Four years published - Self published sales information

Happy Anniversary . . . (s)

So, on November 24th, I celebrated (completely forgot) my 4th anniversary of self-publishing.  On November 30th, I celebrated my 18th wedding anniversary with my wife. Fortunately, I didn't forget that one.

Self Publishing

I decided to finally get around to writing a book in January of 2010, just as I had planned to do 20 years earlier.  2 things got me to finally do it.  I discovered Smashwords and decided I'd give self publishing a try, and I turned 40, at which point I realized I needed to accomplish something instead of making excuses why I hadn't.

I'm addicted to writing books to the degree that I now become anxious when I haven't written for a few days. It's the second most important thing in my life after my family.  I intend to do it for the rest of my life.

In these four years, I've written 24 original works (8 novels, 2 novellas, 4 short stories, and 10 children's books).  I've published 29 titles (4 compilations and an illustrated version of the Emo Bunny that Should)

2014 is the first year I haven't published a book. Difficulties in life have hampered my writing and all other aspects of being a successful self-publisher.  However, things have settled to a large degree and I'm writing more again.

Success

As far as success, I consider that I became a successful writer after I finished my first book, "Rojuun".  As for professional success, I've sold over 13,000 books in the last 4 years.  That makes me a low-level midlister in the self-publishing industry I believe.  It's hard to say. There's not a lot of sales info in the publishing world.  All the companies and most authors believe that sales are a matter of national security *sigh*.

I've decided to share my sales with anyone who's interested.  I've broken it down by book and by sales. There are others who have sold far more, and many who would love to have half this number.  I can tell you that it's taken a crazy amount of work to do this well, and if I had done more work I would have sold more.

If you are writing your own book, you can look at these numbers for information, but keep in mind that they are just the numbers of one author.  If you write, I hope you do it because you enjoy it and not to measure yourself against anyone else.

Sales by book

Rojuun (sales)	380
Anilyia	2853
Kethril	2441
Willden Trilogy omnibus	1092
Dralin	586
Ebudae	1312
Pelya	1146
Wyvern	770
Liselle	461
Rain Glade	224
Alien Coffee	292
Emo Bunny Illustrated	91
Collection	401
Collection 2	14
Wings of Fantasy	597
Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend	117
Test Pilot	217
Don't Ever Change	105
Storage Room in the Grey Void	13
Emo Bunny that Should	149
Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy	221
Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow	27
Unholy Cow	72
Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies	176
Phairyphant	27
Naughty Nanoworms	20
Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm	8
Steampunk Roo	24
Pow the Panda	8
Grand Total - Sales	13844
Rojuun	52968
Dralin	15272
Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend	34386
Test Pilot	34186
Don't Ever Change	37393
Emo Bunny that Should	96090
Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy	40569
Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow	28544
Unholy Cow	29862
Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies	58936
Phairyphant	8
Naughty Nanoworms	9
Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm	1754
Grand Total - Free Giveaways	429977

 Sales by store

Store	Total
Amazon	8742
Smashwords	527
Apple	2464
B&N	1707
Kobo	250
Sony	43
Createspace	61
Blio	8
Library Direct	16
Oyster	6
Grand Total - Sales	13824
Amazon	233720
Smashwords	50180
Apple	97707
B&N	45680
Kobo	3361
Sony	2831
Blio	82
Library Direct	4
Oyster	4
Diesel	43
Page Foundry	14
Grand Total - Free Giveaways	433626

Disparity in numbers 

There is a slight disparity between the total sales by store and by book. I would estimate that there is a 1% total error margin in the numbers. With 29 titles available through 15 distributors over the course of 48 months (I could show you the number of sales of each book by month in each store, but there’s not enough room here)  I haven't sorted out sales by country, though that information is available to a degree.  I'm also on Wattpad, but I haven't added the download info from there at this point.

What to expect in the future 

 Currently, I'm 30,000 words into Liquid, the second book of the Wyvern Trilogy.  I hope to be done early next year if I can strangle enough time to write.  After that, I have hundreds of books in my mind waiting for their turn.

