The Kingfisher Has Landed

February figures

Can I just say that I am horrified that it is already March?

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 787
D2D: 17
Smashwords: 5
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 809

Toad Words
Kindle: 136
D2D: 7
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 146

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 104
Smashwords: 7
Total: 111

Total Sales to Date
Seventh Bride: 4725
Toad Words: 2050
Nine Goblins: 3306

February was a pretty hard drop from January--mind you, February is always rough for art sales, too, so I'm not terribly surprised. (One of my short stories was nominated for a Nebula award, but that didn't garner a lot of advertising, probably because of the pen-name. But on the next anthology I do, I can put "Includes the Nebula Nominated "Jackalope Wives" and that does not suck!)

Still, even with the drop, for Goblins and Toad Words, we're back to around where we were last November--and it's a short month, too. So we've dropped back to "much better than things were doing before Bride came out" and that's not a bad place at all. Self-pub still brought in enough to live on for the month, which is victory, so far as I'm concerned!

My next Kingfisher novel is due out in May, a retelling of Beauty & the Beast, and I'm hoping it'll jam everything back into high gear for a few months. (After that, future is murky...I have a project going that is probably going to be a novella on the shorter side, and might put it out for 2.99 toward the end of the year, if it all comes together.)

At the moment, I am trying to work like the Amazon deal is not there, because I have absolutely no way of preparing for whatever it may bring, so all I can do is keep on keepin' on.

Thank you!

March Sales

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 858
D2D: 15
Smashwords: 6
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 879

Toad Words
Kindle: 137
D2D: 5
Smashwords: 2
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 144

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 119
Smashwords: 7
Total: 126

Total Sales to Date
Seventh Bride: 5604
Toad Words: 2194
Nine Goblins: 3432

(Note: Mid-day on the 31st when I'm writing this, may yet be tweaked!)

Pretty much on par with February--stuff is going down, but very slowly. Bride continues to sell really well by my standards, cracked 5K, and is on its way to hit 6K copies sold in April.

I'm a poor prophet, but I suspect April will be more of the same, and then I've got another novel landing in May, and that will probably give everything a solid kick upwards for a little while.

Onward!

April Sales

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 612
D2D: 12
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 627

Toad Words
Kindle: 91
D2D: 5
Smashwords: 1
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 97

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 76
Smashwords: 5
Total: 81

Total Sales to Date
Seventh Bride: 6231
Toad Words: 2291
Nine Goblins: 3513

At last, a fairly steep drop-off. I think tax season may be partly responsible--April's always death--but honestly I'm surprised it took this long. Bride's been popular for a lot longer than I expected--for a book that came out in November to still be moving over 500 copies a month half a year later is pretty damn impressive by my personal standards, if not anybody else's.

Fortunately, I've got a new book coming out next month, so hopefully that'll give everything a bit of a kick, and hold me through November when Seventh Bride gets re-released by 47north.

Still can't complain. Both older books brought in grocery money, and Bride paid the rent and a bit extra. If Bryony & Roses (which I think is the title of the next book) does half as well as Bride, that's another couple months of rent and I shall be quite pleased with the outcome.

(Tangentially, quite impressed with the speed at which 47north is moving on Bride, and they've hooked me up with a very thorough editor as well. So that's a data point in their favor! I'm really hoping for the bump that Amazon's marketing machine can give the T. Kingfisher pen name--I'll be very interested to see how sales of the other books go up once it gets re-released in November, and hope to have another book ready to go fairly early next year to take advantage of the marketing.)

I have this dream that some day I will have released enough self-published books that I will no longer panic and flail and spasm on launch day.

Today is not that day.

*waits for Kindle*
*sweats*

So I say to a friend of mine "You seem so calm on book launch day, while I'm a flailing muppet-like wreck. Are you really calm or do you just not cry in public?"

"I just try not to throw up until the first reviews come in," she said.

I hope she fills that hole nicely!

First day sales are actually a sharp improvement over last release--we've cracked 350 sales in less than 24 hours, between Kindle and Smashwords. No longer trapped at 285 or whatever my weird magic number was! Yaaaaay!

If I can get up to 650 in opening week again, I will be happy, although this cover does suffer a distinct lack of bird skulls.

While I'm getting a couple of extra sales on Smashwords of the backlist (and I literally mean "a couple") not seeing the needle move at all on Kindle yet.

Draft2Digital is moving a little slower than usual--took them a day to get it on Kobo, as opposed to their usual four-hour turnarounds--and still no word on Nook or iBooks yet.

At the one week mark, 836 copies sold. Does not suck! Better than any of the others have done so far. I am hoping that the popularity of Bride is carrying this one along. Small bump in sales on other books, but *very* small--not the usual jump. Still considering why that may be. Possibly these are all going to an established base who bought all the others already. Which is a mixed sort of thing.

Draft2Digital got most of the major stuff done the day after uploading, and straggled on one or two of the obscure ones for another day or two. Still infinitely better than Smashwords did!

May Numbers

Bryony & Roses
Kindle: 1160
D2D: 90
Smashwords: 95
PDF Direct Sales: 2
Total: 1347

Seventh Bride
Kindle: 595
D2D: 18
Smashwords: 8
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 621

Toad Words
Kindle: 135
D2D: 4
Smashwords: 3
PDF Direct Sales: 0
Total: 142

Nine Goblins
Kindle: 94
Smashwords: 9
Total: 103

Total Sales to Date
Bryony & Roses: 1347
Seventh Bride: 6852
Toad Words: 2433
Nine Goblins: 3616

Release month for Bryony & Roses! A very strong start by my standards, and has been selling solidly for the last week as well. I've been eager to get this one out, since the 47North re-release of Bride lands in November, and I wanted a self-pubbed novel like that for readers brought in by the re-release to be able to buy.

Overall, sales continue their slow downward slide on Bride--even the new book only served to keep it steady, rather than bumping up. But for a book that's been out more than six months, I can't cry over the fact that it's still paying the rent AND groceries AND gas AND the high cost of medications for an elderly beagle. I mean, darn.

One of the things I've been wondering about with the re-release of Bride by a trade publisher is whether or not to re-cover the other books to match whatever 47North comes up with--I've got a trade dress going on for my fairy tale retellings, and I'm pretty sure that's helping sales a lot. But I just got the cover roughs for Bride and damn, it's nice! And I can't actually match it--I'm a totally different kind of artist! So I'm still not sure what to do there. I suppose I'll keep the covers I've got and just hope that people pick them up. (Maybe I can do something exciting with matching fonts...)

Thank you!