Status Update - July 2011, Plus More Real Numbers

Currently reading - Dead Girls Are Easy by Terri Garey (MMPB)

Since so many people are looking for my status updates, I added the month and year to the post title to make them easier to find.

July? Yeesh! I'm so far behind I can see my own backbone.

I hate to say this, but Seasons of Magick: Summer will not be out on July 25th. One of the great things about indie publishing is I can change a deadline when necessary. For those of you who are asking about it (and thank so, SO much for your interest), I promise it will be out ASAP. I don't want to be one of those writers who throws any old thing on the internet.  I want to make sure that you feel your money is well spent when you read it.

For those writers who want some real data on sales, here's the numbers (total sales) for me from April through June:

April (only last 2 days of month)
Amazon - 6
Barnes and Noble - n/a
Smashwords - n/a
XinXii - n/a

May
Amazon - 19
Barnes and Noble - 4
Smashwords - 5
XinXii - 0

June
Amazon - 16
Barnes and Noble - 5
Smashwords - 0
XinXii - 0

Total books sold in second quarter of 2011: 55

First of all, I so cannot complain about these numbers.  I'm a new fiction writer doing this solely on my own.  My reader base must be built from the ground up. 55 books in 63 days is effing marvelous!

The only thing I see as a potential problem was the Big 6's little pricing experiment the week of June 12th.  They cut the prices on a lot of their books to more reasonable levels.  I sold absolutely no books that week.  In fact, I originally chalked it up the post-school craziness most families experience as you switch from one schedule to another.  Or I did until a lot of other indie writers reported seeing a similar slow-down that week, and I started some investigating on my own.

My initial trepidation was not ameliorated when Bob Mayer reported that big publishers are starting to get a clue.

But if the big publishers start dropping their e-book prices, will they adjust their "25% of net" royalty rates for authors?

Maybe I won't have to really worry until they do.

Now I must go work on a few things so y'all have something new to look at soon!