Preliminary results of my first 2 months self-publishing

[Graylorne]

Today I checked the results of my book sales so far. I give it to you as an impression of what to expect after selfpublishing your first book.

I have atm 2 self-published fantasy books, Shardfall ($5.99 - publ. June '13) & Rhidauna ($6.99 - publ. July '13), and a novelette, SUN ($0.99 - publ. Apr '13) on Amazon and on Smashwords + affiliates. These are all e-books. There are no p-books sold that I know of.


apr 1x SUN (Kobo)
may -nil-
jun 1x Shardfall (B&N)
jun 1x Rhidauna (Kindle UK)
jul 2x SUN (Kindle)
jul 1x Rhidauna (Kindle)
aug 1x SUN (Kindle)

Via bloggers and a reviewers group on GoodReads, I obtained 3 reviews up to now.

I ran 3 GoodReads giveaways of 1 month each:
Jun/Jul (Shardfall) : 910 requests (finished)
Jul/Aug (Rhidauna): 452 requests (runs till Aug. 18th)
Jul/Aug (Zihaen) : 30 requests (runs till Aug. 17th) (Dutch market only)
and 1 BookLikes giveaway of 2 weeks:
Jul (Shardfall) : 10 requests


All in all a net result for Jun/Jul of 5 publications sold.

I have no data to compare this with other people's results, so I can't say whether this is any good or not.
Anyhow, here you have it.

 

[BWFoster78]

Graylorne,

Thanks for sharing these results. I love seeing actual data.

Brian

 

[Asterisk]

That's really interesting. Thank you for sharing this data. I know that self-publishing is hard, and it takes a while to really get the snowball rolling (if that makes sense), but it can be really rewarding. I wish you the best of luck!

 

[Devor]

All in all a net result for Jun/Jul of 5 publications sold.

I have no data to compare this with other people's results, so I can't say whether this is any good or not.
Anyhow, here you have it.

What are you doing to promote it?

 

[Aosto]

What are you doing to promote it?

I, too, am interested in hearing this. That seems to be the biggest downfall when it comes to self-publishing, the dreaded promotion.
A friend of mine has self published a few Novels to Amazon and is reporting decent numbers. She does, however, run several free giveaway promotions. I know she listed her first at $0.99 and the others at a slightly higher $2.99.
Her promotion strategy has been pretty much plugging the books every once and a while via Google+ as well as a blog that she runs. Outside of that, I'm not sure she has done much else.

 

[Graylorne]

What are you doing to promote it?

- First the giveaways. Those are promotion, after all.

- I joined Independent Authors Network, who regularly tweet my books to their followers.

- Now and then I send out some review copies to bookbloggers.

- I have booked a small book tour - the small wasn’t my idea, but apparently this operator didn’t have enough contacts to fill my requested tour of 20 stops (15 reviews/5 interviews), so instead it will be 4 promo’s/4 reviews. But as the price dwindled with it, I see it as an experiment. Problem is, most book tour operators I’ve found so far, do mainly romances, paranormal, etc. but no fantasy. So I’ll see how it goes. It’s 19-31 August.

- I have an author’s website, but my own social media footprint is very small. I’m not really a social person, so that won’t work for me. Still, I am on Google+, I'm member of several GoodReads groups, LibraryThing and BookLikes. My author-website is on StumbledUpon. I can't blog, however.

- I haven't priced my books for next-to-nothing. I don't mind to stunt a bit when a nex book comes out, but overall I believe I'm enough of a professional to ask regual prices. With the present pricing I've room to lower them slightly without looking too cheap.


All in all, I’m of the school that says the best promotion is more books and that’s what I’m doing. I’ve two more books out for editing, to be published this year. I’m translating a third and writing something completely new. Those will be for 2014, probably.

Only problem is financial. I have a one-time budget. When that runs out, I’ll have to do some concessions (f.e. no edit but only extensive beta reading is an option). In the end, sales have to pay for new publications (and a bit more, if possible).

 

[PaulineMRoss]

I haven't priced my books for next-to-nothing. I don't mind to stunt a bit when a nex book comes out, but overall I believe I'm enough of a professional to ask regual prices. With the present pricing I've room to lower them slightly without looking too cheap.

