Self-publishing by the Gutter

frimble3

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Congratulations on your retirement! May you have many happy years to concentrate on your writing.
 

Norman D Gutter

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Hard to believe it's been a year since I posted sales. Here they are. Second quarter sales this year are up a little because I did two author events in June.

.........1Q.....2Q.....3Q.....4Q....Year
2011....2.......7......11.....15.....35
2012...16.....73......45.....22...156
2013...14.....22......16.....13....65
2014.....7.....48......25......2.....82
2015...11.....25......38......9.....83
2016.... 9......6.......10....17.....42
2017...17.....22......22.....13....74
2018.....6.....18.....18......6......48
2019.....3.....30
Total sales to date—619

I officially retired from the day job on Jan 1, 2019, though they have me under contract to help from time to time, and I'm earning enough from them to pay most of the utilities. So I'm spending more time writing. I published one book in May (that I finished December last but took a long time to edit). I have a second book finished that I'm in the final stages of editing. I suspect I'll publish it in August. And I'm about half-way through a new endeavor, a Bible study I intend to publish. I've developed a number of Bible studies over the years, which I've taught, but have never actually written out in book form. This one will be written and published before I start teaching it in September.

Six months in, retirement has been full and productive. Three road trips to see kids/grandkids have been wonderful interruptions.

Best Regards,
NDG
 
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Norman D Gutter

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Here's the Q3 report. It was a better month for sales. I ran two ads at the Fussy Librarian for books in my Documenting America series. While I didn't make back the cost of the ads, it definitely brought some sales. No reviews, yet, but perhaps they are coming.

I also published two books. One, Documenting America: Making The Constitution, went through a few-months editing process and finally was ready to go. The other was a Bible study: Acts Of Faith: Examples From The Great Cloud of Witnesses. This came together quickly, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. I didn't receive print copies of either before the end of the month. I have ten orders, which I'll deliver next week, to sweeten the pot for October.

Now working on a short story in a semi-dormant series, and a Leader's Guide for the Bible study.

.........1Q.....2Q.....3Q.....4Q....Year
2011....2.......7......11.....15.....35
2012...16.....73......45.....22...156
2013...14.....22......16.....13....65
2014.....7.....48......25......2.....82
2015...11.....25......38......9.....83
2016.... 9......6.......10....17.....42
2017...17.....22......22.....13....74
2018.....6.....18.....18......6......48
2019.....3.....30.....44
Total sales to date—662
 
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AgathaChristieFan

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Yea to retirement! I love that you're getting to spend more time with your family and still finding time to write :) Did you like Fussy Librarian? It's good that you got some sales from it. Good luck with everything, Norman.
 

Norman D Gutter

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With the AW shutdown, I'm just now coming back to the site, so will belatedly post my 4th quarter 2019 sales.

.........1Q.....2Q.....3Q.....4Q....Year
2011....2.......7......11.....15.....35
2012...16.....73......45.....22...156
2013...14.....22......16.....13....65
2014.....7.....48......25......2.....82
2015...11.....25......38......9.....83
2016.... 9......6.......10....17.....42
2017...17.....22......22.....13....74
2018.....6.....18.....18......6......48
2019.....3.....30.....44....54.....131
Total sales to date—716

My main seller in the quarter, with 38 sales, was my Bible study, "Acts Of Faith". Most of those sales were personal paperback sales, a lot of them at reduced price to people in our adult Sunday school class, as we started studying it in October. My non-fiction book on the U.S. Constitution sold a few, and had scattered other sales. The year closed with my second best quarter ever, and my second best year.

My ads on The Fussy Librarian resulted in nowhere near enough sales to break even. I've contacted them about what I could have done better and am awaiting a response. I'll be the speaker at a writers' group in April, which will hopefully generate some sales.

Carrying on writing a new novel (20% done) and programming two books to write after that.

Best regards,
NDG
 

Norman D Gutter

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Here's the 1st Quarter 2020 report. A down quarter. I published one new short story in January (no sales). I didn't do any promotions other than some social media posts. Most of these sales were of the Bible study I published in September 2019. Progress on my novel-in-progress is slow, as the historical research it taking more time than expected. Plus, I pulled off of it for a month to expend research energy followed by writing on a genealogy/family history book. It's done and edited. I'm letting it sit a while then hope to publish it (after one more read-through) in June.

Here's the sales table.
.........1Q.....2Q.....3Q.....4Q....Year
2011....2.......7......11.....15.....35
2012...16.....73......45.....22...156
2013...14.....22......16.....13....65
2014.....7.....48......25......2.....82
2015...11.....25......38......9.....83
2016.... 9......6.......10....17.....42
2017...17.....22......22.....13....74
2018.....6.....18.....18......6......48
2019.....3.....30.....44....54.....131
2020....15
Total sales to date—732

Best Regards,
NDG
 

Norman D Gutter

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Time for the second quarter report. 3 whole sales. Yipee. I did no promotion, except a few social media posts. Things are looking up for the next quarter, as I already have 16 sales in July. I published a new book early this month, a second genealogy/family history book. I'm not expecting many sales from that. Work on my next novel progresses very slowly, working around many life interruptions. I'm working on getting some Amazon ads up. Next quarter I'll report how they worked.

Here's the sales table.
.........1Q.....2Q.....3Q.....4Q....Year
2011....2.......7......11.....15.....35
2012...16.....73......45.....22...156
2013...14.....22......16.....13....65
2014.....7.....48......25......2.....82
2015...11.....25......38......9.....83
2016.... 9......6.......10....17.....42
2017...17.....22......22.....13....74
2018.....6.....18.....18......6......48
2019.....3.....30.....44....54.....131
2020....15......3
Total sales to date—734
 

CathleenT

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Well, this is not exactly a normal time. I normally have quite an appetite for fiction, but lately I've been focused on preparedness, so most of my reading has been nonfiction. Plus all the the time on building up my garden, chicken coop, etc. And I'm not the only one. Certain gardening supplies are difficult to find, along with a fair number of staple goods. I'm going to release a duology later this year, and I have no idea how it will do. I'm trying to moderate my expectations in advance, though.
 

Norman D Gutter

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The 3rd quarter is in the books. At 28 sales it was better than the 1st (15) and 2nd (3), helped by a sale of 15 of my published Bible study to someone who is going to use it in a neighborhood group. In July I took part in an on-line class for Amazon ads and started running a few ads. This has resulted in 8 sales, and I'm a little ahead on royalties vs. ad spend. I'm going to do some ads for one of my non-fiction books this month. It was my first published book, and I'm working on re-publishing it with updated list of publications and a few other additions/corrections.

Writing is a little slow. I have diverted my time to transcribing letters from out Kuwait years (1988-1990) which our parents/grandparents kept and we now have. That came to 142 items, 82,000 words and 145 typed pages. I plan on turning it into an illustrated book just for family. It's going to take lots of editing, however, and more graphic arts skills than I have now. The transcription project is described here: http://davidatodd.com/2020/09/04/the-kuwait-years-in-letters/

I'm very close to getting back to my novel-in-progress, which I don't figure on finishing this year.

Here's the sales table

..........1Q.....2Q.....3Q.....4Q....Year
2011....2.......7......11.....15.....35
2012...16.....73......45.....22...156
2013...14.....22......16.....13....65
2014.....7.....48......25......2.....82
2015...11.....25......38......9.....83
2016.... 9......6.......10....17.....42
2017...17.....22......22.....13....74
2018.....6.....18.....18......6......48
2019.....3.....30.....44....54.....131
2020....15......3.....28

Total sales to date—762
 
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sandree

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Congrats to you for keeping at it and having some sales every quarter!