Constantine: The Emperor of Tolerance
Ebook Sales: 44
Audio Book Sales: 56
Current Price: $2.99
Books Sold 2013: 100
Total Sold: 167
This 30 page article on Constantine, while it still has no reviews, always sells without me having to do much. It sold more ebooks in 2012 than it did in 2013 but it made me a lot more money in 2013. I gradually raised its price over two years from $0.99 to $1.99 and then finally to $2.99. It seems to sell about the same number of copies at $2.99 as it did at $1.99 but I make a 70% royalty instead of 35%. For those of you who don't want to do the math, one copy sold at $2.99 is roughly equal to three sold at $1.99 and six sold at $0.99. I pretty much never offer this as a freebie anymore because it sells fine on its own. I also made all of my history books available as paperbacks but those just became available this year.
Caribbean Piracy: Pirates and Privateers
Ebook Sales: 16
Audio Book Sales: 40
Current Price: $1.99
Books Sold 2013: 56
Total Sold: 87
This didn't sell near as many ebooks this year as it did in 2012 but it sold the second most audio books for any title I currently have available in audio and that was enough to put it in second place for 2013. It's a shorter article than Constantine (about half the length) so I don't really want to experiment with the price above $1.99. This started as a $0.99 article but I changed it to $1.50 for most of last year. I brought it up to $1.99 this year and it's already had some sales, so I think I'll leave it there and see how it does.
Explanations and Advice for the Tech Illiterate
Ebook Sales: 23
Audio Book Sales: 21
Current Price: $1.99
Books Sold 2013: 44
Total Sold: 57
Explanations and Advice for the Tech Illiterate took off after being featured in one of my friend's blogs. I wrote it after being asked over and over by Geek Squad customers where they could learn the basics about today's technology and get some good advice. I didn't know of a good book that covers that kind of stuff at a reasonable price, so I wrote this over the course of a few days. It slumped in sales a little after it's initial explosion but then it started selling as an audio book with little to no promotion. It comes in at #3 for audio book sales for 2013 which was enough to bring it to #3 overall for 2013 books sold.
Horror Stories From A Computer Tech
Ebook Sales: 29
Not available in other formats
Current Price: $0.99
Total Sold: 29
Horror Stories From A Computer Tech was written after JA Konrath issued a challenge on his blog. He said that if you could write a book, make your own cover, edit, and essentially get an entire short ebook ready to go in under 8 hours that he would feature it on his blog. This collection of seven stories from my time as an in-home computer tech qualified. I decided to go under a pen name in case I need to separate geeky books that I write in the future. I like keeping everything under the Geekus Maximus name short and $0.99. The only exception I'll make to that is if I bundle several Geekus Maximus books together as one. This ebook sold the second most ebooks for me in 2013 but it ultimately ends up in fourth place since it isn't available in any other formats. I am considering an audio book though (which I may even narrate myself.)
Gateway to the Vikings: L'Anse aux Meadows
Ebook Sales: 14
Audio Book Sales: 6
Current Price: $1.99
Books Sold 2013: 20
Total Sold: 20
This article wasn't available in 2012. At least not on Amazon. I had this up as a free read on my blog for a long time. Eventually, it made its way in to my top 10 viewed blog posts of all time. When it started getting traffic like that on my blog, I made a cover for it and threw it up on Amazon as a $0.99 article after taking most of the article down from my blog (so now all my blog has is a sample.) It did really well when I briefly offered it as a freebie until someone hit it with a 2 star review, claiming that the cover looks great but that I stole everything else from Canada's website and Wikipedia. That's not even close to true, but everyone is entitled to leave whatever review they want. Sales pretty much halted at that point but a few audio books were sold even in to December. I may eventually make this free and ask that everyone who enjoys it leaves a nice review so that it doesn't sit at 2 stars overall because I think it could start selling again after some positive feedback from reviewers.
Traveling Asia: The Philippines
Ebook Sales: 11
Paperback Sales: 7
Current Price: $3.99
Books Sold 2013: 18
Total Sold: 18
All of my world travel books were released this year and the four of them did quite well. In overall sales, this one is at #6 but it actually made me more money than a few of the titles that sold more books. A $3.99 price point on an ebook brings in a higher royalty per sale than all of my history articles. This also sold more paperbacks than any other title I have available in paperback. Obviously the Philippines has a special place in my heart since I lived over there for two years and I visited again in 2010. This book has a lot of great pictures of the local food, tourist sites, souvenirs you can buy, etc. mixed with some Tagalog words. I initially started this one out at $2.99 but I found that it sells the same amount at $3.99 as it does at $2.99, so I decided to take the higher royalty. I don't know anyone who bought the paperback and two of the paperback sales came from Europe so I'll take that as a sign that this title will continue to sell well on its own.
