Sales Update

This is for those of you who like to see what's happening with other writers. Amanda Hocking wrote a post for her blog in December 2010 showing her sales. It's fun to look at and it gives us writers something to shoot for. Here is the link to Amanda's post: http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/2010/12/pics-or-it-didnt-happen.html  You can feel her excitement in her post.

And on a less grand scale, but no less exciting for me, here are my sales thus far.

Return of the Rose - Released March 2, 2011    $2.99
Medieval Time Travel Romance

March:     253
April:       879
May:     1,595
June:    1,460 

A Knight in Central Park - Released March 18, 2011   $.99
Medieval Time Travel Romance

March:    265
April:    6,017
May:     4,282
June:    2,383

Taming Mad Max - Released April 25, 2011  $2.99
Romantic Comedy

April:      30
May:     182
June:    264

Finding Kate Huntley - Released May 5, 2011   $2.99
Romantic Suspense

May:      184
June:     256

Abducted - Released May 29, 2011   $2.99
Romantic Suspense/Thriller

May:        24
June:     696

Total Books sold for March, April, May and June = *18,770

*On July 9th I hit 20,000, but I am not including July sales here. I am selling about 150 books a day.

By the end of the year I am hoping that I'll be able to make some sort of judgment as far as what genre sells the best for me. Right now (looking at my July sales so far) it looks like romantic/thrillers are the way to go. But Return of the Rose seems to be rising in sales and is keeping up with Abducted, so who knows. Either way, I'll keep you posted.

I am working on my second romantic comedy and then I plan on finishing my third medieval time travel before Christmas, 2011. After that, I plan to finish my second romantic thriller which I can hardly wait to get back to!

Let me know if you have any questions.

More Sales Numbers for the Curious

These sales numbers are from 5/1/11 thru 5/18/11. A total of 18 days.


A Knight in Central Park, time-travel romance (released on 3/18/11 and offered at $.99)

Amazon:    2,662
B&N:             187

Return of the Rose, time-travel romance (released on 3/2/11 and offered at $2.99)

Amazon:     854
B&N:             51

Taming Mad Max, romantic comedy (released on 4/25/11 and offered at $2.99)

Amazon:      93
B&N:              8

Finding Kate Huntley, romantic suspense (released on 5/6/11 and offered at $2.99) 12 days for FKH.

Amazon:     60
B&N:             2

The reason I think these numbers might be helpful to other writers is because we can all get a snapshot picture of what's happening in self-publishing as more people buy Ereaders. I have never changed the prices of my books because I want to see what happens with the $.99 vs. $2.99 pricing and because I feel that $2.99 is a fair price for all (I know I'm repeating myself.)

Will my newer books slowly rise or slowly drop? How about the time travels? Do time travel romances have a built-in fan base? Do people read more in May or more in October? So many questions. I could go on and on.

In April, 2011, I sold 5,431 of the $.99 book at Amazon. If I double the number above (2,662) by the end of May, I will be close to the 5,431 books I sold in April. If that number keeps up or even rises in the next few months, I am going to assume lots of people are buying kindles and they all like romantic time travels. :)

Truthfully, I have no idea what to do with all these numbers, other than share than with all of you. In a few months, after I release my other books, I might be able to do some concrete analyzing. Believe it or not I am writing and editing more than I am blogging or checking numbers.

I try to spend about 15 minutes a day looking at tweets, another 15 minutes looking over interesting sites or blogs. I probably spend an hour a day over here and I check my sales numbers a few times a day. I'm getting better about that. Checking numbers gets less addicting as time goes by because I'd rather write books than check #'s. I spend a minimum of five hours a day writing.

Disclaimer: I am not promoting self-publishing over any other kind of publishing. If you self-publish your book, I have no idea if you will sell 1 book or 20,000 books. Nobody knows. Self-publishing a book ten years ago or even one year ago is not the same as self-publishing a book today. Writers now have one more option to choose from when thinking about publishing their book(s).

Any questions?

Talking Money - Part I

I thought I was pretty good at numbers…until today.  Since I haven’t received any $ from Amazon or B&N yet…I thought I’d go ahead and share more numbers…and $ amounts!

Return of the Rose is selling for $2.99. March 2, 2011 to  April 30th I have sold approximately 1,010 books at Amazon and 171 books at B&N.

A Knight in Central Park is selling for $.99. March 18, 2011 to  April 30th I have sold 5,610 books at Amazon and 685 books at B&N.

The reports you get from B&N are straightforward, easy to figure out. Sold X #of books in March and you get this much $. You can see how many of each book you sold on a given day.

The reports you get from Amazon aren’t as easy to figure out. It can be done (I think) but since I am throwing this together, I already have a headache and the numbers are accumulative. For example, I can’t see how many books I sold on April 2nd at Amazon. The only reason I have an idea is because I was keeping my own records every day. So, if I had sold 26 books one day…and the next day the numbers for a particular book showed 35 books, I knew that I had sold 9 books so far that day. See! It’s sort of a pain in the butt. But I’m not complaining! No way!  Go, Amazon!

Okay, now the good stuff. For March and April I am expecting to receive…for two books.

B&N:               $   621.60

Amazon:         $4,310.72

Not bad. I’m pretty sure that’s more than I would have been paid in advance money from many traditional/legacy publishers.  Yes, I realize some of the big guys get much more than that…but hey, I’ve been writing for a while now and I’m a happy gal. Besides, give me until the end of the year.  I’ve got some more great books coming next week!

Okay, once I know how the payment thing works, I’ll be posting again! If you have any questions, you know where to find me.

More Number Crunching and Other Stuff

As of 4/25 at 8:30 PM A Knight in Central Park sold 5,299 copies from 3/18 to 4/25 and Return of the Rose sold 1,006, from 3/2 to 4/25 for a grand total of 6,305 books since March 2, 2011. That's crazy! I like to think maybe Medieval Time Travels are hot again!

This whole $.99 vs. $2.99 pricing is very interesting to me. I've made about the same with both books...and I like the idea of being able to give readers a MEGA deal with the book set at $.99. The rest of my books will be $2.99 only because I feel that's a fair price all around. A good deal for all.

I mentioned in one of my comments to a poster that besides sending out emails to friends and family, sending a few tweets, and putting messages about my books on Facebook, I didn't do much marketing. I have yet to blog besides here on my own website. BUT, I did have a wonderful reader mention my book on Pixel of Ink, and although I was up to 108 books a day, after the mention on 4/12, sales suddenly shot up to 580 in one day, before slowly coming back down to an average of 250 a day where I am still at as of today. Thank you Pixel of Ink!

Of course, I have no idea if sales will eventually drop to ten books a day. Who knows? I certainly don't. And I can't worry about it because I want to spend my time writing instead of worrying. I like to believe that my stories are fun reads for busy women everywhere and now I will be able to spend my time concentrating on writing romance novels! What a concept. In the end, that's all that matters to me. I want to write fun, romantic, fast-paced novels that leave readers wanting more. For 19 years that's what this has been all about. Some things never change.

Once again, let me know if you have a question.

Also, if you like reading contemporary romance with a bit of humor, my newest book, Taming Mad Max, a 2008 GH finalist, is available as of a few minutes ago!!! I sold a book! I haven't even told anyone and it wasn't me who bought it, so that's exciting! I want to know who bought my very first Romantic Comedy?! It's also available on B&N, and all three of my books will be available on Smashwords by the end of the week!