In December of 2010 I became an "Indie" Author. All this meant at the time is that no one in the literary world wanted to represent or publish me. The truth? I was seriously bummed out. I wanted nothing more than to write YA books. I wanted to find my audience. And yes, I kind of wanted fan mail—the gushing kind. You know . . . mail that you can read over and over again whenever you need a swift kick in the pants to remind you WHY you write.
My first attempt with this just didn't pan out. I felt like an Epic Failure.
I'd heard about Konrath and Hocking, and authors like them, and decided to epub my urban fantasy, THE GUARDIAN, to see what the fuss was about. That first month, as a No-Name YA author, I sold 19 copies and made $29.93 in royalties.
That's $29.93 more than it would have made taking up space on my hard drive.
In February, I began formatting CROSS MY HEART, which had been rejected by 75 agents. That's when I asked this question on the blog: Can a YA Writer Make it as an Indie? (You can read the original post here.)
Well, my first year is officially up.
Here's a recap in numbers:
3,423: The highest number of books sold in a single month (June).
136: The number of days spent on the Amazon Teen Top 100 Bestseller List
20: The number of finalists in the Best YA Fiction category, including CROSS MY HEART, in the 2011 Goodreads Reader's Choice Awards
57: Number of 5-star CMH reviews on Amazon
699: Number of 5-star CMH ratings on Goodreads
21,373: Total number of ebooks sold.
So, it's back to the original question: Can a No-Name YA Writer Make It as an Indie?
*ponders*
Answer: You'll never know if you don't try.
Make THAT your resolution. :)
~Katie~
P.S. Be sure to check back Monday for some crazy cool news!
