August Sales Numbers

Wow, so they weren't kidding about a summer slump. My sales definitely slowed down in the month of August, and it was scary! Overall, I had a good monthly total simply because I now have four books out instead of 3. On the other hand, each book's individual sales were the lowest they've been since February, which is disappointing. That's one of the hardest parts about self-publishing. It's a lot of ups and downs and you never truly know what to expect from month to month. The only true way to guarantee growth is to keep writing books.

August Sales Numbers:

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS (Book 1 of the PHD series. 10/31/10)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 855 US + 234 UK + 2 DE = 1091
• Barnes & Noble: 296
• Smashwords: 2
• Total: 1389

INNER DEMONS (Book 2 of the PHD series. 12/22/10)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 702 US + 157 UK + 1 DE = 860
• Barnes & Noble: 244
• Smashwords: 2
• Total: 1106

BITTER DEMONS (Book 3 of the PHD series. 2/24/11)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 671 US + 118 UK + 1 DE = 790
• Barnes & Noble: 219
• Smashwords: 1
• Total: 1010

SHADOW DEMONS (Book 4 of the PHD series. 7/3/11)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 1146 US + 111 UK + 1 DE = 1258
• Barnes & Noble: 284
• Smashwords: 3
• Total: 1545

Total August Sales: 5050

Overall Sales To Date: 40698


There are two very exciting things about my August sales, despite the slowing numbers. 1. My UK sales got a huge boost this month. It's the first time I've sold over 600 books in the UK, so that was super exciting. 2. I passed the 40,000 books sold mark! I never dreamed I would be able to sell that many books in less than a year! And I still have until the last day of October to try my best to hit 50K in a year. Of course, with the huge slow down, that's definitely not a guarantee. Already in September, the numbers have continued to seriously drop. For example, Beautiful Demons hovered between 1000 and 1500 sales rank for months, but lately has been seen closer to 4000 and 5000 in the kindle store. I ended last month with an average of 162 books sold per day. Yesterday, I only sold 84 books. To be honest, it's scaring me. And since I started this sales number report in order to be honest and give a true picture of what an Indie author's sales look like, I have to tell you how I feel.

I have thoughts that go through my head about what if I've reached the maximum numbers for this series? What if it's all downhill from here? There are a million scary thoughts in my head. Still, I do understand logically that if I continue to put out new books, there will be spikes and then things will begin to drop again. It's a pattern. It's natural. It happens to everyone. I think it's scary because it makes me feel a little bit out of control. I'm not sure what to do to boost my sales back up - other than writing more books. I plan to release the 5th book in my series, RIVAL DEMONS, in October. Then, if all goes well, the 6th book, DEMONS FOREVER, will come out just before Christmas. Perfect timing to end the series just before the biggest boost of ebook sales, right? I hope so. For me, that's the only marketing strategy I can come up with, and I think it's a good one. I'm a writer. So I'll write. As for sales, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Have you seen a lag in your summer sales? What have you done to boost them? How do you get over the fear of seeing sales drop? If you're an Indie author, please let me know how you handle these lags if you've seen them.

July Sales Numbers

Hi everyone! Sorry I've been slack on posting. I also still haven't managed to separate my self-publishing blog from my regular writing blog, so I apologize to fans who don't really care about this stuff, haha. Hopefully there are some of you writers out there still finding value in seeing what my numbers have done each step of the way. I feel like as self-published authors we should stick together and help each other however we can. This is just one small way I hope to help.

That being said, July was one of those amazingly, almost-can't-believe-it, omg-I-might-faint kind of months for me. I still look back at the sales numbers and want to cry! The biggest news for July was that my fourth book in the Peachville High Demons series finally came out. It was sort of a strangely staggered release because B&N got the book up really quickly but Amazon dragged for almost a week. My book didn't show up properly in Amazon searches for almost a week after it got listed, which was somewhat frustrating, and in the end, I think hurt my sales rank to some degree because it split my initial burst of sales up too much to give me the boost I was hoping for. Still, Shadow Demons did make it all the way up to #413 in the Kindle store and that's very close to my best rank ever (Beautiful Demons was 365 in February, which is my all-time best ever.) Not too shabby.

