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