It’s the last day of the year. After 6 months of flogging my wares on the internet, what do I have to show for it? Time to take stock.
So far, I have published 5 eBooks:
5 June: Ovolution and Other Stories (an anthology of SF stories) 25 (12)
3 August: Bird Watcher (a short story) 8 (0)
28 August: St Patrick’s Day Special (a thriller) 35 (0)
16 October: Ooze (a short story from the anthology) 3 (0)
1 November: Bartlett Rebooted (a story from the anthology) 3 (0)
4 December: Ooze (free on Smashwords) 120 (120)
20 December: St Patrick’s Day Special (US edition) 1 (0)
On 4 December I re-released Ooze as a giveaway on Smashwords, and on 20 December I released a US edition of St Patrick’s Day Special. This new edition uses US spelling conventions but makes no concessions to US idiom or word choice. My ‘automobiles’ are all ‘cars’ with bonnets and boots, for instance, not hoods and trunks. A large part of the strength and charm of the story is the Irish idiom used.
The figures attached to the titles above are sales (with freebie copies in brackets). If you add up all the figures, the total comes to 195 (132). That’s 63 books sold for money. Amazon kindle sales in US/UK/DE/Fr/ES/It breakdown as follows: 43/11/0/0/0/0
I’ve put a lot of effort into spreading my name on twitter, Facebook, my web site and this blog. Also, a huge promotional effort for St Patrick’ Day Special in the run-up to Christmas consumed almost every waking moment and resulted in 7 sales.
My books are well written, professionally edited and well formatted for eReaders. Prices are $0.99 for all but Ovolution, which is $2.99. So what am I doing wrong? Could it be that the covers are not strong or exciting enough? I’d be grateful for any suggestions.
And happy New Year, everyone.
UPDATE: March 6. On advice from friends I have unpublished the US edition. Apparently it was a confusing distraction. I think it’ll probably remain for sale on the iPad and Nook for some time to come, but it’s no longer available on Amazon.
