Monday, November 30, 2009

Tis the Season

Sales of Crown, Avempartha, and Nyphron have been impressively brisk as of late. Crown sales reached an all time high this weekend. I’d like to think it is because the books are finally reaching critical mass through word-of-mouth, but this was also the weekend of Black Friday, the day retail stores enter black numbers on their ledgers. So maybe the sales are just the result of holiday shoppers, but even so, compared to last year, Crown is rocking.

The arcane enigma that is the Amazon sale rank—the subject of great study and dubious speculation—is far from an accurate reflection of number-of-units-sold, but the contrast at least is striking. The lower the number the better and last year about this time I was excited if my sales rank was below 500,000. I reasoned that since ranks run into the millions, this was respectable. After all, at that time I was an unknown author with one book.

Now I am an unknown author with three books so being under say, 200,000 would be great. Only I’m not under two hundred thousand. The sales rank of Crown has been fairly consistent hovering around the 20,000 mark with an all time low of 14,000. That might mean I am only selling 50 books a week, (that seems like a lot—but it really isn’t. Bestsellers move between 1000 and 10,000 a day.) When you factor in that, I make a buck or two a book that means I make a gross profit of only a couple thousand a year from which I subtract promotion costs for bookmarks, posters, etc. This leaves me in the hole overall, but I’m not complaining because the contrast between last year and this, is impressive. Regardless of how many actual books sell (a number I can never obtain but can only guess at,) it is clear that the situation has improved dramatically. People are buying the books in record numbers.

As I said however, this might all be a month-long blip due to holiday shoppers, but last year’s shoppers were not nearly so merry about the little gold book named The Crown Conspiracy. It is possible that hordes of impatient people were waiting for three books to hit the shelves before starting the series. If I remember correctly, I started reading Harry Potter the year the third book was released, but that was only coincidence. It is also possible that people are spreading the word, and sharing the books—virally infecting the reading public with news about Riyria.

Whatever it is, tis the season to be jolly.

9 comments:

  1. It is great to see the books are doing better this year. Sounds as people are noticing the books and giving them their well deserved attention. I know they are not as high in sales as liked but doing better than last year is great.

    Have a merry holiday!

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  2. hi

    just to give you the heads up

    Nyphron Rising is now also available at the book depository, great for the international readers

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  3. Hey Phoenix,

    Thanks for the heads up. I don't have anything to do with the Book Depository--not even sure how they get my books--so I was unaware they picked up Nyphron as well. It seems they are a great resource for overseas readers who can't order through places like Amazon and for whom shipping costs are more than the cost of the books. So while I don't know how, I am glad they are offering them for as it turns out I have growing fan bases in places like Singapore, South Africa, and Australia.

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  7. While I don’t feel the books actually need one, as pertinent information is either explained or refreshed, I have complied here a list of terms and names for those of you waiting for Nyphron Rising who might like a refresher on who’s who and what’s what. (I have eliminated all entries that could reveal secrets to book 3-6. If you haven’t read 1-2 there are some minor spoilers.) Some entries (such as those on the Glenmorgan Dynasty) are never fully explained in the books so there is a dash of new information that will not appear anywhere in the series.
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