Better than Big Sales?
So in early September I published,
The Day I Met Dr. Seuss and while I got great reviews, most of them were from friends and family (not that I didn't appreciate them) and my sales were pretty mediocre. Having read of other folks selling dozens of copies a day, this particular title (the one I promoted the most heavily) sold 14 copies in the month of October and was borrowed 8 times (by Prime Members).
This was much less than I expected and I must admit I indulged in a bit of feeling sorry for myself, wondering if I had missed the best time to publish on Kindle, wondering if other niches were better, etc.
Then about a week ago I realized I should, as a minimum, run another free day -- just a single day and i didn't do the extra work of posting about the free day all over the place.
So almost 1000 free downloads, but more importantly I discovered that in the last week I've gotten a couple new reviews from unexpected sources -- just readers coming across the book and taking a look.
Not to sound like Sally Fields at the awards ceremony, but the idea that "they liked me" or "they liked my writing" was worth a huge amount to me.
I go back to the fact that self-publishing, and yes, I know that e-publishing is not necessarily self-publishing -- is
really about being able as a writer to connect to readers.
Kindle makes it possible for writers to publish and promote at a pretty modest cost. To get positive feedback and know that you entertained or touched or helped a reader is HUGE. It will preserve your sanity as a writer, or at least it did mine.
I'm involved in a couple marketing forums where people talk about writing for the popular niches on Kindle because you can make the most money and having books ghost-written. I'm glad I didn't go that route.
So that is my success story for today -- learning that a reader really enjoyed what I wrote, even thought it was clever. Imagine that