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Well, May has ended, so I thought I'd bring people up to date (as promised) on the progress (or lack thereof) of THE WOODS. April saw 19 copies of the novel sold through three outlets: Amazon (10), B&N (6), and Apple (3).
In May, I sold 30 ebooks through those same outlets... however, only 14 of those sales were for THE WOODS, since I added two short story collections (A RAIN OF PEBBLES and A TAPESTRY OF TWELVE TALES), then late in month, two single pieces of short fiction from those collections. Amazon sold 9 copies of THE WOODS, B&N sold 1, and Apple sold 4; totals over all the titles were Amazon at 20, B&N at 4, and Apple at 6.
Evidently, Amazon is the big dog in ebook sales, if my ratio holds true for everyone.
During May, I also put a new cover on THE WOODS; that did seem to help sales somewhat, which were pretty sluggish through the first two weeks of the month and picked up with the new cover. (Or it may just have been the fact that I posted about the new cover....)
During May, THE WOODS (and the other titles also) were also for sale on Kobobooks, and also via ePW!, my aggregator, at Sony and other places in the Ingram catalog. However, if I read the contract correctly, I won't see the sales figures for Kobobooks until 45 days after the end of the month, and from the aggregator only on a quarterly basis. I know (because people have told me) that there will be additional sales for May coming from those two places, but I won't know what they were for a bit. However, I think it's likely that total May sales for THE WOODS will be more than its total April sales once i have all the figures.
What the sales figures indicate to me is that what I've been told by others -- that for steady and significant ebook sales, what's required is either a Big Name or lots of books out there. I don't have a big name, but the two short story collections have added to the total sales. By the end of the year or early next year, I hope to also put out six or seven backlist novels: SLOW FALL TO DAWN, DANCE OF THE HAG, and A QUIET OF STONE (The Neweden trilogy; my first novels); THE BONES OF GOD, CRYSTAL MEMORY, THE ABRAXAS MARVEL CIRCUS, and possibly ALIEN TONGUE.
I can foresee that having that ten or so titles available could bring in a few hundred bucks a month: nothing incredible, nothing close to a living wage, but enough to pay the utilities or a car payment, perhaps. I certainly wouldn't mind that... Of course, that assumes a 'steady state' model, and I'm not sure that's a viable assumption yet.
Need more data! Need more data!
What about my more recent backlist? Most of that is under contract elsewhere for the time being: Phoenix Pick has DARK WATER'S EMBRACE, SPEAKING STONES, and THE SHAPE OF SILENCE (formerly THUNDER RIFT) out and available in both ebook and trade paperback; DAW has "S.L. Farrell's" Cloudmages Trilogy (HOLDER OF LIGHTNING, MAGE OF CLOUDS, and HEIR OF STONE) and the Neweden Cycle (A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT, A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL, and A MAGIC OF DAWN) out at in ebook and mass market paperback as well. And DAW is handling my next two novels: DAEMON HEART (probably a 2012 release) and CROW OF CONNEMARA (probably a 2013 release) -- and I intend to have them handle any future novels as well, hopefully!
BOTTOM LINE THOUGHTS: I don't regret the experiment, since as I've said before in these reports, I wanted to know what it was like to self-publish via ebook so that I could relay that experience to my students. But, for the sake of readership as well as income, I'd have been much better off seeing if I could find a traditional publisher for THE WOODS. With 40 copies sold thus far, I will have sold perhaps 200 copies by the end of the year at this pace... far, far fewer readers (by a couple zeroes at least) than the book would have had through the traditional route.
___________________
-- Learn more about THE WOODS here.
--Order THE WOODS in Kindle format here from Amazon
--Order THE WOODS in Nook format here from B&N
-- Order THE WOODS for your iPad or iPhone
-- Order THE WOODS from Kobobooks
-- Order THE WOODS from Sony
In May, I sold 30 ebooks through those same outlets... however, only 14 of those sales were for THE WOODS, since I added two short story collections (A RAIN OF PEBBLES and A TAPESTRY OF TWELVE TALES), then late in month, two single pieces of short fiction from those collections. Amazon sold 9 copies of THE WOODS, B&N sold 1, and Apple sold 4; totals over all the titles were Amazon at 20, B&N at 4, and Apple at 6.
Evidently, Amazon is the big dog in ebook sales, if my ratio holds true for everyone.
During May, I also put a new cover on THE WOODS; that did seem to help sales somewhat, which were pretty sluggish through the first two weeks of the month and picked up with the new cover. (Or it may just have been the fact that I posted about the new cover....)
During May, THE WOODS (and the other titles also) were also for sale on Kobobooks, and also via ePW!, my aggregator, at Sony and other places in the Ingram catalog. However, if I read the contract correctly, I won't see the sales figures for Kobobooks until 45 days after the end of the month, and from the aggregator only on a quarterly basis. I know (because people have told me) that there will be additional sales for May coming from those two places, but I won't know what they were for a bit. However, I think it's likely that total May sales for THE WOODS will be more than its total April sales once i have all the figures.
What the sales figures indicate to me is that what I've been told by others -- that for steady and significant ebook sales, what's required is either a Big Name or lots of books out there. I don't have a big name, but the two short story collections have added to the total sales. By the end of the year or early next year, I hope to also put out six or seven backlist novels: SLOW FALL TO DAWN, DANCE OF THE HAG, and A QUIET OF STONE (The Neweden trilogy; my first novels); THE BONES OF GOD, CRYSTAL MEMORY, THE ABRAXAS MARVEL CIRCUS, and possibly ALIEN TONGUE.
I can foresee that having that ten or so titles available could bring in a few hundred bucks a month: nothing incredible, nothing close to a living wage, but enough to pay the utilities or a car payment, perhaps. I certainly wouldn't mind that... Of course, that assumes a 'steady state' model, and I'm not sure that's a viable assumption yet.
Need more data! Need more data!
What about my more recent backlist? Most of that is under contract elsewhere for the time being: Phoenix Pick has DARK WATER'S EMBRACE, SPEAKING STONES, and THE SHAPE OF SILENCE (formerly THUNDER RIFT) out and available in both ebook and trade paperback; DAW has "S.L. Farrell's" Cloudmages Trilogy (HOLDER OF LIGHTNING, MAGE OF CLOUDS, and HEIR OF STONE) and the Neweden Cycle (A MAGIC OF TWILIGHT, A MAGIC OF NIGHTFALL, and A MAGIC OF DAWN) out at in ebook and mass market paperback as well. And DAW is handling my next two novels: DAEMON HEART (probably a 2012 release) and CROW OF CONNEMARA (probably a 2013 release) -- and I intend to have them handle any future novels as well, hopefully!
BOTTOM LINE THOUGHTS: I don't regret the experiment, since as I've said before in these reports, I wanted to know what it was like to self-publish via ebook so that I could relay that experience to my students. But, for the sake of readership as well as income, I'd have been much better off seeing if I could find a traditional publisher for THE WOODS. With 40 copies sold thus far, I will have sold perhaps 200 copies by the end of the year at this pace... far, far fewer readers (by a couple zeroes at least) than the book would have had through the traditional route.
___________________
-- Learn more about THE WOODS here.
--Order THE WOODS in Kindle format here from Amazon
--Order THE WOODS in Nook format here from B&N
-- Order THE WOODS for your iPad or iPhone
-- Order THE WOODS from Kobobooks
-- Order THE WOODS from Sony
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