The fiance is out of town visiting some friends, which means I have the house all to myself (plus the dog and the cat)! So, I can dance around and sing and generally be the biggest idiot I can be when no one else is watching :) Though, my shenanigans are a little culled by the fact that I'm still hack-y. It also gives me a lot of time to write in peace, though, and THAT is the gift I appreciate most about time alone :)
Just some news, before we get to the fancy-schmancy chart - Twelve Worlds releases this month! Looks like we're just waiting on the Foreward and it will be hitting e-Shelves! "Liar" also drops on the 15th, so if you haven't picked up "Cheat" yet, please do! There is a convenient IH widget in the upper right-hand corner, plus the link I just provided :)
As authors, we have different goals we want to reach with our work. Some want to inspire, some want just to write and have it read, and others want money, among other reasons. I want a comfortable life doing what I enjoy the absolute most. That is writing. I'm in it for personal satisfaction, and money. No reason to lie about it, it's not a shame to want money or a comfortable life (just don't get greedy!) So I write and write and write, tappa tappa tappa and hope I sell better a little each day.
I'm nowhere near self-sufficient for writing, yet. Yet. As I said, a little more each day... and maybe this whole thing can work out for me :) I have two works out, "Shackled" and "Cheat". Will I see additional sales of one from the other? I'm not sure. They are radically different genres/age-groups, etc.
But, without further delay, I'll share my chart with you, inspired by the wonderful Derek J. Canyon. (One of the coolest names EVER.)
I don't have a lot of data yet - my journey only began on February 17th.
I can tell you a few things, however:
1. "Shackled" is holding its own at $2.99. It's not moving truckloads of copies, but it IS getting read. Especially the sample, judging by my Smashwords download count ;)
2. "Cheat" is $.99 and is obviously moving faster. No surprise there, it's so cheap! I'm glad a few people have picked up copies. Hopefully they'll stay interested enough to pick up Episode 2 when it hits in less than a week! And the news will spread...
3. In March, in terms of units, I sold 225% of units in February! Amazing! That's a big number. To continue that momentum, I need to sell 20.25 units in April (let's say that's just 20 for argument's sake!) My April goal is now 20 sales (across all titles). With "Liar" being released, plus "Twelve Worlds" dropping, I think there will be enough buzz to do that! Though, I won't count "Twelve Worlds" in my personal sales count, I will mention it as much as possible :)
So that's my fun chart information. I'm also hoping to do a bundle of short stories sometime this month, but realistically next month. I'd like to write one short a week, time permitting. My goal is to bundle 20k words or 5 stories, whichever comes first. I am also interested in excerpt trading, for anyone who might be considering something similar.
I've had one sale so far this month, so here's to hoping (hopping? HAH) the Easter Bunny brings me the other 19 ;)
Cheers!
See, now this is interesting. Your YA series is doing pretty well in its first month. I have wondered how many kids would be using Kindles, and it is extremely uplifting to say the least to see that they must be.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the day when I can see teens waiting for their bus, their nose stuck in a Kindle. Or a Nook. Whatever gets them to read. :-)
My 13 year old son uses our Kindle. He even reads on it now and again. (Most of the time he wants to play games on it.)
Congratulations on the good news! Have a great weekend. :-)
Nick
One More Day
I am encouraged by your results, JE, and hope you make your goals. Now I understand the motivation for the shorts you've been working on! It wil be interesting to see how you package them (genres, styles and the like) but I think they'll do well.
ReplyDeleteAnd always glad to see colorful charts that demonstrate the rising to the right! I think the availability of Kindle apps for other platforms may account for some of the sales - I use the one for Mac, and wouldn't have bought Cheat without having it available.
@Nicholas: I know a lot of adults actually read YA, also! Don't discount them, totally :) I am excited about "Cheat"'s current success, also. If 5 new people want to buy "Liar", then buy "Cheat" first... etc! I'm sure the $.99 price tag helps too :)
ReplyDelete@Tony: I'm glad to encourage! Thank you for your kind words :) I also love colorful charts... Derek's blog is fun to read, for me :D
It's good that you are thinking long-term and believe it or not you are actually doing fine. A lot of authors aren't selling anything at all.
ReplyDeleteYour covers look dynamic and stories seem very interesting.
Continued Success!
And let's not forget Harry Potter -- the YA series that launched a billion dollar franchise.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to you! :-)
Derek and you are inspiring me to post my sales in chart format. The weird thing is...my sales are going down not up. Maybe that was just me running my mouth quite a bit when my novel first came out. But hey, we're in it for the long haul right. I'll try at least get a sales post up to day and maybe a chart.
ReplyDeletewww.peelingcheek.wordpress.com
@Bakari: Thanks! I hope my sales see increases, also ;)
ReplyDelete@Nick: Haha, we just watched Goblet of Fire last night. I don't what it is, but these movies are sooooo boring to me!!
@Shelia: I checked out your chart, very nice, but the totals seem to be going the wrong way :( Sorry to see that! If it makes you feel any better, your total sales for Belvoir have outsold my total sales for all three of my pieces :P Are you doing a lot of promotion? I'm not really doing any because I don't care much for social media!
Not sure what classifies as a lot. I recently did an interview on BookTalk. But I haven't done any advertising. I've probably mentioned my twice on facebook. So the only thing I really do is blog. I forgot...I do hang out on kindleboards from time to time. But I think the answer is no.
ReplyDelete@Shelia: You seem to be right around the same amount as me, then :)
ReplyDelete