Best of Times, Worst of TImes

 

It seems to be the best of times and the worst of times for me in self publishing. And I use “worst” only for its reference to the opening line of A Tale of Two Cities, though I am doing both fine, and not fine at the same time. Let’s take a quick look at the current state of my publishing “business” that’s not really a business at all, since unless Amazon makes me, I give away my ebooks rather than trying to earn any money off of them. My “sales” (i.e. books I’m giving away) for the last 30 days on Smashwords stands at 39 books, while on Apple (via Smashwords) I’ve sold 129 – more than 3 times the number I’ve sold on Smashwords. For the last 360 days, I sold 866 books on Apple vs 998 on Smashwords. Basically Apple is holding its own or slightly growing, while Smashwords is fading. And fading fast. Amazon just reports by the month, so that so far in February, I’ve given away 40 books and sold one. Roughly, we’re looking a selling something like 250 in the month from my three usual sources. My goal is to move 300 books a month, and I’ve usually exceeded that in the past. So this is the worst of time.

However, it is the best of times as well. For the calendar year 2021, I sold 8,699 books – my best year ever. By comparison, in 2020 I sold 6,490 books, and in 2019, 8,598. So by those numbers, I’m doing just fine. And yet, on the flip side, I released 4 novels and two novellas in the 2020 -2021 period, which did not jump my sales much at all, clearly indicating a diminishing return on investment, since in the past I was only releasing a book a year, after my initial release of 3 books in 2015.

I also made a record $180 in royalties from Amazon, the best of times.

The key to my success in 2021 was that Google Play Store came into its own. In 2019 I sold 558 books on Google. That jumped to 1,030 in 2020, and then to 4,765 in 2021. This means that more than half of my sales for 2021 are due to books sold on Google’s Play Store. Looking at the glass half empty, I was selling only half the number of books I used to via Smashwords and Amazon, despite publishing those 6 new works. So once again, we’ve arrived back at the worst of times. Though just for reference, my 30 day running total with Google today is at 456 books, so I may well move 600 books this month. I can’t complain. Still good times.

Looking ahead, I’m sure Google sales will fade. They peaked at 836 books in October 2021, so they are fading already. And since any new book from me is still many months away, it is doubtful that 2022 will a banner year. The worst of times.

Still, I’ve done just fine in self publishing, and I’ve done it my way. It’s when I think of people starting out now, hoping to find readers for their stories, that I feel sad. Unless you are publishing a carefully researched and designed commercial product aimed at very specific ebook genres, new writers won’t even be able to give their books away to would-be readers like I do, much less sell any. Most authors will probably find more readers, and more engaged readers, on fan fiction sites or Wattpad, then in self publishing. And more satisfaction as well. Of course there’s still traditional publishing, and it’s gatekeepers. Given the odds of finding readers in self publishing, those gatekeeper no longer seem so formidable. Though they are, of course. It’s just that self publishing is just as formidable these days. So, since publishing prospects seem to be about equal, I may give those gatekeepers a go.