Share Your Successes!

ClarissaWild

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Hmm since I started publishing my books, which was around 7-7-2013, I've sold about 38 copies of 4 short novellas (in total). I don't know if it's good or not, but I just keep on publishing more short stories at least every week or so, driving traffic using a marketing plan ;) I've been trying to get more reviews, but no luck so far, though I do think it's wonderful I've managed to sell at least a few copies. Also had a 1 day free promo and downloads skyrocketed to 1100 or so :D. Hope it might do some good ;)
 

merrihiatt

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Hmm since I started publishing my books, which was around 7-7-2013, I've sold about 38 copies of 4 short novellas (in total). I don't know if it's good or not, but I just keep on publishing more short stories at least every week or so, driving traffic using a marketing plan ;) I've been trying to get more reviews, but no luck so far, though I do think it's wonderful I've managed to sell at least a few copies. Also had a 1 day free promo and downloads skyrocketed to 1100 or so :D. Hope it might do some good ;)

That's more than a sale a day in your first month! Congrats!
 

merrihiatt

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Heheh thanks both ^^ Yeah, I guess, but I don't know what is little or what is much, you know :p

I do know. Here's the thing, comparing your sales to someone else's is a losing game all the way around. Write the best book you possibly can with the best cover, editing, proofing, marketing, promoting you can. Then, write another book. The sales may come. Reviews may come. Those are things you cannot control. Writing the book, now THAT you have ultimate control over.
 

ClarissaWild

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I do know. Here's the thing, comparing your sales to someone else's is a losing game all the way around. Write the best book you possibly can with the best cover, editing, proofing, marketing, promoting you can. Then, write another book. The sales may come. Reviews may come. Those are things you cannot control. Writing the book, now THAT you have ultimate control over.

Hehe, that's absolutely true. I've been so happy the last couple of days, because one of my books has reached the 23.000 rank for paid version, so I hope it dips below :D Going steady!
I'll continue writing more series, already busy with another one :) I just put them out every week. It's a sort of marketing strategy I've designed after carefully watching some other successful writers.
 

sarahdalton

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I've got the first book in my series on sale for 99c and am currently #7 in the children's science fiction and fantasy on kindle! That's really cool. I've been #1 before, but it was only for a few hours after a bookbub run.

#3500 overall, which is great seeing as I'd dropped down to about 15k recently.
 

ClarissaWild

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I've got the first book in my series on sale for 99c and am currently #7 in the children's science fiction and fantasy on kindle! That's really cool. I've been #1 before, but it was only for a few hours after a bookbub run.

#3500 overall, which is great seeing as I'd dropped down to about 15k recently.

Many gratz! :D
 

Anjasa

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We didn't start getting reviews on our months until... I don't know, weeks or months after we hit publish. Most of our stuff still doesn't have reviews, and I think it's like... .5% of readers would review or something? It's ridiculously low.
 

merrihiatt

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This isn't really my news to share, but Leah Raeder made it into the Amazon Top 100 for her e-book, Unteachable. It's been out less than a week! She has a thread here on AW, if you want to follow her journey. Linky goodness.
 

mairi

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This isn't really my news to share, but Leah Raeder made it into the Amazon Top 100 for her e-book, Unteachable. It's been out less than a week! She has a thread here on AW, if you want to follow her journey. Linky goodness.

I only recently found out about that thread. Congratulations to Leah! :) And congratulations to those who recently shared success stories like Sarah (I've only just started lurking around in another forum and I've seen your name there as well!). :)

And to add another positive note, my book Nick and Lilac did - is doing - surprisingly well in Amazon UK.

It was initially categorized as NA romance, then we switched it to Erotica and at $.99 the book made it as high as #212 in overall rankings there and #10 in category rankings. The rankings dipped when the price was changed briefly to $2.99. Now, it's been steady so far in the 400+ to 500+ range for overall rankings.

Out of all my books this was the only one that did better in UK than the US. I'm not sure but I think the UK buyers really liked the cover. Virtually all of the reviews are from readers who had never read a book of mine before Nick and Lilac. :)
 

Mclesh

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Congratulations, mairi! Your book is doing really well! I hope it continues to do so.

My good news: This past weekend, I ran a three-day free Kindle Select promotion for Let Me Get This Off My Chest, and when I looked up the final number, I had 7,732 downloads. I attribute the large number to my listing on Pixel of Ink. (Thank you, POI!)

I've received some very nice reviews out of it; other women have shared their stories with me, and I got to spread my book out into the world a bit more. It's been a pretty amazing experience, I have to say.
 

sarahdalton

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Congrats Mairi and McLesh! And thanks for the shout out, Mairi.

McLesh -- I noticed your book in the top 100 for free on Amazon. A fantastic achievement! Good luck with the sales and reviews that will come next. :)

I hit a milestone this weekend -- 10,000 sales! Never thought that would happen!
 

Mclesh

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Sarah, thank you! I think I made it to #16 for an hour. :) I did much better than I would have expected.

Congratulations on the 10,000! Wow. That is a fantastic achievement! :hooray:
 

Nick Russell

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Congratulations Sarah. That's quite an accomplishment!
 

Storycrowd

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My latest book, a standalone mystery titled Dog's Run, has been in the Top 100 for mysteries on Amazon since it was released last week and has 11 five star reviews http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FDKTEC2/?tag=absowrit-20

Nick, congrats! That's a great first week!

Just wanted to say, in general, too...this entire thread is very encouraging and great to read. I loved seeing an earlier post from Hugh Howey (should have grabbed the link) where he said, essentially, "things are starting well for me!". Great! Look how far he has come; super motivation for other writers here!
 

girlyswot

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I guess this is really for the mods, but isn't this a self-publishing thread rather than an e-publishing one? I think it would be a real encouragement to others in the self-pub forum who might be missing it here (I've only just discovered it) and it doesn't seem to be used by people who are digitally published through a publisher.
 

Old Hack

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I guess this is really for the mods, but isn't this a self-publishing thread rather than an e-publishing one? I think it would be a real encouragement to others in the self-pub forum who might be missing it here (I've only just discovered it) and it doesn't seem to be used by people who are digitally published through a publisher.

I'd hoped it would attract a wider audience, but it has become a thread populated by self publishers.

I am not sure that we still need a separate e-publishing room, as very few trade-published writers ever appear here.