Thursday, September 1, 2011

August 2011 sales report


August was my 11th month selling ebooks.



I sold 877 copies of 4 different titles. That’s a decrease of 27% from July.




My royalties also declined from $1,066.97 to $866.89.



My average sales per day were 38.9 in July and 28.3 in August.



If sales continue like they have for August, I should gross about $12,500 in 2011. Down a couple thousand from my estimates a couple months ago, but still quite nice.



Alas, I don’t like seeing those lines on the charts heading down. However, there is only one thing I can do, and that’s keep writing.



I’m working diligently on Where Magic Reigns, the sequel to The Elemental Odyssey. I'm on the 3rd draft now, should be on 4th this weekend. My plan is to have it published before December so I can take advantage of all the Harry Potter fans getting ereaders.



I’ll probably take December off from writing, as I’m doing a good job of burning myself out on Where Magic Reigns over the past couple months.



Starting in January, I’ll get going on the sequel to Dead Dwarves Don’t Dance. I’ll be very interested to see how the sequel to my bestselling book does in 2012.

18 comments:

  1. Stay at it. The lines will go up again when you release your next book and the book after that and the book after that....

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  2. That is an incredibly sharp decline!! :( I had about a 40% increase in sales in September... but we're also talking I sell less than 50 units/month :P

    Big buying season is coming up, so I hope your sales pick up! I bet you'll blow us all away (some more) when your new stuff hits :)

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  3. Here's hoping that, as Medrick says, Christmas season improves your sales - and I am sure that the DDDD sequel will be great.

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  4. Ditto, I know that while some authors had a good august months, many really suffered ...
    And as you, and the sage say : Write away !
    Cheers !

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  5. Thanks for the update, Derek. Even with the decrease, those are really respectable sales figures that I wish were mine.

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  6. Yeah, even with the decline, when you figure in the sale pricing you did I still think you are on a great track. A DDDD sequel will really help (since it's your biggest seller). I also hope that TEO's sales will lift closer to Christmas.

    Have you done a comparison of the early days of DDDD with TEO? This chart is skewed by the high sales of DDDD compared to everything else, is TEO increasing? Gaining momentum at all?

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  7. Also, when you have two books in each series you can really have some fun with the pricing. (.99 first book and 2.99 second, or free first book, 2.99 second. or 1.99 and 2.99 or whatever.)

    Exciting times.... for people with completed work. :) I'm trying to figure how to make this work with a comic. Hopefully a color e-reader or amazon tablet will finally emerge.

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  8. Isn't it natural for the sales totals of any book to drop off as time goes on? It seems to me that the key would be to get up enough titles so that you can sell a few of a lot of things, and sales of one book can help drive sales of others. Continued good luck...

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  9. Derek, thanks for sharing this information with us. Whether or not your data applies directly to others of us, it's still a good reference point, and I and the others appreciate it.

    Keep writing!

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  10. Derek, I love reading your stats and insights into ebook publishing. Something I am seriously considering for my first book. Have you thought about summarizing your wealth of knowledge here into a kindle book of itself?

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  11. Derek, I just wanted to say I really appreciate your putting up these stats. I also think you are doing the right thing focusing on your writing. Your numbers are still great compared to most people's, certainly compared to mine. You just need to get more books out.

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  12. Derek - I can't speak for the drop-off in your fiction book sales, as I don't know the genre very well.

    That said, the sleeper trend that is emerging is a constant increase in "Format Your eBook for Kindle in One Hour." That's more of a general audience title, and interesting to see sales rise each month.

    Watch that trend!

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