And here... we... go.

ASeiple

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September fit my expectations. A noticeable drift down from August... with one surprise. I'll elaborate below.

As a reminder, the running totals are the sales for the year.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 11 copies, bringing the running total to 175.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 14 copies, bringing the running total to 137.

Dire:Born sold 43 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 75 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1259.

Dire:Seed sold 37 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 88 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 957.

Dire:Sins sold 70 ebook copies, 7 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 70 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1052.

Dire:Time sold 36 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 40 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 938.

Dire:Wars sold 33 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 39 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1716.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 6 copies and had 3 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 114.

Final Frost sold 4 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 3 kindle reads, bringing the total to 109.

It was looking to be a fairly quiet month, the usual month two after a launch. Then, out of nowhere, I got a sales spike. Seven copies of Dire:Born sold in a day, and the Kindle Unlimited pages quadrupled. Then it held steady at those numbers. It's dying down now, but I'm still catching a bit of that wave.

It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. I believe that it ties back to a review I got on Dire:Born, back on September 24th. Good review, an in-depth five star review, but the big thing is that review came from an Amazon top 500 reviewer.

Nothing I could control, nothing I anticipated or expected, but by my estimation it increased this month's sales by about twenty percent.

So I guess the lesson there, is don't give up. Two years since that book was published, then someone finds it and BOOM, it gets a boost. Keep writing, think in trilogies or greater runs, and find ways to put time on your side.

Alright, on to the fall con season. Got one coming up this month, and the next. After that, Dire:Hell should be out, then it's on to different lines and different genres for a bit...

- - - Updated - - -

September fit my expectations. A noticeable drift down from August... with one surprise. I'll elaborate below.

As a reminder, the running totals are the sales for the year.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 11 copies, bringing the running total to 175.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 14 copies, bringing the running total to 137.

Dire:Born sold 43 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 75 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1259.

Dire:Seed sold 37 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 88 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 957.

Dire:Sins sold 70 ebook copies, 7 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 70 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1052.

Dire:Time sold 36 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 40 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 938.

Dire:Wars sold 33 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 39 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1716.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 6 copies and had 3 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 114.

Final Frost sold 4 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 3 kindle reads, bringing the total to 109.

It was looking to be a fairly quiet month, the usual month two after a launch. Then, out of nowhere, I got a sales spike. Seven copies of Dire:Born sold in a day, and the Kindle Unlimited pages quadrupled. Then it held steady at those numbers. It's dying down now, but I'm still catching a bit of that wave.

It took me a little while to figure out what was going on. I believe that it ties back to a review I got on Dire:Born, back on September 24th. Good review, an in-depth five star review, but the big thing is that review came from an Amazon top 500 reviewer.

Nothing I could control, nothing I anticipated or expected, but by my estimation it increased this month's sales by about twenty percent.

So I guess the lesson there, is don't give up. Two years since that book was published, then someone finds it and BOOM, it gets a boost. Keep writing, think in trilogies or greater runs, and find ways to put time on your side.

Alright, on to the fall con season. Got one coming up this month, and the next. After that, Dire:Hell should be out, then it's on to different lines and different genres for a bit...
 

ASeiple

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October was pretty decent. I can see some changes looming on the horizon, though. It's time to change my way of doing business a little.

As a reminder, the running totals are the sales for the year.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 16 copies, bringing the running total to 191.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 11 copies, bringing the running total to 148.

Dire:Born sold 21 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 57 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1342.

Dire:Seed sold 17 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 51 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1030.

Dire:Sins sold 36 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 68 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1155.

Dire:Time sold 16 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 43 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 998.

Dire:Wars sold 26 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 38 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1781.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 4 copies and had 2 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 120.

Final Frost sold 0 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 6 direct sales, and had 3 kindle reads, bringing the total to 118.

The end of October's a special time for self-publishers who go in deep with Amazon. With KDP's staggered two-month payment schedule, October's the last sales month of the year that will end up on the current year's earnings. It's important for taxes.

Oh, don't get me wrong, November and December matter too it's just that the earnings for those arrive in the next tax year.

Anyway, it's been pretty decent for a third month after a launch. Not great, but decent. I think my first year spoiled me. Although... overall, moneywise, my income from this venture looks like it's going to be 10% less than last year. I'm not sure why. I thought with more books out there, it'd be larger overall.