Anyone who has been following my sales numbers knows that last month I hit a huge milestone by selling my 25,000th book. In July, I made it all the way up back 35,000 books sold, so this was a HUGE month for me. It's so exciting to see the sales continue to grow. Of course, any month with a brand new release is going to be bigger than previous months, but I'm still amazed at the success so far of the series, so thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has purchased the PHD books and loved them. I heart you.

July Sales Numbers:

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS (Book 1 of the PHD series. 10/31/10)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 1698 US + 134 UK = 1832
• Barnes & Noble: 398
• Smashwords: 1
• Total: 2231

INNER DEMONS (Book 2 of the PHD series. 12/22/10)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 1373 US + 92 UK + 1 DE = 1466
• Barnes & Noble: 333
• Smashwords: 3
• Total: 1802

BITTER DEMONS (Book 3 of the PHD series. 2/24/11)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 1243 US + 72 UK = 1315
• Barnes & Noble: 278
• Smashwords: 3
• Total: 1596

SHADOW DEMONS (Book 4 of the PHD series. 7/3/11)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 2824 US + 87 UK = 2911
• Barnes & Noble: 600
• Smashwords: 10
• Total: 3521

Total July Sales: 9150

Overall Sales To Date: 35,688

I am still blown away and so humbled by the numbers. I know it's nothing compared to the Amanda Hockings and John Lockes of the Kindle world, but to me, it's really something. I still get scared that one day all my books will just stop selling and this wild will be over, but the fear gets less and less with each book that comes out. I am truly loving writing and loving this career. Self-publishing was definitely the right choice for me.

So now I am fast at work writing Book 5, DEMONS FOREVER. This will, sadly, be the last book in the Peachville High Demons series. I'm so scared to move on to another series, but at the same time, I'm really excited about the next series coming up. It's the series I've been working on for a really long time and I'm anxious to see what it turns into now that I'm not worried about what an agent or editor will think and I can just write it the way I want to write it. The first book in the series is already finished, but I know it will take some rewriting. I sincerely hope this next series strikes as much of a chord as PHD did, if not more.

But for now, DEMONS FOREVER is on my mind 24/7. I'm hoping to have it completed and published faster than Book 4. It will be out sometime this fall, but I'm not ready to give an exact date yet. Anyway, there's the rundown on my July sales numbers. And thanks to all the writers who sent me encouraging messages last month about me posting sales. It means a lot to me to know I'm helping other indie writers, even if it's just in some small way. Thanks for the support!!

June Sales Numbers

Life has been so busy with the release of Shadow Demons that I haven't had time yet to post my June Sales Numbers. I had a fan ask me why I was posting my sales numbers, and I wanted to just talk about that for a minute. When I was first thinking about self-publishing, I spent a lot of time reading the blogs of other self-published writers. I was so grateful when they would post their sales numbers so that I could see what was possible. I decided to share my own sales numbers for that specific reason and also as a public record of one self-published author's journey to success.

If posting my sales numbers has helped give you hope or helped you make the decision to self-publish, please let me know so I can know that I'm doing the right thing. I'm working on the idea of splitting my blog into two separate wordpress blogs - one more for fans and readers and one for other authors. For now, though, I guess this blog has to serve as both!

So, June sales! I was expecting my numbers to go way down since I hadn't had a new release since February. However, I think the amazing new book covers Robin Ludwig designed for me really made a huge impact. My sales for June were just over 1500 more than May. I couldn't be happier. As most of you know, my fourth book, Shadow Demons, came out July 3rd, so there aren't any of those sales marked on the June sales report. Here are the sales for June:

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS (Book 1 of the PHD series. 10/31/10)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 1704 US sales + 93 UK sales + 1 DE sales = 1798
• Barnes & Noble: 518
• Smashwords: 4
• Total: 2320

INNER DEMONS (Book 2 of the PHD series. 12/22/10)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 1323 US Sales + 54 UK Sales + 0 DE sales = 1377
• Barnes & Noble: 363
• Smashwords: 2
• Total: 1742

BITTER DEMONS (Book 3 of the PHD series. 2/24/11)

• Amazon Kindle Store: 1180 US sales + 37 UK sales + 0 DE sales = 1217
• Barnes & Noble: 291
• Smashwords: 1
• Total: 1509

Total June Sales: 5571

Overall Sales To Date: 26,538

I am super excited to have had a great month of sales. Thank you so much to everyone who has purchased a Peachville High Demons book and to everyone who supports the series. It really means the world to me. I never thought I would reach 25,000 books sold so quickly. I can also say that with the July release of Shadow Demons, I have already passed 30,000 books sold as well. It feels like a dream. I hope that the growth continues so that I can write books for a living for the rest of my life.

