Self-Publishing--Showing the Money--Month Four

Yesterday I downloaded my Amazon statement, and, like I have in the last two months, I'm going to share the information in an attempt to help other authors know what's possible with self-publishing. As before, I'm going to remind readers that every author's self-publishing experience is going to be different. I seem to be doing unusually well, and I'm very grateful to everyone who's bought my books since I first began publishing them on April 28th, 2011. Right now, I'm almost to 21,000 sales of the two Montana Skies books in four and a half months.

AUGUST

Wild Montana Sky had 5048 US sales at 35% of .99 for a total of $1755.57.

Starry Montana Sky had 2115 US sales at 70% of $2.99 for a total of 4335.67.

Starry Montana Sky had 54 sales outside countries Amazon is contracted with at 35% of $2.99 for a total of $56.70.

Total for the Montana Sky Series: $6147.94.

I self-published the first book of my fantasy romance trilogy, Sower of Dreams, on the last day of July. In August, I had 93 sales at 35% of .99 for a total of $32.55. Reaper of Dreams was self-published on August 7 and had 44 sales at 70% of $2.99 for $90.16 and one outside sale at 35% for $1.05.

Total for The Gods' Dream Trilogy: $126.76.

Total for both series: $6271.70

As in the previous months, the sales at Barnes and Noble are still under $100. They are inching closer to $100, though. At the end of the month, I'll blog about the B & N numbers.

This month (so far) is slower than the two previous months. I'm at:

Wild Montana Sky: 1968

Starry Montana Sky: 804

Sower of Dreams: 44

Reaper of Dreams: 23

However, I've heard enough other self-published authors complain that their sales are slower this months. Maybe people are too busy during the back to school rush that they aren't buying as many books.

If you're wondering about my promotion efforts, I'm not doing much. Read my previous (and future) blogs to see what I'm doing.

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!