... …and, lately, many of those questions have been about money. How many copies of our novels are we selling and, if we don't mind sharing, how much is our take-home pay? And, really, if we had to do it all over again – would we still self-publish?
Them’s some good questions. Most of the time, we simply smile, imply we’re taking it to the bank in a wheelbarrow, and then go home and wait for Taco Barn Tuesday, when the tacos are two-for-a-buck and, if we skip a carbonated beverage, we won’t quite spend all of last month’s royalty check.
We think there’s been a bit more interest in the $ question of late because T.A.D. has finally gone into print. The Atheist's Daughter is doing okay. Since the novel’s publication, our itsy bitsy income has taken a leap. Once we figured out how to read individual sales numbers – on Amazon, in particular, it’s quite a stumper; you have to push the right button – we learned a few things.
F’rinstance, After Things Went Bad, our three-set for under a buck, continues to lead our sales overall. This is happening without any real promotion. Meanwhile, T.A.D. is close behind and, because of its higher price tag, it's our most profitable title. Coming along in third? Cobblestone Press just sent us the monthly numbers for Wicked Games and it continues to do okay...especially since, again, we’re doing no promotion of the story. (Werewolf + sex = sales.) To our surprise, we’re even moving a few copies of Bill Shakespeare’s Next Big Mistake. No, ‘surprise’ is not a strong enough word. We’re amazed. BSNBM is a television pilot we couldn’t afford to film, no one has ever reviewed the piece, and we’ve made no mention of it anywhere except here. Maybe people are sampling it and liking the sample (we think it’s funny), maybe it’s the 99-cent price tag, maybe it’s the title, maybe...hell, we don’t know. You got any ideas, share ‘em. We’d like to know.
But, in the last 45 days, one of our books hasn’t sold a single copy. Something Wicked had a couple of decent reviews, we guest posted here and there, we gave the promo thing an effort. There was a burp of initial interest, back in April, but it quickly passed as burps will do. The novel has a strong cover but it was written for a younger audience...if you’re of Nancy Drew age, you’re our target audience...and we always knew the age thing would present a bit of challenge. Frankly, not enough e-book owners are twelve years old. We considered sparking up the story, heating up the romance, bumping up the violence. Finally, we decided to try an experiment, instead. Since ATWB is going out the door at less than a buck, since BSNBM is finding an audience at the same price, we’ll drop the SW price (here) for the next quarter and see what happens.
If this doesn't work, werewolf sex gets added to everything in 2012....
Them’s some good questions. Most of the time, we simply smile, imply we’re taking it to the bank in a wheelbarrow, and then go home and wait for Taco Barn Tuesday, when the tacos are two-for-a-buck and, if we skip a carbonated beverage, we won’t quite spend all of last month’s royalty check.
We think there’s been a bit more interest in the $ question of late because T.A.D. has finally gone into print. The Atheist's Daughter is doing okay. Since the novel’s publication, our itsy bitsy income has taken a leap. Once we figured out how to read individual sales numbers – on Amazon, in particular, it’s quite a stumper; you have to push the right button – we learned a few things.
F’rinstance, After Things Went Bad, our three-set for under a buck, continues to lead our sales overall. This is happening without any real promotion. Meanwhile, T.A.D. is close behind and, because of its higher price tag, it's our most profitable title. Coming along in third? Cobblestone Press just sent us the monthly numbers for Wicked Games and it continues to do okay...especially since, again, we’re doing no promotion of the story. (Werewolf + sex = sales.) To our surprise, we’re even moving a few copies of Bill Shakespeare’s Next Big Mistake. No, ‘surprise’ is not a strong enough word. We’re amazed. BSNBM is a television pilot we couldn’t afford to film, no one has ever reviewed the piece, and we’ve made no mention of it anywhere except here. Maybe people are sampling it and liking the sample (we think it’s funny), maybe it’s the 99-cent price tag, maybe it’s the title, maybe...hell, we don’t know. You got any ideas, share ‘em. We’d like to know.
But, in the last 45 days, one of our books hasn’t sold a single copy. Something Wicked had a couple of decent reviews, we guest posted here and there, we gave the promo thing an effort. There was a burp of initial interest, back in April, but it quickly passed as burps will do. The novel has a strong cover but it was written for a younger audience...if you’re of Nancy Drew age, you’re our target audience...and we always knew the age thing would present a bit of challenge. Frankly, not enough e-book owners are twelve years old. We considered sparking up the story, heating up the romance, bumping up the violence. Finally, we decided to try an experiment, instead. Since ATWB is going out the door at less than a buck, since BSNBM is finding an audience at the same price, we’ll drop the SW price (here) for the next quarter and see what happens.
If this doesn't work, werewolf sex gets added to everything in 2012....
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