May Sales Numbers

May was a rough month for me. Don't get me wrong - it was still a great month. Every month that goes by since I first decided to self-publish has been like a dream come true. I love the freedom that self-publishing gives to me. I love creating the stories I want to write and never having to worry that an agent or editor won't like them. I only have to think about the reader. It's awesome.

On the other hand, writing books this fast isn't easy. I fully intended to get Book 4 out before the end of May, but here it is June 6 and the book still isn't finished. More about that later. Today is about sales numbers. A few very exciting things happened in May. First of all, I got new book covers!! The new covers definitely invigorated my sales numbers. What was looking like a rough month turned around in the last week to be a decent month without a lot of drop in sales despite the fact that I didn't get a new book out yet. The covers were designed by Robin Ludwig Design, Inc. She did an amazing job, and I think the new look has had a great impact on the way people view the series.

The second exciting thing that happened is that I passed 20,000 books sold! That's spread between all three books, but it's still super exciting. I am hoping once Book 4 comes out, I will pass 25,000 books total pretty quickly. So, here are my sales numbers for the month of May:

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS - Book 1 of the PHD series - $0.99 (10/31/10)

• Amazon's Kindle Store: 1306 US sales + 35 UK + 0 DE = 1341
• Barnes & Noble: 254
• Smashwords: 3
• Total: 1598

INNER DEMONS - Book 2 of the PHD series - $0.99 (12/22/10)

• Amazon's Kindle Store: 1071 US sales + 24 UK + 1 DE = 1096
• Barnes & Noble: 128
• Smashwords: 5
• Total: 1229

BITTER DEMONS - Book 3 of the PHD series - $2.99 (2/24/11)

• Amazon's Kindle Store: 986 US sales + 17 UK sales + 1 DE = 1004
• Barnes & Noble: 108
• Smashwords: 5
• Total: 1117

Total May Sales: 3944

Total Self-Publishing Sales Over 7 months: 20,967

The month ended up being only a couple hundred less than April, which I think is great since I haven't had a new release since February. Book 4 in my series will definitely be out in June, so hopefully I should see a burst of sales from that book's release. Then, I am still hoping to release Book 5 by the end of August. I am so anxious to get started with my next series as well. I love writing and the more I write, the more I love what I do. Creating stories is so much fun when you have freedom.

Side Note: I'll be speaking on self-publishing at the local RWA chapter meeting, Heart of Carolina Romance Writers, this upcoming Saturday. For more information, visit the HCRW website. If you are local to the Raleigh, NC area, anyone is welcome to attend!

April Sales Numbers

What a rollercoaster! After such an amazing month of sales last month, I had no idea what to expect during the month of April. I was pretty sure that my huge jump in sales during March was due to the release of my third book toward the end of February. Without another new release in April to bolster sales, I had a feeling they would slow down. And I was right.

Since I first starting publishing in October, I have tried to set a standard for myself of writing and publishing a new book every two months. No easy task, let me tell you! I succeeded in getting a book out in December, then again in February, but after that, I was definitely feeling a bit burned out. According to the pattern, I should have had Book 4 out by the end of April. Unfortunately, I just couldn't keep working at that pace and had to push the release out to May. Likewise, Book 5 probably will be out in August, giving myself a little bit more time per book.

The downside to taking an extra month is that during that in-between time with no new release, my sales definitely seem to drop off. Last month, I had a whopping jump up to 6441 sales. (That was up from 3711 in February.) In the month of April, I saw a drop back down more toward my February numbers. If you look back at last month's sales numbers blog, you'll see that this is exactly what I predicted. More about my thoughts on this after the numbers. One exciting new development in April is the opening of a Kindle store in Germany! I haven't sold very many copies there yet, but it's great to have a new possible audience of readers.

