And here... we... go.

Heya, Cath!

Everyone works at their own rate. Frankly, I'm amazed at your self-control, holding the books back as you are. I don't have that kind of willpower...

But yeah, it is all based on hope in the end. Hope and confidence, that builds the more you do, until you aren't deterred by bad reviews, or sales dips, or Amazon outages, or whatever. If a book doesn't sell well, that's fine, there's always the next, and the next after it, and the next. And all it takes is improvement as you go, and waiting for the market to step your way, then BOOM.

Like little literary land mines loaded with lucre.

I want to see your novels, but I'm happy to wait for'em. Tell us when they drop, huh? I'm eager to see whatcha got!

Well, that's a problem.

I just found out, through an idle discussion on Kboards, that I've been calculating my Kindle Unlimited reads incorrectly. Like 200 pages off for each novel, incorrectly.

My count is off. Way off.

On the upside, I get way more money for each KU read than I originally thought. Extra dollar or so.

I might not have hit ten thousand sales after all. Although...

The saving grace here is that I didn't track the short fiction KU reads. Seemed like too much of a pain at the time. But since I'm going to have to sweat anyway, if I go back and factor those in, my numbers shouldn't be too horrible. Of course I'll have to average there, but since the two short pieces tend to sell about equally, that should be somewhere within the ballpark.

Yi yi yi. What a day it's been. I foresee a lot of editing to come.

EDIT AGAIN: Okay. I'm going to have to go back and calculate in all the business reports. Fortunately I've been keeping a hold of those, and have an unbroken chain back to 2015. Man, this is gonna be a lot of work.

Yeah, that's pretty much what happened. And the KENP changes are weighing on my mind, too.

I think I'm just going to settle for getting every past post formatted and under the modern count, then work from that. It's a good opportunity to account for all the short fiction KENP that I was not caring about.

Pretty sure I'll still end up at or around ten thousand. But eh, it's best to sort this out now, as opposed to trying to puzzle over it ten years down the road. Won't be precise, but it will be more accurate.

Well, that was embarrassing.

I rushed the print copy to get a box of them to me in time, and it turns out I skipped a page when I was copying and formatting the template. As such, the Dire:Wars books have the margins off. You have to open them wide to read the books properly. Hard on the spine, looks nasty.

Not horrible horrible nasty, but bad enough that anyone in the trade would wince and probably snark about self-publishers.

Well, mea culpa. When you're going this route you have only yourself to blame for screw-ups. So I got into Createspace, and found to my relief that I can swap out the internal contents without having to purchase a new ISBN. Whew! That's $99 I'm glad I didn't have to spend. The new proofs are under review now.

In the meantime, I've notified my readers through mailing list and social media that I screwed up and an error crept in, and if they purchased a print copy before now, they can email me their address and I'll send them a new copy free of charge.

I'm very glad I've only sold about ten print copies of it so far. Makes this kind of mistake affordable. No less a wound to the pride, but it's a lesson learned and I'll survive.

Already got a box of thirty or so in for the comics con. If the new box doesn't arrive in time I'll take the box of faulty copies, and offer them for sale cheap, with the warning that they're flawed. Maybe do a deal where I toss them in free if somebody purchases the prior three books all in one go. They're still readable, it's just... off. Factory seconds. Like some of my garments.

If the box DOES show up I don't know what I'll do with the flawed ones. Seems a shame to pitch or burn perfectly readable books. But they do reflect on me as a writer.

Anyway, that's my advice when this sort of thing happens. Correct it as soon as possible, own your mistake, and do whatever it takes to make sure your readers don't get hurt.

Numbers time! March numbers were good. Solid launch, no real complaints.

(Numbers fixed to properly reflect sales report)

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 41 copies, bringing the running total to 67.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 22 copies, bringing the running total to 48.

Dire:Born sold 145 ebook copies, 3 print copies, and had 163 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 432.

Dire:Seed sold 101 ebook copies, 3 print copies, and had 122 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 322.

