And here... we... go.

I just watched Whoopi Goldberg hug my book on national television.

I love this job.

Thanks, Connor! Thanks Mclesh, and Lady Fox!

I've still got a long way to go, but I gotta admit I'm breathing a bit easier now.

Very glad that you've been obtaining some use from this journal. I read many similar accounts on this thread and other forums as I went, and they helped me figure out what the heck I was doing. Kind of humbling to see mine so used.

Good luck and keep writing!

Gencon is gonna happen come Wednesday, and tie me up for the rest of the week, and a bit beyond. As such, my report will be delayed for a bit. Don't worry, the numbers will be a 'coming...

Better late than never!

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 10 copies in July, bringing the year's total to 144.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 9 copies in July, bringing the year's total to 113.

Dire:Born sold 40 ebook copies, 5 print copies, 3 direct sales, and had 67 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1302.

Dire:Hell sold 44 ebook copies. 5 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 66 kindle unlimited reads, for a total of 1531

Dire:Seed sold 30 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 2 direct sales, and had 64 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1005.

Dire:Sins sold 25 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 57 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 839.

Dire:Time sold 27 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 50 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 817.

Dire:Wars sold 23 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 60 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 829.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 6 copies and had 2 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 125.

Final Frost sold 4 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 0 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 64.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 490 ebook copies through Amazon, 61 ebook copies through D2D, 12 through Kobo, 193 Print copies, and 2 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 5516.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 256 ebook copies through Amazon, 16 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, 28 Print copies, and 2 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 4109.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 242 ebook copies through Amazon, 16 ebook copies through D2D, 4 through Kobo, 26 print copies, and 2 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3164.

Well!

The spot on the View came and went, and I'd estimate about half my sales this month were due to it. Including about 80% of the print sales. I haven't seen print numbers like that since, well, ever.

But a week after the show hit, my tail dragged down again. I'm almost back to regular numbers, sadly. Was hoping for a few more zeroes in there. Ah, c'est la vie. I won't gripe, I got lucky with what I got. I'll take it and be happy.

And after much stewing and fretting, I've decided to release Bunkercore in September. I need to keep momentum going, and work on the RPG has slowed me down a bit. So Bunkercore will go out there as a test, we'll see how it does, and I'll figure out whether or not I want to seriously continue with it. Yeah, it has issues, but if it sells, then I can't fuss too much. I'll make it work.

The RPG is almost done. Womploads of pages almost ready to go out to my mailing list... Hopefully they'll give it a good test and let me know what works. If they don't, then that's fine. I can run it at the local RPG cons, and refine the system that way.

I really need to get back into a groove. Been slacking a bit, and that's unhealthy. Still, I'm not in a bad spot. Got several ideas percolating, and the freedom to work on whatever I want.

Especially since the Threadbare 2 audiobook released a week ago, and shot up the charts, renewing interest in Threadbare 1 as well. It's a solid launch, and it's bringing its predecessor with it. And given that Threadbare's third audiobook should be a little over a month away, this'll be a solid streak that keeps going. I'll get my first quarterly audio royalties in September. I'm expecting a good, solid chunk.

Then, some months after that, the Dire books will start their slow march onto the scene, one after the other...

Yeah. I think I'll be all right. We'll see how Bunker Core goes, but I'm not too worried. Got plenty of room to get something else out there if it doesn't go so hot, and a decent Christmas bonus if it does...

Numbers time!

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 15 copies in August, bringing the year's total to 159.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 9 copies in July, bringing the year's total to 122.

Dire:Born sold 33 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 40 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1377.

Dire:Hell sold 36 ebook copies. 4 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 34 kindle unlimited reads, for a total of 1605

Dire:Seed sold 29 ebook copies, 3 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 32 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1069.

Dire:Sins sold 29 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 27 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 896.

Dire:Time sold 29 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 26 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 874.

Dire:Wars sold 26 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 28 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 885.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 7 copies and had 4 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 136.

Final Frost sold 3 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 0 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 67.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 195 ebook copies through Amazon, 5 ebook copies through D2D, 2 through Kobo, 103 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 5821.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 135 ebook copies through Amazon, 4 ebook copies through D2D, 2 through Kobo, 12 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 4262.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 166 ebook copies through Amazon, 5 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, 14 print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3350.

Looks like my fifteen minutes of fame from The View are up!

That's fine. The pattern's starting to reassert itself, here. Been almost half a year since my last release, so the tide is ebbing.

Although... my hypothesis seems to be correct. The bigger the backlist, the more capital remains when the tide rolls out...

And here's an unexpected bounty; the boost from the View is STILL boosting my print sales. Combined with audio sales that continue to accumulate as steadily as raindrops, I'm not too worried about the dry spell for ebooks.

Man, all my metaphors involve water today. What's up with that? Eh, it's been dry and hot around here lately, maybe we just need a good rainstorm or three. I'm sure we'll get something sooner or later. Ohio always obliges.

It's due to be a good month. Got a release planned, if all goes well. Also, my free roleplaying game is done, and I sent it out to my mailing list last night. Here's hoping it's well received!

