Some of you read my whiny post the other day. I was at the point of giving up because my book sales were so bad right now. My .99 sale in February didn’t do squat. I felt like I was wasting my time. But then, other authors, through my blog and private email, let me know that I was actually doing much better than they were. Which made me feel kind of like a jerk for complaining. It was my early success that made me get so discouraged later. I thought the momentum would keep up, and it didn’t. But I’ve decided to keep writing and see where it goes. $100 a month is still income, right? I just hope it doesn’t go below that. But if it does, I need to keep producing new books for people to buy. Anyway, because of the time of discouragement, I didn’t write all week. And then, Saturday, I buckled down and wrote 1268 words. Not too bad.
I participated in Read an Ebook Week last week on Smashwords. I put all my .99 books on sale as free and all my other books at half price. There was a coupon code on each book page. I had about 300 downloads of my free books. and I actually had three sales of the half-priced ones. I know three sales isn’t much, but I rarely sell books at Smashwords. My sales through Smashwords come from their retail partners, Apple, Sony, Kobo, etc., the most sales coming from Sony. So three sales directly through Smashwords is good. And maybe, just maybe, some of the people who downloaded free books will try a paid book later. Who knows? It certainly didn’t cost me a thing.
lauralynnelliott.com 
I’m glad you’re feeling better about things!! I certainly would be upset to find out that you had given up. I’ve only read Dark Relic so far, but I really enjoyed it! $100 is $100 especially if you enjoy what you do. As long as you’re still enjoying it, keep at it 😀 Nice word count for yesterday too!!
Thanks, Lauren. And thanks for reading Dark Relic. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I was happy to get the word count in, especially since I didn’t write the rest of the week.
I don’t think you are alone in your slumped sales, my dear. I’ve heard A LOT of authors talking about it. Myself, for a book that has so many reviews, experienced my lowest sales ever last month on Amazon. I’m honestly starting to attribute it to the fact (1) so many indies are hitting the market now that it’s not as taboo as it used to be (2) a lot of traditional publishers are lowering their price points to garner interest in their own titles, having seen what a success it is for. It’s tough to compete.
Don’t be discouraged. This is a case of “it’s not you, it’s me”. Enjoy what you do and hopefully things will look up soon!
Kate, I think you’re right. I’ve been hearing about bad book sales, especially since I posted about it. It really is tough to compete right now. I’m going to keep going for awhile and see what happens. 🙂
Here is the Kindleboard talk of it:
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,144586.0.html#.UTzivKV96So
Just wow. We are not alone….
Yeah! Keep on writing and I’ll keep on reading; it’s a win-win for both of us 🙂
Ah, Chris, you’re such a sweetie.
I am glad you haven’t given up – I think a lot of folk are going through a dip at the moment – over night sucess hard yo come by – keep writing and your day in the sun will come back again – keep smiling:)
Thanks, Alberta. You know, if I give up, then I’ll never know what could have happened. 🙂
Great news! Jaded is, after all, a colour and an emotion we all recognise. But you moved past it – hurrah!
I’m not sure if I’ll ever earn enough to call it an ‘income’ as such, but the hope is there. I won’t earn much from one book though, so I need to get on with the series and stop worrying about my own limited sales.
I did the Smashwords promo too – ‘sold’ 70 FREE copies of Finding Esta in two days. Oh for that success at $2.99! 😀 Still, it would have introduced my writing to people who otherwise wouldn’t have given me a chance – priceless. Especially if they love the book and leave me great reviews and end up waiting for the next book in the series with bated breath. 🙂
It’s the long game… and it’s often laborious, but it is what it is.
I’m glad I was able to move past it. Because I want to get this next book written! 🙂
I ended up with well over 300 downloads when all was said and done. But I had 13 books to choose from, 8 free and 5 half-price. I sold 4 of the half-price ones. I hope, like you, that at least some of the people who downloaded the free books will like them and take a chance on paid ones later. So you really need t get that next book out, Shah! 🙂
It’s a shame book sales don’t either keep steady or go up all the time. I hate the dips. Sales are so erratic. I’m too chicken to check my monthly sales until the 15th for the Amazon report from last month. Seeing the dip in sales hurts my ability to write. It’s hard to write when sales fall or bad reviews come in.
I’m with katecopeseeley. I think the combination of indies hitting the market in higher numbers and the price of traditionally published books coming down have affected sales the most.
I check my book sales every day, but I’ve thought about stopping that and checking weekly. The problem with that is you have to go back and add up all the PubIt sales because they don’t keep a running total like Amazon, but show sales for every day. And my spreadsheet keeps a running total like Amazon.
I just hope everything settles down and evens out someday.