Dire:Time sold 100 ebook copies, 3 print copies, and had 124 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 347.

Dire:Wars sold 333 ebook copies, 6 print copies, and had 317 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 977.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 14 copies and had 6 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 50.

Very happy right now. Although I look to be losing momentum a little faster than the last launch, but whether or not that's an anomaly or the way things are, it's hard to tell. Need a few more series to compare.

Just got back from the Gem City Comic Con. Split a vendors' booth with two friends, and I sold ten books. My colleagues, who are both crafters, felt sorry for me because my take was less than theirs. I told them it was all just marketing, and tax-deductible marketing at that. And besides, I made back almost enough to pay for the table, so in the end I was satisfied.

Good con. Had some guests there that I was quite happy to see on the roster, even if I didn't have time to see them. I'll definitely be there next year, barring incident or weirdness. Might have to bring a costume, this is a good one for cosplay.

Now I'm kicking back and preparing for a night out. John Scalzi's at a local bookstore, touring to promote The Collapsing Empire. I'll go see if I can get a signature, and meet the guy in person. He's local, more or less.

Then Wednesday it's off to the Urbana University, to see if anyone wants to hear me talk about self-publishing or writing in general. Then, come the weekend, my first Writer's Retreat. Yeah, it's a busy week. Just the way things shook out.

Well. A day to unwind, then it's back to the grind. Time to start serious work on the next Dire book, and the next part of the mailing list story. No rest for the wicked!

It's been a seriously busy month, and it's only half over.

But I do have one happy occurrence to report now, rather than at the end of the month. My wife has self-published her first novel. (The first one that she hasn't co-authored, anyway.)

Shot a photo for her own cover, ran it past friends for editing, and got it out there. It's in a genre I know nothing about, so I left that part entirely to her, and helped her as best I could with the technical aspects, and the KDP interface.

From here on it's pretty much her show. The marketing... the sequels... everything is up to her.

We'll take it small and slow to start, I think. We'll have to. She doesn't have the home court advantage I had with the Dire books. It'll be an uphill slog, but we're in no hurry.

Hell, if she can crack out a niche in romance, she's got the very real possibility of leaving me in the dust. I'm cool with that. Never underestimate the bored housewife demographic!

Well!

This is a weird turn of events. Probably good. But weird.

I took my family to a foodie event the other day. A lot of local businesses got together and set up shop in the local stadium, offering samples of their food to anyone who came. "It was a pay once, eat as much as you like, and vote for your favorites" sort of deal.

They also had a raffle going. My wife dropped a few tickets into some useful-looking baskets.

Long story short, we won a "prime marketing" package through a local marketing company. They look to be web-specialized, so I might have to scoot my plans to obtain a website forward a bit.

I have no idea what this prime marketing package entails. But it's ours now.

Wish me luck, I'll give the company a call in a few days to sort out what they can (and will) do for us...

April was a good month. Dropping sales, but a lot of local events. And that marketing package, that might just help me get more internet presence. Lords know I could use it.

Also I did a thing. Maybe the first person to do a thing. I'll post it after numbers.

(Edited to reflect accuracy after reviewing reports)

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 33 copies, bringing the running total to 100.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 20 copies, bringing the running total to 68.

Dire:Born sold 74 ebook copies, 6 print copies, 13 direct sales, and had 110 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 635.

Dire:Seed sold 65 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 3 direct sales, and had 122 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 484.

Dire:Time sold 64 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 1 direct sale, and had 84 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 501.

Dire:Wars sold 104 ebook copies, 7 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 95 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1185.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 4 copies and had 5 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 59.

So things are slowing down, but this is pretty much expected. The next novel in the series is still going to be about 2-3 months out... I'm planning a July release date, but I'm only about 28 thousand words in. Going to have to hustle through May and June to get her done. Especially with the summer con season upon me.

Still, it doesn't have the same urgency that Dire:Wars did. If it's late, it's late. It's already accomplished its goal and the royalty money's going to be enough to set up the next part of my plan.