I think it comes down to marketing. I'm doing free stuff, word of mouth, and limited social engagement. The local conventions are fun, but they don't do much for me, businesswise. I've reached the point where if I want to grow the readership of the Dire Saga, and keep it growing, I'll have to start spending money.

Which is rough, because I can't, not yet. The money's going into other places, and has to keep doing that for about half a year more, if I want to eliminate my family's debts early. And I very much do.

So for the nonce, the Dire Saga is getting shelved after the next book. I'll turn to other things, stretch my creative juices in new directions, and see what comes. If the first book of the new series works out, I'll see about setting up a small promo budget. Might delay my debts a little bit, but by then I should be in a position where it won't matter overall.

Now, as to Final Frost...

It's not doing well in Amazon at all. I could try marketing, but thinking it over... this might be a perfect opportunity to go wide. Take it out of Kindle Select, and try D2D, Kobo, and maybe a few other places. Put in a little inexpensive promo when I do that, and see where it goes.

I'll think it over more after I get the next book done, and probably remove it from KU shortly. Well, cancel the auto-renewal, anyway.

Much to do. I've completed one goal this year, and that was to publish three books. My middle-stage goal is to publish another book. I'm not there yet, got a lot to do, but I'm close. I might squeak it out in December if I hustle. But I want to make sure this one is good, so I have to strike a balance there.

Goal three was to hit twenty thousand books sold by the end of the year. I'm at 18155 for my career to date. I honestly don't know if I'll make it in time. Gonna keep trying, though. At this point, the best thing I can do is keep writing.

So I'll do just that. Peace, all! Hope your holidays go well!
 
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CathleenT

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Hope you make that goal, but even if you don't, you're doing well.

Have you considered a freebie to grow your email list? If you're opposed to this, never mind, but a lot of people find it useful. It's spending time, not money (other than cover). And you've got such a rich world that a novelette from a secondary character's POV might work well. Anyway, then you can promote it on Freebooksy and others.

Or you can just keep plugging away. I would expect your readership to grow with time (current stats notwithstanding), and you've already proved you can be quite nimble in terms of getting the books out.
 

ASeiple

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Hey CathleenT!

Funny thing is, I do have a freebie that people get for signing up. But I haven't broadcast that too well, right now it's mostly a mention on my social media pages and a note in the back of my latest novels. That said, it has helped, probably drawn in about 20 people to the mailing list. That's a rough estimate, mind you.

I will have to look at Freebooksy. Thanks for the tip.

I will keep plugging away, but I'll be switching series here come 2018, so I'm a little worried about how it'll turn out. Still, I'm not TOO worried. I've got the little dragons to finish up, an epic fantasy to get rolling, and a little side-project in LitRPG that I started for snits and giggles. Though that last one is actually working out okay, and might merit a book by the end of it all.

But yeah, that's good advice there. As long as nothing horrible happens, 2018 is going to be full of possibilities.
 

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Sounds like you have a lot of projects lined up--makes me wonder how you do it.

In case you didn't see it, there is also Bargain Booksy. It's a little less inexpensive than Free Booksy. I haven't tried it, but it looks good.

There is a thread over in Marketing and Promotion in which someone made a list of the less expensive promo sites. It's an older thread (2015), but still had some relevant information. Makes me wish I had digital books to offer instead of coloring books.
 

ASeiple

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Woo, November! Good times. Good stuff happened, let me tell you about it. But first, numbers.

As a reminder, the running totals are the sales for the year.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 9 copies, bringing the running total to 200.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 6 copies, bringing the running total to 154.

Dire:Born sold 22 ebook copies, 8 print copies, 6 direct sales, and had 35 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1413.

Dire:Seed sold 12 ebook copies, 8 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 27 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1077.

Dire:Sins sold 29 ebook copies, 11 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 34 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1221.

Dire:Time sold 10 ebook copies, 7 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 25 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1040.

Dire:Wars sold 18 ebook copies, 9 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 25 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1834.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 2 copies and had 4 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 126.

Final Frost sold 6 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 5 direct sales, and had 1 kindle reads, bringing the total to 130.

So, this was a good month. Print sales tripled for me, roughly. The bulk of them hit just after Black Friday, and I'm still getting a few going on now, at the beginning of December. This is definitely Christmas shopping that I'm seeing here, and I'm glad for it. Made for a nice bonus!

