Adventures in Epublishing: First Month Sales Round-Up
Ebooks - 35
Amazon.com - 27
BarnesandNoble.com - 7
Smashwords.com - 1
Total: $72.64
Paperbacks Online - 11
Amazon.com - 3
CreateSpace.com - 8
Total: $44.22
Paperbacks (self) - 47
Total: $219.00
Total profits for the month of November: $335.86
Total copies sold: 93
*I did give away 19 copies for various contests online and with my students (and a few of those were for Mom and Dad, my bro, and my 86-year-old grandma, who has already read it and is waiting for the sequel! hehe).*
Other promotions:
Currently doing a giveaway on Goodreads.com
Have one copy out for review, have a list of 4 more to contact
Checking into local authors' fairs
Would like to contact local papers...but a little flustered on how to go about making my own press release...it feels funny writing an 'article' about myself! Would love suggestions/tips!
Plan to donate copies to local and school libraries
It would be great if I could sell this many copies every month, but December will be the big test, as all of my friends and family have purchased their copies and now I will have to depend on the readers out there in the world.
Thanks again for all of your support!
i think donating some to libraries is a great idea. one of my favorite books I read was in jr. high called "amongst the shadows" (ironically enough but was on a different topic) and reading it made me want to look into the sequels or talk about the book to their friends and that is how word spreads around quickly. have u talked to shs at all about promoting it or selling it? idk how open they would be about it but maybe they would like to brag in the future how a famous writer taught at their school. just an idea :)
ReplyDeleteThe students were able to purchase copies from me at school and they bought quite a few. I also had a free giveaway in each class as a thank you for their support. I was going to give one to the SHS library, as well as some of the local ones. I could ask the school newspaper to do a review...
ReplyDeleteI could do a review of the novel for the college newspaper at Harper and then possible an interview to go along with it, talking about e-publishing and the book of course.
ReplyDeleteWell, I hope all goes well. It's really all about the marketing, which isn't the easiest thing to do. I'd consider speaking at the local high schools all over the county. Email all the English teachers.
ReplyDeleteThat would be awesome Sam! I'd love to do that. Let me know what we need to do to get that going.
ReplyDeleteHi Karly -
ReplyDeleteJust a word of advice from the wife of a librarian - talk to the head librarian and ask if they can add donations to the catalog before you give them a book. Some systems cannot add donations for one reason or another. Also, some systems will require a certain type of donation to include your book in circulation. If either of these is the case, your donated book will end up on the sale table during the friends of the library sale.
Now, if those above problems are the case, then give the book to the librarian as a personal gift instead. Ask them to read the book, and give each librarian a copy who wants one, or ask them to share it around. Then, they might BUY the book, and justify the purchase to the buyer as "supporting a local writer who is also a patron".
I know it seems odd, but library politics is... convoluted, let's say. That's the most polite way to put it. ;)
But congratulations on your first month's sales! You're doing great! Keep it up!
Jenna
www.lundeenliterary.com
lundeenliterary at gmail dot com
Good advice, Jenna! The HS library where I work was able to take one, and I have to make an appointment at my local library to make the donation. I thought it was a good idea to email/call as well, I didn't want to send out free books if they couldn't be used.
ReplyDeleteI also was lucky enough to have another HS librarian win a copy in a contest, and another writer friend is also a HS librarian...so I know at least it will be in 4 libraries in 2 different states! It's a start!
But I like the idea of the librarians reading it and then the library buying the book. Nice!
Hey Karly, awesome information. I was just wondering if you ever considered having a Kirkus review done on Into The Shadows now that they offer them for epublished works?
ReplyDelete