It's been two years
since I self published my first science fiction novel, A Summer in
Amber on 27 April, 2015. I followed that book with Some Day
Days on 9 July 2015 and then A Bright Black Sea on 16 Sept
2015. Since I'd been working on those stories for more than five
years, I was able to release all three within five months of each
other. In 2016, faced with the fact that my next story, the companion
volume to The Bright Black Sea would not be finished before
the last half of 2017, I published the first, 70K word, “episode”
of the book as a stand alone story, Castaways of the Lost Star
on 25 July 2016. The complete book, a 340K word long planetary
romance, The Lost Star's Sea is on track for release this
summer.
My books are
targeted at a very small market – me. I have old
fashioned tastes in books – mostly adventure novels from the first
half of the last century, give or take a decade or two – so they're
not written to be commercial products for today's mass markets. Having no
commercial ambitions, or any need for the few dollars they'd likely bring in if I tried selling them, I offer them for free. Amazon requires at least a $.99
price, but they've been kind enough to price-match free in the US
store and 2 books in the UK store. Because I hate
self-promotion – and work – I'm content to let price, reviews and
word of mouth promote my books. And since I value good reviews over
downloads, I write my blurbs to attract only
the subset of readers who will likely enjoy them. I can publish free
books without losing a penny because I can do – almost –
everything involved in self publishing in-house. The exception being, as
I found out the hard way, proofreading. However, I now have a crew of very
kind volunteer proofreaders willing to help me with that.
There are many ways
to build a readership. I've chosen the way that suits me best –
honest descriptions and the elimination of price as a barrier. So how
does it work? Let's take a look.
A Summer in Amber
Release 27 April
2015
1st year
downloads & sales - 2,222
2nd year
downloads & sales -1,357
Total to date 3,579
Rating & Reviews
1st
Year 2nd Year Total
5 star 13 12 25
4 star 16 - 16
3 star - 4 4
2 star 4 2 6
1 star - - -
Total 33 18 51
Some Day Days
Released 9 July 2015
1st year
downloads & sales – 1,139
2nd year
downloads & sales – 511
Total 1,650
Ratings &
Reviews
1st Year 2nd Year Total
5 star - 2 2
4 star 2 1 3
3 star 1 4 5
2 star 1 - 1
1 star - - -
Total 4 7 11
The Bright Black
Sea
Released 16 Sept.
2015
1st year
downloads & sales - 3,176
2nd year
downloads & sales – 2,569
Total to date
5,745
Ratings &
Reviews
1st Year 2nd Year Total
5 star 59 33 92
4 star 12 7 19
3 star 4 4 8
2 star 1 - -
1 star 2 1 3
Total 80 44 124
Notes: Amazon
dropped price matching in March of 2016 until Sept. of 2016, so I
have no data to determine if and how the release of its sequel
affected sales. Downloads in Sept 2016 were twice the highest number
recorded for any other month – I suspect that the spike was due to
some sort of promotion by Amazon. (I saw a similar unexplained spike
in A Summer in Amazon Sales in its first year as well.) I didn't
happen to catch it at its peak, but several days later is was still
at #20, so it may have well been the #1 free Space Opera for a day.
Selling at $3.99, it sold 16 copies during the March – June time
period. And in the July – August time period when it was priced at
$.99 it sold 15 copies. Foreign sales currently run 1 to 2 copies a
month at $.99.
Interesting enough,
my downloads on iBooks dropped by more than half once Amazon started
offering all my books for free again with the release of Castaways in
Sept 2016. That seems to be the only reason for that to happen.
The Castaways of
the Lost Star (a
sequel to The Bright Black
Sea)
Released 25 July
2016
2nd year
downloads & sales - 1700
Total to date
- 1700
Ratings &
reviews
2nd Year
5 star 6
4 star 4
3 star -
2 star -
1 star -
Total 10
Coming this Summer:
The Lost Star's Sea. The concluding volume of the Lost Star and the
adventures of Captain Wil Litang.
The Complete Totals
First year
downloads/sales of all books – 6,537*
Total number of
ratings/reviews - 117
Second year
downloads/sales of all books – 6,137*
Total number of
ratings/reviews - 79
Two year cumulative
download/sales – 12,674*
Cumulative number of
ratings/reviews – 196
*Kobo does not
report free downloads to Smashwords so this number is no doubt vastly
under reported. Maybe by 100. $ Sales constitute only a small
fraction of these totals. And the straight 400 download difference
between the two years is just weird.
I release my books
through Smashwords and Amazon. Last year Smashwords distributed books
including iBooks and B & N but not Kobo outsold Amazon by 2 to 1.
The cumulative totals now are about 50-50.
Two calender year
profits: (2015 & 2016): slightly under $50 from Amazon sales.
With no data to
compare these results to other self publishing authors who entered
the science fiction market in 2015, I have no idea how they stack up
to the more conventional ways of establishing a self publishing
venture. However, I'm very pleased with the results and have enjoyed
the whole experience. I've learned a lot, made new friends, and
accomplished something I've always wanted to do – write a book or
two that are read and appreciated.
I'd like to take the
opportunity to thank everyone who helped make this publishing venture
both very enjoyable and modestly successful. While my name is on the
title page, other people have helped to making the books better than
I could've done alone. First off, I'd like to thank my volunteer
proofreaders and beta readers. I produce a vast number of typos and
have an amazing ability to be blind to them, so a sincere thanks goes
out to Sally L., Carlos S., Hannes B., Nicole B., Martin V., Walt,
and Stephen B.. I truly appreciate the efforts they've made to make
my books better for every reader. I'd also like to thank the readers
who took time to write to me. And all the readers who have taken the
time to review and/or rate my stories. I'm not writing for money.
Reader satisfaction is my benchmark of success, and while I know that
I can not please everyone, I am glad that the people who do like my
stories seem to truly appreciate them. And finally, I'd like to thank
you, dear reader, for selecting my books and spending time alongside
the characters and in worlds I've discovered lurking in my
imagination. A story without a reader is a pretty sad thing. I'm glad
that my stories have found readers, and readers who have enjoyed
them.
