Sunday, January 6, 2013

A Year in Review

I'm a few days late, but Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and here's to a bigger, brighter, new year!!

I know I've been absent for awhile, as I've been getting as much writing in as I can before the new semester starts (I teach every Mon & Wed). Granted, I only teach two days a week, but those are TWO days I'm not writing! 

In the last couple of weeks, I've gotten in over 14k words on a new book that I'm working on. It will be a brand new series (YA paranormal) and so far, I am loving every minute of writing it. It's got a touch of Southern Gothic flare, with a mix of gods, demons, and everything else in-between! But don't worry, I am still brainstorming and working on PARAMETER (book 4 of the Travelers Series). 

Another thing I've been working on is my sales number for 2012. I hardly ever look at them as a whole, but I'm getting ready to start my taxes *groan* and I have to get all my sales figures and business deductions somewhat organized...

So how many ebooks did I sell in 2012? 

7,700!*

Granted, book sales didn't pick up until late March with the release of PARADOX (book 2), so if I continue with these steady book sales, I should expect to reach 10,000 by this March. This may not sound like a large number, as most folks believe that a majority of authors sell a lot of books. In reality, this is a pretty damn good figure for a nobody like me. This is especially a huge number considering most indie authors are estimated to sell on average only 100-200 books a year. Many traditionally published mid-list or debut authors (that didn't get the right promotional backing by their publishing house) can expect to sell between 1,000 - 5,000. Yeah, I'm kinda pulling numbers out of thin air, but from everything I've read from the NY Times, literary agent blogs, to Publishers Marketplace, these are the numbers most quoted around the web. And if it's on the web, it must be true right?

In any event, I'm proud of what I've accomplished in such a short time. Granted, I know of a lot of indie authors that boast average sales between 10,000 to 30,000 a year. And yes, I realize that my figure only represents ebook sales. But in my world, a book is a book, so it counts! 

All I can say is, I couldn't have done it without my faithful readers. I know I say this in what seems to be every other post, but THANK YOU again! You are the ones that keep me motivated to write more and you are the ones that allow me the opportunity to work in my p.j's most days. I am forever grateful! 


*For those that are interested, here's my yearly ebook sales breakdown:

Amazon: 3,945
Sales did not pick up until March when I released the second book in my series.  

iTunes: 3,029
I didn't sell a single title until June, even though my first book was released back in 2011! Since then, iTunes has been my biggest market!! 

B&N: 691
Oh, B&N, what am I going to do with you?

Kobo: 39
I recently uploaded my books on Kobo late this summer. I hope to see an increase in sales. 

I didn't do a breakdown of individual titles, but keep in mind, I have had PARALLEL (book 1 in my series) perma-free since June 2012. This means, the majority of sales have been for PARADOX and PARADIGM (my other titles, short stories, sell very few copies). Also, these figures to not account for print books sales (I haven't gotten that far yet). 

And if January is any indicator, it looks like I'm headed towards another great year! So again thanks to all my fabulous fans (and fellow writers) who have made it possible for me to continue on with my dreams...




4 comments:

  1. Congratulations Claudia! Those are great numbers. You deserve every one of them.

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    1. Thanks! I really hope to surpass 10,000 by this Spring :)

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  2. I think you have had an amazing year. And I am really thrilled with your creativity and your determination and your stick-to-it-iveness and impressed as Hell with you.

    Keep. Going :-)

    have some frozen admiration to keep you cool as a cucumber today.....we are at -18, I think. Take care, I am glad I took the moment to see your recap of how things are going for you!!!!

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    1. UGH, we went from snow last week, to spring weather this week! It was so hot yesterday we had to sleep with the windows open (still too hot)!

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