Here are my April Sales Numbers:

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS - Book 1 of the PHD Series - $0.99 (10/30/10)

• Amazon's Kindle Store: 1452 US sales + 16 UK sales + 2 DE sales (yay!) = 1470
• Barnes & Noble: 97
• Smashwords: 2
• Total: 1569

INNER DEMONS - Book 2 of the PHD series - $0.99 (12/22/10)

• Amazon's Kindle Store: 1196 US sales + 12 UK sales + 1 DE sale = 1209
• Barnes & Noble: 89
  
• Smashwords: 2
• Total: 1300

BITTER DEMONS - Book 3 of the PHD series - $2.99 (2/24/11)

• Amazon's Kindle Store: 1148 US sales + 10 UK sales + 1 DE sale = 1159
• Barnes & Noble: 120
• Smashwords: 2
• Total: 1281

Total April Sales: 4150
Total Self-Publishing Sales: 12,877 previous sales + 4150 April sales = 17027

I'm super excited about that number. Sure, my sales dipped some this month, but with no new release, I think that's to be expected. I have a bit of a theory about this, and I'd love to get some feedback or opinions about it. What I've found so far is that people who release a lot of books in a short amount of time have a burst of sales. The more books and the faster they come out, the bigger the burst and the longer it lasts. For example, if an author releases 6 books in 3 months, they might see a huge boost in sales numbers. This boost might last for 3 or more months. I think this happens because the books begin to ride their own wave of success, so to speak. When an author releases 1 book every 3 months, they will probably see a boost in sales for about a month and a half to two months after each new release, then there will be a dip for that last month or so before the next book comes out. Has anyone else seen this to be true? I would love to see other author's numbers based on their release dates and how often their books come out.

According to that theory, I might have been better off in the long run if I had waited until all five books in my series were written so that I could have released them all in short succession. I might have gotten a bigger boost from that quick release. On the other hand, I would have lost months of sales while I was writing the other books. I have to believe that the path I've chosen is the right path for me. While I may see a dip in sales in between books, I am still seeing steady growth and that's what matters. Of course it would be a dream come true to see my books go all the way up to the Top 500 Kindle books, but I'm still hoping that might happen soon.

Book 4: SHADOW DEMONS is currently in the editing process. I am really hoping for a release date of May 23rd. In the meantime, I expect my sales numbers to stay about the same as they were last month overall, with a boost toward the end of the month when the new book comes out. I hope to have some exciting news about the book cover soon!

Thanks for visiting my blog and checking out my sales numbers. I would love to hear from other Indie authors who also have had some experience with dipping sales numbers.

March Sales Numbers

March was the most AMAZING month for me! I am still in shock at how much sales blossomed last month. I think for most of the month, I was riding high on the release of Book 3. Plus, I had a lot of book reviews come out on various book blog sites, and I know that had a positive impact. I owe a lot to all the book bloggers who took the time to read my books and review them.

Most of the sales growth was in the Kindle store. For most of the month, all three of my books were in the Top 1000 sales ranking of the Kindle store, which was super exciting. Beautiful Demons even went up to the mid-300's a couple of times. Unfortunately, over the past few days, the books have slipped all the way to around 1500 sales rank. It's still good, but definitely falling off just a little bit. For example, I sold 171 books March 1st. April 1st, I only sold 121. I'm expecting to see a pretty big dip in April since there won't be a new book coming out this month. I'm trying not to freak out about it. It's only natural that sales numbers will go up and down. I just hope that I see another great month in May when Book 4 comes out. Only time will tell.

Here are my official sales number for the month of March. Definitely my biggest month so far!

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS - Book 1 of Peachville High Demons series - $0.99 (10/31/10)

• Amazon's Kindle Store - 2064 US sales + 10 UK sales = 2074
• Barnes & Noble - 223
• Smashwords - 6
• Total: 2303

INNER DEMONS - Book 2 of the Peachville High Demons series - $0.99 (12/22/10)

• Amazon's Kindle Store - 1648 US sales + 9 UK sales = 1657
• Barnes & Noble - 214
• Smashwords - 2
• Total: 1873

BITTER DEMONS - Book 3 of the Peachville High Demons series - $2.99 (2/24/11)

• Amazon's Kindle Store - 1883 US sales + 9 UK sales = 1892
• Barnes & Noble - 371
• Smashwords - 2
• Total: 2265

March Total Sales: 6441

That number is almost double my number from February. Before March, I had sold a total of 6436 books. That means that in March alone, I sold more books than I had in all four previous months combined! My total books sold right now stands at 12,877!! I look at the number and have to double check just to make sure it's real. I feel so incredibly blessed to have found this kind of success so quickly.

