Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Book sales data for John H. Carroll, Nov 2010 - July 2013.

Last year about this time, I reported how many sales I had in this post: http://ryallon.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-book-sales-data-nov-2010-april-2012.html

I've decided to do that again.  This time however, I'm not separating the numbers by store or month.  With 22 titles over 3 years, it's an insanely complicated process to do so.  

This is how many total sales I've had by title.  Each author is has different strengths and weaknesses.  Genre also affects sales.  I write fantasy, which does not have as large of a fan base.  If I were writing romance, then these numbers might have been two or three times as high . . . although I suck at romance, so they might have been worse.

One of my biggest strengths is the fact that I’m fairly prolific.  I've published these books and short stories in addition to having a full time job and spending time with my family.

I don’t market or social network anywhere near as much I should.  There are so many sites to request reviews, and forums to talk about your book, that a person could spend the rest of their life marketing one book.  I prefer to work on the next, so I do minimal marketing.

My primary form of marketing is "first book free" and free short stories.  This gets people to know my name and brings a steady trickle of sales to my other titles.

These numbers are increasing each day, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly.  Also, there's no rhyme or reason as to the dates I chose to do the calculations.

Sales Master Sheet        June 1 2012       Oct 1 2012          July 31 2013
SALES
(Date published)
Rojuun
(Nov 2010)
295 299 344
Anilyia
(Apr 2011)
692 1106 1982
Kethril
(July 2011)
545 914 1724
Willden omnibus
(Oct-2011, unpub Mar 2013)
659 1075 1075
Dralin
(Oct 2011)
285 488 563
Ebudae
(May 2012)
8 190 887
Pelya
(Nov 2012)
0 0 716
Wyvern
(Apr 2013)
0 0 421
Rain Glade
(Sep 2012)
0 7 133
Emo Bunny Illustrated
(Apr 2012)
6 21 62
Collection of Children's Stories
(Oct 2011)
189 293 350
Alien Coffee
(Aug 2011)
194 244 276
Emo Bunny that Should
(Jan 2011, unpub Mar 2013)
147 148 148
Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy
(Apr 2011)
62 62 144
Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow
(Sep 2011)
15 17 25
Unholy Cow
(Oct 2011)
21 21 57
Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies
(Oct 2011)
52 52 111
Phairyphant
(Mar 2013)
0 0 18
Naughty Nanoworms
(Mar 2013)
0 0 9
Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend
(Nov 2010)
37 39 91
Test Pilot
(Dec 2010)
22 22 124
Don't Ever Change
(Feb 2011)
44 44 67
Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm
(June 2013)
0 0 6
Storage Room in the Grey Void
(July 2013)
0 0 4
Grand Total Sales 3273 5042 9337
FREE GIVEAWAYS
(Date published)
Dralin
(Oct 2011)
0 0 10592
Rojuun
(Nov 2010)
22728 31105 45529
Emo Bunny that Should
(Jan 2011, unpub Mar 2013)
64087 69095 96317
Zachary Zombie, Lost Boy
(Apr 2011)
28852 29437 39487
Drippy, Peg-Legged Rainbow
(Sep 2011)
12288 16582 25153
Unholy Cow
(Oct 2011)
10845 18192 28963
Attack, Sugar Plum Fairies
(Oct 2011)
23905 30606 57706
Phairyphant
(Mar 2013)
0 0 5
Naughty Nanoworms
(Mar 2013)
0 0 6
Zachary Zombie, Wicked Worm
(June 2013)
0 0 11
Blue Haired Alien Girlfriend
(Nov 2010)
23798 25455 32402
Test Pilot
(Dec 2010)
12769 22538 33739
Don't Ever Change
(Feb 2011)
23063 24931 36483
Grand Total Free Giveaways 222335 267941 406393


Heavy Increase in last giveaway column is largely due to 90,000 free giveaways via Apple being reported by Smashwords.  Overall, free giveaways are down.  In February of 2013, I decided to begin charging for most of my free stories due to the algorithms of most bookstore changing to minimize the power of free.  Dralin, Rojuun and Drippy the Peg-Legged Rainbow are the only ones that are currently free.

I hope this provides small insight to others.

All my best,

John H. Carroll

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting. I started out on the Dralin series and I have to say that I think it is underrated in terms of number of reviews and sales! When is sequel to wvyern coming out?

John H. Carroll said...

Thank you very much. :)

I'm hoping to have the sequel to Wyvern out in November or December, but no promises. Right now I'm working on Book 1 of the Crazed Trilogy, "Liselle". I needed to write it first for a number of reasons.

There's just not enough hours in the day, lol

All my best,

John