2012: The Year in Review

Ok, I've finally made time to do the 2012 roundup. (BTW, happy 2013 everyone!)

I had hoped to make 2012 a year of writing. Unfortunately, much like 2011, 2012 was a year of publishing, but not so much of writing. However, unlike 2011, I now have a year's worth of sales data. :)

Sales numbers tell an interesting story. I sell more titles on Barnes & Noble than anywhere else. In fact, I sold more titles at B&N than at Amazon (all stores), Kobo, Smashwords (just them), and Sony combined. However, I make roughly equivalent dollar amounts between Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords (including Apple, Kobo, etc). Below is a sales chart showing titles sold, as well as some of the data for the free titles:

The top portion includes only sales for which I received money. The bottom portion is for "sales" that were free, either price-match or promotion. Apple and Kobo apparently do not report their free sales to Smashwords. I had some free sales through other Smashwords outlets, but I didn't count them here because they didn't result in any dollar sales through those outlets.

Dollar-wise, here's how those sales translate:
      Amazon US: $227.60 (didn't figure foreign sales as it is a hassle)
      Barnes & Noble: $233.29
      Smashwords (all channels): $299.60

For Amazon and Barnes & Noble, those are the royalties generated for the 2012 calendar year. For Smashwords it's a little trickier because of the delay in reporting and receiving; I basically added up the royalty payments for the calendar year (one of which hasn't gone out yet, of course, but I can see the numbers).

My best selling title is Scent and Shadow (yeay!) at 95, followed closely by "The Sub Fairy" at 88. My three most consistent sellers are Scent and Shadow, "The House That Pip Built", and "Geargirl"; each of those had at least one sale a month across all channels. (Heck, S&S and Pip had at least one sale a month just at B&N; Geargirl missed December or that one would have as well.) The story with the best average sales per month it's been available is "Cry Wolf."

I did manage to publish at least one title a month, which was a goal of mine from 2011. I didn't get any anthologies put together, but I have one that just needs a cover and another that should be ready in the next couple of months.

2012 (not counting unfinished projects):
Short stories written (final drafts written 2012): 4
Short stories sold to tradpub: 2 (one submitted in 2011)
Short story submissions to tradpub: 10
Short story rejections (including revoked submissions): 13
Short stories traditionally published: 1 (one forthcoming)
Total self-published word count (final drafts written 2012): 49,122


The four stories I did this year were Demon's Asylum, Night's Acolyte, "Husband's Little Helper," and "Care Packages." Demon's Asylum was mostly written before 2012, but I obviously didn't count it in last year's total, and the final draft was finished this year, so there you go. I'm not sure how to count The Once and Future Poet, since a large portion of it was, obviously, written over many years. But if we count all of Poet, that brings my writing total up to around 93,622, which isn't too bad.

I didn't get anywhere close to my 4000 words/week goal from last year. Frankly, making writing time is much harder than making publishing time, for some reason. I want to try and keep up my one-title-a-month trend, but I know that's going to be much harder this year. Last year I had stuff sitting around, and titles that had rights coming back. This year, I have only one finished short story (at least, that's long enough to be published as a single) available to pillage, and one title that will have the rights revert late in 2013. So I have at least 9 months to fill up. I might get to use anthologies for a couple, but I'm hoping to not use those as the "new" releases if I don't have to.

My big goal for 2013 actually isn't writing-related at all. I need to start working out consistently, and I need to make that a bigger priority than writing. That being said, some new software for my iPod is making it much easier for me to capture writing time, since I can save doc files between the iPod and my computer now. I got 250 words done the other day while The Husband was in the grocery store, for example. I've also discovered I write better when I can't see how much of the page is left to fill. That's a mental hang-up I didn't even realize I had until I started writing on the iPod.

My big writing goal for 2013 is to finish the first draft of Empire's Shadow. Ideally, I want to publish it this year, but I'm keeping my goals on the small side for now. Depression kicked my ass last year, so I don't want to stress myself out. I write less when I'm stressed about not writing. Weird, no? There are also a handful of print anthologies I have my eye one, so between those and my self-publishing I'm shooting for 10-12 finished short stories this year on top of the novel.

Oh, and I want to do the Scent and Shadow podiobook this year. I have the microphone and the recording space. I just need to suck up learning Audacity. Or maybe I'll hire that part out. (Hmm, if I tell myself that I'll hire it out, I'll be much more likely to start working on it... Writer, know thyself.) But first, I must record!

