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OK, this is the last day of April, so it's time to give a report after the first full month of THE WOODS being out there.
Here's the cold, hard figures: since the book has been on sale (essentially March 30 on Amazon and B&N, and April 18 for Apple), the book has sold a massive grand total of 24 copies. Amazon leads with 15, B&N has sold 7, and Apple 2. That amounts to a shade over $60 in royalties.
Man, I'd better start drafting that resignation letter for my day job!
As I said, I'll be entirely honest in these reports. I'll fully admit that 24 copies strikes me as paltry, especially given that other writers I know have (self-)reported sales of 100s or even 1,000s of copies of their ebooks in a given month. I didn't expect my novel to shoot to the top of bestseller lists (yeah, I might have daydreamed about that, but…); I had expected it to sell, oh, maybe 100 copies in this month-and-a-few-days period, but it's not even close to that. After all, even my worst-selling, traditionally-published novel sold over 10,000 copies; my best-selling ones sold several times more.
THE WOODS started off selling two or three copies a day (which is why I thought it might break the three-figure mark in the first month), but that dropped off after the first two weeks. Now it's selling only a few copies a week. Considering that I had to purchase an ISBN and also apply for a copyright on the book, I'm just about breaking even -- as long as I don't count the many hours I put into getting the novel ready to appear in ebook form.
You want honesty? All this is disappointing. Heck, with Apple's two sales, I even know exactly who bought the book: my daughter and her roommate. I have more than 24 family members and close friends, and I mentioned the novel's appearance to all three of my creative writing classes -- though maybe they don't have the requisite Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone, or computer app in order to download and read the book. Or maybe they missed the announcements. Maybe.
Still -- this was an experiment, and failure can tell you as much as success in an experiment. It also may be that one has to be patient with ebooks. After all, it's not like it's going to leave the virtual shelves in six months, as a print book would, and I didn't have the Marketing Department of a large corporation behind its release. Maybe the sales will slowly climb with the great word of mouth the book's going to generate. Maybe.
I'm still in the process of figuring out how to flog the book without feeling like I'm one of the myriad online jackasses jumping up and down and waving his arms while shouting "Hey! Look at me! Look at me!" I'm not sure how to best 'boost the signal' for the book. Thoughts, anyone? (I know -- I'll write dozens of glowing five star reviews of THE WOODS under false names… no, that's been done. Oh, I'll use those false names to write glowing reviews of far more popular books, and mention my book in the review: "I really loved A GAME OF THRONES. The only book I know that even comes close to that one is THE WOODS by Stephen Leigh…" No, that's been done too…) But maybe I can come up with some clever marketing scheme that I can live with and not feel like an oily-haired used car salesman (oops, I just lost all the used car salesfolk as potential customers. Damn!) Maybe.
And -- honestly -- I do have to consider that it may be me that's really the problem. Maybe I haven't done everything I should have done. Maybe I missed something obvious on the marketing end. Maybe the "cover copy" stuff I wrote for the sites isn't doing the job of making people interested in the book, and I need to revise those and jazz them up somehow. Maybe.
I'm also still in the process of getting the book out beyond Amazon, B&N, and Apple. It should be up on Kobo.com very shortly, and I've signed up with an aggregator (ePublishing Works) to get the book onto Sony's site as well as several others with which they have distribution contacts. Maybe the additional markets will help. Maybe.
I will be uploading, in the next few days or so, two collections of short fiction in ebook form. Maybe having additional titles out there to choose from will help. And I'm working to ensure I have the rights to much of my backlist. Perhaps having my backlist available will help drive sales of THE WOODS. Maybe.
I'll let you know when I know!
Maybe.
-------------------------
-- Learn more about THE WOODS here.
--Buy THE WOODS in Kindle format here from Amazon
--Buy THE WOODS in Nook format here from B&N
THE WOODS for your iPad or iPhone
Here's the cold, hard figures: since the book has been on sale (essentially March 30 on Amazon and B&N, and April 18 for Apple), the book has sold a massive grand total of 24 copies. Amazon leads with 15, B&N has sold 7, and Apple 2. That amounts to a shade over $60 in royalties.
Man, I'd better start drafting that resignation letter for my day job!
As I said, I'll be entirely honest in these reports. I'll fully admit that 24 copies strikes me as paltry, especially given that other writers I know have (self-)reported sales of 100s or even 1,000s of copies of their ebooks in a given month. I didn't expect my novel to shoot to the top of bestseller lists (yeah, I might have daydreamed about that, but…); I had expected it to sell, oh, maybe 100 copies in this month-and-a-few-days period, but it's not even close to that. After all, even my worst-selling, traditionally-published novel sold over 10,000 copies; my best-selling ones sold several times more.
THE WOODS started off selling two or three copies a day (which is why I thought it might break the three-figure mark in the first month), but that dropped off after the first two weeks. Now it's selling only a few copies a week. Considering that I had to purchase an ISBN and also apply for a copyright on the book, I'm just about breaking even -- as long as I don't count the many hours I put into getting the novel ready to appear in ebook form.
You want honesty? All this is disappointing. Heck, with Apple's two sales, I even know exactly who bought the book: my daughter and her roommate. I have more than 24 family members and close friends, and I mentioned the novel's appearance to all three of my creative writing classes -- though maybe they don't have the requisite Kindle, Nook, iPad, iPhone, or computer app in order to download and read the book. Or maybe they missed the announcements. Maybe.
Still -- this was an experiment, and failure can tell you as much as success in an experiment. It also may be that one has to be patient with ebooks. After all, it's not like it's going to leave the virtual shelves in six months, as a print book would, and I didn't have the Marketing Department of a large corporation behind its release. Maybe the sales will slowly climb with the great word of mouth the book's going to generate. Maybe.
I'm still in the process of figuring out how to flog the book without feeling like I'm one of the myriad online jackasses jumping up and down and waving his arms while shouting "Hey! Look at me! Look at me!" I'm not sure how to best 'boost the signal' for the book. Thoughts, anyone? (I know -- I'll write dozens of glowing five star reviews of THE WOODS under false names… no, that's been done. Oh, I'll use those false names to write glowing reviews of far more popular books, and mention my book in the review: "I really loved A GAME OF THRONES. The only book I know that even comes close to that one is THE WOODS by Stephen Leigh…" No, that's been done too…) But maybe I can come up with some clever marketing scheme that I can live with and not feel like an oily-haired used car salesman (oops, I just lost all the used car salesfolk as potential customers. Damn!) Maybe.
And -- honestly -- I do have to consider that it may be me that's really the problem. Maybe I haven't done everything I should have done. Maybe I missed something obvious on the marketing end. Maybe the "cover copy" stuff I wrote for the sites isn't doing the job of making people interested in the book, and I need to revise those and jazz them up somehow. Maybe.
I'm also still in the process of getting the book out beyond Amazon, B&N, and Apple. It should be up on Kobo.com very shortly, and I've signed up with an aggregator (ePublishing Works) to get the book onto Sony's site as well as several others with which they have distribution contacts. Maybe the additional markets will help. Maybe.
I will be uploading, in the next few days or so, two collections of short fiction in ebook form. Maybe having additional titles out there to choose from will help. And I'm working to ensure I have the rights to much of my backlist. Perhaps having my backlist available will help drive sales of THE WOODS. Maybe.
I'll let you know when I know!
Maybe.
-------------------------
-- Learn more about THE WOODS here.
--Buy THE WOODS in Kindle format here from Amazon
--Buy THE WOODS in Nook format here from B&N
THE WOODS for your iPad or iPhone
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