One of the nice (and terrible) things about writing is the fact that there is always a new goal to reach, a new milestone that lies just out of reach. It keeps me striving for that next level and each time one is achieved it acts as a benchmark of success to bolster my spirits on the bad days when a harsh review or frustrating day's writing can make me doubt whether I should be doing "this gig" at all.
One of the goals I've had for a long, long time was to hit that allusive 1,000,000 copies sold benchmark. Technically speaking, I've been what most would consider a "best-seller" for a long time now, but for me it's that seven digit number that has always been the mark where I felt I could say legitimately use that title.
Yesterday, Robin tallied the numbers and according to her estimates I've sold 1,032,220 books. There are many ways to count so let me be specific about what this means:
- This ONLY includes full-length English-language novels sold, it doesn't include sales for any of the anthologies I'm in or the short stories I've written.
- This DOES NOT include any of my foreign language sales (because we just don't have good data from those sources).
- THIS DOES NOT include any "freebies" so, for instance when I give away an ebook to a purchaser of a print or audio copy I'm counting only 1 sale.
- THIS DOES include all major formats of my book: hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio.
- THIS DOES include my self-publishing sales as well as books sold by Hachette, Penguin Random House, Tachyon, Recored Books and Audible Studios.
So, thank you everyone for making yet another dream come true. Your support is most appreciated and just so you know I'm nearing the conclusion of The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter and the release date remains at December 5th with a recoding date of October 16th. And of course it's exactly three months until the release of Age of Swords!