Like I said, my prediction for April is that sales numbers will continue to drop down just a bit. I am guessing my sales total for this month will be similar to Feb.'s 3000 books. Then, hopefully in May with Book 4 coming out, I will see another upswing into the 6000's. If any other Indie authors are checking this blog, do you see constant growth in numbers from month to month? Or have you had a few months where numbers dropped down, then came back up again later? I'm curious to see what other authors are experiencing.

As many of my followers know, for three years, my husband and I have been living off of his salary alone. I quit my job as a music teacher in an elementary school when I moved to North Carolina to live with the love of my life. He was awesome enough to allow me to write full time and spend my days working toward my dream of becoming an author. For the first time in those three years, his sacrifice paid off. I made more money this month than he did, and that's a huge first for us. I hope this is just the first of many successful months as I work toward my dreams.

Milestone: 10,000 Ebooks sold!

Tonight, I hit another huge milestone in my career as an Indie author. As of midnight tonight, I have sold a total of 10,154 ebooks!!!!!!! It took me about four and half months to reach this milestone, which to be honest, was a lot faster than I ever dreamed it would happen. This is the total sales for all three of my Peachville High Demons series books.

I haven't separated them out to see how the sales break down in terms of x amount sold of book 1, etc. but I know they go in order. I've sold more of Book 1 than anything else so far, and then Book 2, with Book 3 in the rear, but so far in March, I've actually sold more of Book 3 than Book 2, which is a little strange, but I'll take it.

I feel so incredibly grateful to have this opportunity to write what I want and publish it on my own. Becoming a self-published author was a HUGE decision for me, and one that I am proud of every single day. I want to send out a big THANK YOU to everyone who has been so supportive of me. Thanks to everyone who purchased a book. Everyone who left a review or blogged about my books. Thank you to my critique partners who have gone through all three books with a fine-toothed comb to make them better. And thank you especially to my amazing husband who convinced me that I was good enough to make it on my own and who challenged me to take a chance.

I sound like a freaking oscar winner here, but I do feel like I've somehow won the lottery or something. Being an author was a lifetime dream of mine, and to see the success that has come so far makes me truly grateful. 10,000 books in less than 5 months! I can't believe it. So far, 3400 have come from this month alone. I hope that sales continue to grow and that there is no end in sight to this new career and the joy and excitement that comes along with it.

My next big milestone? Selling 500 ebooks in one day will be another huge milestone for me. So far, my best day was just after Book 3 was released and I sold 410 books in a day. Another sales number milestone I want to set for myself is selling 25,000 ebooks total. My prediction on when I might hit these goals? I am hoping to hit the 500 ebooks in a day mark by May when Book 4 comes out. I think that I might hit the 25,000 books sold total by June or July, if I'm lucky!

February Sales Numbers

February was my best month yet! The numbers continue to grow, and I couldn't be more excited. I was honestly shocked at how many books I sold, especially in the last week of the month. And to top it off, February is a short month. I can't wait to see what will happen in March since there are 31 days.

One exciting thing to mention for the month of February is that my third book, Bitter Demons, came out on February 24th!!! It went live in the B&N store on the 25th and in the Kindle store on the 26th. I know that is a big part of what boosted my sales here at the end.

Here are my sales numbers for the month of February - my fourth full month. As usual, I will list the book, the date the book was first released and how many copies sold in each store. Since I now have books at two different price points, I will also list the price of each book:

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS - Book one of the Peachville High Demons series - $0.99 (10/30/10)

• Amazon's Kindle Store - 1637 US sales + 12 UK sales = 1649
• Barnes & Noble - 254
• Smashwords - 3
• Total: 1906

INNER DEMONS - Book two of the Peachville High Demons series - $0.99 (12/22/10)

• Amazon's Kindle Store - 1200 US sales + 9 UK sales = 1209
• Barnes & Noble - 245
• Smashwords - 1
• Total: 1455

BITTER DEMONS - Book three of the Peachville High Demons series - $2.99 (2/24/11)

• Amazon's Kindle Store - 192 US sales (no UK sales this month)
• Barnes & Noble - 147
• Smashwords - 11
• Total: 350

February's Total Sales: 3711

That is more than double what my sales were last month! In other news, Beautiful Demons made it all the way up to #354 in the Kindle store. Inner Demons reached a high of #611. Bitter Demons made it all the way up to #845, cracking the Top 1000 only 24 hours after release. It was so exciting to see all three of my books in the Top 1000!!!

