I published No Heart for a Thief one and a half years ago! It has been a great journey. As I have done several times before, I am going to open up the curtain for people who are interested in seeing my sales and hearing about my sales strategies.
This is going to be a less detailed report, partially because I am writing this on my birthday (hooray for me!) and partially because there is not as much to share as I have in the past.
As of now, I have two novels published and one prequel novella that is free when you subscribe to my newsletter.
***Disclaimer***
Everyone’s indie publishing journey is different. The effectiveness of sales strategies varies. A book’s sales do not solely reflect the quality of that book. There are many factors including audience interests, financial backing, an author’s time and commitments, and many more. The big one that is often forgotten is luck.
Sales Strategies
Amazon Ads
I have continued to run Amazon ads, spending anywhere from $20 - $60 a month. Although I do not see a lot of traction from them, I do see a drop in my sales and Kindle Unlimited page reads when I don’t run them. That’s partly because it helps to have my book pop up in the page results even if readers don’t click on the ad.* I also think it affects Kindle’s algorithm, even though I have no proof.
* Insider tip: Authors pay per click with ads. If you are planning to buy an author’s book anyway, click on the non-sponsored link and save the author $0.50.
BookBub Featured Deal
Bookbub is a well-known site that curates lists of bargain and free books for their hundreds of thousands of email subscribers. Authors can apply to become a featured deal in their newsletter. It is expensive, and they are selective. This year I was accepted for a featured deal in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. It cost me $196 to run the ad.
Although, I sold over 100 ebooks when it ran, I did not recoup my investment. This could be seen as a loss, but I see it as over 100 new readers I might not have otherwise reached. I will be trying it again, but I won’t expect to recoup my investment.
BookBub Ads
I have run regular ads through BookBub for two months. I saw a large uptick in my KU pages read for a few weeks, however it has teetered off since then. Moving forward, I will use BookBub ads intermittently and see if that helps rather than running them constantly.
Pricing Change
As I wrote about in this post, I adjusted my prices. No Heart for a Thief was $0.99 on ebook for over a year. It helped to bring in sales, but each sale only brough in $0.30. So I decided to take another path and raise the price of No Heart for a Thief to $2.99 on ebook. This not only brings in a higher royalty because of the cost, but Amazon gives authors 70% of royalties for books $2.99 or more and only 30% for books priced below.
Sales have slowed, either because of cost or because I haven’t released a new book in a little while. However, royalties have stayed fairly steady.
A note on sequels: sequels never sell as well as the first in a series. They help boost sales for a little because people are giving the sequel attention when it’s released. However, people don’t skip the first book and buy the second. So your potential audience gets smaller—people who have already read the previous book(s) and people willing to buy the previous book(s) as well as the most recent book.
That being said, this series isn’t going anywhere. As people discover my work through future books, this series will always be there for them to check out.
The Numbers
I am not going to get into costs and income with this report. I’m going to save that for my end of the year post. For now, I am going to share my sales numbers breaking it down by this year, last year, and the total.
2023
No Heart for a Thief – Released January 24, 2023
Ebooks Sold: 1,171
Free Sale Ebooks: 3,391
Amazon Print Sales: 62
Ingram Spark Print Sales: 61
Other Print Sales: 161
KU Pages Read: 224,450
No Safe Haven – Released October 24, 2023
Ebooks Sold: 321
Free Sale Ebooks: N/A
Amazon Print Sales: 13
Ingram Spark Print Sales: 0 (Note: Print copies were delayed past release date)
Other Print Sales: 4
KU Pages Read: 36,253
Totals
Units Sold: 1,793
Units Moved: 5,184
KU Pages Read: 260,703
2024
No Heart for a Thief – Released January 24, 2023
Ebooks Sold: 314
Free Sale Ebooks: N/A
Amazon Print Sales: 11
Ingram Spark Print Sales: 13
Other Print Sales: 1
KU Pages Read: 96,497
No Safe Haven – Released October 24, 2023
Ebooks Sold: 94
Free Sale Ebooks: N/A
Amazon Print Sales: 11
Ingram Spark Print Sales: 9
Other Print Sales: 73
KU Pages Read: 65,830
Don’t Bloody the Black Flag – Released January 24, 2024
Ebooks Sold: 40
Free Sale Ebooks: 311
Amazon Print Sales: 3
Ingram Spark Print Sales: 13
Other Print Sales: 4
KU Pages Read: N/A
Totals
Units Sold: 586
Units Moved: 897
KU Pages Read: 162,327
Overall Totals
Units Sold: 2,379
Units Moved: 6,081
KU Pages Read: 423,030
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