Ebook sales are down because I haven't released in a while, but... they're not down as proportionally as they were when I had four books. Or three books. The more I release, the more of a buffer I get, here. My theory seems to be working, that building my backlist took precedence over marketing.

That said, Final Frost is tanking. If it weren't for the KU Countdown deal I stuck on it, I doubt it would have moved more than one or two copies. I'm pulling it from KU this month and going wide with it. I'll work on that after I finish the next Dire book.

Speaking of KU... whoo, what an up and down season. After a few months of piddly KENP return, the proportion has finally bounced back. I'll stick with it for the Dire series, since it is free advertising and I'd alienate fans if I yanked it out at this point, but now I won't necessarily auto-put new series in there. Some, yes. Others no. It'll depend on genre and my personal feelings on the matter, and what the market's saying to me at the time the books are ready to release.

I do stand by my initial thoughts, that KU is a marketing tool, not a reliable revenue stream. Relying on it for money is not good in the long run. But if you're trying to reach more customers and build your name, you could do worse. Way worse.

As far as writing goes, I fell behind a bit in Dire:Hell. That one might not make Christmas. I'll be done in probably a week, maybe two, but then there's the editor's review, and the beta readers, and the cover artist's not even done yet... yeah, it's gonna be rough. Christmas is probably off the menu. I'll try, but I won't hold my breath. It's my fault for getting some slowdown in the middle of the story... my word count fell and I hit a few walls. Nothing I couldn't overcome, but it hasn't been easy.

Oddly enough, the way to spur myself and get that wordcount back up has been to diversify.

I started fooling around with a LitRPG web serial, just for fun... getting back to my roots, typing it up one chapter at a time and posting the chapters out there at a webfiction site as I finish them. And I've been enjoying it so much that I'll happily pound out two or four thousand words in an hour or two, then go work on Dire with a lot more ease.

Though I started the serial just for fun, it's been doing amazingly well, too. I get a thousand views every time I post a chapter and I'm up to 260 or so followers at the time I write this. I'm thinking, like many before me, that once the serial gets enough of a word count and a solid ending point for the first story arc I could chop the first part off, publish it, and keep on going. Then wash, rinse, and repeat for the next couple of story arcs.

I could get that sucker out in January if I find a cover artist. It's already been through the equivalent of beta reading. And my editor's on board and enthusiastic with the notion.

Anyway, that was how my November went. I also had one very successful local convention, and a rather unsuccessful book signing, at a local indie bookstore. The convention was Acadecon 2017, and it was one that played to my roots... big gaming con for the local area, fast-growing and showing clear signs of improvement from its already-good state last year. The book signing was... well, I got to talk to some nice people, but the space wasn't conducive to lingering, and everyone was too busy Christmas shopping to pay me much mind.

So.

Good November. Not expecting miracles from December unless I manage to release, but it's been a good year overall so I can't complain.

Time to let Dire rest, soon. She's been an awesome start to my career. Now it's time to branch out, and REALLY cut loose...
 
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ASeiple

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So. Uh... the script I had for December? Yeah, it got flipped. Hugely. Look at the numbers below and you'll see why.

As a reminder, the running totals are the sales for the year. The totals below summed together are all she wrote for 2017.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 13 copies, bringing the running total to 213.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 12 copies, bringing the running total to 166.

Dire:Born sold 46 ebook copies, 7 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 51 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1518.

Dire:Seed sold 29 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 35 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1143. (I had an error in the last count that I'll correct after I post this.)

Dire:Sins sold 38 ebook copies, 6 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 30 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1295.

Dire:Time sold 28 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 25 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1096.

Dire:Wars sold 27 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 29 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1894.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 10 copies and had 6 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 142.

Final Frost sold 8 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 1 kindle reads, bringing the total to 139.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 1123 ebook copies.

Threadbare Volume 1: Stuff and Nonsense, launched on December 22 2017, and in the space of nine days, sold one thousand one hundred and twenty three ebook copies.

I didn't plan any of this at all.

Lemme rewind a bit.

So, I had a piddly convention to start this month off, and it moved a single book. I'm going to start being more discerning about the local ones, I think. No point in farting around with the smaller stuff at this point.