The project that I'm truly excited about is that I've submitted "Dralin" to be published as an audio book.  If that goes well, I intend to make the entire Ryallon series into audio books and possibly even the Demented Children's stories.

*** 

Well, thank you for reading my books and allowing me to share my demented imagination.  I wish you all the best.

John H. Carroll

Child of Fate - an Audiobook by Jason Halstead

Introduction

This is a guest post by an author friend of mine by the name of Jason Halstead.  He has been writing Science Fiction and Fantasy as long as I have and about three times faster than I do. (dramatic sigh) I'm currently reading his first book Voidhawk, an sci-fi take on fantasy style characters and adventure.

Jason is here to introduce you to his next audiobook, (Something I really need to do with mine) Child of Fate

You take it from here, Jason

My Baby Grew Up

In later 2012 Jason Halstead (that's me) wrote and published a fantasy book called Child of Fate. Since I am Jason Halstead, I'll stop talking about myself in third person – it's creepy. Child of Fate came out of nowhere for me and was honestly little more than an experiment at first. An experiment I hoped would do well because I had a lot of ideas of where to go with it.

By March I was selling hundreds of copies in a month. Yes, hundreds. It was amazing. I quickly wrote book 2, Victim of Fate, and then followed it up with Silver Dragon to cap off the Blades of Leander trilogy. People wanted more though, so I began a second series called the Order of the Dragon and it grew to four books (all available now).

What's it about? A group of young adults, kids still by modern standards, that are forced to grow up fast by their environments. Marauding monsters, international plots and intrigue, and behind it all a menacing threat with an agenda that goes far beyond the dreams of farm boys and princesses.

Child of Fate is still flying off the virtual shelves these days, but what has me really excited is that after almost a year of working on it, the audiobook version is complete and available!

Now I've done audiobooks before. In fact I think I have five others out and more that are being worked on presently. Child of Fate isn't like any of those. It's not that it has some special sentimental place in my heart or anything, it's just a game changing book. I have to credit the narrator for that, Sean Wybrant. Sean did things with his voice for each character that made me laugh or gasp in amazement. Then when that wasn't enough (there are some talking fantasy monsters involved), he turned on the special effects and made them even more amazing. He blew me away, and his performance forced me to offer him the second book in the series.

So if you're in the mood to listen to an epic fantasy story told with such variety and skill that you can close your eyes and feel like you're there, please check it out. Just don't try that if you're listening to it while driving (the closing your eyes bit). I promise you won't be disappointed!

Amazon

Audible

Description

Early winters and distant cities make the northern reaches fit only for adventurous homesteaders. Alto is on the verge of becoming such a man when his father is ambushed by monstrous raiders from the mountains.

Determined to find help for his father Alto leaves his home behind and sets out with a group of adventurers tasked with learning the true nature of the raids. Help for his family grows more and more distant as the boy is swept up into a budding war with a neighboring nation and the threats of evil forces from the mountains.

A fiery-tempered princess from the eastern kingdom falls into Alto's hands by twist of fate. The fate of two nations rests in their hands, provided they can keep them off of each other's throats.

About the Author

Short version: Jason Halstead is a science fiction and fantasy author who spends his free time with his wife and two children, writing, and powerlifting.

Long version: Jason's always wanted to write, but making a living at it seemed unobtainable. So instead of writing fiction, he turned to writing code. That paid the rent and let him dabble in fiction.

The common theme shared by almost every great writer is perseverance. Refusing to accept denial by traditional publishing and agents, Jason was finally accepted at a publisher that was harnessing the cresting wave of ebooks. That ride, although bumpy, gave him the experience and knowledge necessary to strike out and improve his craft.

Jason now has multiple books out and regularly helps out other budding authors struggling to makes sense of the industry. He's a stickler on editing and professionalism, but also believes wholeheartedly that his readers aren't just customers, they're his friends. He wants to know them and encourages them to visit his website http://booksbyjason.com, his blog http://booksbyjason.wordpress.com, and even more to email him jason@booksbyjason.com so he can interact with them. His books come from his imagination and from his heart, and more than one of his friends has inspired him and shown up for at least a cameo appearance in one of his titles.