Riding the Scree - RaelWV's SelfPub Thread

Another month of no promos and no sales, as expected. Am pleased to report that Moore Hollow is actually on the shelf at Tamarack, however. Focusing on The Water Road, aiming for a June release.

Running totals:

Moore Hollow - 37 (23 paperbacks, 14 eBooks) + 465 KU pages
"The Destiny Engine" - 5 + 20 KU pages
The Last Ereph - 32 (20 paperback, 12 eBook) sales, 233 freebies + 152 KU pages

Another month without promotion, another with no sales. But progress on The Water Road has been swift. I now have an edited final draft, a cover (reveal for mailing list members this week!), and a release date (June 22)! The rest of the trilogy will follow later this year. Plan is - build the catalog, then promote the hell out of it in 2017.

Finally - a cover and release date for The Water Road!

I was out of town for my usual 1st of the month update and was going to let it slide, but I actually had a sale in May! It was only one copy of "The Destiny Engine," but every little bit counts.


Running totals:

Moore Hollow - 37 (23 paperbacks, 14 eBooks) + 465 KU pages
"The Destiny Engine" - 6 + 20 KU pages
The Last Ereph - 32 (20 paperback, 12 eBook) sales, 233 freebies + 152 KU pages

The Water Road drops on June 22!

Today's the day! The Water Road is here!



More info over at the promo/announcement thread.

Thank you! It's by Deranged Doctor Designs - very easy to work with.

Time for the monthly report, before everybody gets too deep in their long weekend!

Late June saw the release of The Water Road. I did a little bit of promo and got a few sales. My plan is to get the rest of the trilogy out this year, then really press the promotional stuff next year. Still, it's not a bad start, by my standards:

7 sales (all Amazon eBooks), plus 1251 KU pages, which equals about another 3-and-a-third books. In addition I've had a couple of bloggers request the book for reviews and I'm lining up giveaways on Goodreads and LibraryThing.

Running totals:

The Water Road - 7 (all eBooks) + 1251 KU pages
Moore Hollow - 37 (23 paperbacks, 14 eBooks) + 465 KU pages
"The Destiny Engine" - 6 + 20 KU pages
The Last Ereph - 32 (20 paperback, 12 eBook) sales, 233 freebies + 152 KU pages

Have a good Fourth, everybody!

July was pretty good, considering I wasn't doing any promo (focusing on getting The Endless Hills ready to go). Sold 7 copies of The Water Road (3 Kindle, 4 paperback), plus another 29 KU pages read. Also sold 4 copies of Moore Hollow (all paperback), and a stray copy of The Last Ereph . . ., which was really a pleasant surprise.

Running totals:
The Water Road - 14 (5 paperbacks, 9 eBooks) + 1280 KU pages
Moore Hollow - 41 (27 paperbacks, 14 eBooks) + 465 KU pages
"The Destiny Engine" - 6 + 20 KU pages
The Last Ereph - 32 (21 paperback, 12 eBook) sales, 233 freebies + 152 KU pages

On to August and the Lewisburg Literary Festival!

I'm bending the calendar to my will a bit and reducing August to 30 days. That's because The Endless Hills came out today and I'm doing some promo on it (99 cents) and The Water Road (free!) until Sunday, so I'm going to assign all those sales/giveaways to September. Going pretty well so far, though (The Water Road was at #24 on the free Epic Fantasy chart at Amazon last time I checked).

So, as for my shortened August - this was another month without any real promo, aside from my appearance at the Lewisburg Literary Festival. I sold three copies of Moore Hollow there, but aside from that I only had 24 KU pages read in The Water Road.

Running totals:
The Water Road - 14 (5 paperbacks, 9 eBooks) + 1304 KU pages
Moore Hollow - 44 (30 paperbacks, 14 eBooks) + 465 KU pages
"The Destiny Engine" - 6 + 20 KU pages
The Last Ereph - 32 (21 paperback, 12 eBook) sales, 233 freebies + 152 KU pages

I wanted to do a separate post for this last promo, since it crossed over months and I wanted a place to have the data at my hands if I needed it. I hope the experience is helpful to other folks.