My cover artist for Dire:Hell hit delays. I told him no worries, finish it in his own time. I was most of the way through the manuscript at that point, but with my beta cycle for the Dires being what it is, and the holiday timing being what it is, I figured the launch would have to be delayed until January. As it turns out, I was right. Also as it turns out, it didn't matter.

Because that web serial? That one I started for fun? It's up to about 2500 followers as I write this, and it's the top-ranked web serial on the site. I wrote it for fun, spending more and more time per day on it as I went, and got my posting rate on it up to once a day. And the litrpg folks LOVE it. Sure, there's sour notes, and sure, I stumble occasionally, but I've been having fun with it, they've been having fun with it, and I got to the end of the first arc, saw that I had about eighty thousand words, and went "That's a novel! I should have a trilogy of them by the time this is done!"

I bundled it up, cleaned it up, and fired it off to my editor who actually had some time free this close to Christmas.

So I found an artist who does gamelit, and whose work is equivalent or better to a lot of the better covers in the genre, and hired her. Told her January for a deadline.

Then my editor burned through it in about a week and a half, with amazing turnaround. I went back to the artist and promised a Christmas bonus if she finished early. She did. I got the final cover on the 20th and happily tipped her a sizeable percentage of the initial fee.

After final wrangling, it was up for sale as an ebook on the 22nd. I let the folks at the litrpg site know it was out.

And oh gods, it's still selling.

On the 30th my cover artist for Dire:Hell finished his work. I'm still on the last chapter of the manuscript though. It isn't even ready for beta reads yet. I'm not finished. I'm not finished because I'm burning time and brainpower on Threadbare, and I don't care, because I've managed to catch the market at just the right angle and I'm gonna ride this teddy-bear-shaped train as far as it will take me.

I WILL finish Dire:Hell. I will AIM for a January release. But it's shifted to being a secondary goal now. Although when it DOES hit, it should hit at about the time Threadbare Volume 2 releases.

Which should be the end of January. I stand the very real chance of putting out two books this month, if schedules cooperate. Then if I can keep up the pace, it'll be time to release the third Threadbare in mid-or-late February.

Guys, I'm on Cloud Nine. Amazon pays royalties two months after the fact. The end of February's gonna be a payday, and it'll be sizeable. If things go to plan, March's earnings will be just as awesome.

I... what gets me, is that the entire Threadbare story is out there on the web, in rough draft form, free. And it's DRIVING sales. And not all of them are followers, either! Most of the reviews are from people buying it because they saw it on Amazon, in the also-boughts or product placements!

I haven't spent a dime on marketing. I'm letting the Amazon algorithms and word of mouth drive this. Well, and social media, and my mailing list. Which has grown a bit, since Threadbare dropped.

Although... that might change, soon.

If things keep going well I'll have enough to pay off the big debts I've been gnawing on, ahead of schedule. Then I'll have money to spare to try marketing.

And oh, I've got another opportunity; since Threadbare's out there on the web, available free, I couldn't put it in Kindle Select.

This means I can go wide with it. And I shall! D2D is gonna be a thing, once I finish this month's writing and publishing obligations and tasks.

But... this was a Christmas miracle.

Not only did it let me meet my mid-term goal of publishing four novels in 2017, but it showed me I could still write without an outline, by the seat of my pants, and assemble a coherent, good story.

And it let me reach the bonus goal, the one I set as a pie in the sky goal.

Thanks to Threadbare's last-minute burst, I ended 2017 with 20002 books sold, through the course of my two-and-a-half year self-publishing career.

For 2018? I'm gonna set a low-end goal of FIVE books published. Shouldn't be hard, I've got two on the docket early on, and one more within reach. So the mid-term goal will be eight. And the bonus goal will be forty-thousand books sold before 2019.

Merry Christmas, folks.

-Seiple
 

M. H. Lee

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Congrats! LitRPG is an incredibly voracious market and if you give them what they want it can be amazing (as you've seen). And glad to see you're planning to follow up with more. Sounds like 2018 will be an awesome year for you.
 

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What a great ending to the year! Hope your sales stay up and the Amazon algorithms kick in for you.
 

CathleenT

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I'm so happy for you, Andrew. There's nothing quite like meeting a goal (or several in this case). And 44 reviews for a book that's only been up for a couple weeks! That's terrific!
 