Conwise, this month was glorious. The university appearance was pretty much a bust, but I got to see a couple of old friends and it cost me nothing, so life went on. After that, things improved greatly. Gem City comic con got me my booth cost back and a few eyes on my work I wouldn't have had otherwise. Geekfest, the con in a museum, was awesome as usual. They crammed a whole lot of stuff into four hours... and I paid for booth costs three times over. Very positive crowd, too, a lot of college students and eager ears to listen to my pitch and spiel.

The thing I did... heh. I've been keeping it a secret, but now it's done.

So a friend of mine, who also happens to be one of my earliest readers, was pestering me for a proper box set. He wants a nifty collector's box to put his first three Dire books into.

Problem is, Createspace doesn't seem to allow that. And every other option I looked into would either cost me a good chunk of money for an option that would be limited to hardcore fans, or was way too complicated for the amount of time I wanted and cared to allot to it.

Furthermore, that friend of mine lives in Singapore. I'm not eating shipping costs for sending something to Singapore.

Then I had an epiphany. This is 2017, and there's more ways than one to get fans what they want. I thought outside of the box, every pun intended.

I went to a friend who does 3D printer art and commissioned him to make me a 3D printable book box.

Last night I sent the link to the pattern out on my mailing list. In a few days I'll post it for my blog and facebook followers, and put it up on a 3D printer forum where a lot of my fans hang out.

You want a Dire box set? Sure! Here's the link! Take the pattern, and print up the box in whatever medium you desire that your local 3D printer can handle. Hell, splurge and make it out of titanium, if you like. Your call, friends.

I'm out of the production chain. I turned something that would have been an unprofitable return into a free benefit for my fans. And what's more, I'm pretty sure I'm the first author to do up a 3D printed book box.

If I'm wrong, please let me know. Until then, I'm claiming bragging rights.

If you want to look at it or download it, you can find it here.

Hell, it even fits Dire's ethos. "HERE'S THE TECH, GO AND ENGINEER IT YOURSELF. ADVANCE AND EVOLVE!"

Hey, gang! Another month in paradise...

I think I'm going to stop editing numbers with a fine-tooth comb after the fact. All it usually does is knock off 1-4 copies sold, that's not worth spending an hour or so fiddling with reports.

So, on with the numbers.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 24 copies, bringing the running total to 124.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 17 copies, bringing the running total to 85.

Dire:Born sold 59 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 75 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 772.

Dire:Seed sold 40 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 64 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 593.

Dire:Time sold 40 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 66 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 610.

Dire:Wars sold 57 ebook copies, 7 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 74 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1323.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 8 copies and had 3 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 70.

Good month. Quiet month.

I've talked with the marketing company. Their service might help. They have a tool that helps tracks how people are visiting your web pages and social media sites online. They also provide an article distribution service, and optimize keywords.

So... not the huge marketing boost I was hoping for, probably. On the other hand, I can probably use this to amplify a launch or two, once the appropriate infrastructure is in place.

I'm taking the plunge and getting a web page. Working with my partner for the little dragons book, she's getting us set up now. We've also collaborated and managed to land a cover artist for the little dragons book. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully this one won't flake out like the last one did. Swear to gods, I never had so much trouble getting work out of people I paid until I started trying to get custom covers. Worse than roofing contractors...

With that in mind, we'll be launching the little dragons book early. I'm probably going to take the plunge and start digging into the AMS ads, try to drum up more interest there. It isn't the Dire line, or related to the Teslaverse, so I'm not sure how much my existing mailing list will hop to it. I hope they will, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea.

Eh, can't make everyone happy all the time.

As to the Dire series, I'm sixty thousand words into the fifth book. It's shaping up nicely, even if it's more of a bridge to the next book, than a standalone.