The Joys of Self-Publishing

Don't get me wrong. Most of the time I love self-publishing. I get to do whatever I want with my stuff whenever I want. The downside, of course, is that I have to do it all. Well, duh, you might think. But even for me, publishing takes up a lot of time and energy, and I don't do any marketing. I've committed myself to having a release every month this year. That's twelve covers I need to make, twelve blurbs to write, twelve stories to format three times each (once for Smashwords, once for Kindle, and once for Nook). Not to mention twelve stories to write and edit, on top of the other projects I'm working on. I've been trying to write during the week and do publishing stuff on weekends. But I've been sick lately and getting up early has not been happening as much, because I just need the sleep too badly. So instead I've been trying to write over lunch a couple times a week. Writing at work is rather distracting and I usually only get about 300 words done. It would probably be more if this novella wasn't kicking my ass so badly. Meanwhile, my sales at Amazon have stagnated, and I'm trying very hard not to futz with my pricing and stuff again for a couple months. (Interestingly, Barnes & Noble is doing about the same as always. Go Nook!) I want--no, need--to start working out, but I have no idea when I can fit it into my schedule. The Husband likes to go late at night, but if I'm going to be getting up at 5am to write then I need to be in bed by 10pm. I'm thinking we can try going at 9:30pm and see how that works, 'cause I always needed less sleep when I was working out regularly, but by the time 9:30pm rolls around we're both settled in and tired. It's hard to get the motivation. I also want to learn how to do audio, so I can make a podiobook of Scent and Shadow. Ok, I don't want to learn how to do it, but I want to have a podiobook, so I have to learn it. I can't afford to pay someone to do it for me and I don't want to give someone royalties forever for something I can learn to do myself. (This is the story of my self-publishing career.) I'm going on vacation next month with my dad and my sister. I'm looking forward to it a lot, even though I'll miss my husband while I'm gone. It should be a good way to recharge. Or at least, I hope so. 'Cause I really need a recharge. Or an assistant. Minion. Yeah, a minion sounds good.

Happy May Day!

Celebrate the pagan festival of shagging with a new erotic short story!

Samantha and Ron’s 1950s-ish life style strikes some as misogynistic, but for them it’s about more than just sexual thrills. Contains explicit sex.

Husband's Little Helper is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords!

Just for Kinks stories are light-hearted, contemporary tales of titillation for kinky people and the kink-curious. Often romantic, Just for Kinks focuses on the everyday kinky person with a stories involving a variety of genders, orientations, and combinations thereof. These stories are about healthy relationships, clear consent, safe sex, and having fun in whatever way floats your particular boat. Commonly seen kinks include bondage, dominance, submission, sadism, masochism, exhibitionism, and voyeurism.

No historicals, no paranormals, no science fiction, no dark and unhealthy encounters. Just modern kinky people doing what they do best—having a darn good time.

My KDP Select Experience, and 6 Months of Sales Data

All righty! After six months of self-publishing, and three months of having Demon's Asylum in KDP Select, here are my sales numbers. Hopefully other authors will find this useful when making their publishing decisions.

Note: these number are not that impressive, but I didn't expect they would be. I'm still happy with the progress I'm making, especially as I'm still putting up new fiction every month and drawing new readers. Just remember folks: this is a long tail model. I'm really looking forward to coming back to this article in four and a half years and making a comparison.

First, sales comparisons for 2011 between Amazon and Barnes&Noble. I'm only doing Amazon US, because I didn't keep very good data for the other countries and I really don't have a lot of sales there. I unfortunately did not keep track of week-by-week sales at Amazon US until mid-December, so this is month to month by title:

Not Quite Casper and A Wild Hunt didn't go free on Amazon until November, and I'm assuming not until December on Barnes and Noble (I have to do those through Smashwords). I Burn For You is available to B&N through Smashwords, but it's not available on Amazon. Oddly, my sales at Amazon were better in November than they were in December.

Now for week-by-week. Since B&N only reports to Smashwords once a month, the freebies are all listed on the last week. Amazon's week-by-week numbers are gotten by using the "Prior Six Weeks Royalties" view in KDP and just saving a copy of that every few weeks. This means that there is some overlap month-to-month because the weeks don't always end when the month does. Monthly royalty statement totals are also included just for kicks.

Geargirl released to both Amazon and B&N on 01/15/2012. Demon's Asylum released to KDP Select 01/15/2012. Demon's Asylum had one borrow which netted me $1.60.

February was not a good sales month for me, despite the release of When the Bough Rakes on Feb 1. Demon's Asylum went free Feb 13 and 14. 237 copies were downloaded, and one was sold that week. I had one borrow in Feb which netted me $2.01, only 6 cents cheaper than a sale. Novellas for the win.

March was surprisingly even worse than February for me. The new story for that month, A Kiss Before Coffee, released on Feb 1 and still hasn't sold a single copy at Amazon. I experimented this month with raising the price of Scent and Shadow from $4.99 to $6.99.

And finally, the first two weeks of April. Demon's Asylum went free from April 7 to April 9. There were no borrows or new releases this month, except for Demon's Asylum going up on B&N and Smashwords today. Floggers Last Longer Than Flowers got a new cover as of April 1. Demon's Asylum also got a new cover and slightly altered blurb as of April 1. Scent and Shadow also went back to its previous price of $4.99 on April 1.

