[FrankZubek]

Okay- sorry- bottom feeders is a bit harsh but I wanted your attention. But I am shouting out to the indie authors here who, despite the hard work and the long hours of nursing your baby to being online and for sale, just can't get more than a few dozen sales a month--- if THAT!

Because I am there and I'm wondering how some of you manage to keep going in the face of such a huge brick wall staring you in the face every morning. And it's kind of disheartening to keep seeing others bragging ( rightfully so, too) about their own great sales each week/month.

Please share bits of survival wisdom because I need some. ( and embarrassed lurkers can peek in and jot down ideas as well)

 

[beccaprice]

I was thinking about doing a similar post today... my first month(June) was encouraging, but since then sales have been single digits - slow, but steady.

I think part of how I carry on is that I know that I've only got one real book out there, and that, sporadically I'm working on a second one (hope to have it out by Christmas) - but I know that my genre isn't a hot one, or really even a luke warm one - there's not much call for non-illustrated children's fairy tales in the spirit of Andrew Lang. I get good reviews (even one in Italian - how cool is that?) but very few sales.

I just look at it like this - each sale is to someone who doesn't know me and doesn't love me. It's one more sale than I would have gotten had I never published.

but then, I never even pretended to myself that I'd make a living out of selling my fairy tales. I'm a hobbyist writer. If I can take my family out to dinner occasionally on the royalties, that's cool.

 

[burke_KB]

Well, I've been writing since I was a little kid, and I kind of figure I'll be doing it until I die. So, my only concern is spending too much money on a hobby.

And that is something I have complete control over.

If it takes off, I can quit my day job, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[cinisajoy]

Okay- sorry- bottom feeders is a bit harsh but I wanted your attention. But I am shouting out to the indie authors here who, despite the hard work and the long hours of nursing your baby to being online and for sale, just can't get more than a few dozen sales a month--- if THAT!

Because I am there and I'm wondering how some of you manage to keep going in the face of such a huge brick wall staring you in the face every morning. And it's kind of disheartening to keep seeing others bragging ( rightfully so, too) about their own great sales each week/month.

Please share bits of survival wisdom because I need some. ( and embarrassed lurkers can peek in and jot down ideas as well)

Hi! I just read the blurb to Martin's House of Books. It strikes me as a delightful book, but I am confused about the YA tag. Oh and the best thing I can suggest is a sugar mama to get you through the lean times. LOL.

 

[Zoe Cannon]

This is still my first year. I only have two books out. I'm not too worried. I'm in this for the long haul.

 

[FrankZubek]

I should add that its not a total loss on my part- I recently had a 3 day freebie and people from around the world downloaded around 120 copies of my books. Hopefully one or two will at least drop a review.

Still.....   I continue to hammer away at new stuff but it's still very much an uphill climb ( sometimes it feels straight up as if there aren't enough rungs in my ladder to take me to the top).

 

[wilsonharp]

In the words of Winston Churchill:

""Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never — in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense."

 

[SarahCarter]

I keep reminding myself that having just a few readers still beats having none at all!

Then I sigh lots...

 

[FrankZubek]

Cini   Martin is targeted at teen girls ( young adult) but anyone of any age over 13 can read it. Has some minor language and there is a tornado in there toward the end but, yeah, I think it's a delightful book too! Thanks for the compliment. It helps.

 

[NoCat]

I cope because with my prices, a few dozen sales means hundreds of dollars in my bank account.

Also knowing that if I get off my butt (or onto it, really) and write more, I'll make more. I always see sales bumps with each new release.  It's like buying a lottery ticket that is guaranteed to at least hit one number and get me the price of another ticket.  Or as I joke with my husband, printing money, only you never know if you are printing pennies or hundreds. 

 

[johnlmonk]

Hi! I just read the blurb to Martin's House of Books. It strikes me as a delightful book, but I am confused about the YA tag. Oh and the best thing I can suggest is a sugar mama to get you through the lean times. LOL.

Cinasjoy = awesome on a stick.

Regarding all the bottom-feeder stuff:
Hah. It's true for me so far. It reminds me of a poem:

"Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite them, and little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum."

You know what else reminds me of a poem? This poem by David Gerrold:

"A poem is good when it's crude,
Gross, titilating and lewd.
But this one is clean, unless you are seen,
Reading it aloud in the nude."

Cheers

 

[cinisajoy]

Cini Martin is targeted at teen girls ( young adult) but anyone of any age over 13 can read it. Has some minor language and there is a tornado in there toward the end but, yeah, I think it's a delightful book too! Thanks for the compliment. It helps.

I figured from the blurb that it was targeted at bibliophiles.

Oh and please let me know if you run another freebie promo.

 

[Zelah Meyer]

Well, I wouldn't class myself using quite the term you used! However, I sell an average of a book or two a month.

I cope because I know that:

(a) The works I have out so far are shorter works (from around 4,300 words to around 20,000).

(b) Although they are all romances, they have different settings - historical fantasy, alternate universe present/future fantasy, contemporary romance.

(c) I'm doing barely any publicity (adding them to my sig, blog, a few listing websites, Goodreads, Pinterest, etc. - no adverts or anything like that.)

(d) I'm not exactly managing a fast rate of publishing at the moment!