I am hampered by my lack of funds for marketing. Sounds dumb with the numbers I'm tossing around, yeah? But the fact is the money from that is going toward paying down debts. My family and I have the chance to be debt free (save for our mortgage) within a year. We are taking that chance, and I've worked out a number of budgets to compensate for the fluctuation of royalties. I think... I think I'm fairly sticky enough at this point that I can predict a minimum threshold. In any case, July will be a Dire launch month, and June or July will be the little dragons launch month, so we should be good regardless. Knock on wood and hope the creek don't rise.

Convention-wise, I've got one next weekend called "Geek Out 4.0" it's another semi-local one, taking place in a campground. This one's more for outdoor and exhibition stuff, but there's room for a sci-fi author, and the price is right. I haven't been tent camping in years. Here's hoping easy access to air conditioning and indoor plumbing hasn't spoiled me too badly.

I'll also be attending Origins, but as one of the crowd, not part of their author program. I introduced myself to the lady running it last year, and asked to be considered, but it looks like I didn't make the cut. Meh, so it goes. I'll be writing until the end of my days, so sooner or later I'll be big enough to be on their radar, probably. In the meantime I'll enjoy visiting friends at the table and attending panels on the writing track. Got a hotel room this year, for the first time ever, so that'll be nice. It's right next to the North Market, too, which is really too much temptation but that's a small sacrifice to make.

It'll be a good summer, I think. Things are going to plan, and life is good.

And so June passed, pretty damn quickly...

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 15 copies, bringing the running total to 139.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 13 copies, bringing the running total to 98.

Dire:Born sold 29 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 4 direct sales, and had 53 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 861.

Dire:Seed sold 30 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 38 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 662.

Dire:Time sold 30 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 44 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 686.

Dire:Wars sold 37 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 48 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1412.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 6 copies and had 1 kindle read, bringing the running total to 77.

Final Frost sold 25 copies and had 14 kindle reads, bringing the total to 39.

Origins was good, mainly for seeing old friends and gaming. Wasn't vending at that one. Did vend at one earlier in the month, an outdoors con called "Geek Out". Only moved a few copies there, but it paid for the table and some of the food bill, so that's fine. It's all marketing, when you get down to it.

Been slowing down on the writing, lately. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to rework the latest Dire book, and that's hurting my motivation. It's missing... something. I have to figure out how to restructure it, or it'll be mediocre. I'll be hanged before I release a mediocre book.

In happy news, my partner and I managed to get some cover art ahead of schedule, so we went ahead and released "Final Frost." No real advertising beyond word of mouth and friends and family, so she's not selling too hot at the minute. It's doing all right, but it's a real adjustment after riding the Dire train for so long. I was hoping for more crossover with Dire's fanbase, but oh well.

Still, this ain't a problem. FF sold well enough to get into some also-boughts. Once it gets a few reviews, there should be a trickle of sales, enough to make back cover art.

And more importantly, the print copies will be on my table come the next big convention. Right next to my partner's tie-in dragons, and the dragon-themed coloring book she's publishing on her own. My partner in this venture can SELL when she puts her mind to it.

But the most important thing? I've got a book out that I can read to my daughter, that doesn't require copious censoring. This one's for you, Genevieve.

Now, back to work, and after that, back to writing and editing Dire. Don't know if I'll make a July release, but I have to finish this draft before I can redo it...

July... July was on track to be a slow month. Then my cover artist finished up the art for Dire:Sins, I launched with over a week to spare before the end of the month, and awaaaaaayyyy we went!

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

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 13 copies, bringing the running total to 152.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 11 copies, bringing the running total to 109.

Dire:Born sold 39 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 1 direct sale, and had 51 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 957.

Dire:Seed sold 28 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 39 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 734.

Dire:Time sold 24 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 36 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 750.

Dire:Wars sold 32 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 41 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1489.

Dire:Sins sold 250 ebook copies, and had 117 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 367.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 5 copies and had 4 kindle read, bringing the running total to 86.

Final Frost sold 10 ebook copies, 6 print copies, 9 direct sales, and had 10 kindle reads, bringing the total to 74.

