30 Day Check-In

When I started this blog, it was with the intention of letting people see what starting from scratch looked like for someone self-publishing.

The first thirty days ended this weekend and I’m feeling a little anxious about sharing. It’s drilled into us from birth not to discuss politics, money or religion.

Oh well.

Day one was June 22nd. The story went live and I sent 8 copies out to friends as a thank you. Then I took off for RWA and skipped the biggest week to pimp my story by not being online for 10 days 🙂

When I got back, the last week in June I sold 31 copies (minus the 8 gifts)

I was pretty darn happy with that!

If you’re new to the Amazon game, my book (a short) was priced (by me) at $.99. Because it was under the 70% threshold, I get 35% for each book I sell. So, for June I made:

10.85 – 2.80=8.05

For the remainder of my first 30 days, I sold an additional 47 and gave 4 promo copies (so, 43 sold)

I’m excited to say that means I sold 66 copies outside of gifts/promo for my first 30 days.

Wow! That’s over 2 a day!

For marketing, I did those 4 giveaways (let’s just say I think about 6 people found me… and now almost all of them have free copies *grin*) — but I was also reviewed on Cheeky Reads and had some amazing reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I’m sure that must have helped.

The same day as the Cheeky Reads review, I was the author spotlight on the new Author Rescue site (which I’ve actually been invited to join in August – stay tuned!)

So, basically… here is month one:

I did no marketing. I had zero contacts. I sold 66 copies and made $23.10 (which pays for the great cover I got at a deep, deep discount of $22 from Razzle Dazzle.)

I’d like to say I’m pretty happy with this. I’ve learned enough about what I’m going to do in the future for writing/marketing. Also, there’s the balance of writing for my other NY-Agented persona 😉

Hope that give some insight into the first month. From now on, I”ll be reporting on full months, not my start-date months.

Also, stick around for more numbers later this week 😉

~Caitie~