I published my first novel, A Summer in Amber, five years ago,
on 23 April 2015. I had been writing it off and on, along with Some
Day Days, and The Bright Black Sea, over the previous five
or six years. I was writing them for the joy of creating daydreams
and setting them to words. I never had any intention of trying to get
them traditionally published. I haven’t the heart, or stamina, to
play that game. And, at sixty-five years of age, I was too old to
start a career in writing. Plus, I didn’t need the money. So it was
either just write them for myself – or, if I felt that they were
good enough, self publish them.
Five years ago, I
decided that A Summer in Amber was good enough. So I
self-published it on Smashwords and Amazon.
But, I didn’t care
to play the indie-publishing game either. I’d do only what I
enjoyed doing and not what I didn’t. I enjoyed dreaming up stories
and setting them down in words. I liked to paint, and enjoyed making
covers for the book. I don’t like to spend money. So I’d not
spend money on them. Plus, I’m a shy person, and I am uncomfortable
promoting my work. So between not liking to spend money, and hating
the whole promotional process, I decided to make it easy for people
to give my books a try by simply clicking the buy button, with no
need to reach for their wallets. I opted to just share them for free.
Better read than unread. I’d do it my own way. And have.
As a result,
self-publishing has been a very enjoyable – and rewarding
experience. I’m not tied to any deadlines. I don’t set a daily
word count to make. Writing works best with a routine, and when I
write, I do have a routine, putting in 2 to 5 hours a day in morning
and optional evening sessions. But I only need to write 5 to 6 months (or less) in a year to produce one book a year, so I don’t get
burned out. The rest of the time I just try to dream up stories. It’s
getting harder these days to do that, but, remember, I have no
deadlines that I must meet. So far I’ve made all the ones I set for
myself. It’s stress-free writing. And thanks to my great volunteer beta readers, all my books have gotten better as time has gone on. Thanks, guys!
Of course, you don’t
get rich doing what I’m doing in this business, but I not poorer for it either. I never
intended to get rich in this business. I intended to have fun, and I
am.
So what have I
accomplished? My numbers for my fifth year in the business are
below:
|
Book Title / Release Date |
5th Year Sales* *Note: sales are mostly FREE books |
Total Sales* To date *Note: sales are mostly FREE books |
|
A Summer in Amber
23 April 2015 |
818 |
7,216 |
|
Some Day Days 9 July 2015 |
726 |
3,853 |
|
The Bright Black Sea 17 Sept 2015 |
2,656 |
12,495 |
|
Castaways of the Lost Star |
-- |
2,176 |
|
The Lost Star’s Sea 13 July 2017 |
1,962 |
5,983 |
|
Beneath the Lanterns 13 Sept 2018 |
1,087 |
2,240 |
|
Sailing to Redoubt 15 March 2019 |
1,043 |
1,604 |
|
The Prisoner of Cimlye 2 April 2020 |
244 |
244 |
|
Total 5th Year Sales |
8,530 |
35,805 |
Yearly Sales
History:
Year One, 2015/16:
6,537 (3 books released)
Year Two, 2016/17:
6,137 (1 book released)
Year Three, 2017/18:
6,385 (1 book released)
Year Four, 2018/19:
8,225* (2 books released) *1950 one day sales included. (6,275 w/o)
Year Five, 2019/20:
8,530 (1 book released)
Past Yearly
reports can be found here:
Highlights of
Year Five
Despite my
pessimistic forecast in my Year Four Review, Year Five was my best
sales year yet, though only by 305 books. However, during Year Four
Amazon reported a one day sale of 1,950 copies that they said were
legit… but remains a mystery. If you discount that strange day,
this year was significantly better than last year.
The sales of A
Summer in Amber and Some Day Days have begun to lag, now
five years after their release, both being down significantly from
last year. On the other hand, The Bright Black Sea had
its best sales year save for the year of its release. Sales of The
Lost Star’s Sea remains steady at about 2,000 copies a year.
Sales for the newer books were also up from last year, though still
modest. No breakout hits, so far.
Amazon.
Sailing to Redoubt was priced at $.99 on Amazon for
several months in 2020, and I sold just a handful of copies, which
tells me that I still don’t have a large enough of a following to
even dream of making money selling by books. (But then, I don’t dream of doing it.)
The fact that it was not free, however, suppressed its sales on
Amazon, so I might have done a little better if they had not decided
to price match that title. That said, I had a great run of sales
after Christmas and the holidays, and though it tapered off, I can’t
complain at all.
Smashwords. I
had a great year on Smashwords. With their new storefront, I saw a
significant bump in sales – until, 9 October 2020, after which, I
didn’t. It seemed that a trap door was opened, and sales dropped
into the pit below (with crocodiles). I don’t know what changed,
but I still do pretty well on Smashwords, so I’ll not complain here
either.
Google. For a
while there it looked like my sales on Google where shooting up to
over a hundred copies a month. But that did not continue. They fell
back and have leveled off at between 50 and 70 copies a month. Nice,
but unfortunately the 122 sales in October on Google proved to be a
fluke. But, hey, 50 -70 copies rounds sales out nicely each month. So
I’m not going to complain here either.
The Prisoner of
Cimlye, 2020’s Novel. Unlike in year four, when I released two
books, I only released one book during this year, The Prisoner of
Cimlye, and that, just this past month, on 2 April 2020. Since
it is the epilogue to Sailing to Redoubt, with
sales of that book just a bit over 1,600 copies, I’m not expecting it to
be my breakout book. I struggled this past year to come up with
a story that I wanted to write, and didn’t lose interest in it
after I started writing it. It happened a couple of times this past
year. I’ve been avoiding sequels since The Lost Star’s Sea.
Sequels appeal only to the people who have read – and liked –
the previous book. I don’t think I have books that have sold in the
volume that I would consider worth writing a sequel to. My theory is
that it is better to keep casting for that breakout story with a
brand new story until you catch the big one. That, anyway, was my
thinking...
However, any port in
a storm. Finding myself facing the prospect of not writing anything
for more than a year, I decided to write a story that I had in my
head and knew that I needed to write, sooner or later, even if it was
a sequel to a book that has, to date, sold only 1,600 copies. I
aimed to write just a novella, (40,000 words) and ended up with a
nice, pulp-standard novel of 54,000 words. Better yet, I wrote and
published it, start to finish, in just 61 days, just like the big
sellers do on Amazon. And, a new release always gooses sales, so it
is better than nothing.
I think this style
of story will be my new standard going forward. I write episodic
novels anyway, so writing and publishing an episode at a time,
especially with established characters, seems to be the way to go
forward, given my creative struggles.
Looking Forward
to Year Six
Last year in my Four
Years in Self-publishing post, link above, I wrote that I
thought that this past year would be a tough year, and did not expect
to do all that well for a number of reasons. While my results this
past year defied my pessimism, all of the reasons I felt would make
it hard to move books last year, still apply for this coming year.
However, it is impossible to predict what effect the pandemic and economic
downturn will have on my sales. Free books may look ever more attractive in the
coming months, though I’m not holding my breath. Still, you never
know.
I would like to
publish at least one more short novel this calendar year, and perhaps
two before I post my Year Six Review. We’ll see, plans gang aft
agley.
So here I am, five
years latter. It’s been fun. It’s been rewarding. And I think,
given the actual amount of work I’ve put into the project, its been
very successful. That’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.
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