First off, as I related in my last blog post, I dropped all my books from Smashwords except for Smashwords itself on Friday. On Monday, the 1st, I republished them on Draft2 Digital to all of D2D's outlets. In addition, I created audiobooks for Apple and Everand, which is formerly Scribd. The ebooks should mostly be now available, but the audiobooks can take up to 2 months to process. The big downside of this move is that it appears that I lost all my ratings on Apple and Kobo by changing publishers. We'll see if they reappear at some point, but if not, oh well. Time will tell if ratings make any difference - sales on all but Apple were so minor it wouldn't matter in any case.
Creating audiobooks via D2D for Apple was easy. Too easy. Too easy because you really have only two options to choose from; do you want a female or male narrator and in what genre do you want to list your books. And that's it. There are no other options. Unlike Google, the process can take months, I guess, and I don't know if I will be able to review and approve of the audiobook before it is published. Since my stories have made-up words, I have some concerns as to how the AI will process them, but I'll just have to wait and see. If I don't get to review and correct pronunciation on the audio version, like I do with Google, all I can do is hope for the best. Again, oh well.
As for the end of the year report; it was a good year.
Since I was doing my end of the month bookkeeping, as well as my end of the year numbers, I might as well share them with you. I'm happy to say that 2023 was my best year ever, as a publisher. Just remember that getting my books into the hands of readers is my criteria of success, not revenue. For that reason I sell my books at my cost, i.e. free.
In 2023 I sold 18,928 books of which 6,376 were audiobooks
In 2022 I sold 13,779 books of which 5,813 were audiobooks (8 moths of audio books)
In 2021 I sold 8,699 books
In 2020 I sold 6,490 books
In 2019 I sold 8,598 books
In 2018 I sold 6,999 books
In 2017 I sold 6,340 books
In 2016 I sold 6,510 books
In 2015 I sold 4,932 books (8 months only)
If I did my math right, 33.7% of my book sales came from audiobooks in 2023. As for ebooks, I sold 12,552 of them, which was significantly more than 2022's 7,966. However, the reason for this was clearly the unexpected success of The Girl on the Kerb. That book alone sold 5,371 ebook copies in 2023, mostly on Amazon, or 40% of my total ebook sales. Without it in the mix, I sold only 7,489 copies of all my other ebooks combined. If you compared this total to the 7,966 ebooks I sold in 2022 you'll see that my ebook sales would be slightly down. Without the success of The Girl on the Kerb, and the continued success of Google audiobooks, my publishing business would have been declining since 2021, and in the big picture, basically flat since I began it, even though I've added books to my catalog every year. It pays to innovate.
Unless my Apple audiobooks do a lot better than I expect, I don't think 2024 will come close to 2023 in terms of sales. Book sales always decline over time.
I would like to add that numbers are just numbers. While they are nice to look at, they're just a game to me, as in what can I do to increase them, without spending any effort, time, or money? What do I get from writing is my joy of creating something that is mine by painting with words to craft stories. In addition, I enjoy receiving and responding to emails from readers, and interacting, even in a limited and remote way with my beta readers and fellow authors. For that reason, I always enjoy hearing from all of you, and make a point of responding whether it be emails or comments on this blog.
2023 was a rather fallow year for creative endeavors, I'm hoping that respite will pay off in 2024. Stay turned for a writing update in early February on that front.
And let me close with wishing all of you a Happy New Year. I hope your 2024 is your best year ever!
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