A little update for you on “The Black.”
As one expects, the first day of the ebook launch was insane. “The Black” bounced around all day from the 6ks in Amazon’s total sales up to 23k. The rest of the week, the book’s rank bobbed up and down between 12k and 23k. Right now, it’s back to 14k. I’m not sure what’s driving it right now, but I assume it’s because readers tend to purchase books near the weekend.
The paperback is selling too. It hasn’t even been out a full 24 hours, but it’s sitting at 33k in rankings. But what does this mean?
I have no f’ing clue. That’s the frustrating part of this. When you publish your book as an indie, you can look at the actual sales reports any time you like. You don’t have to guess at what the numbers mean or what you’re making in royalties. It’s taking me some time to come to grips with this.
If you do not have your own store and your ebook is on Amazon, become an Amazon affiliate. Post links to your books on your site. Every time a reader purchases an ebook or paperback from those links, you get a cut. It’s a damned small cut, of course, but it does add up.
Building an audience is absolutely necessary to be successful. Whether you do so by being on a podcast with a bunch of lunatics, have your own podcast loved by lunatics, or simply publish a ton of titles, that bit of connecting with an audience is critical these days if you want to stand out from the chaff.
Now it’s a known fact that horror sells rather less well than fantasy/science fiction/mystery, etc. So I’m hardly panicked about the rankings. I assume that when Shadowpublications.com publishes “Legends of Garaaga” next month, the podiobook for “The Black” drops, and the impending publication of “The Rider” from Scott Sigler’s GFL series (which I co-authored), those numbers will rise significantly. But I don’t care about that.
You have to be in this for the long haul. If you have 4 books that never make the bestseller lists, but are consistently ranking between 10k and 20k, you’re going to be VERY successful. Each book brings in another reader. If they like it, they’re going to go after your back catalog. Even if it’s in a genre they may not have otherwise purchased.
I’m very proud of “The Black.” It’s not the kind of book I usually write. As David Wood said, it’s the most marketable tale I’ve written. I’m excited about the sequel too. Regardless of whether it is purchased by Severed Press, I’ll be writing it. Because it needs to be written. No other reason than that.
Again, thank you for all your support and your patronage. The only way I can give back to y’all is create more content you’ll enjoy. And I have a lot of it coming. Stay tuned. Because this is only the beginning.