The plan was to release The Endless Hills on August 31 at 99 cents, then run a Kindle Countdown deal on The Water Road for free. I wanted to get a good number of free downloads, but also hoped that the low price on the sequel might drive some sales of it, too.

For the actual promotional stuff I used:

• BKnights “Tweet your kindle book to my book loving twitter audience” ($5) on September 1 for The Water Road
• BKnights “Promote and market your book to 4800 kindle readers on our website of readers” ($5 plus $5 for mailing list inclusion) on August 31 for The Water Road
• Bookraid listing for September 3 for The Water Road
• NewFreeKindleBooks.com listing for September 1-4 for The Water Road
• My mailing list announcing the deal went out August 31

In addition to those I posted the deal to the “Book for a Buck” thread at Kboards, tweeted it myself a couple of times, and posted on Facebook on August 31 and September 4

The results, by day:

• Aug 31: 223 free downloads, 5 sales
• September 1: 90 free downloads, 3 sales
• September 2: 35 free downloads, 0 sales
• September 3: 44 free downloads, 2 sales
• September 4: 36 free downloads, 4 sales

Totals: 427 free downloads, 14 sales

We’ll see whether any of the freebies lead to future sale, reviews, etc., but overall I’m pretty happy, particularly with the sales. That’s 5 more Kindle sales for The Endless Hills than I’ve had for The Water Road only a few days in. Now that the price for that one is up to normal ($4.99) and The Water Road has its new permanent price (99 cents) we’ll see if anything moves while I’m finishing up The Bay of Sins.

Much like last month, I have an event that runs over this weekend and spans months (the Ohio River Festival of Books - come see me if your near Huntington, WV!), so September actually ended on the 29th.

Behind the sales/downloads I had during the promo I sold 3 copies of The Water Road via Kindle, 1 via Createspace, and, somehow, had 1 more free download (I blame time zones), to go along with 191 KU pages read. I also managed 249 KU pages for The Endless Hills. Given that I didn't do any other promo, I'm pleased to have some stats to report at all.

Running totals:
The Water Road - 18 (6 paperbacks, 12 eBooks) + 1495 KU pages + 427 freebies
The Endless Hills - 5 (5 eBooks) + 249 KU pages
Moore Hollow - 44 (30 paperbacks, 14 eBooks) + 465 KU pages
"The Destiny Engine" - 6 + 20 KU pages
The Last Ereph - 32 (21 paperback, 12 eBook) sales + 152 KU pages + 233 freebies

Ran another little promo (via BKnights and BookRaid) for Moore Hollow this past week, since it's got zombies in it. That produced 8 Amazon eBook sales. Other than that, the only action this month was 22 pages of KU read in The Water Road. The pattern continues - I don't sell anything unless I promote. Which I guess is a "no shit" kind of revelation.

Running totals:
The Water Road - 18 (6 paperbacks, 12 eBooks) + 1517 KU pages + 427 freebies
The Endless Hills - 5 (5 eBooks) + 249 KU pages
Moore Hollow - 52 (30 paperbacks, 22 eBooks) + 465 KU pages
"The Destiny Engine" - 6 + 20 KU pages
The Last Ereph - 32 (21 paperback, 12 eBook) sales + 152 KU pages + 233 freebies

Holy heck - it's already December! That explains the people driving around with dead trees stuck to the tops of their cars. A day late, but hopefully not any dollars short:

No promo in November, so any sales are a surprise: 1 Kindle version of The Water Road, along with 292 KU pages read, plus 3 paperback copies of The Endless Hills.

Running totals:
The Water Road - 19 (6 paperbacks, 13 eBooks) + 1809 KU pages + 427 freebies
The Endless Hills - 8 (3 paperbacks, 5 eBooks) + 249 KU pages
Moore Hollow - 52 (30 paperbacks, 22 eBooks) + 465 KU pages
"The Destiny Engine" - 6 + 20 KU pages
The Last Ereph - 32 (21 paperback, 12 eBook) sales + 152 KU pages + 233 freebies

Whibs123 said:

Hi Raelwv, thanks for sharing these sales figures. I was wondering if you could tell me what your timeline was for your running totals?