As you can see, my Barnes & Noble sales dropped considerably from last month. I think there are a couple of reasons for this. One, I think that somehow I just lucked out with good store placement over the holidays. I was on the front page of the YA and Teen fiction sections. Now, I'm not on those first pages, and I think it's made a huge difference. Two, I think the B&N market just isn't as big as the Kindle market for ebooks. I'm hoping to see growth next month.

On the flip side, my Kindle sales went crazy this month! I sold something like 8 times as many books in the Kindle store this month compared to last month. With the millions of Kindle users out there, I am hoping there is still a lot of room for growth in the Kindle store.

As usual, Smashwords doesn't really bring in many sales. My books are in the Kobo store and have not sold any copies there so far. Smashwords is mainly just useful for giving out coupons to bloggers and for giveaways.

One thing that I think made a difference this month is bloggers reviewing my book. A Tale of Many Reviews, Black Rose Reviews, The Caffeinated Diva, and All Consuming Books all reviewed Beautiful Demons this past month. (All great reviews! I was so excited!) I think it has really made a difference, and I can't thank them enough for reading the book and posting reviews.

So far, in just four months, I have sold a total of 6675 ebooks. I am more than halfway to hitting 10,000 sold. I really hope I can hit that mark by the end of March! There's no way to predict if my sales will continue to grow or if they will start to drop off. All I can do is keep talking about my books and keep writing more! Shadow Demons, Book 4 in the Peachville High Demons series, is scheduled for release in mid-May.

January Sales Numbers - Month #3

I had an amazing month in January! I was half expecting my numbers to go down from December since everyone said the holiday rush is what was behind the big ebook sales. Either the holiday rush continued on through the month and will start to die down soon or, as I'm hoping, the numbers will continue to grow. Only time will tell. My third book is scheduled for release in Feb. so that will change things somewhat as well. January was my first full month with 2 books out and it paid off!

Here are my sales numbers for January. For me, this is my 3rd full month of being an Indie author:

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS - Book 1 of the Peachville High Demons series (Released 10/30/10):

• Amazon's Kindle Store - 242 US sales and 5 UK sales = 247 books sold
• Barnes and Noble - 589
• Smashwords - 2
• TOTAL: 838
  

INNER DEMONS - Book 2 of the Peachville High Demons series (Released 12/22/10):

• Amazon's Kindle Store - 166 US sales and 6 UK sales = 172 books sold
• Barnes and Noble - 666 (eerie number for a book with the word demon in the title, eh?)
• Smashwords - 3
• TOTAL: 841

January's total sales: 1679

Overall, I'm super excited about my success so far. I know there are dozens of other Indie authors doing the same or much better than I am, so I think there is a bright future for any good author to strike out on their own and be successful. The best news is that my Kindle sales increased exponentially this month. Last month, I only sold 84 books in the Kindle store and my sales rank hovered at best around 16,000. In January, however, I sold 419 books and my sales rank has been sitting happily in the 2,000-3,000 range ever since. Right now, I'm actually at an all-time high of 1,928, but I'm sure it will soon slip back into the 2k's. I'm excited to see that kind of growth in the Kindle store and hope that it continues!!

I'm also anxious to see what releasing book 3 will do for my sales. I am considering raising my price to $2.99 since this is the third book in the series. It's a tough call, but I think this is the right move since I've already started making a name for myself with some readers. Hopefully the price point won't send my sales plummeting. Of course, I'm not going to change the price of the first two books, so hopefully those sales will at least continue to rise.

I continue to be excited about being an Indie author. I know that I made the right decision by self-publishing, and am happy to say that 2011 started with a bang! My hope is to cross that 2,000 books in a month threshold in February.

Monthly Sales Numbers - Month #2 (December)

My December sales at Barnes and Noble haven't increased in a couple of days, so I'm going to assume the total they have up there now is the final total for the month. I know I just posted about my total sales/milestone of over 1,000 books the other day, but I didn't exactly break it down to December's sales. This is just something I want to do to both track my own monthly progress and to give other Indie Authors a realistic idea of what is going on for someone like me.

In December, I released a second book, INNER DEMONS, which is the sequel to my first book. At this point in time, I plan for this series to be five books total, with each book coming out within 2 months from the last. That would put Book 5 coming out around the end of June to close out the series. After that, I plan to release the first book of my zombie series - PANDEMIC.