You haven't asked for advice about price, but I'm going to give you some anyway Shardfall is $6.00 or (for me) £3.97. For a completely unknown author, that's above my personal comfort zone. At $0.99 lots of people will take a punt on it. At $2.99 you'll still get quite a few sales. At $6.00, not so many. You don't want to give it away for nothing, but you might want to think about reducing the price in the interests of building your fanbase.

 

[CupofJoe]

There would be a problem with pricing things below £2.00 [I guess that is around the $2.99 point] in the UK if you were hoping to get the sales recorded "officially". The sales chart organisation for the UK "The Bookseller" only records ebooks costing £2.00 or more.
Digital chart reveals what we really want to read
and apparently most of what is read on ebooks is porn and old books...

 

[Graylorne]

I always welcome advice, Pauline

You have a point. I can try it for $2.99, see if it makes any difference. But I spent too much money and effort on cover and editing to go any lower.

I only wonder what this will do with my Dutch market. If I sell Rhidauna as an e-book for $2.00 = GBP 1.96, who's going to pay €16.95 for the Dutch version (paperback)?

@CupOfJoe: Nice article. Extra argument for a $2.99 bottom.

 

[PaulineMRoss]

$2.99 is reported to be the 'sweet spot' on Amazon - it's low enough to attract impulse buyers, but still squeezes into the 70% royalty bracket (until Amazon changes things again, of course).

I wouldn't take too much notice of the Bookseller's chart - that's just the traditional publishing industry manning the ramparts against self-pubbers. The Amazon chart is the only one that counts.

[Edited for grammar ]

 

[Graylorne]

$2.99 is reported to be the 'sweet spot' on Amazon - it's low enough to attract impulse buyers, but still squeezes into the 70% royalty bracket (until Amazon changes things again, of course).

And at 70% it's making me quite a lot more profit than those Dutch p-books, too.

 

[Chilari]

$2.99 makaes you 6 times as much money per sale as $0.99. That means if your sales are half as much at that rate, you're still making 3 times the money. I'd say it's worth it. The only problem I have is whether the length is worth it; if it's only 5,000 words I wouldn't consider $2.99 to be worth it, unless it's really good. If the story is 15,000 words, though, I'd be fine with it.

 

[BWFoster78]

Graylorne,

I'm not an expert on this kind of stuff, but I took a look at your pages to see what, from the perspective of a customer, I noticed. If you don't mind some constructive criticism, I have a few thoughts:

Consider revising your introduction as an author. It's too factual. It needs to make you sound like a guy I want to get to know, not just be a resume. I like the fact that you indicate you're a traditionally published author as it gives you credibility, but the rest of the facts are flat. Consider telling a personal anecdote of some kind instead. Also, I really wouldn't go into any details about translating.

Looking at the thumbnails, Shardfall looks decent except that the name kinda disappears into the scenery. Consider revising the color/font or using some other method to make it more readable. The other two don't appeal to me at all and, considering they're the same series, they aren't coordinated.

There's something wrong with the formatting of the pages for the first two books, Rhidauna and Shardfall. There's the title followed by a large blank area. There's not even a description. You've got to get this fixed. It's a huge turnoff (really, if I didn't know you and just stumbled on this page, I'd pretty much click away immediately the way it looks right now). The book page needs to look like every other book page a reader sees on Amazon.

Rhidauna and Revenaunt are hard to remember and pronounce. I had to look back several times to make sure I had the spelling correct. Those titles combined with all the stuff about translation naturally make me wonder if I'm going to be stumbling over words a lot. Note that one of your Shardfall reviews mentions this as a negative.

I know it's not an easy thing to accomplish, but you really need to get more reviews. When I look at a book and it only has one or two, it makes me more likely to move on. If you really want to sell more books, maybe make getting reviews a big priority until you get ten to fifteen for each book.

Anyway, hope this helps!

Brian

 

[Graylorne]

Brian,

I'll have a look at my author introduction.

The covers are designed, I can't change anything there. The Rhidauna cover is the same as my Dutch version. (Rhidauna and Shardheld are not the same series, btw.) I posted them on various sites, including Google+ and Facebook, and most comments were favorable. Customer reactions were positive too.

What formatting is wrong? I checked the Amazon 'look inside' and all the download versions at Smashwords and I can't find anything wrong.

