- Joined
- Jun 5, 2005
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- Hiding in my writing cave
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- www.cathyclamp.com
I guess it depends on your definition of "selling well", but my trade-published friends told me that my expectations of sales even in popular genres from major publishers were unrealistically high and that most midlisters sold considerably less than I thought. And I thought I was lowballing.
I'm firmly in mid-list, and a lot of my friends are too. I don't think I have any books that haven't sold at least 12K copies. Copies printed are far higher, of course, and let's not forget ebook sales, which doubles the figure (not counting audio, because that's with a different company.) Some have sold in the 50K range. Depends on the book. That's about what I expected. I always hope for more, of course, and anticipate that any given book could take off, even years later. The question then arises whether, without the power of my publisher behind me, could I have sold that many?
Maybe.
I am pretty good at marketing, which is likely why I've sold as many books as I have. But I decided I'd rather spend my free time writing instead of marketing. To each his own, I suppose. But I can assure you that marketing is time consuming and good advertising expensive. One thing I CAN assure you of is that when it comes to advertising, you definitely get what you pay for. Free doesn't get you reach. Reaching many people takes money if you're not already being splashed in places where people buy books. I've spent up to my full advance on some books, if I think the cover alone might be enough to buy the book or if it's the first book of a series. I get it back again, which is the nice part about advances. You HAVE the money to spend if you choose.
JMHO, as always.