than most months this year.
I sold a paperback of my latest novel to a friend this morning, so August won't be a goose egg. Hopefully I'll complete the work on a professional essay and publish it in August, thus expanding my Genre Identity Disorder.
Here's the sales table. If it comes in too small I'll edit in a slightly larger one.
ETA: Yeah, here's a little larger table than the first one. Hope it's okay. A little longer than AW guidelines on the width but okay on the height. You can see the full sized one at my blog.
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You're on your way to fame and fortune and I can say "I knew you way back when..." lol
Seriously, love to see that you're getting your work out there and that you're building a fan base. I hope you have many more books and sales in your future.
Thanks, Poppy, for dropping by and for the encouragement.
NDG
Congrats on your sales, Norman! You did way better than me. I have read in different threads here and there that July was down a bit for everyone. Keep on keepin' on!
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Out of town without access to my spreadsheet, so I'll post my table on Wednesday. I sold 5 books in August, barring any late reports at Smashwords that would add to that total.
ETA: my table through August 2013, and a link to where you can see the full-size one.
ETA: my table through August 2013, and a link to where you can see the full-size one.
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Midway through the month I have zero sales.
But, I'm making good progress (finally) on my next novel.
But, I'm making good progress (finally) on my next novel.
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Good for you on the next novel! Seeing your graph from the post above yours reminds me that I need to update numbers for August. May just do it in one fell swoop with September.
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Will attach a table for sales through the month of September. It was a bust of a month, at 2 sales. Of course, one of them was in Japan. The other one was, I'm pretty sure, to a high school classmate who bought it after an exchange of three or four e-mails.
But, I lost two sales at Smashwords in June due to a glitch in their reporting system. So June wasn't as good as it seemed, and my total of all sales now is the same as I reported at the end of August.
One more month of this and someone might have to talk me down from the ledge.
But, I lost two sales at Smashwords in June due to a glitch in their reporting system. So June wasn't as good as it seemed, and my total of all sales now is the same as I reported at the end of August.
One more month of this and someone might have to talk me down from the ledge.
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Hi Norman,
If you're feeling unhappy about your sales, want to do some problem solving?
Without knowing your work at all, I can think of many reasons why sales might be poor:
1) Bad reviews or not enough of them.
2) Books not being found due to no keywords or incorrect categorization.
3) Quality/Editing issues.
4) Weak book Descriptions
5) Too many titles unrelated to each other (genre hopping, someone may like one book but think your other titles are completely unrelated/different)
6) Extremely niche topic, without much readership.
7) Pricing is way out of the norm (too low/too high)
8) Poor cover design
As I've said, I don't know your work so I am not assuming that any of these are true. But it might be a starting place. Why do you think your sales are low?
If you're feeling unhappy about your sales, want to do some problem solving?
Without knowing your work at all, I can think of many reasons why sales might be poor:
1) Bad reviews or not enough of them.
2) Books not being found due to no keywords or incorrect categorization.
3) Quality/Editing issues.
4) Weak book Descriptions
5) Too many titles unrelated to each other (genre hopping, someone may like one book but think your other titles are completely unrelated/different)
6) Extremely niche topic, without much readership.
7) Pricing is way out of the norm (too low/too high)
8) Poor cover design
As I've said, I don't know your work so I am not assuming that any of these are true. But it might be a starting place. Why do you think your sales are low?
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Thanks for updating, Norman. Sorry to hear about the Smashwords glitch. I was looking at your total sales number of 243. Not quite half of your sales are for Dr. Luke's Assistant. Why do you think that book has sold more copies than the rest? I ask because whatever you did with that book would seem to have worked well for you and you might be able to emulate it for your other titles.
Merri:
I published DLA in March 2012 as an e-book only on Amazon. Being slow to format it for Smashwords, I decided what-the-heck might as well put it in KDP Select. I did five consecutive days in June 2012, had 5039 free downloads then sold 64 that month. In the next three months that dwindled but had me at 90-something in sales. Since then it's been a sale now and then.
I haven't put anything else in Select because my understanding is since sometime shortly after that changes in Amazon algorithms had negated that Select bounce in paid sales.
NDG
I published DLA in March 2012 as an e-book only on Amazon. Being slow to format it for Smashwords, I decided what-the-heck might as well put it in KDP Select. I did five consecutive days in June 2012, had 5039 free downloads then sold 64 that month. In the next three months that dwindled but had me at 90-something in sales. Since then it's been a sale now and then.
I haven't put anything else in Select because my understanding is since sometime shortly after that changes in Amazon algorithms had negated that Select bounce in paid sales.
NDG
Hi C.R.
I'm open to any of them being the cause. I write the kind of books and stories I like to read. It appears there aren't enough of us out there to generate a readership for me.
I'm considering re-tooling and writing romance or smut, or maybe smutty romance. It seems profanity and sex sells, and I do neither of those.
NDG
I'm open to any of them being the cause. I write the kind of books and stories I like to read. It appears there aren't enough of us out there to generate a readership for me.
I'm considering re-tooling and writing romance or smut, or maybe smutty romance. It seems profanity and sex sells, and I do neither of those.
NDG
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Norman, ah yes. I should have noted the year and month. That was when Amazon changed their algorithms in regard to weighting freebies. I had a wonderful bout of sales in February 2012 and then a small dive in March and a huge dive in April. I remember it well. Free does not work like it used to. ** sigh ** Guess there isn't anything to be gleaned and tried again in that regard.
STEP AWAY FROM THE LEDGE! JK I know you are too, because that's not who you are. It's too bad there isn't a perfect formula to follow that would insure us a measure of success.
All we can do is be true to ourselves, write what we enjoy writing to the best of our ability, put it out there, and hope it gets noticed.
I wish you well and I hope with you that your day is coming. Blessings!
Hi, Norman! I just read your whole thread and I'm really thankful for all the experience you've provided. I hope things look up for you, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's if something isn't working in generating sales, it's time for a new approach!