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They start from when my first book, The Last Ereph and Other Stories was published. So, about a year a and half.

Whibs123 said:

Also, I see you mentioned no promos for November, and I was curious if you have any planned for December.

Click to expand...

I don't. I'm planning on making a real promo push in 2017.

Whibs123 said:

Oh, and also, THE WATER ROAD is one of the best covers I've seen in a while. Way to go. Could I ask who did it for you?

Click to expand...

Thanks! It's by Deranged Doctor Design. I've enjoyed working with them and would recommend.

Happy New Year, everyone! Time to wrap up the numbers for 2016 and look forward to 2017.

Big news for 2016 was that Moore Hollow got accepted via a juried process at Tamarack, while I released the first two parts of The Water Road trilogy. Bad news was that I didn't get the whole trilogy out as originally planned. And, of course, I'm not a billionaire best seller, yet.

Lessons learned in 2016:

• If I don't promote, I don't sell. It's a simple as that.
• Don't set a schedule for releasing a trilogy when you haven't finished the actual writing yet.
• It's worth paying for good covers. Received lots of nice feedback on covers for The Water Road and The Endless hills, which were orders of magnitude more expensive than my previous books. Worth every penny.
• I need to work on my in-person sales skills, encompassing an entire trilogy in a couple of sentences, etc.

Numbers for December (a month with no promo):

• Sold 1 each paperback and eBook of The Water Road, along with 20 KU pages
• Sold 1 paperback of The Endless Hills
• Tamarack ordered another 6 copies of Moore Hollow, which means they sold the first half dozen!

Total 2016 sales totals:

• The Last Ereph . . .: 3 paperbacks + 152 KU pages + 233 freebies
• "The Destiny Engine": 2 eBooks + 22 freebies (new mailing list signups)
• Moore Hollow: 12 eBooks + 21 paperbacks + 263 KU pages
• The Water Road: 14 eBooks + 9 paperbacks + 1829 KU pages + 427 freebies
• The Endless Hills: 5 eBooks + 4 paperbacks + 249 KU pages
• Total: 33 eBooks + 37 paperbacks + 2493 KU pages + 660 freebies

Total sales to date:

• The Last Ereph: 12 eBooks + 25 paperbacks + 152 KU pages + 493 freebies
• "The Destiny Engine": 6 eBooks + 43 freebies (mailing list signups)
• Moore Hollow: 22 eBooks + 48 paperbacks + 465 KU pages + 22 giveaways
• The Water Road: 14 eBooks + 9 paperbacks + 1829 KU pages + 427 freebies
• The Endless Hills: 5 eBooks + 4 paperbacks + 249 KU pages
• Total: 59 eBooks + 86 paperbacks + 2715 KU pages + 985 freebies

Wow. I hadn't realized that I'd loosed over a thousand books on the world.

Goals for 2017:

• Promote every month
• Get The Bay of Sins released (shooting for March)
• Expand my geographic range for book festivals, etc.
• Start my next project (for which I have lots of disparate ideas wandering around)

Yeah, so I'm not a billionaire best seller. But I'm fairly proud with what I've done so far.

I have sales to report! In January I took part in a multi-author 99cent promo (everybody's books are collected on one web page, the page is then shared by everybody on social media for a few days). Pleased with the results, especially since it was free. All told for January, I sold 9 copies of The Water Road and 1 copy of The Endless Hills (which wasn't even on sale!).

The last part of the trilogy, The Bay of Sins, is off with the copy editor, so it's on track for release in March!

Total sales to date (note that I've removed "The Destiny Engine," since it's not for sale anymore):

• The Last Ereph: 12 eBooks + 25 paperbacks + 152 KU pages + 493 freebies
• Moore Hollow: 22 eBooks + 48 paperbacks + 465 KU pages + 22 giveaways
• The Water Road: 23 eBooks + 9 paperbacks + 1829 KU pages + 427 freebies
• The Endless Hills: 6 eBooks + 4 paperbacks + 249 KU pages
• Total: 59 eBooks + 86 paperbacks + 2715 KU pages + 985 freebies