The Mormon Theocracy
Ebook Sales: 5
Audio Book Sales: 9
Current Price: Free
Free U.S. Downloads: 1297
Total Sold: 14
This short book contains two articles: one on the Mormon theocracy that existed in Utah prior to its acceptance into the U.S. as a state and one on Gregory Palamas' views on God (he's an archbishop from the Eastern Orthodox Church.) It's been a totally free download since early 2012. How did I sell 5 copies of the ebook? I'm not sure to be honest. I guess there are some territories governed by Amazon.com since they don't have their own version of Amazon (like amazon.co.uk) and I guess in some of those places it isn't free. Some of the sales came from the U.K. where it currently isn't price matched to free, so that makes sense. It also sold the fourth most audio books. It has recovered since initially being hit with a one star review on Amazon from a reviewer who admits that she doesn't even read books that she reviews if she thinks they are "too short." Since that initial one star, it has received eight additional reviews and currently sits at a 3.6 / 5 stars. I may bring this back to a $1.99 price point and make a different history article my permanent free offering around March.
Jehovah and Hades: Books 1-3
Ebook Sales: 13
Not available in other formats
Current Price: $2.99
Total Sold: 16
This collection contains The Journals of Jacob and Hyde, Jehovah and Hades, and Jehovah and Hades: Federal Case. Currently, The Journals of Jacob and Hyde is free and the cost of the other two adds up to around $3.50. This collection is a way to get all three novellas in one and save a little money. I already have a feeling that this collection will do better this year as it is currently my best money maker for January 2014 (since free downloads of Jacob and Hyde have skyrocketed this year.) This actually tied sales of Jehovah and Hades for 2013, but I put it first because it made more money.
Jehovah and Hades
Ebook Sales: 13
Paperback Sales: 0
Current Price: $1.99
Total Sold: 24
This was the first book I self-published on Amazon. I know a lot of my friends and family have a copy of this one and its that support that helped me decide to write The Journals of Jacob and Hyde as a prequel. It's a novella at around 20,000 words so I will keep it at a $1.99 price point. It's already sold some copies in 2014. This is the one that started it all and, while I've grown a lot as a writer and a marketer since I released this, I'm still pretty proud of it. I might go back and modify some parts at some point in the future but I'm happy with it for now.
Prayer: Archangels and Intercessory Beings
Ebook Sales: 7
Audio Book Sales: 5
Current Price: $1.99
Books Sold 2013: 12
Total Sold: 22
This short article was hit with a one star review at the same time that The Mormon Theocracy got one. It was from the same slightly crazy lady. She didn't read this one either. It has since received a well-thought out three star review which I appreciate, but that leaves it at a 2 star rating overall. I think this may be the article that I make a permanent freebie in March to replace The Mormon Theocracy. Maybe that will pull in some more reasonable reviews. It has sold already in 2014 though, which is promising.
Luther Standing Bear: Assimilation
Ebook Sales: 10
Audio Book Sales: 2
Current Price: $1.99
Books Sold 2013: 12
Total Sold: 20
This article actually tied Prayer: Archangels and Intercessory Beings for 2013. They came close to the same sales totals in 2012 as well. Like the other history articles, I occasionally run free promos on this one and it will see a mild sales spike afterwards but I can mostly count on it to sell itself at about one copy a month. I don't promote it much, it's a fairly niche subject. I still think it's a good read though, especially if you want Luther Standing Bear's ideas and beliefs summarized.
Traveling the U.S.: Hawaii
Ebook Sales: 9
Paperback Sales: 2
Current Price: $3.99
Books Sold 2013: 11
Total Sold: 11
This photo based travel book, like Traveling Asia: The Philippines, actually made me a lot more money than most of the books that sold more copies than it did in 2013. The cover features a photo I took of a wholphin (a whale / dolphin hybrid.) It covers a lot of great places to visit including the USS Arizona memorial, Hanauma bay, the Polynesian cultural center, and more. It's already on the sales boards for 2014 as well.
Traveling Asia: Tokyo, Taipei, and Hong Kong
Ebook Sales: 8
Paperback Sales: 0
Current Price: $3.99
Books Sold 2013: 8
Total Sold: 8
This travel photo book features a lot of really cool sites from Tokyo, Taipei, and Hong Kong but may be less useful as a travel guide for a specific location (since it covers three locations.) It does feature pictures of the Temple of the 47 Ronin though, which I still think is one of the coolest stories I've ever heard. This was the only one of my travel books that didn't sell any paperbacks and I'm a little surprised by that. I've seen it in paperback. It's awesome.
