Looking at Sales

I’ve sold 3,283 books, by my calculations.

Those sales have come over the past 2.5 years that I’ve been doing this, since January 2013.

I have more than 50 book on Amazon, but many don’t sell that well. In fact, quite a few sell no copies at all, each and every month. Many books do sell, however, and it’s why I’ve gotten paid from Amazon at the end of each month since June 2013 (my sales were so bad in March 2013 that I didn’t get paid that May).

So there have been some ups and downs, but mostly it’s been ups. This is what my author rank on Amazon has looked like over the past 2 years:

Author Rank on Amazon

I’ve kept myself about the #200,000 mark ever since May 2014. I do dip below the #100,000 mark quite a bit, however, but I stay up there. My best showing this year was #18,497 in May.

A large part of that is because of 10 books. Yes, out of 50 books, only 10 of them sell consistently. That’s where I make most of my money, and this is how that breaks down:

Top 10 Author Books

So as you can see, these books right here are my top sellers:

How about my others books? How do those other 40 titles figure into it? This is what that would look like:

If you want to break it down further, this is how it comes out:

Non-fiction accounts for nearly 57% of my sales and fiction is 43%. I don’t think that should come as a surprise – I was trained by the university to write non-fiction. The only writing class I ever had at the University of Montana was Freshman ENEX 101, which everyone has to take. I also had to take the Upper-Level Writing Proficiency Assessment before I graduated. I scored a 50, the highest score possible.

Unfortunately, I’m not a mega-bestseller, like many authors out there. In fact, some authors write one book and have astronomical sales. I’ve written 50 and my sales have not been that good. In fact, here’s what the sales of my worst books look like:

• SEO & 80s Movies: 6
  
• G.I. Joe: After Infinity: 6
  
• Fire: 5
  
• G.I. Joe: To Its Knees: 4
  

I guess I should give up, huh? Well, that’s probably not going to happen. Instead I’ll keep writing what I like and hope that one day I strike it rich. Hey, it could happen. I sure as shit know it’ll never happen if I’m working in a 9-to-5 gig.

So I continue. It take the hits with the misses and don’t get all worked up about it. I figure lack of sales will come, as will bad reviews. Usually when I release a book I hope for a few sales (10 at most), and am happy when I get it. Most of the times I get depressed when I release a book, however, as they usually get few sales. That’s my product release – a dismal failure and then it’s off to the inevitable slide down the charts.

Some books do well, and this year has been good to me. Colter’s Winter has been a very successful novel, and Dulce Base did really well when I released it in December. Stand Out is another book that has done exceptionally well, and will break into the Top 10 next month most likely.

So those are successful books. I need to try and recreate that…but it can be frustrating.

• I have about 8 ESL books now, but none have matched the success of that first one, English Rocks! 
  

• The same is true for Sell Your Book – I have quite a few other author books, but none have come close to that one. 
  

• Sales of Trouble in Jonguria and The Jongurian Resolution have also fallen off, at least since I took The Jongurian Mission off perma-free in March.
  

• I have four Montana history book and another on the way, but none have matched the success of that first one. It has 203 sales but Priests and Prospectors, the next in the series, only has 65 sales.
  

My Montana History Book Sales

At least I sell consistently, if at low levels. Here’s a look at my sales through June, a month which saw me sell at least one book each day:

Authors Sales for 1 Month in 2015

I’ve since had a day with no sales, but it feels good to stay relevant to readers, no matter how few in number they may be.

Here’s a look at my daily sales over 3 months this year:

Author Sales for 3 Months in 2015

So compared to many other authors, I’m small potatoes. I might be able to write a lot and put books out, but that doesn’t mean anyone gives a shit.

Despite this, I enjoy writing the books I write, and I get a thrill when they sell and sell well. Can I keep it up? I often wonder. Earlier this month I had to pull out the print books of my Montana history series, lay them out on the floor, and just look at them. I had to remind myself that I could still do this, that I could still write a big book.

I’ve got a real whopper coming next week sometime, and I hope you’ll buy it. Until then, why not check out some of my other titles, either the best-sellers or the ones that never quite took off. Thanks!