10,000 Self-Published Sales!

Today I hit 10,000 for my two ebooks, Wild Montana Sky and Starry Montana Sky that I self-published 13 weeks ago. Wow. When I first started this process, I had no idea I could have this kind of success within such a short time period. It's exciting and humbling at the same time. By this time, I've made (even though the money won't be in my bank account for a couple more months) roughly $8000--probably as much as if I'd sold both books to some traditional New York publishers, and more than if I'd sold to some others. Definitely more than if I'd sold to a small press because they typically don't give advances.

I've come to believe anything is possible in my self-publishing career, perhaps not with only two books, but certainly as I produce more. I'm starting to reconfigure the rest of my life, scaling back a bit on my psychotherapy practice and the corporate crisis counseling. Not much, but I can see a future where I do a lot less. I NEVER would have thought about cutting back, but I've found myself somewhat burned out lately with work I usually love, and I'm hopeful of making some changes--maybe not forever--but certainly for a while. Now if only I could make myself write more.

I'm about to launch (tonight or tomorrow) the first book in a fantasy romance trilogy, Sower of Dreams. This book was a Golden Heart finalist, but never sold because it's not sexy. The second book will go up as soon as the cover is done, and the third in January. It's going to be interesting to see what will happen with a different subgenre.

Self-Publishing, Showing the Money

I've been grateful for the self-published authors, especially my friend Theresa Ragan, who've been willing to talk about the money they've made from their experience. Before, I start, I want to say that everyone's journey is going to be different. I know people who are doing far better in sales than I am, and others who aren't. But every day, sales figures change. You may not be selling many books now, but in a year could make a nice living. Or you might just make enough every month to go out to dinner. But that's one night out that you wouldn't have had before. :) It's important to be patient. It's important to be grateful for every book sale.

I'm going to just discuss my Kindle sales because my Nook and Smashwords sales have been minimal--about 100 books on Nook and 10 on Smashwords. (In three months total.)

On April 28, I published Wild Montana Sky (.99) and Starry Montana Sky (2.99).

So I only had about two and a half days of sales in April and I'm sure most of those came from friends. :)

WMS 11

SMS 5 (1 outside the US/UK/Germany so it only makes 35%)

Total $13.06

May:

For the US

WMS 465

SMS 105 (2 outside)

For the UK

WMS 12

For Germany

WMS 2

Total: $377.12

June:

US

WMS 2441

SMS 633 (17 outside)

UK

WMS 5

SMK 2

Germany

WMS 1

Total:$2132.80

Total for the three months and two days: $2522.98

So far in July (as of the 17th) I've sold 2732 copies of WMS and 913 of SMS.

All this is passive income--I wrote the books (and had them professionally edited) 10 years ago.

I'm so very grateful for this experience and I thank every single person who has bought one of my books!