How many self published books have you sold to date?

Dragonwriter said:

I wouldn't say I've found it easy--more that I just decided it was something I needed to learn to do if I wanted to get the word out on my books! Please feel free to follow me (@dragonwriter11) and I'll follow you back and retweet your promo posts.

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Did I find you? I'm @SunshineonMe3

SunshineonMe said:

Did I find you? I'm @SunshineonMe3

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Yep, followed back!

I post twice a year about my sales -- here's the report for May 2015

Total number of books sold since January 2013: 375.

LBlankenship said:

I post twice a year about my sales -- here's the report for May 2015

Total number of books sold since January 2013: 375.

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Thanks for sharing. Have you considered going into Kindle Unlimited? I hear very mixed things about it, but I'm giving it a try for my titles right now.

profen4 said:

Thanks for sharing. Have you considered going into Kindle Unlimited? I hear very mixed things about it, but I'm giving it a try for my titles right now.

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No, I haven't. Mixed reviews vs. a small but steady trickle of sales from other sources... I decided to go with broader availability. Hope you'll post your results?

LBlankenship said:

No, I haven't. Mixed reviews vs. a small but steady trickle of sales from other sources... I decided to go with broader availability. Hope you'll post your results?

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I will, for sure. I was having pretty good sales on the other vendors, but a few authors I knew went all in on KU and they had pretty good results. I thought I'd give it a try. Was tough getting the courage to pull out of the other vendors - especially Kobo and Apple, but it'll be a good experiment.

profen4 said:

I will, for sure. I was having pretty good sales on the other vendors, but a few authors I knew went all in on KU and they had pretty good results. I thought I'd give it a try. Was tough getting the courage to pull out of the other vendors - especially Kobo and Apple, but it'll be a good experiment.

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I'm a newbie here but I'll share my KU results if you're interested.

I write contemporary western romance, mid-level heat. I was wide with one book for about a month and a half, and when my sales had trickled to next to nothing (on all platforms, including Amazon!), and I knew I had nothing coming out for another couple of months, I opted into KU.

I had a new release in January, which I put wide for the handful of readers I knew I had who read on other platforms, for about a week, then opted in. I also ran three free days on book 1 with a few ($15 worth) email list ads around the same time the new release came out. I gave away 11,000 books in those three days and sat at the top of the free western romance list and as high as 24 on the free kindle store list.

In 2015, not including April yet (I wait for official figures from Amazon), I have sold 508 books (300+ of these were in January with the new release and the elevated sales ranking)... I have had 1006 KU borrows that paid. My KU income works out, on an average month, to be about 2/3rds of my income.

I'm not an expert by any means but because I am a newly released author, I feel KU is working to my advantage, putting me in front of readers that may become sticky enough that I carry them through the rest of the series with me. I have another book coming out (probably, depending on how quickly my CP, betas and editor work!) by the end of this month, and plan to go wide with everything on my fourth book, crowning it all off with a BookBub ad.

For someone new without a backlist, I think KU is invaluable. If you're already doing well with sales and a backlist of 4-6 books in a sticky series on all platforms, I can't see it being that beneficial. But for me, it's quietly collected 200 newsletter subscribers since September and paid for my wedding dress, so I can't complain.

About a dozen that I'm aware of, mostly friends and family... But hey, that was my first attempt in 2010, short stories and horrid cover design and poor publishing choice...

I'll give an update. So far I've sold 360 books in 4 years 3 months of self-publishing, currently with 18 titles for sale. In 2015 I have 22 sales, 11 of which are of the poetry book I published last month as a paperback. 6 of those I sold personally.

On track to sell 65 books this year, which is less than last year. However, In early July I'll be publishing a family history book prior to a family reunion. I anticipate selling about 20 of those to family members. So possibly I'll do better than last year when the dust settles out in Dodge City (site of the reunion).

Update for me: As of yesterday I've sold 1,855 ebooks and a handful of paperbacks (fewer than 20). That's for one book, since March 16. I'm currently preparing the second book in my series for sale, and I think I will drop the price of the first one when preorders for the second go live, and keep it low as a "gateway drug" into the series.

Sales have been a roller-coaster daily--my high is 89, my low is 24 since I started on Twitter (before that it was 1 ) and the average hovers around 35-45.

I'm not sure what I'm doing right, but I think it's a combination of Twitter and the fact that my sales rank is high (staying consistently between 2,500 and 5,000 on Paid Kindle Books). Last week I changed one of my categories to Mysteries/Thrillers/Supernatural/Witches & Wizards, and now I'm the #5 bestseller in that category, which must have helped (although I haven't noticed an increase in sales--just more of the same level. Maybe it saved me from dropping off, but I have no way to know that.)

