The Kingfisher Has Landed

Thank you!

I haven't had plans to do print versions myself, partly because I cling to the notion that some small press somewhere will hop on it, partly because making them look good via Createspace will require more energy than I currently have to give.

Seventh Bride will get a print version via Amazon come November, though!

June Totals

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 1663
D2D: 49
Smashwords: 24
PDF Direct Sales:
Total: 1736

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 562
D2D: 11
Smashwords: 8
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 581

Toad Words
Kindle: 212
D2D: 4
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 219

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 189
Smashwords: 10
Total: 199

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 3083
Seventh Bride: 7433
Toad Words: 2652
Nine Goblins: 3815

...huh. Best month of self-pub ever, and that's even with Bride continuing down. Both Toad and Goblins got a substantial bump. It's looking like sales of Bryony are up about 10% in the first two months from where Bride was (and given that Bride was a Kindle Daily Deal over Cyber Monday, which Bryony hasn't been, that's really really good.) I'm cautiously optimistic that my fanbase is increasing past the readers of my occasional blog.

While it's not the huge honking one-time checks of my trade deals, Bride is still literally paying all my bills, eight months after release. The goblins of the Whinin' Nineteenth continue to buy me groceries, two and a half YEARS later. I feel weirdly grateful to all my creations, as if they're taking care of me.

(Also, thank heavens for this thread! My agent came back to me and asked about sales yesterday--we're negotiating to sell audiobook rights for one of 'em--and I was able to pull it up and go "Yes! Sales are up X amount!" with a minimum of flailing.)

July Totals

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 749
D2D: 26
Smashwords: 5
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 780

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 590
D2D: 19
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 612

Toad Words
Kindle: 131
D2D: 1
Smashwords: 2
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 134

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 146
Smashwords: 9
Total: 155

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 3863
Seventh Bride: 8045
Toad Words: 2786
Nine Goblins: 3970


Obviously sales of Bryony went way down over last month. But we're still a good bit above where we were in April, so stuff is still benefiting from the bump. Three months out, Bryony is selling very close to what Bride did, but granted that it was over the summer doldrums rather than the Christmas season, and granted that Bride had the Amazon Kindle Deal thing going on, I think it's a rousing success.

Almost everything's down overall, as the new release slides back into memory, but Bride actually tacked on a few more sales over last month, and I really can't cry about the totals at all.

The Bride re-release in trade hits in November, and I haven't got the foggiest idea WHAT that will do as far as sales go. I'm hoping to have the next novel after that out in February--a retelling of the Snow Queen--but it's a weird book even by my standards and I am starting to feel the oh-god-let-this-not-be-a-career-killer nerves about it.

Oh well. Onward! Upward! Something like that!

August Totals

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 534
D2D: 21
Smashwords: 9
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 564

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 463
D2D: 19
Smashwords: 11
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 493

Toad Words
Kindle: 132
D2D: 9
Smashwords: 7
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 148

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 118
Smashwords: 15
Total: 133

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 4428
Seventh Bride: 8538
Toad Words: 2934
Nine Goblins: 4103

Slide downward continues. I don't anticipate a jump until November, and October may be really low, since I'll be pulling Bride before the re-release, and Bride's usually good for about a thousand dollars worth of sales a month.

Nevertheless, it's not terrible. It feels like a drop off, because Bride did so well for so long, but compared to sales before what was arguably my first big hit under the pen-name, it's really pretty solid. Toad Words keeps on trucking away, bringing home the groceries, Nine Goblins keeps me in cat litter and beagle meds, and Bryony more than pays the rent. I'm not quite at the point where I could make a living just on self-pub work--the tax bill is looming on the horizon, the beagle's health issues are legend, and I have a kid brother who's probably going to get into an expensive college--but we're rapidly moving to "self-pub pays the day-to-day bills and the trade books cover the big stuff" which has been my goal for a long time.

Also sold the audiobook rights to Bryony sort of out of the blue--my agent, who reps my trade work, is bemused but happy to rep all these contracts--so I'm happy to see that one getting an audiobook. No idea what the sales will look like, but there's an advance and that's nothing to sneeze at!