Seriously, that thing was work. Technically when you're writing a game, you're mostly writing non-fiction. That is NOT my joy, not at all. Rules upon rules upon explanations upon mechanics... but it's worth it, in the end. You end up making a toolbox for people to build fun stuff with, and that's a reward all to itself. Even if it gets zero interest, I've still done something I'm proud of, there.

And hey, if it takes off... well, I might investigate kickstarter for the first time. Art and editing and launches for these things aren't cheap.

But anyway, I'll be releasing Bunker Core this month if all goes to plan. Pretty sure I've got a lot of editing to do to it. The story doesn't quite work... but it's far from unsalvageable. Just gotta tinker around a bit.

After that, I'm free to work on what I please. Then I've got two conventions in October and November to plan for... as well as the 20booksto50k conference in Las Vegas. I'll be attending that one for the first time, and I'm seriously looking forward to it!

In other indie news, the thing everyone expected is happening. Createspace is folding, and like many others, I've moved my print supplier over to Amazon KDP paperback. It LOOKS like my books went across okay, but I'll be ordering a few copies to check them out later this week. Got to make sure they don't have any errors or problems! Stuff like that is unprofessional and reflects poorly on me.

What a busy and long summer it was, but what a good time it was. Now comes fall, and I'm looking forward to the cozy months.

Time to get back in the saddle and get writing new stuff once more...

Got my first audiobook royalties today!

This is kind of a weird case, because they pay out quarterly. Everything else is monthly...

...except that this is kind of par for the course when you're working with publishers, isn't it? Some people have it hit annually, even! Man, that's got to be weird. Perhaps even frustrating. I wouldn't have gotten by if I'd had to wait for annual or bi-annual payouts.

Though I'm a bit more stable now. Getting to the point where it wouldn't be an issue. Not the next book, maybe not the next five, but after that, it should be a moot point. Maybe. Knock on wood.

I won't be putting the sales into the monthly metrics. Think I'll save them for the year-end summary post. Easier all around that way.

As a side note, I see why so many people go audio. They're not up to snuff with the ebook sales, not now, but definitely a bit higher than the print sales. And oh my, it's nice to listen to your own book read by a great narrator!

KU was an experiment for me, one that worked out. It became the equivalent of free marketing for my first series, at the cost of eating into actual sales. It gets more eyes on my books overall, and that's what it's supposed to do.

I don't think it boosts print sales that much, but it brings in cash. It's actually a sale in its own way.

Think of it this way; with the number of pages that my full novels usually come out to, each KU readthrough nets me somewhere around $2.25 to $2.40

Compare this to my net from an ebook sale, which comes out to about $3.40, give or take.

The way I look at it, folks who use KU are essentially purchasing my book at around a 30% discount... assuming they read the full thing.

It's my job to make the book good so that they read the full thing.

Does it enhance sales? No. But it's the equivalent of giving a book club a healthy discount in exchange for a lot more readers. And some of those readers go and purchase my books from the series that isn't on Kindle Unlimited...

Mm. This is why it's good to diversify income streams. And yeah, KU is now a risk... the scammers haven't stopped, they're like a storm that comes and goes.

My next book will go into KU. We'll see what comes. But if I don't like the climate, I reserve the right to yank it out after three months.

So, a few weeks back, I got the notice from Amazon. "Createspace is closing! Please migrate your print books to Amazon KDP!"

The writing had been on the wall for a very long time. I was hesitant to do so... ten books is ten chances for something to go wrong.

But I did, taking care to examine them online through the viewer after they got through. They LOOKED fine.

I ordered one copy of each. They arrived about a week and a half later. They WERE fine.

Today I went in and ordered fifty copies for an upcoming couple of conventions, and paid about $30 less than I normally would if I'd gone through Createspace.

Okay KDP print, I was hesitant at first, but if you keep this up then we're gonna get along well. Although I need to try doing up a print copy of a new book, and see how painful the process is before it gets a total pass.

Let's talk about September's numbers...

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 5 copies in September, bringing the year's total to 164.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 5 copies in September, bringing the year's total to 127.

The newcomer, Bunker core, sold 494 ebook copies and had 948 kindle unlimited reads, for a total of 1442.

Dire:Born sold 23 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 59 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1461.

Dire:Hell sold 22 ebook copies. 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 36 kindle unlimited reads, for a total of 1665.

Dire:Seed sold 17 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 36 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1122.

Dire:Sins sold 19 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 40 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 945.

Dire:Time sold 29 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 26 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 921.

Dire:Wars sold 18 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 31 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 934.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 2 copies and had 4 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 142.

Final Frost sold 6 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 0 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 73.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 170 ebook copies through Amazon, 2 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, 18 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 6018.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 116 ebook copies through Amazon, 2 ebook copies through D2D, 1 through Kobo, 11 Print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 4392.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 139 ebook copies through Amazon, 3 ebook copies through D2D, 3 through Kobo, 12 print copies, and 0 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3507.

