JUNE UPDATE: 8,985 books sold in June. OVER 300,000 books sold as of June 30, 2012
DON’T LET LARGE SALES NUMBERS DEPRESS YOU, LET THEM INSPIRE AND MOTIVATE!
I still plan to report TOTAL number of books sold every month, but nothing will be quite the same since Abducted and Dead Weight will be re-released by Thomas & Mercer on July 17, 2012. Because of this, I will no longer have access to my sales numbers on a daily basis. Sales for these books will soon be reported on a quarterly basis. Using my sales chart, I can guess at number of books sold on a monthly basis, but it will only be an estimate.
To all writers out there who aren’t seeing great sales yet, I want to say use big sales numbers you see reported to motivate and inspire. For instance, Bella Andre sold over 90,000 books in the month of June alone. I am super excited for her. This is great news for indie authors. I don’t know Bella but she seems like a happy, friendly person and she obviously works hard and knows how to tell a story.
There are indie authors out there who are selling more than 90,000 books a month. There will always be somebody with more sales than you. There will always be authors out there making more money, too.
For nearly 20 years, I didn’t make a dime, not one cent, but I kept writing because it’s what I love to do. I was and am lucky enough to have a husband who works hard to keep a roof over our heads, but an extra paycheck over the past 20 years would have been nice, too.
Writing books and having my stories read by hundreds of readers was my dream and still is. I am now lucky enough to have the time to write, although it wasn’t always that way. Like many of you I struggled with finding balance between working outside of the house, writing, and raising kids. I put in my 10,000 hours (multiplied by 2 or 3) and now it’s paying off.
If you want something bad enough, you’ll work for it and you won’t give up. Writing a novel with tension and conflict and interesting characters is not easy. It’s definitely not a career for the faint of heart. Passion and determination is what it takes to keep many writers in front of the computer day after day.
Don’t let other writers’ large numbers of sales and big paychecks make you feel like you’re doing something wrong. Let it motivate you and challenge you to write the best damn book you can!