It's that time again!
I've finally finished crunching August numbers, and the grand total is:
2,320
(That's a nice, round number don't you think?)
Regular readers know that this total is actually down from previous months, but we'll talk about that in a minute.
The breakdown goes something like this:
The Guardian sold 173 Amazon US copies, 5 Amazon UK copies, and 45 Barnes and Noble copies for a total of 223 copies (or 7.1 sales a day).
Cross My Heart sold 1,658 Amazon US copies, 155 Amazon UK copies, 3 Amazon DE copies, and 112 Barnes and Noble copies for a total of 1,928 copies (or 62.1 sales a day).
On August 6, I released Vendetta (Book II in The Guardian series), and sold 131 Amazon US copies, 6 Amazon UK copies, 1 Amazon DE copy, and 31 Barnes and Noble copies for a total of 169 copies (or 6.7 sales a day for the number of days it was on sale).
August was probably the most stressful month I've had sales-wise. It's hard watching numbers as closely as I do, and I envy those who only log in and check once a day/week (I don't know how you guys do that!). Still, without the data, it's hard to keep track of what's happening when it happens.
There were quite a few "dirty names" for August on the Kindleboards this month, and the general consensus is that sales were down for most authors throughout the month.
During this time, Amazon released its new Indie Store. They haven't segregated indie writers, and I don't feel they're going to, but there was a lot of angst in general about this. By August 10-11, authors were experiencing reporting issues. This wasn't an isolated incident: everyone witnessed a lull during these days. Our rankings were shifting, but no sales were being reported. They seemed to be catching up by that weekend, but there were intermittent reporting problems throughout the remainder of the month. There was also a hurricane last weekend which left millions of people without power. This might've had some kind of effect on sales, too.
Just before Vendetta released, I lowered the price of The Guardian from $2.99 to $.99. I still haven't been able to break the 10k sales rank, even at the $.99 price point. I plan to watch it through September, and if there's not a noticeable change in numbers, I'd actually rather keep the 70% royalty rate. There was a slight increase from last month, though, so we'll see how this plays out. During the Amazon reporting issue, I also lost my previous reviews for The Guardian. I'm back down to two (that were posted after I released the DRM-free version).
The Summer Doldrums kicked some tail, and I still haven't built the momentum I lost after last month's Amazon sale. I've slipped about a thousand spots in the rankings, and lost my place on the Amazon Teen Top 100. Even so, I spent over one hundred days on that list, and I'm totally thrilled about that.
And even though my numbers were lower this month, they're still higher than I ever dreamed of when I started. "They" (those who have come before me) say that August is the worst month for book/ebook sales, and my Kindleboard lurking confirms that many authors saw a decrease in sales.
Now it's on to September!
Hopefully Amazon worked out the kinks in their reporting system, and fall readers are *much nicer* to everyone. :)
KK