I have 21 reviews, with the majority being 4 stars, a few 5s, and three 2s (those 2s are hard to read, but I'm growing a thick skin!)

I still feel like I need to learn to promote better, though--I've done next to no handing out of free copies in exchange for honest reviews, I haven't done any blog tours, giveaways, or anything like that, and although I have a mailing list, I've got next to nobody on it. I'm taking it slow, learning each aspect in turn (Twitter, Goodreads, getting reviews, etc.)

As an aside: profen4, I love your covers!

I've sold 113 through Lulu (mix of ebook on iBookstore, Nook & Kobo and print) since June 2006 and 108 through KDP since Oct 2013.

This is the total for four books. As you can tell, marketing is my Waterloo. When you have literally no money and you have to live with family members to survive, there's not a lot in the budget for marketing. I've had to do all freebie stuff myself and it's so hard.

I just wanted to give an update- I've listed my book on KDP. Thank you everyone for your feedback. No sales yet, but its only been about a week.

You should at least have your books linked in your signature here, and on any other forum you frequent that might allow such things. Good luck, and I hope those sales start coming in a bit better!

Released two new works (both co-authored), the major on on April 20 at $5.99, the lesser on May 2 at $2.99.

Major work sales to date (according to Amazon, which is not exactly real time but certainly good enough): 1,602.

Lesser work sales to date: 175.

ETA: Also have a .99 serial release in pre-sale right now, released on May 17. It's moved 34.

I haven't been on here in ages, but I thought I'd add my two cents because when I started out I always wondered this also. I currently have nine publications out and here are my overall sales numbers from the past few years for kindle and barnes and noble. Here are my sale from 2013/2014 as I haven't kept up to date on everything yet this year. My first book was released in Jan 2013.

2013-6000 books sold
2014-34000 books sold

I've been one of the fortunate ones, but I will also have to say my hubby works his butt off promoting me (I write and he does everything else). I still feel like I could do better and hope to continue selling as well as last year. When I started out I was lucky to sell 40 books a month and then sales took off. I can't give anyone the secret how as I don't even know. We keep trying new stuff all the time.

McMich said:

I haven't been on here in ages, but I thought I'd add my two cents because when I started out I always wondered this also. I currently have nine publications out and here are my overall sales numbers from the past few years for kindle and barnes and noble. Here are my sale from 2013/2014 as I haven't kept up to date on everything yet this year. My first book was released in Jan 2013.

2013-6000 books sold
2014-34000 books sold

I've been one of the fortunate ones, but I will also have to say my hubby works his butt off promoting me (I write and he does everything else). I still feel like I could do better and hope to continue selling as well as last year. When I started out I was lucky to sell 40 books a month and then sales took off. I can't give anyone the secret how as I don't even know. We keep trying new stuff all the time.

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I think it boils down to a couple things: you write in one of the more popular genres, you have your first book priced lower, and you write in series. Those are a few of the most important things. I love those numbers, though! I am eager to get more time and books under my belt and see how sell-through ends up working for me.

McMich said:

I haven't been on here in ages, but I thought I'd add my two cents because when I started out I always wondered this also. I currently have nine publications out and here are my overall sales numbers from the past few years for kindle and barnes and noble. Here are my sale from 2013/2014 as I haven't kept up to date on everything yet this year. My first book was released in Jan 2013.

2013-6000 books sold
2014-34000 books sold

I've been one of the fortunate ones, but I will also have to say my hubby works his butt off promoting me (I write and he does everything else). I still feel like I could do better and hope to continue selling as well as last year. When I started out I was lucky to sell 40 books a month and then sales took off. I can't give anyone the secret how as I don't even know. We keep trying new stuff all the time.

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DAAAAAMN that's a lot of books!

I'm closing in on 150k books sold since 2010 (most of those in the last 10 months though). Wow, been a long time since I visited this place, ha. Like time travel!

Another update: I've released the second book in my series and sales for it are starting to pick up. Between the two books since March 16, I'm at right around 4,250 e-copies sold, and probably around 30 paperbacks. I did a Goodreads Giveaway for the first book, and I'm starting a blog tour in a couple of weeks so I'm hoping that will get me more visibility (and more sales, of course!)

As of today, Book 1 is at #14 in the bestseller list for my category, and Book 2 is at #15. I'm working on getting Book 3 ready for a September-October release, and I've still got Books 4 and 5 finished and awaiting editing and cover art. I've got tons of ideas for more books--now I just need to settle down and write them! Between the day job and the marketing/promo stuff, it takes up a lot of time!

That's a great success. Well done and good luck with your next publication.

My first release was August 6, 2014. I have three books published now. My total number of sales all together: 2,057

See you next week!