Traveling the U.S.: East Coast History
Ebook Sales: 4
Paperback Sales: 2
Current Price: $3.99
Books Sold 2013: 6
Total Sold: 6
This is, by far, the most in depth I've covered so many different locations in a single travel book. I released this shortly after our east coast vacation last summer, so it didn't have as much time to sell books last year. It's the newest in my world travel series. Featured locations include: the Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, Arlington National Cemetery, Mount Vernon, Monticello, Jamestown (with excavation photos), Gettysburg, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial, and more. If you don't have a copy yet, you should get one. It's a steal at $3.99.
Minor Demons
Ebook Sales: 5
Paperback Sales: 0
Current Price: $3.99
Total Sold: 5
This is my first ever full-length fiction novel. It took me 13 months to write (obviously I took breaks and worked on other projects) and it came in at around 72,500 words. I'm already working on the sequel. It was just released in December, so I didn't expect it to sell a ton of copies. I based a lot of the demons on actual demons from Christian and Judaic demonology and Hell is loosely based on Dante's Inferno.
The Journals of Jacob and Hyde
Ebook Sales: 4
Current Price: Free
Free U.S. Downloads: 3538
Total Sold: 15
The Journals of Jacob and Hyde was my only permanent freebie on the fiction side for 2013. The ebook sales came from countries where it still wasn't price matched down to free and from some Amazon.com sales that I'm still not sure I understand. It's already been downloaded more than 300 times worldwide in 2014, so that already looks promising. My main goal with this title is to hook readers on the series so they purchase Jehovah and Hades or the three novella combo. It seems to do that decently well, as I make more money off of the three books now than I did when Jacob and Hyde had a price attached to it. It's currently being made into an audio book as well.
A Collection of History: Five History Articles
Ebook Sales: 3
Not available in other formats
Current Price: $5.99
Total Sold: 5
This was made in an attempt to give those readers who want all of my history articles, minus The Mormon Theocracy, in a bundle that saves quite a bit of money. Since it covers so many subjects, it sits in some very broad and general categories on Amazon. While I doubt it will ever be a huge success, I'll take the few extra sales it brings in yearly. I'll admit that I've thought about taking it down, but I figured I'd just leave it out there for now.
Jehovah and Hades: Federal Case
Ebook Sales: 3
Not available in other formats
Current Price: $1.50
Total Sold: 4
While I think most people who read Jacob and Hyde and want to continue with the series will purchase the three book combo, they have the option of buying Jehovah and Hades and then Jehovah and Hades: Federal Case. This one is only about 10,000 words (so its half the length of Jehovah and Hades) but its still a good short read.
Geek of Legend: The Elvish Screwdriver
Ebook Sales: 1
Not available in other formats
Current Price: $0.99
Total Sold: 1
This is the only other book published under my Geekus Maximus pen name. It's about a computer tech who enters a world of goblins, trolls, dwarves, talking horses, etc. to fix their broken technology. It's around 8,000 words and I wrote it over a weekend. The cover I made for it initially was pretty terrible, so I paid my go-to graphics artist to make the cover it has currently (which I think is a lot better.) It already has 2 sales in 2014, so at least it already doubled its sales total from 2013.
If you read this entire thing, congrats. I have 20 books and I broke down all of them (well... all of them except End of the Road which I only have a short story in) so I'm betting it took a while to get through. For some final numbers:
2012 Books Sold: 157 (156 ebooks, 1 paperback)
2013 Books Sold: 372 (222 ebooks, 139 audio books, 11 paperbacks)
In 2013, I also made over 5x what I made as an author in 2012. January of 2014 is already off to a strong start for ebooks, but audiobooks and paperbacks have kind of limped along. I have projects in both formats that will hopefully boost sales. My goal for 2013 was 365 sales (an average of one a day for the year) and I made it. :-) I would love to hit at least 500 total book sales for the year of 2014. You know how you can help me reach that goal. Go buy my books. :-P If you already have and you enjoyed them, please consider leaving me a review or feel welcome to let me know what you think about any one of my twenty self-published books. I always love hearing from readers and it always surprises me how many people I know that buy my books and actually like them, but don't say anything to me about it until a long while after reading them. I love hearing from people who have read my books, so please feel free to let me know if you have.
Amazing breakdown of your sales. Very helpful information too. Thank you for sharing, which has meant a lot of work and generosity on your part.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. I'm glad it was helpful. I figured that I really enjoy seeing indie authors post their sales numbers so I should probably do the same myself.
DeleteThanks for sharing your numbers. It's great to see how other authors are doing. I hope you have even better success in 2014.
ReplyDeleteThanks. It was actually pretty fun to break everything down. I saw you posted your numbers on Hugh's blog as well and I also wish you luck in 2014.
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