Thank you! 47north is super proud of the Alfie and insisted on putting it in my bio. I find that very amusing. *grin*

September Totals

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 365
D2D: 16
Smashwords: 1
PDF Direct Sales: 1
Total: 383

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 358
D2D: 15
Smashwords: 2
PDF Direct Sales: 1
Total: 376

Toad Words
Kindle: 100
D2D: 11
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales: 1
Total: 115

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 80
Smashwords: 6
PDF Direct Sales: 1
Total: 87

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 4811
Seventh Bride: 8914
Toad Words: 3049
Nine Goblins: 4190

Well, September pretty well fell off a cliff. Down by a third or so, across the board. (Have heard that this isn't just me, though.) Hoping that November's release of Bride will kick things back up a notch!

October Totals

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 260
D2D: 10
Smashwords: 2
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 272

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 241
D2D: 0
Smashwords: 0
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 241

Toad Words
Kindle: 82
D2D: 2
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 87

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 63
Smashwords: 0
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 63

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 5083
Seventh Bride: 9155
Toad Words: 3136
Nine Goblins: 4253

Well, those numbers were scary all right! Ouch. Then again, we're coming up on over a full year of self-pub paying the rent. And while it may not be covering all my living expenses these last few months (the beagle's meds are expensive!) it'd still be pretty churlish to complain.

I've pulled Bride off everything but Amazon in anticipation of the re-release (November 24th) by 47North. I doubt the knock-on sales of the last week will be enough to pull November out of more-of-the-same as this month (although Black Friday did make all the difference last year!) but hopefully it'll be a big enough release to make December more impressive.

November Sales

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 268
D2D: 8
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 279

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 175
D2D: 1
Smashwords: 0
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 176

Toad Words
Kindle: 76
D2D: 4
Smashwords: 2
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 82

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 80
Smashwords: 9
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 89

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 5362
Seventh Bride: 9331
Toad Words: 3218
Nine Goblins: 4324

Things held remarkably steady last month. While the first part of the month continued to slide, since Bride's 47North release on the 24th, sales have trended slowly up on Bryony, with a big jump on Cyber Monday. Plus we got a really good review for Bride in NPR, which mentioned a couple other pieces, so hopefully that helps, too.

This is the last month where I'll list Bride sales, since it's now in the hands of the publisher. (Though I may make a note when or if the sales total exceeds the lifetime sales as self-pub, just because!)

December Sales

I have been woefully remiss on this one--busy few weeks...

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 260
D2D: 22
Smashwords: 7
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 289

Seventh Bride (now trade published and so no longer being listed--these were two old sales trickling in)
D2D: 2
Total: 2

Toad Words
Kindle: 80
D2D: 8
Smashwords: 6
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 94

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 85
Smashwords: 8
PDF Direct Sales:
Total: 93

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 5651
Seventh Bride: 9333
Toad Words: 3312
Nine Goblins: 4417

Gotta admit, was hoping that the re-release of Bride in trade would kick up the rest of sales a bunch. (A woman can dream!) But it kept everything steady, anyhow, which is not to be sneezed at, given that all of those books are essentially backlist at this point.

And next month, I'll have The Raven & The Reindeer out, which should do the usual spike on the sales of other books. Onward!

Yesterday was release day for The Raven & The Reindeer, and a whopping 465 sales in the first 24 hours! New personal best, and an improvement over Bryony's launch by nearly a hundred sales!

I gotta crunch the January numbers, which are fairly dismal, but things should be looking up this month!

Also, I must be getting better at this publishing thing, because I hardly panicked at all this time!

January Totals

Thank you all for the kind words! At the time of this writing, we've cracked 700 copies for Raven in four days--not too shabby!

But now, the dismal business of January...

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 182
D2D: 16
Smashwords: 0
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 198

Toad Words
Kindle: 65
D2D: 2
Smashwords: 1
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 68

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 71
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales:
Total: 74

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 5849
Toad Words: 3380
Nine Goblins: 4491

Well, let's just say I'm really really glad that Raven's having such a good launch! And that, for whatever weird reason, nothing's doing more than nudging the backlist recently. I got used to a new release really kicking up sales of the backlist, but the re-release of Bride and the new release of Raven haven't moved the needle at all. Go figure.

Still, this is the first month since it came out last May that Bryony hasn't paid the rent, so I feel like a bit of an ingrate complaining. Any book that supports me for eight months deserves only praise, even if it's finally sliding down to buying groceries.

(Weirdly enough, looking at the Amazon sales, the only thing getting a bump at the moment is Toad Words. No idea why that would be the case. I'm not complaining--anthologies always sell poorly, and anything that kicks it up a notch is awesome! It's just odd.)