Tuesday, April 10, 2012

March Sales Numbers

I'm slack! I know! I tried to warn you. Am *STILL* editing The Guardians Book Three. I have a tentative title, but I hesitate to announce because there's a chance I'll change my mind. I'm hoping to have some afternoons this week to work on it. The good news? I now know never to announce a book release date again. I'll just surprise you. :)

In the meantime, here are my March Numbers!

The Grand Total?

1,993

The Guardian sold 178 Amazon US copies, 9 Amazon UK copies, and 22 copies on Barnes and Noble, for a total of 209 copies (or 6.7 sales per day). 

Cross My Heart sold 1,129 Amazon US copies, 289 Amazon UK copies, 41 Amazon DE copies, 3 Amazon FR copies, 142 copies on Barnes and Noble, and 17 copies on iTunes, for a total of 1,621 (or 52.2 sales per day).

Vendetta sold 142 Amazon US copies, 5 Amazon UK copies, and 16 copies on Barnes and Noble, for a total of 163 (or 5.2 sales per day).

No analysis or anything: with the day job Owning My LIFE last month, I'm lucky to have numbers. If you haven't heard, though, the Indelibles' Anthology In His Eyes (feat. my short story: "In the Beginning") is officially FREE on Amazon. There are some fantastic stories in there (yes, I've read them all!), so be sure to check it out. 

Also, Jodi Picoult created waves last week when she declared in an interview: DO NOT SELF-PUBLISH. (Yes, in all caps.) I could be biased--I don't know--but I'd have to (respectfully, of course) disagree. David Gaughran has a fantastic post about this, though. As always: he says it better than I ever could. 

Love this quote in particular: "When agents, publishers, and authors caution against self-publishing because it will be hard to get noticed, they don’t seem to realize that all titles face that problem, whether self-published or not."

And this is SO TRUE. Remember that I come from a traditional publishing background. You know that statistic: Over 90% of books sell less than 1,000 copies? Yeah, that was me . . . WITH a print deal. I blogged, I tweeted, I Facebooked. I sent a mass mailing to EVERY independent bookstore in about 25 states before just giving up: printing, organizing, stapling, stuffing, stamping, etc.

I know traditionally published authors who've done well. I know self-published authors who've done well. There's a flip side to this, too, though. I can only speak from my personal experience, and that is:

I've sold more self-published books than traditionally published books.

And I've said this before, but there's no RIGHT or WRONG way anymore. It's what's right for YOU.

I should've put that in CAPS. ;)

~KK~