Why are my titles strange? Rhidauna and Revenaunt are hardly alien words.

Reviews I'm working on. But that's a slow process. All those giveaways are meant to get reviews, my planned book tour is meant to get reviews and what more can I do?

You have me confused, Brian. I really don't know what I'm supposed to do now.

 

[Devor]

Reviews I'm working on. But that's a slow process. All those giveaways are meant to get reviews, my planned book tour is meant to get reviews and what more can I do?

You have me confused, Brian. I really don't know what I'm supposed to do now.

Well for instance, instead of linking to your author site in your signature, you could link to your review request page here on the forums, with the line "Free review copies of Shardfall...."

 

[Graylorne]

That is a very handsome suggestion, Devor. Thank you!

---

Review request sent.

---

Prices of the e-books adjusted to $ 2.99.

@Chilari - Both are books. Shardfall is 44k. and Rhidauna 83k. in their stockings.

 

[BWFoster78]

Graylorne,

Rhidauna and Shardheld are not the same series, btw

That's why, after referring to Shardheld, referred to the other two books as "the other two."

I understand if you're not interested in making a change at this point, and I am not a graphic designer. I'm just telling you my opinion based on checking out your author page. The covers of the non-Shardfall books didn't speak to me. The only thing that really tells you, though, is that it didn't speak to me.

What formatting is wrong? I checked the Amazon 'look inside' and all the download versions at Smashwords and I can't find anything wrong.

No. Not the book formatting. When you click on the book title and it takes you to the book's Amazon page. Look at THAT formatting. Instead of what I'm used to seeing, there's the title followed by a huge white space followed by a tiny book description that's cut off after a couple of lines. I'd seriously consider fixing that if I were you.

Why are my titles strange? Rhidauna and Revenaunt are hardly alien words.

I tend to dislike "out there" words, and be more sensitive to them, than most people are. I think you should consider, at least, making your words simpler. Note that you received a review that commented on the same thing. The fact is that I don't like having to read a lot of words that make me stumble. The fact that your titles contain words that make me stumble is a turnoff for me.

Again, this is mainly a personal thing for me. However, this thread started with you pointing out some lackluster sales. I'm just trying to tell you things that would have impacted my decision to buy your book. What you do with the input is up to you.

 

[Graylorne]

Brian,

I notice the link to Shardfall's Amazon page on my author site is broken. Is that what you mean? Then I'm glad you told me. It's easily fixed, but it makes a bad impression.

The covers are copyrighted. I can't just play around with them.

Are those sales really lackluster? I was pleasantly surprised there were already sales at all. I mean, Rhidauna was published three weeks ago and Shardfall just two months.

Anyhow, thanks for the advice. I can't follow up all of it, but what I can fix I will, so don't think me ungrateful. You just had me a bit nonplussed.

 

[BWFoster78]

Graylorne,

Is that what you mean?

No.

Go to this link: Rhidauna (The Shadow of the Revenaunt) (Volume 1): Paul E. Horsman: 9789491730016: Amazon.com: Books

Then, go to this one: Amazon.com: Shadows Under Nadril (The Shadow of the Revenaunt) eBook: Paul E. Horsman: Books

The second one reflects how the Amazon page should look. The first one, however, shows a huge white space below the title instead of displaying the correct information. This is the problem to which I refer.

Are those sales really lackluster? I was pleasantly surprised there were already sales at all. I mean, Rhidauna was published three weeks ago and Shardfall just two months.

I interpreted them as such. If you're happy with them, never mind.

(EDIT: To elaborate, even though I understand that I should expect low sales volume, there's a part of me that can't help but dream that my book, against all odds, is going to sell really well. If I get less than 50 sales in the first month, I'm going to be disappointed.)

Sorry I "nonplussed" you. I thought it might be useful to understand how others might evaluate your Amazon page when they stumble upon it.

Brian

 

[Devor]

The covers are designed, I can't change anything there. The Rhidauna cover is the same as my Dutch version. (Rhidauna and Shardheld are not the same series, btw.) I posted them on various sites, including Google+ and Facebook, and most comments were favorable. Customer reactions were positive too.

Try this: Download gimp. Open your covers. Zoom out until you're viewing thumbnail size. Increase the brightness by 8 and the contrast by 15. Do it two or three times until it looks clear as a thumbnail.