So yeah. Launch months are pretty good months. If the numbers do as they usually do, August will be a very good month. I'll get the print copy of Dire:Sins out there in the next couple of weeks, then start in on the last Dire for the year.

Might be the last Dire for a while. I've got some other ideas I want to work on, including finishing the kid dragons' trilogy.

Still, I can't let it go indefinitely. Dire is... well, I lucked into a good series that appeals to too many readers. I have to keep that rolling.

Funny thing is, I'm not the only one to see that. I got contacted by a small press last week, asking if I'd be interested in letting them work their magic on the Dire Saga.

I turned them down, for a variety of reasons. Still, it was a hell of an ego boost. And I offered to let them peruse any new series I had coming up, on the off-chance I might have something they could use. I burn no bridges and I'm not opposed to working with others. But I'm doing fine with Dire right now, and the only way to really improve her would be either a big marketing push or the power and influence of a big publisher.

Got a convention coming up this weekend, the last one for the summer season. It's a local Makerfair, all sorts of artists and crafters showing off their work and giving examples of how to do it. I'll be speaking there myself. Don't know how many would-be-writers I'll draw, but I'm partnering with my good friend the dragon-maker, so we should be able to move some Final Frosts.

Much to do, much to do. I'll take a few days to wrap up business, then on to beginning the next Dire. Then Dragons. Then... heh, then on to some truly epic fantasy. Oh, I'm looking forward to what's coming...

@CathleenT: Thank you! I'm glad this is helpful.

@rwm4768: Heh, it's inconstant. Best you can do in that situation, I've found, is track the numbers and work like mad on a sequel. Y'know, the stuff you were going to do anyway...

August was good. Plain and simple. But then, the month directly after a launch usually is.

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

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 12 copies, bringing the running total to 164.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 14 copies, bringing the running total to 123.

Dire:Born sold 81 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 94 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1137.

Dire:Seed sold 53 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 79 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 869.

Dire:Sins sold 239 ebook copies, 12 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 286 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 905.

Dire:Time sold 40 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 67 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 860.

Dire:Wars sold 56 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 90 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 1641.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 11 copies and had 8 kindle reads, bringing the running total to 105.

Final Frost sold 6 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 8 direct sales, and had 11 kindle reads, bringing the total to 99.

Good month. Did a small, local convention and made back my table cost. Diversifying my portfolio helped... this last one was a family event, so Final Frost sold better than the superhero stuff.

Got two more conventions and a book signing in the months to come. On the writing front, I'd planned to get stuck into the last Dire for the year, but I got distracted by a short story that's turning into a novella. I originally made the first two parts for my mailing list last year, but due to getting distracted, I never finished it. I finally decided "Okay, it's time to finish this sucker," and it turns out there's more plot there than anticipated. So I'm sticking with this until it's done, and my mailing list is getting double or triple the treat I originally planned to give it.

Then it's on to the next Dire, after that it's back to the little dragons world. Final Frost isn't selling well, and I know why. I haven't engaged the appropriate demographic. I haven't reached its audience, which is why it's getting no reviews and damn few purchases. I know it can sell well. It sells well on the tables. I just have to do some marketing.

So that's the next project, after I get stuck in far enough on Dire:Hell. Get smarter on selling MG books, wait for money to refresh, and spend some of it on good marketing.

Basically I take the number of kindle pages read from a book, and divide it by the KENP count for that book.

So Dire:Born has a KENP count of 529 pages, and had 49,257 pages read in August. 49,257 divided by 529 is 94. So while it's not an exact count, I can estimate that at least 94 people in KU read that book that month.

Mind you, that doesn't take into account people who pick it up, read 6 pages, and delete it. Nor does it differentiate between KU markets, I'm just adding together the US, the EU, Canada, and all countries into one big estimate.

But it's in the ballpark, and it's consistent with how I've done it all through my career, so I'm calling it the most convenient measure available for my methods.