Four years published - Self published sales information

Happy Anniversary . . . (s)

So, on November 24th, I celebrated (completely forgot) my 4th anniversary of self-publishing.  On November 30th, I celebrated my 18th wedding anniversary with my wife. Fortunately, I didn't forget that one.

Self Publishing

I decided to finally get around to writing a book in January of 2010, just as I had planned to do 20 years earlier.  2 things got me to finally do it.  I discovered Smashwords and decided I'd give self publishing a try, and I turned 40, at which point I realized I needed to accomplish something instead of making excuses why I hadn't.

I'm addicted to writing books to the degree that I now become anxious when I haven't written for a few days. It's the second most important thing in my life after my family.  I intend to do it for the rest of my life.

In these four years, I've written 24 original works (8 novels, 2 novellas, 4 short stories, and 10 children's books).  I've published 29 titles (4 compilations and an illustrated version of the Emo Bunny that Should)

2014 is the first year I haven't published a book. Difficulties in life have hampered my writing and all other aspects of being a successful self-publisher.  However, things have settled to a large degree and I'm writing more again.

Success

As far as success, I consider that I became a successful writer after I finished my first book, "Rojuun".  As for professional success, I've sold over 13,000 books in the last 4 years.  That makes me a low-level midlister in the self-publishing industry I believe.  It's hard to say. There's not a lot of sales info in the publishing world.  All the companies and most authors believe that sales are a matter of national security *sigh*.

I've decided to share my sales with anyone who's interested.  I've broken it down by book and by sales. There are others who have sold far more, and many who would love to have half this number.  I can tell you that it's taken a crazy amount of work to do this well, and if I had done more work I would have sold more.

If you are writing your own book, you can look at these numbers for information, but keep in mind that they are just the numbers of one author.  If you write, I hope you do it because you enjoy it and not to measure yourself against anyone else.

Sales by book

Rojuun (sales)	380
Anilyia	2853
Kethril	2441
Willden Trilogy omnibus	1092
Dralin	586
Ebudae	1312
Pelya	1146
Wyvern	770
Liselle	461
Rain Glade	224
Alien Coffee	292
Emo Bunny Illustrated	91
Collection	401
Collection 2	14
Wings of Fantasy	597
Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend	117
Test Pilot	217
Don't Ever Change	105
Storage Room in the Grey Void	13
Emo Bunny that Should	149
Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy	221
Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow	27
Unholy Cow	72
Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies	176
Phairyphant	27
Naughty Nanoworms	20
Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm	8
Steampunk Roo	24
Pow the Panda	8
Grand Total - Sales	13844
Rojuun	52968
Dralin	15272
Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend	34386
Test Pilot	34186
Don't Ever Change	37393
Emo Bunny that Should	96090
Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy	40569
Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow	28544
Unholy Cow	29862
Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies	58936
Phairyphant	8
Naughty Nanoworms	9
Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm	1754
Grand Total - Free Giveaways	429977

 Sales by store

Store	Total
Amazon	8742
Smashwords	527
Apple	2464
B&N	1707
Kobo	250
Sony	43
Createspace	61
Blio	8
Library Direct	16
Oyster	6
Grand Total - Sales	13824
Amazon	233720
Smashwords	50180
Apple	97707
B&N	45680
Kobo	3361
Sony	2831
Blio	82
Library Direct	4
Oyster	4
Diesel	43
Page Foundry	14
Grand Total - Free Giveaways	433626

Disparity in numbers 

There is a slight disparity between the total sales by store and by book. I would estimate that there is a 1% total error margin in the numbers. With 29 titles available through 15 distributors over the course of 48 months (I could show you the number of sales of each book by month in each store, but there’s not enough room here)  I haven't sorted out sales by country, though that information is available to a degree.  I'm also on Wattpad, but I haven't added the download info from there at this point.

What to expect in the future 

 Currently, I'm 30,000 words into Liquid, the second book of the Wyvern Trilogy.  I hope to be done early next year if I can strangle enough time to write.  After that, I have hundreds of books in my mind waiting for their turn.

The project that I'm truly excited about is that I've submitted "Dralin" to be published as an audio book.  If that goes well, I intend to make the entire Ryallon series into audio books and possibly even the Demented Children's stories.

*** 

Well, thank you for reading my books and allowing me to share my demented imagination.  I wish you all the best.

John H. Carroll

Book sales data for John H. Carroll, Nov 2010 - July 2013.

Last year about this time, I reported how many sales I had in this post: http://ryallon.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-book-sales-data-nov-2010-april-2012.html

I've decided to do that again.  This time however, I'm not separating the numbers by store or month.  With 22 titles over 3 years, it's an insanely complicated process to do so.  

This is how many total sales I've had by title.  Each author is has different strengths and weaknesses.  Genre also affects sales.  I write fantasy, which does not have as large of a fan base.  If I were writing romance, then these numbers might have been two or three times as high . . . although I suck at romance, so they might have been worse.

One of my biggest strengths is the fact that I’m fairly prolific.  I've published these books and short stories in addition to having a full time job and spending time with my family.

I don’t market or social network anywhere near as much I should.  There are so many sites to request reviews, and forums to talk about your book, that a person could spend the rest of their life marketing one book.  I prefer to work on the next, so I do minimal marketing.

My primary form of marketing is "first book free" and free short stories.  This gets people to know my name and brings a steady trickle of sales to my other titles.

These numbers are increasing each day, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly.  Also, there's no rhyme or reason as to the dates I chose to do the calculations.