(e) Other than my shortest work at 99 cents, the other two are at $2.99, which is at the higher end for that length.

(f) My sales are perfectly normal given the above - in fact, I'm actually doing slightly better than I would have expected to be doing!

It's very easy to see all the big sales numbers knocking around and think that if you aren't selling at least 100 books a month, ideally 1,000 books a month, then you're somehow failing. I was a member here for over a year before I hit publish. I also Googled extensively & read blog posts & other forum posts. It's hard to find the info on sales at the lower end of things, but it was there. I've seen Kboarders post about how they started out only selling a book or two, then ten or twenty, then hundreds, then a thousand, then sometimes thousands.

It seemed to me that the average tipping point tended to come around the 6th to 8th novel, with at least one series & most of the works in a similar genre. I'd guestimate that this has now moved up to the 10th novel because of increased challenges when it comes to visibility. My plan is to not worry about sales until I have that many novels out (and I still haven't got my first one out yet!) At that point, if sales are still poor, then I'd have enough books out to make it worth looking at spending money on advertising.

Plus, I'm planning for the long term. I don't mind if someone buys one of my books now or in ten years time. If someone doesn't discover me until my twelfth title - well - then I'll have another eleven stories that they might want to buy.

 

[Kay Bratt]

It took 4 years of HARD work before I considered this endeavor of mine a success.
I published my first book in 2008, and a year later contemplated quitting.
I continued to build my platform and push that book (hard).
I published my next book in 2011.
I now have 10 books up on Amazon and am making more money that I ever have in my life.
But I wish during 2008-2011 I would've got my butt in gear and wrote more books.
I'm way behind.



My words of wisdom have been said many times here:

Build relationships with your readers and write more books. You never know when one book might catch a spark and then your entire bookshelf will take off!

 

[B.A. Spangler]

It took 4 years of HARD work before I considered this endeavor of mine a success.
I published my first book in 2008, and a year later contemplated quitting.
I continued to build my platform and push that book (hard).
I published my next book in 2011.
I now have 10 books up on Amazon and am making more money that I ever have in my life.
But I wish during 2008-2011 I would've got my butt in gear and wrote more books.
I'm way behind.



My words of wisdom have been said many times here:

Build relationships with your readers and write more books. You never know when one book might catch a spark and then your entire bookshelf will take off!

This is the advice that keeps me going!! Thank you Kay.

 

[AmberDa1]

Thank you, Kay and love your covers!

 

[Steve Vernon]

Listen Frank - I have sat and watched my Kindle sales freaking PLUMMET over the summer - and even before that.

Now - just these last couple of weeks I've begun a renewed campaign to goose those sales up a bit.

And I have seen some results in just these last couple of weeks. Brown bars have begun to slowly disappear.

I've got a big Friday 13th push coming in four days. I've got more promotion planned over the month of October. I am already beginning to figure on Christmas.

(thanks, Elle)

I have just begun to fight!

The good thing about being on the bottom is it gives you a pretty good idea which direction you need to head in.

Remember this - and this is coming from a hybrid author who still has foot in the traditionally-published camp.

These aren't the old days. This isn't the era when books would poop around on the bookstore shelves for three or four weeks before getting their covers torn off and their pages thrown into the landfill. Brothers and sisters we are publishing freaking kowabunga e-books - tiny wonderful immortal bundles of raw data that CANNOT BE KILLED.

Sure, you may be on the bottom today. But that doesn't mean you have to stay there. Roll your pennies and collect your bottles and sell your baby sister for a couple of brand new nifty covers. Plan that next big promotion - with about three more promotions after it. Write a new book - or three new books - each one of them and advertisement and a potential life line for those books of yours that are inspecting the be-barnacled belly of the Titanic.

Remember - children - the e in e-books stands for EVOLUTION - which rhymes with REVOLUTION - which bespeaks of wheels and cycles and whatever is on the freaking bottom rising up again to the top.

Get at it now. Get writing and get promoting and just forget about the numbers are telling you now. E-rase that blackboard and e-volve your product and e-something-or-other yourself the heck off that bottom and back up to the top where you belong!

Go dog go. I think I just wrote me a brand new blog entry!

http://stevevernonstoryteller.wordpress.com/2013/09/09/bottom-dwelling-e-book-authors-rise-up/

 

[Al Dente]

I just don't worry about it. Writing books helps me pay a few bills each month, and that's a wonderful thing. The way I see it, I'm making a few hundred dollars a month that I wouldn't have had otherwise, and that definitely helps me keep going. Who knows? One of my releases might take off and I could have a full-time career. I have already had two books do exceptionally well since I started last year, although the steam has run out on both of them.

I guess my point is not to spend time stressing about it. I know what it's like to release a new book and only sell 10 copies. It sucks. Hard. Just keep writing and remember to stay positive. Examine things like your cover and blurb periodically to see if there's anything that could ever use updating or improvement. Other than that, write your next book. 

 

[Kay Bratt]

This is the advice that keeps me going!! Thank you Kay.

You are welcome. And my prediction for you is that Gray Skies will (eventually) go big.

Thank you, Kay and love your covers!

Thanks so much! I love them too, for the most part.

 

[ElisaBlaisdell]

A few dozen sales a month

BRAGGART!