Thursday, September 1, 2011

The August "Big Experiment" Report

My August ebook sales eclipsed my previous record by at least 52 books*, powered by a strong showing from We are the Monsters after the price increased from free to $0.99. As I said before, I won't be retiring soon on these numbers, but I sold 227 books* in August. In the past ten days, I've sold more than the entire month of July. No complaints, really--I've been selling 10-15 books a day for the past week and a half.

Granted, most of my sales were for $0.99 books. Much has been said about this lowly price point, so I won't rehash. What I've learned so far:
  • A Feast of Flesh sold 14 copies (burning up the charts, baby), at $0.99 while These Darkened Streets sold 6 at $1.99
  • at that rate, A Feast of Flesh earned $0.70 more; I've lowered These Darkened Streets to $0.99 in September to see what happens
  • I write in a genre which doesn't sell as well as Thrillers, Mysteries, Romance, and Erotica
  • Most of my books are story collections, which, in general, don't sell all that well, either
  • but seven different ebooks sold in double figures
  • I'm still happy with every dime I make selling ebooks
What I plan to do in September:
  • experiment with price a bit more: raise The House Eaters to $2.99 and see what happens by the end of the month
  • release a novella for $0.99
  • repackage Black Medicine Thunder as Sons of Chaos Book 1 (since book 2, The Desert Dead, is coming to Red Penny Papers in October--squee!)
  • prepare for October, which I hope can be a good month (um, Halloween)
That's the report as I see it. 

Thanks for reading.

*I'm not sure how many copies of We are the Monsters were "paid" until I receive my monthly report; my estimate is low

5 comments:

Danielle Birch said...

And the most exciting part is - people are buying your books! Your stories are getting out there in the world :)

K.C. Shaw said...

That's great! Those are pretty healthy numbers considering how many books are available out there.

Aaron Polson said...

Very true, Danielle - I'm pretty excited.

Thanks, K.C. There are a staggering number of books in the world.

Cate Gardner said...

227 books!!! Very, very nice.

Katey said...

HUGE! Awesome, awesome sales! And while pricing no doubt plays a part in all these things -- well, I know return business will bring even more. No doubt it's already begun to after -- what? A year on the Kindle thing? Less, surely.

Hell yeah.