Sales Master Sheet	June 1 2012	Oct 1 2012	July 31 2013
SALES (Date published)
Rojuun (Nov 2010)	295	299	344
Anilyia (Apr 2011)	692	1106	1982
Kethril (July 2011)	545	914	1724
Willden omnibus (Oct-2011, unpub Mar 2013)	659	1075	1075
Dralin (Oct 2011)	285	488	563
Ebudae (May 2012)	8	190	887
Pelya (Nov 2012)	0	0	716
Wyvern (Apr 2013)	0	0	421
Rain Glade (Sep 2012)	0	7	133
Emo Bunny Illustrated (Apr 2012)	6	21	62
Collection of Children's Stories (Oct 2011)	189	293	350
Alien Coffee (Aug 2011)	194	244	276
Emo Bunny that Should (Jan 2011, unpub Mar 2013)	147	148	148
Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy (Apr 2011)	62	62	144
Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow (Sep 2011)	15	17	25
Unholy Cow (Oct 2011)	21	21	57
Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies (Oct 2011)	52	52	111
Phairyphant (Mar 2013)	0	0	18
Naughty Nanoworms (Mar 2013)	0	0	9
Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend (Nov 2010)	37	39	91
Test Pilot (Dec 2010)	22	22	124
Don't Ever Change (Feb 2011)	44	44	67
Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm (June 2013)	0	0	6
Storage Room in the Grey Void (July 2013)	0	0	4
Grand Total Sales	3273	5042	9337
FREE GIVEAWAYS (Date published)
Dralin (Oct 2011)	0	0	10592
Rojuun (Nov 2010)	22728	31105	45529
Emo Bunny that Should (Jan 2011, unpub Mar 2013)	64087	69095	96317
Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy (Apr 2011)	28852	29437	39487
Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow (Sep 2011)	12288	16582	25153
Unholy Cow (Oct 2011)	10845	18192	28963
Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies (Oct 2011)	23905	30606	57706
Phairyphant (Mar 2013)	0	0	5
Naughty Nanoworms (Mar 2013)	0	0	6
Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm (June 2013)	0	0	11
Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend (Nov 2010)	23798	25455	32402
Test Pilot (Dec 2010)	12769	22538	33739
Don't Ever Change (Feb 2011)	23063	24931	36483
Grand Total Free Giveaways	222335	267941	406393

Heavy Increase in last giveaway column is largely due to 90,000 free giveaways via Apple being reported by Smashwords.  Overall, free giveaways are down.  In February of 2013, I decided to begin charging for most of my free stories due to the algorithms of most bookstore changing to minimize the power of free.  Dralin, Rojuun and Drippy the Peg-Legged Rainbow are the only ones that are currently free. I hope this provides small insight to others. All my best, John H. Carroll

I have no idea what I'm doing

I'm clueless

To my readers and any writers that would be interested in my advice.  I would like you to know that I have no idea what I'm doing.

I really don't.

Not a clue.

I'm just making it all up as I go and hoping for the best.

Seriously

I like writing very much, and I think I'm pretty good at it.  I just don't know if I'm correct, or if I'm deluding myself.  I don't really care too much because I'm having a blast.

Writing is fun.  It's like daydreaming out loud.  I love daydreaming and always have.  I don't remember a whole lot about my childhood because I was constantly daydreaming.  It was much more enjoyable than all those classes or any chores I might have had.

I'm sharing my daydreams with you.  I've altered them a little bit, because in my daydreams, I'm always the hero, or emo kid watching the hero.  Yes, in my daydreams I'm emo.  It's a bit odd and I don't understand it.  I'm not in my books though.  Those are about other characters that are more interesting.

I don't know what I'm writing

My stories take a lot of twists and turns that I don't expect.  There are certain things that are solid and I know what's going to happen.  Everything other than that is a complete mystery to me.  I think the characters are going to go to one destination, but they end up somewhere completely different.

The worst thing is when I make up new friends for my main characters.  I introduce them and say, "Hey!  Check these guys out.  They're fascinating!"  And then my main characters end up having a problem with the new guys, or the new guys are complete jerks.  That sort of thing really pisses me off.

I don't know if my stories are any good.  I really don't.  I enjoyed writing them.  I really like the characters.  I did my best to get all the letters and punctuation in their correct places too.  There are some great reviews and a few terrible reviews of them, more good than bad.

All of the stories end up in weird places.  There is no save the world or happily ever after.  Each book is about an adventure and it ends when the adventure is done.  The characters go on living their lives and I may or may not write about future adventures.

To other writers

I really don't know what I'm doing.  I've been at this for two years now and I've achieved mild success in sales and downloads.  I've written a decent number of stories too.

Most of what I'm doing has been from reading what other Indies are doing.  However, I'm pretty sure they're just guessing most of the time too.  The ones that are successful are probably shocked about that fact, maybe even a little embarrassed, hoping that people don't realize that they don't know what they're doing either.

It really is fun though.  Each sale, each good review, each contact from a fan telling me how much they like my stories, is a thrill!  I would recommend it to anyone who likes to write.

I'll continue to share my experiences with self-publishing.  I'll tell you if I figure out something that helps me write a better book, or get a few more sales.  Just understand that I don't know what will happen in the future or if I'm even doing it right.

For all I know, I may be about to metaphorically drive off of a self-publishing cliff.  That's okay though, I like to pretend I'm flying.

In conclusion

It's a great time to be a writer.  Instead of gatekeepers choosing what we are allowed to write and instead of publishers keeping the lion's share of the income, writers get to write whatever they want and earn a good amount of each sale.

It's a wonderful time to be a reader.  You get to read whatever you want rather than being told what you're allowed to read.  You also have a limitless supply of stories.  To make things better, books are becoming affordable, even free in many cases!

So that's pretty much all I had to say.  I have no idea what I'm doing and just wanted to let you know.

All my best,

John H. Carroll