So, here are my December sales numbers:

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS - a young adult fantasy book about cheerleaders who are witches

• Amazon's Kindle store - 59 US sales, 6 UK sales for a total of 65 sales.
• Barnes and Noble - 526 sales.
• Smashwords - 6 sales.

INNER DEMONS - book 2 of my Peachville High Demons series, released December 20th

• Amazon's Kindle store - 25 US sales, 3 UK sales for a total of 28 sales.
• Barnes and Noble - 280 sales.
• Smashwords - only 2 copies sold here.

Total December sales - 907 Books sold!

That is such a huge leap from the 139 sold last month!! Even though I hope to see some growth each month, I think December was abnormally high for a lot of authors because of the abundance of ereaders sold over the holidays. I don't expect to see such high numbers for January, but we'll just have to wait and see. Already, I have seen a significant drop in my Barnes and Noble sales ranking. They are so far behind in reporting sales that I have no idea just how much they have dropped off, but if the sales rank is any indication, I'm only selling 5-10 copies maybe a day there instead of the higher numbers I saw throughout December.

I'm more excited to see what happens after I release the third book in my series. SHADOW DEMONS is slated for release February 23rd, and I am hoping that adding a third book to my shelf will help boost sales and awareness of the series.

All in all, still modest numbers, but growing beyond my expectations! December was an amazing month! The reviews and ratings that are pouring in are almost all four and five stars, so I'm very happy with the positive response. Thank you to everyone for your support!! I'm excited to see what 2011 brings!

Monthly Sales Numbers of an Indie Author - Month #1

Yay! My first book, BEAUTIFUL DEMONS, has officially been out for one month! Technically, the book came out on Amazon on the 30th of October, but to make book-keeping easier, I'm just going to lump those 2 Oct. days with November. I have decided to write a monthly sales numbers blog, just for any interested parties who are also trying to self-publish online and want to see what's possible. Hopefully as the months go on and more books of mine come out, the numbers will continue to grow and grow!

So here's the scoop for Month #1 of my life as a self-published author. In the hopes of trying to set up a good reporting method now that will still make sense when I have multiple books published, I'm going to list the book title and a super-brief description, each sales outlet where my book is available, the date the book became available for purchase, and finally, how many copies were sold through that outlet for the month.

BEAUTIFUL DEMONS - a young adult fantasy book about cheerleaders who are witches

• Amazon's Kindle Store - Available 10/30/10 - Sold 34 copies
• Smashwords - Available 10/29/10 - Sold 6 copies
• Barnes and Noble - Available 11/02/10 - Sold 99 copies

Total November Sales: 139

So far, my books are only available in digital format. I priced the book at only $0.99. I am hoping to add print copies soon, but right now I'm focusing on getting a second book available as soon as possible.

My numbers are definitely modest, no doubt about it. On the other hand, I'm extremely proud of this first month. My only marketing so far has been several mentions on twitter, a few blog posts here on my own blog, some time spent on the Kindle user forums, and basically telling my friends and family to tell everyone they know. I wasn't expecting to sell more than 50 copies to be honest with you, so the fact that I'm closer to 150 is awesome. By the time I'm writing this, I've already sold 147 copies!

Moving ahead, my plan is to produce quality books fast. Some other Indie authors have encouraged me to spend several months marketing a book before it comes out, but I have a different theory right now of what will work best for my career. Content is King. Without a publishing house backing me, I think the fastest way to build reader trust and confidence is to have several books out and available for download. Sure, lots of people self-publish one book. But how many people continue to crank out book after book? Not nearly as many. Readers today want content, so my plan is to concentrate on getting content out there as fast as I can. Obviously, I want them to be good, but I think I can do both!

I want to ramp up my marketing as well. I need to work on getting more Twitter followers, guest blog posts on popular book blogs, reviews of my book up on various sites, and I want to spend time working on some SEO. Each month I plan to ramp up with more and more marketing until I feel I have a firm foundation. My second book, INNER DEMONS, is currently in edits and is scheduled for release around 12/20/10!

The decision to self-publish was a difficult one to make, but now that I am doing it, I couldn't be happier. For me, this is 100% the right path. There's no waiting, no one telling me what I can or can't write, no one changing my story or slapping a cover on it that I don't agree with. I'm in complete control of my product, and I love every minute of what I'm doing. Month #1 was a great start, and I'm looking forward to seeing those numbers go up every month.