I've sold six eBooks.
Yeah, it's not many. And the earnings from those six books aren't enough for Amazon to even bother paying me the money yet (they don't pay until your earnings clear $10 for direct deposit). No worries, cuz right now the money isn't the point.
What is the point? I published The Swordsman of Carn Nebeth on the 25th of January. I did not tell everyone immediately, but by the next evening 2 people had bought it, based on nothing but the sample and the blurb (and okay, maybe that gorgeous cover had something to do with it!). By the time I posted that second blog I sold another two. I've still done very little marketing (I've only got one small story out there, I plan to focus on putting up work for awhile before I bother doing a lot of outreach).
That's pretty great - I figured the only sales I'd make in the beginning would be to friends and family. Here I am, though, and none of those losers have bought it.
Amazon has a pretty amazing setup here. Discoverability may still be difficult, but I think that if you tag your work properly and package it attractively, you have a leg up. Makes it a lot easier to overlook their rather hostile business practices... though I still hope that avenues like Smashwords find success.
Six? Lucky dog. I've sold a whopping four copies of my two short stories... two of which were me buying them for QA purposes. :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a long grind, but I think if we keep at it, eventually it'll work out...