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Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. Well done, sir.
 

ASeiple

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Thanks, guys. I'm very, very happy, and proud to be sharing my journey in such good company. Don't know where it'll end up, but it's definitely going places.
 

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Well done, very thought provoking title - btw, did you do the great looking cover art yourself?
 

ASeiple

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Well done, very thought provoking title - btw, did you do the great looking cover art yourself?

Oh heck no. I found a very talented author who'd done Gamelit cover art before, and paid her $550 for a custom piece. Then gave her an extra $100 on top as a Christmas bonus when she went above and beyond and finished two weeks ahead of schedule.
 

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Okay, thanks for sharing - no doubt that price included exclusive use of the work?
 

ASeiple

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Okay, thanks for sharing - no doubt that price included exclusive use of the work?

Yep, it's mine now, for all forms of media related to the book.

A practice I heartily encourage all other authors to follow, when commissioning art. Get the rights, get them clearly documented, and keep those contracts somewhere very safe. Lawsuits are no joke.
 

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Did your other books see a spike in sales after you launched Threadbare? Also, have you considered AMS for Threadbare? It seems to be doing quite well so far.

It's exciting to see what can happen with hard work and persistence.
 

ASeiple

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I did. My other books started moving once Threadbare hit, I've been selling 10-20 a day among the other ones. Moreso if you count the KU reads. It's like a regular launch month... which very much surprised me. The Dire stuff is in a different genre, and Final Frost is... similar, but very much for a younger audience. But they're moving as if I'd dropped a Dire book. This is fascinating.

It also gives me hope. Enough people seem to like my style and 'voice' that I might have more freedom to write than I expected.

To answer the AMS question... no. No, I can't. Sadly, right now, all of my profits are earmarked for paying off debts incurred some time ago. My wife's student loans, the credit card debt from the unexpected house and auto fees, that one year everything went bad...

Honestly, I'd love to. Threadbare's GOOD. A little advertising would go a long way, and from what I've seen, it'd also benefit the Dire Saga. But Threadbare is very much an "oops". Right now I just can't afford to. I put myself out a little farther than I like with the cover art. Mind you, I'll make it back ninefold in February, with another fifteen or twentyfold on top of it in March, but right now I can't afford ads.

So instead I focus on getting Threadbare 2 edited and ready for launch in a week or so, and Threadbare 3 finished. About 75K into that one, with two to four more chapters to go. Then it'll be time to work on Dire:Hell, and finish the last few thousand words on it.

And oh, I had a stroke of luck! I should tell you... I was gonna wait until the end of the month, but whatever.

Two audio book producers came to me seeking audio rights for Threadbare and two sequels. I went with Podium Publishing, and the first two books are scheduled to be read Mid-March or so. The narrator they chose is awesome, the contract offered me a cut of the gross, and they've been lovely to work with so far.

Honestly, I was going to try to get it audio-fied in a few months, but this lets me A. try something with a reputable trade publisher, and B. let folks who know way, way more about audiobooks and the market handle my first brush with that market.

So far, it's been a mostly good month...
 

ASeiple

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A new year. A new genre. A new method of writing for me. And holy gorp, is it paying off..

First, the numbers.

Keep an Ace in the Hole has sold 651 copies in its lifetime prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 28 copies.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine has sold 31 copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 31 copies.

Dire:Born has sold 6786 copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold sold 110 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 146 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 259.

Dire:Seed has sold 4267 copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 73 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 109 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 184.

Dire:Sins has sold 1295 copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 69 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 73 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 145.

Dire:Time has sold 3060 copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 55 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 84 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 139.

Dire:Wars has sold 1894 copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 66 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 82 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 149.

The Dire Saga: Season One has sold 178 copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 18 copies and had 23 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 41.

Final Frost has sold 139 copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 14 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 1 kindle read (They must have grabbed it before it left KU and just now got around to reading it,) bringing the running yearly total to 20.

Threadbare Volume 1 has sold 1123 ebook copies prior to January 2018. In January 2018 it sold 1997 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copy through D2D, and 16 Print copies, bringing the running yearly total to 2014.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 627 ebook copies.

So. Uh. Wow.