So far this year, I've sold 13 copies of Scent and Shadow at Amazon, and 14 at Barnes and Noble. As far as I can tell, having Demon's Asylum in KDP Select hasn't helped the sales of my other titles at Amazon. I do think having it in Select got me more sales of that particular title than I would have otherwise had from Amazon alone, but I don't think it's significantly more than I would have gotten from Amazon and B&N if I'd released it in both places at the same time. Short fiction sales overall (not counting Demon's Asylum): 42 at Amazon in 2012, 54 at B&N in 2012.

In short, my fiction sells slightly better at B&N than at Amazon overall. Therefore, even though I almost certainly saw more sales of Demon's Asylum at Amazon than I would have without enrolling it in KDP Select, I wouldn't do it again. I would not be surprised if the first three months of Demon's Asylum being at B&N net me more than half as many sales as I had in Select, which would basically mean Select didn't lose me many sales, but didn't really gain me any, either. (I'll report back in three months and let you know.) I may have gotten some more exposure with Select, but I'm not sure it's really worth the trouble and annoying my other readers.

Now, I'm sure that Select is great for more mainstream fiction. However, I write niche fiction. I write erotica, and kink, and GLBT, and vampires that are actually monsters. So I do better by getting my fiction into as many markets as possible, the better to find my niche market readers.

On Failure

My proof copy arrived on Friday after I made the post, and I've been reading through it since. Found a handful of things to fix, most of which aren't major. I'd wanted to be done with the read-through by now, but holidays and social time got in the way. Oh, well, I'm hoping to finish up in the next couple days, and upload the corrected text. And then we're live, baby!

I suppose that's an odd way to start a post titled "On Failure," but for me it's a great example of what you can do when you are willing to fail. Dean Wesley Smith wrote a fantabulous post about failure and how failure is not an option. It's just going to happen. Learn from it and move on. If you aren't failing, you aren't trying often enough.

I know a lot of people who think self-publishing is a kind of failure. For me, not self-publishing would be failure. I'm getting out there now, in what is possibly the best new-book market I'm likely to see in my lifetime. If I fail, so what? I'm going to keep putting stuff out there, and every sale is a success. How can I consider self-publishing a failure when I make money every month off of work I did two years ago?

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Closer and Closer!

The line edits that I got from my Write By The Lake instructor are done, yeay! So with that and the rewrite of the big battle at the end, all I have left to do are:

Finish the rewrite of the hunters' introduction
Rewrite/touch up the other hunter scenes to match (six scenes or so)
Make another pass for adverbs and words I use too much
Reread the whole thing and look for things I broke during the fixes

And then it's off for copyediting!

That may look like a lot, but I'm hoping I can get it all done this week. Next week at most.

I'm less scared and more excited at this point as I get closer to being done with the writing side of things. Also, this great post by Dean Wesley Smith helped too. I love Dean and Kris. They've always got great advice.

One Step Closer

I finished one of the rewrites on the novel, the biggest single thing I had to do to it. It feels good; I feel close to being done.

It's hard not to freak out.

I'm going to be putting my stuff out there soon. Without the gatekeepers.

It's scary. And exciting.

It's a risk. I know the novel is good. It might be really good. It might well be good enough for a big agent, a big contract. I think it is. But without submitting it to the gatekeepers, how do you know?

And yet, I'm not going to.

For years I dreamed of getting published by a big publisher. I dreamed of the big advance, the contract, of seeing my book on a bookstore shelf. And now I'm turning my back on all that, and taking a book that might well be worth a five-figure advance and publishing it online for roughly $3.50 gross, each. Doing my own marketing. Investing in editing and cover art and classes on how to format. I could easily lose money on the deal.

But I'm still going to do it myself.

I believe in my work. I believe the audience is out there. I believe I can find them.

Maybe I'm wrong. But at least, if my venture fails, it won't be anyone's fault but mine. And I'll be free to try again, and again, and again.

And I will. No one can stop me but me.

100 Words About: Digital Publishing (and Whiskey)

Publisher's Weekly has an interesting "whiskey poll" from the London Book Fair wherein of those who responded "nearly 80% of publishers expect e-book sales to surpass physical books within 15 years. Of that number, 32% expect e-book sales to overtake print sales within 10 years and 5% within five years. On the other hand, 18% said that e-book sales will never surpass physical book sales."

I spent this week doing an online seminar through How To Write Shop on Digital Self-Publishing for the Newbie. I'm also reading some books on the subject. (Oddly, one digital, one not. BTW, The Husband bought me a Nook! Go, Husband!) While many of the anthologies I've been in have been ebook only already, or had mostly ebook sales, I expect to jump into self-pubbing a few short stories in the next couple of months, just to see what the response is like. I don't know if that 80% of publishers are going to be right...but it doesn't hurt to try to get in before the train leaves, right?

What e-readers do you all use, and where do you download your books from? So far I've gotten a few from Barnes and Noble, of course, but I've also gotten several from Google Books and Archive.org. I expect I'll be using Smashwords, B&N, and Amazon. Where and in what formats would you like to see my work? Leave a comment and let me know!

And now I'm off to WhiskeyFest, woohoo!

Image: Suat Eman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net