Holy hell.
Uh. I've got NEWS.
But first, the numbers.
Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 15 copies in June, bringing the year's total to 134.
The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 9 copies in June, bringing the year's total to 104.
Dire:Born sold 49 ebook copies, 6 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 100 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1187.
Dire:Hell sold 75 ebook copies. 8 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 114 kindle unlimited reads, for a total of 1416.
Dire:Seed sold 39 ebook copies, 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 86 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 907.
Dire:Sins sold 37 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 71 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 754.
Dire:Time sold 28 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 66 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 737.
Dire:Wars sold 32 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 70 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 742.
The Dire Saga: Season One sold 6 copies and had 4 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 117.
Final Frost sold 6 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 0 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 59.
Threadbare Volume 1 sold 181 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, 6 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 4758.
Threadbare Volume 2 sold 178 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, 4 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3806.
Threadbare Volume 3 sold 152 ebook copies through Amazon, 1 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, and 3 print copies, bringing the running yearly total to 2874.
Okay. So pretty good numbers. Especially for the second month after a launch. I've got a little leeway here, which is good, because I'm not sure if I want to release Bunkercore. It has... issues. I might have to take a few months and work on the next thing in the line instead.
The Threadbare audiobook has been selling. It spend the first three weeks of its launch hovering around 1500-2000 overall in the Audible store. I'm not sure if that's good. I have no scale to measure it by, since I'm not sure how much that translates into direct sales. My publisher will pay me in September, so I'll know whether or not it was good then.
Speaking of audiobooks, I've signed with the same folks who did Threadbare. They're going to produce the Dire Saga! This is exciting. My one insistence was that they find a female narrator for this series. They agreed it made sense, so before the end of the year I should hear my first protagonist's voice in glorious surround sound... ah, what a feeling!
But that's not the big news.
Back a couple of weeks ago, I was enjoying my vacation at Origins game fair, when I got an instant message through my facebook author page.
It was from an associate producer of the View.
Evidently they do a recurring segment called "The Ladies Get Lit." Each host chooses and offers up a book, singing its praises and recommending it to the audience.
And for the July segment, Whoopi Goldberg chose Threadbare, Volume I.
...
Yeah.
I checked it out, followed up with an email, and ran down the names and addresses involved. They checked out. I called up my audio publisher, filled them in and asked them to check it out. It checked out. The View really is going to recommend my book.
The only tricky thing was that I had to get them print and audio copies for their studio audience. My audio publishers took care of the audio end of things, but the print copies were on me. See, for trade published authors this ain't a thing. They talk to their publisher, and their publisher sends over the print copies. But I'm self-published, so this is just another thing that I had to handle personally.
And I tell you I didn't mind. I ordered them up from Createspace and shipped them merrily on their way. All 195 of them. Highest priority shipping.
I paid that bill smiling.
I'll be breaking the news on my author page soon. My friends and family and writer's group already know. Now it's time to go public.
In one week, so long as everything goes right, my book will be on television in front of a couple of million viewers.
I am so very, very glad I paid for the best cover I could, because I'm pretty sure that cover alone will get me beaucoup sales.
But... hopes and dreams aside, I'm posting this as proof it can happen to YOU. It can happen to anyone. We don't control who sees our books, or when they read them. This struck completely out of the blue, and it hit because the right people read my book at the right time. It's luck.
And it can happen to YOU.
Work hard, keep working, and find ways to work without losing the joy. The only way to lose is to stop writing.
So.
Yeah, a busy month. A good month.
But next month? Once July 9th hits and passes?
I am very, very interested to see what's gonna happen, there. And I'm very much hoping it affects my numbers. Hugely.