I'm in a facebook writing group called 20booksto50k. I'd recommend it to anyone. The reason I bring it up is because they finally, FINALLY broke down the fishy scale that a lot of Indie writers seem to use to rate themselves. It goes by the best royalties pulled in per month.

One figure = Algae
Two figures = Plankton
Three figures = Prawn
Four figures = Trout
Five figures = Salmon
Six figures = Whale
Seven figures = Kraken

I'm about to have my first salmon month ever when the royalties from January land in March, and I owe it all to Threadbare. That and trying a new thing.

Thanks to the web serial method of writing, it's letting me put out a book a month. All I have to do is copy and paste, clean up and package parts of the serial when they reach the appropriate length and fill out a good arc. Then I shoot 'em off to my editor and poke a quick, reliable cover artist (And holy gorp am I glad I found one for this series,) and give'em a bit under a month to do their thing. Since the readers on the web serial provide the beta reader services, it takes a lot less time, and the editor has a lot less work to do. All she has to do is check for errors, basically.

That said, I tend to think in trilogies, so after Threadbare 3 comes out this month, I'm going to fall back a bit and think about my next serial. It might be a spinoff, or it might be a proper sequel.

I'm also going to finish Dire:Hell. I'm down to the last chapter or two on that one. I just have to do it RIGHT, because this'll be the last Dire for a while, and I want to give her a good sendoff. I know it won't sell as well as the Threadbare ones, though, so I'm not going to obsess over it. Just gonna do it, kick it out to the beta squad, and see what they make of it.

But yeah. Gamelit, with the occasional side project, is going to be my future for a good while, here. I've found a receptive audience, and a knack for it, so now it's time to cement my place in the growing genre.

The glorious thing, the thing that makes me smile, is that as Threadbare sells, the rest of my catalogue does, too. Oh, not as much, but enough of them get interested in me that they go looking. And they're hungry for more...

This gives me hope. And brings me to the point I'm going to hammer in on some of the panels I'll be doing this year, at local conventions. Grow your backlist! Write! The bigger your net, the more you capitalize on gains, when you get a hit book. Write, get books out there, and keep writing. There is no point in time where NOT writing is the better strategy!

Speaking of strategy, the web serial format is driving a sea-change in how I'm doing business. Since Threadbare's a web serial, and I'm not going to take it down without a damn good reason, I can't put it in KU. Which means there's no reason not to go wide with this series. I signed up for Kobo and D2D with it, and I'll do the same with the rest of the series, and the little dragons series too. (Final Frost hasn't been working out in Amazon, so we'll see if a new home does it good.)

That said, I'll leave the Dire Saga in Amazon and KU, and see how it does. It'll be a good yardstick, and it's doing well enough there at the minute that I can't complain.

And then there's the audiobook deal.

Podium Publishing contacted me early in January, and after some haggling, they bought the audio rights for the first Threadbare trilogy. My narrator's been chosen and lined up for Mid-march, they'll be doing books one and two at the same time.

I went with them for a couple of reasons... but I would have ended up getting into audio one way or another, even if I hadn't been approached. Threadbare's got legs. Fuzzy, strong little legs, and I'm pretty certain it would have recouped any audio expenses I threw its way within a year or less.

That said, I don't know the audio market, or the best practices for authors getting into it, or even listen to many audio books at all. So I'm okay with letting Podium handle this one. The contract terms are good, they're way more knowledgeable than me on this matter, and it gets the book out there sooner, with more marketing reach then I could bring to bear. (No pun intended.)

My gods this is going to be an awesome year if this trend continues. I'll have three books out by the end of March if all goes well, and a lot of options for future series, and reinforcing the ones I have.

And... if I can keep to the salmon trend for a few months, I'll be debt-free, save for the mortgage. And in the position to start socking away money.

A full time writing career might be within reach, guys. Not next month, not six months down the road, but... sooner than I thought, maybe.

Maybe.

Be well, all. Persist. Keep writing. Keep trying new things.

Because if you do? Sometimes really good things happen...
 

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW
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It's great to hear that you're doing so well. Most months, I'm a Plankton.
 

ASeiple

Livin' la vida biblia
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You won't always be plankton. It'll take more writing and more books but you'll get to a better spot.
 

Catherine

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I've been watching the rank of your Threadbare books on Amazon--outstanding. It's terrific that you've found your niche. Congratulations!:e2bear: