The Saturday Morning Post (No. 78)

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A reread this week. I first read this book probably in the late 1970's. It's a sea story and something of a spy story as well. My Penguin copy calls it "The Classic Spy Thriller."

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below. 

The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers  A-

I have very fond memories of this book. This is probably the third time I've read the entire book. I've read the first chapter several more times, as I feel that it is a quintessential example of what I most enjoy in British writing - cleaver and witty, and at least to me, it makes the London of the last century come alive.

This is the only novel Erskine Childers wrote. I was written in 1903 as propaganda disguised as fiction. It was meant as a warning to a complacent Great Britain about the growing ambitions of Imperial Germany, and the vulnerability of the country to a German invasion in a near future war. Ironically, Childers was executed in 1922 by a British firing squad despite being awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his services to intelligence in the air and on the sea in World War I.  He was executed during the Irish Troubles as an active advocate of Irish independence for possession of small revolver, after he shock the hands of each man of the firing party. Suffice to say he was an interesting man.

The story involves the first person narrator, Carruthers, being invited to join an old university friend, Arthur Davies, on his "yacht" then residing in on the German Baltic coast. Carruthers, working for the British Foreign Office, had his holiday plans disrupted, and stuck in the dead season of London, was unable to attend the house parties he had been invited to. When he was finally able to get away, he had no place to go, so he took up Davies' offer and decamped for the Baltic. What he finds is something unexpected. The yacht is not what he expected. It turns out that Davies had hidden reasons for inviting him, including a theory that he had almost stumbled upon something so secret that the German agents would stop at nothing to keep him from finding out the secret in the sands. 

There are four maps in my addition of the book, and I always love books with maps. The one above shows the general area where most of the action takes place. This is very much a sea story. Childers in real life loved to mess around in boats, and his expertise is on full display in this story of Davies and Carruthers' adventures exploring the tidal sands behind the offshore islands shown on the map, looking for the secret the Germans wanted to keep from Davies when he was first visited there without Carruthers.

I will say this, on this reread, at my age, and knowing the story as I do, this read slower than my first read. And I have since read a number of authors with similar pro-British Empire sentiments from that time period. There is a certain ethos in the writing that has the heroes careless of their lives - it's the doing of it for whatever reason that it's important, and they don't care a snap of their fingers if they die doing it. I guess I've grown too old and cynical these days for me to fully buy that idea anymore. 

I don't know just who I can recommend this to. It is a mystery/adventure/sea story, written 120 years ago, and that shows. But I would recommend looking it up on Amazon and reading the first chapter of the Kindle version. I think that's a masterpiece of British writing.

The New Gatekeepers

I’ve watched a number of videos over the last year where established indie authors urge authors interested in self publishing to go about it in the proper way. Which is to say, the traditional publishing way. By this they mean authors should hire professionals to produce their books, professionals ranging from developmental editors to punch up the story, plus line editors and/or proofreaders, professional cover artists, and even professional cover designers, as well as professionals to format the book, and human narrators to narrate audiobooks. This process costs thousands of dollars. Indeed, I’ve heard $5,000 to $10,000 figures tossed around as the cost of self publishing a book these days, though I have to assume that includes ebooks, paper, and audio versions of the book. While these authors may acknowledge that this may cost more than some authors can readily afford, and may mention in passing, some cheaper alternatives, the thrust of their advice is that authors owe it to their readers to produce as professionally produced book as they can afford to spend. Moreover, they imply that authors owe it to the self publishing industry to produce traditional publishing quality books, in order to raise the perceived level of quality in self published books. To do any less is to let the side down.

Well, yes and no. Yes is likely a given in that most, of not all, self-published authors try to put out the best book they can, if only as it is a reflection of their expertise. However, publishing is a business and should be approached as a business. The chances of making back even $1,000 are statistically very slim. An author would need to sell at least 200 to 270 ebooks at full price to cover every $1,000 they spend on a book. The average self-published book is said to sell a 100 copies. Just say’n. 

Moreover, no matter how much professional help is hired, indie authors can only charge self-published prices for their books, if they expect to sell it. Thus, all these professional services add no tangible financial benefit to the books. Finally, it's not the quality of the book that limits the sale of most self-published books. Its visibility, or rather, the lack of visibility. A developmental editor can't increase the chances of a book being discovered. Even a professionally designed cover can’t pay for itself if the book is rarely or never seen by a receptive audience. Unless we can get our books seen and talked about, these expensive professional services just don’t matter in the end. Money wasted.

There are a number of reasons why this proposed method is wrong. First, look at  the proposed business model. Only one book out of three in traditional publishing ends up making the publisher any money. Indeed, the industry is largely dependent on a relatively small number of bestselling authors and books to make most of their money. Is this really a successful business model that solo authors should imitate in their self-publishing business, especially if their publishing business has yet to start minting money needed to support it? It is a system that works only for best selling authors, traditional or self-published.

Next, let’s look at the market, or rather the markets. While there is some overlap of readers, the traditional publishing market and the ebook/Kindle Unlimited market are very different beasts, in both expectations and priorities. The ebook market is largely made up of avid, story-orientated genre readers who will overlook nondescript writing and a certain amount of typos, if the story is compelling enough. I speak with experience here. On the other hand, the readers of traditional published books are more likely bookish readers who place a greater emphasis on style and writing quality. There are few, if any, grammar connoisseurs reading self-published ebooks, so there’s no need to spend thousands of dollars to please them. Beta readers are sufficient.

So, all in all, I see promoting this expensive method of producing a self published book as the best, and most ethical way of producing a book, as a form of gatekeeping. 

By setting such a very high financial bar for entry into the self publishing market it discourages many would-be author/publishers from even attempting to publish their work, unless they already have the six figure income necessary to spend, and likely lose, on their publishing project. And even if these authors did mentioned less expensive ways, the clear implication was that you needed to spend as much as you could scrape together to publish your book in a manner as close to the right and proper way as possible.

The reason, we are told, that these services are expensive is that these editors, artist, and such need to make a living. Most authors, traditionally published or self-published rarely make a living writing. But now we self-published authors are being told that we need to pay a living wage to these self-employed professionals, before the we ever have a chance to earn any money from our book at all. There is something wrong in the traditional book business where the the very basis of the business - the writer of the book - is paid the least. And so those promoting this unfair system for the self-publishing business, earn my wrath.

I view this message as a subtle method of gatekeeping. A way of keeping self-publishing to an exclusive group of would-be self-published authors - the well heeled and well connected. They want to close the gate behind them. 

There’s always been people selling authors all sorts of schemes and services to sell books. Would-be authors are some of the greatest chumps in the world. It’s like shooting trout in a barrow. So this pitch, in a way, is just the same old thing. But it is also different in that it is being promoted by people who are not trying to make money from selling their secret to success. They might even be well meaning, and believe this is the right way to go about self-publishing a book. Anything is possible.

But still, the cynic in me sees it as a subtle way to discourage the competition in a field were there is way too much competition – at least from an author’s point of view. For the readers, well, it’s a wonderful opportunity. I’m for the readers. The more books there are, the merrier.

The Saturday Morning Post ( No. 77)

Sit down. I don't want the shock to harm you. This Saturday I'm going to review, yes, another Cadfael Mystery Novel. Yep. Two in a row, two in a week. Welcome to the Brother Cadfael Review Blog. I don't even want to peek ahead to see what book I review next week in No. 78.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

The Heretic's Apprentice  by Ellis Peters  A-

Another story that is up to her very high standard. In this one she takes on some Catholic beliefs in this story, such as do unbaptized babies going to hell, are you born with original sin, can you get to heaven by your own efforts, and are the number of people who get to go to heaven predetermined.

The premise is that a very rigid senior churchman is staying at the abbey, when a young man arrives with the casket of his patron with whom he has traveled to the Holy Land and back. It was his patron who raised these questions, and was advised to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Lands to ponder his questions. He died in France shorty before reaching home in Shrewsbury, and this young man is seeing his body returned, with the aim of burying him in the Abbey's graveyard. As a good patron of the abbey, the abbot would welcome this. But when the senior churchman learns of the dead man's heresy - for questioning these beliefs can be seen as heresy - he objects, but is over ruled. So far so good. But when this churchman learns that the young man also has these questions, the young man gets in trouble with this powerful churchman. 

There is a mystery, of course. Along with the body of his patron, the young man has brought along an ornate box as the dowry for his patron's adopted daughter. What is in it which brings with it, the usual murder. She hints that there is a real life historical basis in this story that is related to the content of box, but I'll say no more about that.

There are only four more novels to go in this series, and three short stories that might cover his life before he joined the monastery. What am I going to turn to when I want something reliable to read?

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 76) EXTRA! EXTRA!

I'm still 10 weeks behind on posting these reviews, and with nothing more brilliant to say in hand, here's the next review in the can.

Needed something to read, and with nothing in mind I reached over... So yes... Again.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

The Confession of Brother Haluin  by Ellis Peters   A

In this tale we have a brother of the order, Brother Haluin, who on death's doorstep from a fall, confesses that as a brother early in his vocation he did something that he felt caused the death of the woman he loved, but could not have, as well as her unborn child. He ends up living, and though maimed and lame from the fall, he asks leave to make a pilgrimage to ask for forgiveness from her mother, and to pray at her grave. The story recounts his pilgrimage, and reconstructs the events of the incident, 18 years in the past.

The murder in this story doesn't take place until after the halfway point in it. And yes, we haver our young lovers and assorted characters who we meet along the way. I don't think the story will surprise anyone, but I don't think that's Peters' intent. She writes stories that explore characters and the historical time they are set in. In my view, the mystery is simply a way to market her historical fiction stories.

I have yet to be disappointed in any of her Brother Cadfael stories. Some are slightly better than the others, but all are good. But if I haven't sold you on them by now, I ain't going to. So I won't try. 

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 75)

 

On an idle Saturday afternoon, YouTube in its infinite wisdom showed me the Jack Lemon movie The Wackiest Ship in the Army, and I decided to watch it, seeing that it was set in the South Pacific in WWII. Not a classic, but enjoyable enough, that I went on to watch half of In Harm's Way staring John Wayne and Kurt Douglas, also set that time period, but is a more sweeping and a little more serious movie, but John Wayne sort a annoys me, so I've not returned to it yet. Now I read James A Michener's Tales of the South Seas years ago, which our library doesn't have as an ebook, but they did have his Return to Paradise, so I downloaded it. 

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

Return to Paradise by James A Michener  DNF  28%

James A Michener says in his introduction that he felt that "what happened in Asia was of sovereign importance to my country" and wanted to go back to study it. In that he was probably right. But he didn't want to "merely to grind out another batch of stories upon the old theme" and because it had been done before by Conrad, Melville Maugham and Hall, he simply refused to waste his time sailing after fresh Pacific yarns. What he did instead was to write ten essays on the islands, Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea and then write ten stories based on those essays.

If this sounds like an exercise in a creative writing class - here's a description of an island, write a story using the setting - it is, or at least reads like one. Nothing wrong with it, except that 1.) the places he describes are now seventy four years in the past, as this book was first published in 1951 and much has changed. If you are interested in the history of the islands and what they were like in 1950, then you will enjoy this book - for Mr Michener is a very good writer. The short stories might, or might not interest you as well.

Unfortunately, I found the essays that I read to be rather tedious, and hopelessly out of date. I also found his attitude a bit out of date as well. And the two short stories were perhaps a little too literary for my taste, i.e. pointless, without any characters to make them interesting to me, giving me little hope that just skipping the essays would improve the reading experience for me. As a result by the time I got to Fiji, I decided that the south sea of the book wasn't going captivate me, so I called it quits and sailed away.

My Library Shelf - the Little Black Book

It's been a while since I talked about any book or books from my wall of books. So it's about time. The book I selected this time was not actually on my book shelves, but on one of the side shelves in my desk. I just happened to pick it up recently and was paging through it and as always, I'm delighted just doing so. So here it is.

The rather old and battered ring-bound little black book pictured above is one of my favorite books for a number of reasons - its authenticity, what it is, and what it says about a lost age - America about a hundred years ago. It brings to mind the bygone age of the Gasoline Alley comic strip, the Penrod stories of Booth Tarkington, and even more so those old movies based on the Penrod stories, On Moonlight Bay and By the Light of Silvery Moon, and the songs those movies were titled after. In short, a vision of an idyllic, it mostly imagined past. 

Its title is "Handy" and it is "A Manual for Leaders of Social Recreation." Edited by Lynn Rohrbough.  The first copyright date is 1924, so it is a hundred years old. My copy is the Ninth Edition, No. 33343, March 1928, originally priced at $2.50. It is published by the Social Recreation Union "Church Centered Recreation." And what it actually is is a collection of a dozen 20 to 40-some page how-to-do brochures on various subjects ranging from Leadership for Social Recreation, to program planning, along with lists and directions for all sorts of activities. It is designed to be used as resources for church social programs and their leaders in planning their programs. 

The first short brochure sets out its goals and that of the programs it envisions, the second practical advice on how to prepare these programs and what to offer in the way of food and such. And then there's a guide to leadership - who and how to do it. And finally how to fund and plan a year-long recreational program, before getting into the suggested activities.

On section describes activities to do out-of-doors, such as  Mystery Hikes, Progressive Supper Hikes, Hobo Hikes, or at night, a Flashlight Hunt, just to name a few. Other sections have lists of various types of games, Mixing Games, Active Games, Quiet Games, and Mental Games. Plus things like "Dramatic Stunts" and a collection of Group Songs, tunes and lyrics. 

I forget where and why I picked it up. I certainly didn't pau $5.00 for it. But I'm glad I did pick it up, if only because reading through it takes you back in time to a simpler, slower paced age - which is probably and illusion - but nevertheless you can't help thinking it was as you read through all the activities and games it describes in detail for all ages, from children to young adults. 

The best way to give you the flavor of this book is with a small selection of photos of the pages, which, if you click on, I think it will be large enough for you to be able to read the pages yourself. 

Some ideas on different types of outdoor activities, for day and night. Wieners roasted at the end.

Above and below are some games you can use for breaking the ice in social gatherings where everyone doesn't already know each other.

The how to do of races and relays for children and young people, are described above. And below are some ideas for some more quiet games. And some mentally challenging games and puzzles. 

 And finally we end up with a selections of songs and rounds.

I am far from an expert on church based social activity these days, or even if there is any, but I have a feeling that it, along with the the Model T and penny candy are pretty much the things of history and museums. I certainly can't see my grandchildren participating in the activities described in this book. And to be honest, I couldn't see myself when I was their age eagerly participating as well. Perhaps there were still programs like this in my youth, maybe Scouting comes close. Still, if they ever existed in real life, and I'd like to believe somewhere they did, some young people, a boy and a girl, attending a church social, were hand-cuffed together with two strings and had to figure out how to escape from each other. And that they fell in love, got married and lived happily ever. 

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 74)

Well last week I read and reviewed a book on a year in the American Revolution. I decided to stay with that theme, but look across the water for my next revolution.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

A New World Begins by Jeremy D Popkin  C+

I will say right from the beginning, the C+ grade is mine, not Mr Popkins, as this is a very comprehensive book on the French Revolution with a great deal of information within 561 pages of text, not counting footnotes & such, which is far too much information for me to fully grasp more than a C+'s worth of it.

This is not to say that I didn't learn a lot about the French Revolution, because I did. It is rather that there is so much to learn about it. It has many actors, many twists and turns, many crises, and many achievements. While this book, I believe does a wonderful job of telling a decade long story in a single book, it would require much more time and effort for me to claim that I know more than a general overview of the revolution. All the leading characters, all the various factions that rose and fell, are pretty much a muddle in my mind after reading it. But then, I was mostly going for a general overview and I got that. If a reader really wants to really get deep into the events, politics, policies, and personalities of the period, I believe this book would be a good place to start. Mr Popkins has been studying this period all his professional life, and sets out the history of this turbulent period with just enough details to make it come to life, without becoming too dry and academic. On the other hand, if you want just an overview of the events, there might be shorter, more concise books.

Once again, knowing next to nothing about the French Revolution, It was interesting to see how turbulently it unfolded. Seen through the lens of life in the 21st century, it seems clear that people will never all agree on anything, and that, as the Taoists noted, there is a cycle, a circle to everything. Ideas rise, the fall, perhaps to be replaces with something somewhat the opposite, which intern falls to be replaced by something similar to what it had itself replaced... rinse and repeat.

This has some application in these days as well.

It was also interesting to see the role of the environment in the French Revolution. Several bad harvest during that period drove up the price of bread that led to unrest and uprisings in Paris that had direct consequences during the revolutionary period. Everything is connected. 

And lastly, in my recent readings about the American Civil War, the American Revolution, and now the French Revolution, it is clear both how cruel people can be to each other, and how bad things can, and often do, get. We are very lucky today, here in America, and the developed world in general that however bad they may seem, they can be and have been far, far worse. That may the the lasting takeaway of all these books on wars and revolutions, long after the details fade.

A New Word Begins is a good book about the French Revolution, that will get you into the weeds, but not get you lost in them. Much.

Nine-and-a-half Years in Publishing - 6 Month Sales

 

My "2025" Novel

As is tradition around here, I'm posting my sales for the first half of my fiscal year, May thru October. The purpose is to chronical my experiment in publishing. I decided from the onset on three things. First to reach, and hopefully, entertain as many readers as possible. Second to do so without losing money, but also without any concern for making money. And thirdly, to only do the things I enjoyed - writing - and the things I found interesting, challenging, and didn't mind doing like making paperback books, tinkering with covers, and different formats, while avoiding doing all the things I hated, which is to say self-promotion. The key to these goals was, and is, producing my books in-house, with the help of volunteer beta readers, and to then sell the ebook versions at cost, which to say, for free. I let their free price and wide and easy access do my promoting for me. I've published 20 books over the course of the last 9 1/2 years. The sales numbers are below. And according to Amazon, I've made $1002.51 so far. I've spent less that that, mostly on paper books, some of which I send to my beta readers for their efforts. I'll leave it up to you to decide how successful I've been.

Cutting to the chase, the first half of my 10th year in publishing was solid, but not spectacular. Below are my monthly sales totals, including ebooks, print books, and audiobooks. Nearly half of my sales now come from audiobook sales.

May     June     July     August    September    October    Six Month total

1014    844     1637    1544       1356            1,406        7,801*

This total compares to 9,177 in the same period last year, a decline of 16%

Headlines For This First Half of My Fiscal Year

I released my "2025" novel, Chateau Clare, early - on October 17 and the 24th, so it's initial bump in sales is reflected in the October sales. It's 470 copies sold kept sales for October at September's level. I have muted expectations for this title. It represents a different direction in my writing. Still, I can't kick about either its sales or its initial reception. I'm hoping that it will find new readers, but that might take some time.

All but three of my titles have been finally released as Apple audiobooks. The Lost Star's Sea shows it was accepted, but it's not currently available for some reason. Who knowns with Apple? A possible explanation for the unreleased three is that they did not have a proper table of contents. That was fixed a month ago, but they've yet to make their appearance. That said, Apple's audiobook version of Chateau Clare appeared only a week after the ebook version. You just never know with Apple. As for audiobook sales on Apple - I'm happy with them - not Google level, but good enough. It was worth the hassle. 

In June I pulled my books on Smashwords and now sell them there via Draft2Digital. The move revitalized sales on Smashwords for several months, likely because the books appeared as new releases on Smashwords' home page, making them far easier to come across. Visibility, visibility, visibility is the key to sales. Sales have since settled down, but this move explains July's bump in sales.

My two bestselling books, The Bright Black Sea and The Lost Star's Sea were too long for Amazon's auto-narrated audiobook program, so I broke them up into a six book series; The Lost Star Stories -- The Captain, Enemies, Ghosts, Castaways, Islands. and Secrets of the Lost Star. While I've sold only a modest number of the new versions, I wasn't selling any of the two omnibus versions since they went full price on Amazon, so the move was a minor win. I've reformatted The Bright Black Sea and The Lost Star's Sea to reflect their omnibus status, and will continue to sell them via Google and D2D - since they are audiobooks on Google and Apple.

On the other hand, I pulled distributing  from Draft2Digital for my titles to Kobo in October because I could not find my titles, or my my name, when I searched the Kobo site.  It seems that Kobo doesn't want to sell free books. I hoped that by listing them myself with Kobo they would actually turn up in the search results. They now do, sometimes. Early sales are modest - 40 in the first month. I can't say if listing them directly made any difference, since Kobo never reported free sales to Smashwords or D2D. Now I'll know. I took the opportunity to list the six book Lost Star Stories series instead of The Bright Black Sea and The Lost Star's Sea when doing this. I will review my Kobo free sales before the end of the year and if they are fairly insignificant, I may raise their prices to match my Amazon prices in the hope that this might make them more visible and appealing to users of Kobo's version of the Kindle Unlimited lending library. 

The Numbers

Below is the complete breakdown of sales by book and format for the period May 2024 thru October 2024.  

Book Title/ Release Date	Ebook Sales	Audiobook Sales	Paper Back Sales	Total	Total to Date
SALES PERIOD May 2024 – October 2024
A Summer in Amber 23 April 2015	224	245	1	469	10,573
Some Day Days 9 July 2015	153	207		360	6,935
The Bright Black Sea 17 Sept 2015	358	502	2	860	19,093
Castaways of the Lost Star (Initial Release -withdrawn) 4 Aug 2016	----------	withdrawn	-------	----------	2,176 (one year)
The Lost Star’s Sea 13 July 2017	269	231	1	500	11,143
Beneath the Lanterns 13 Sept 2018	176	150		326	5,748
Sailing to Redoubt 15 March 2019	207	190	2	397	5,385
Prisoner of Cimlye 2 April 2020	155	156	2	311	4,048
Lines in the Lawn 8 June 2020     Withdrawn	----------	------------	-------	---------	174
Keiree 18 Sept 2020	150	186		336	3,659
The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon 11 Nov 2020	230	296	2	526	5,011
The Secrets of Valsummer House 18 March 2021	230	265	1	495	4,130
Shadows of an Iron Kingdom 15 July 2021	271	418	1	689	5,019
The Aerie of a Pirate Prince 29 Sept 2022	207	228		435	2,503
The Girl on the Kerb 6 April 2023	480	174		654	6,358
A Night on Isvalar 15 July 2021	277	167		444	537
Passage to Jarpara 16 March 2024	217	183	6	400	583
Chateau Clare 17 Oct 2024	357	113		470	470
Captain of the Lost Star 22 July 2024	9		--------	9	9
Enemies of the Lost Star 22 July 2024	5		--------	5	5
Ghosts of the Lost Star 22 July 2024	5		-------	5	5
Castaways of the Lost Star (New Re-Release version) Oct 2024	4		--------	4	4
Islands of the Lost Star Oct 2024	3		-------	3	3
Secrets of the Lost Start Oct 2024	6		-------	6	6
Omnibus Editions (withdrawn)	----------	-------------	--------	----------	30
TOTALS THIS PERIOD	3,993	3,711	18 (yr)	7,671
1H 2023	6,049	3,130		9,177
1H 2022	4,480	4,574		9,054
LIFETIME TOTAL SALES					93, 607

1 H Revenue $139.59, Expenses Approx. $20.00 Profit Approx. $120

Paperback sales were for the entire year. I don't pay any attention to them. 

Almost all audiobook sales come from Google and Apple. Amazon's contribution is insignificant at this point.

Passage to Jarpara, as the third book in a series is doing about as I expected - so-so, but Chateau Clare is off to a promising start. We'll see. Otherwise, this chart serves to illustrate just how important an author's back catalog is. The more books you have to offer, the more you can sell, since new books won't keep you afloat.

Looking Ahead

Steady as she goes for now. I will do my big re-think this spring, if I feel one is necessary. Currently changing Kobo to full price sales if free books aren't contributing much is my only ongoing experiment. I think I've done all I can to promote sales without actually going out, spending money, and promoting them. Ain't doin' that.

*As I mentioned in a previous report, you would not want me as your bookkeeper. We'd find ourselves in jail. Attention to details is not my strong suite. While the two totals are based on the same raw numbers, for some mysterious reason they never quite agree when it comes to making out this report. The  7,801 six month total at the top comes from my monthly composite tally. This is based on counting book sales each month, month by month. The 7,671 at the bottom of the chart, while based on those same numbers, are generated by adding up the six months total for each title for ebooks and audio at the end of the six month period. Clearly errors occur. Somewhere. However, since all this is just for my amusement, I'm not going to try to reconcile them. Take the numbers as a range only, the actual number is likely somewhere in between the two of them. Indeed, my grand total on the monthly composite tally is 94,494. I like that number better than the one at the bottom of the chart above. I have, however introduced a new, simplified accounting system for myself, so I'm hoping to improve my accuracy going forward.