What a difference launch months make!

Bunker Core was a weird one. I had it sitting in my queue for a good long while... It had been out at Royal Road, and I was pecking at it at the same time that I was working the Generica Offline RPG freebie. Five months it took me to wrap that one up, give or take, and it still came out at less of a word count than my usual stuff.

This is my first stab at a concurrent project. I was nervous that splitting my attention wouldn't work out. That it would diminish my quality enough to become problematic.

But, judging by the sales and reviews, that ain't the case. Sure, part of that is Dire and Threadbare fans just simply wanting MORE, but part of it is that it seems to be a good book.

Now I'll have to do a sequel. Given how the last one went, I think I'll work on it at the same time I work on something else, see if I can keep up the pace and tone.

The next project for me is Small Medium, a story about a halfling fortune teller. It also takes place in Threadbare's world, so I'm expecting a fair amount of interest. This one is going out on the online fiction boards as well... I'll write a few chapters, then start posting it, and use the interest and support to boost my enthusiasm and motivate me. And I'll correct any glaring mistakes or issues that the readers point out. Honestly, it's a good relationship. They're effectively my beta readers! It allows a much faster turnaround time for the entire process.

I think... I think if I haul ass (pardon the language,) I can get this out in December. That'll put my total at 12 books. It'll also let me say that I can average a release schedule of at least four books a year.

That's no small thing.

I'm good at this.

I can actually make a living at this, if I can keep to a minimum of 4 a year.

Sure, not every one of them is going to be the bonanza that Threadbare was, but I don't NEED them to.

I just have to do my job as best I can, and sooner or later I'll catch lightning in a bottle again. So long as I don't burn out or write too many stinkers, I can make this work.

Oh! In other news, the Dire:Born audiobook releases this month. I'm eyeing that one with eager anticipation, proud to see my first child take her steps into this glorious new medium...

Happy Halloween! Here are the October numbers.

Keep an Ace in the Hole sold 17 copies in September, bringing the year's total to 181.

The Thin Black Line Between Infernal and Divine sold 17 copies in September, bringing the year's total to 144.

Bunker Core, sold 840 ebook copies and had 2767 kindle unlimited reads, for a total of 5049.

Dire:Born sold 52 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 3 direct sales, and had 135 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1652.

Dire:Hell sold 32 ebook copies. 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 69 kindle unlimited reads, for a total of 1766.

Dire:Seed sold 34 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 113 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1271.

Dire:Sins sold 24 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 70 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1039.

Dire:Time sold 33 ebook copies, 2 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 82 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1038.

Dire:Wars sold 30 ebook copies, 0 print copies, 0 direct sales, and had 76 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 1040.

The Dire Saga: Season One sold 4 copies and had 20 kindle unlimited reads, bringing the running yearly total to 166.

Final Frost sold 3 ebook copies, 1 print copies, 1 direct sales, and had 0 kindle reads, bringing the running yearly total to 78.

Threadbare Volume 1 sold 186 ebook copies through Amazon, 2 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, 27 Print copies, and 4 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 6237.

Threadbare Volume 2 sold 126 ebook copies through Amazon, 3 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, 6 Print copies, and 1 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 4528.

Threadbare Volume 3 sold 140 ebook copies through Amazon, 2 ebook copies through D2D, 0 through Kobo, 6 print copies, and 1 direct sales bringing the running yearly total to 3656.

Alea iacta est

The die is cast.

I've given two months notice at my day job. They are sad to lose me. I'm sad to leave. But the writing... the writing is just going too well.

I've earned more than enough this year to support my family, independently of my day job. And that's without factoring in the audiobooks, the profits from which will build and roll in, impossible to predict accurately until they hit. But they WILL hit. And each audiobook released boosts sales of the parent ebook.

I have too many ideas and too little time. Too many worlds to create, and freeing up about fifty hours a week should triple my current wordcount, if not quadruple it.

It'll also let me sleep as late as I please, thank you very much. And avoid the stress of a 9-5 office job.

This wasn't a spontaneous choice. I've been building to this for years. Paying off all of our debts for years... down to just the mortgage, now. Ironically enough if I stayed in another year I could probably blast that one away too, but... no. Just no. I'm done, and I won't put myself through that. Two months will be hard enough as is.

The nail in the coffin, so to speak, was a visit to my CPA. She totaled up my taxes, and I've got more than enough to cover those, with plenty of savings left over... enough to get us through the first quarter, by which time I'll have two more books out if all goes to plan. If I dip into credit cards and burn resources I can get us through the year... but I'm gambling that I won't have to. I'm gambling that sales will be good enough that we won't have to.

We shouldn't have to. If I manage to do half as well as we did this year, we'll do well.

If not... well... I'll examine other options. Worse comes to worse, I can always go to work part-time somewhere. I really, really don't want to, so that'll be my motivation to work hard, then.

Next week I go to the 20booksto50k conference in Vegas. In 2019, unless things go horribly wrong, I'll be at their conference in Scotland.

See you at one of those, maybe!