december sales numbers

Just a short post about my December sales figures. I hope all of you had a good New Year’s celebration. We spent it with our grandparents. I know. Exciting. We’re kind of boring. No really. The most exciting thing we do is go bowling on occasion. We party hard.

Anyway… sales. I was actually interested to see that my ebook sales and paperback sales were about neck and neck. I expected most of my sales to be in digital format. How wrong I was. Apparently, more people read hardcopy books that I originally thought. That, or ereaders are not as prevalent as some people would like us to think.

I was also surprised at how well I’ve done since the release. I honestly expected to sell fifteen copies of my book in the first month. Twenty at most. Never did I imagine that I would sell fifty… well, forty-nine. Close enough. Still. I never thought I would do this well. I’m also pleasantly surprised at the reviews so far. I have six reviews on Amazon, averaging four-and-a-half stars. I have eight reviews on Goodreads, averaging four-and-a-quarter stars. Hopefully, those reviews will help me get future sales. That’s the point of them, right?

So, here’s a breakdown of my sales. I have a spreadsheet. I’m cool like that.

December Sales for The Clockwork Giant

Kindle: 18 (17 domestic, 1 international), $60.23 in royalties

Nook: 6, $19.44 in royalties

Smashwords: 0

Lulu: 7, $29.96 in royalties (this was the only place readers could purchase the paperback for a while)

Createspace: 18, $62.28 in royalties (all through Amazon)

So, tally is twenty-five paperbacks sold and twenty-four ebooks sold. I’ve made $171.91 in royalties for the month of December. I’d like to be optimistic and think sales will only go up from here, but realistically, sales are likely to slow down. At least until more people hear about the book. I’m okay with that. I’ve already done better than I ever could have imagined, and my book has only been on sale for nearly three weeks. Though, I must thank my family. I know at least a dozen of those copies, probably more, were purchased by my extended family. A sale is a sale though, right?

I think I’ve done well for my debut novel. I have nothing to compare my numbers to, so I’m just going to stick with the fact that the book exceeded my expectations. Maybe it will continue to do so.

Anyway, I’d like to thank the readers of this blog who purchased my book. I don’t know how many of you did, but I appreciate it a great deal. You’re fueling my career as a writer, and I can’t thank you enough. And, for those of you who haven’t read my book, I’m holding a giveaway. You could win my book, in ebook or paperback format, or a gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. You just have to comment on this post.

Derp. (I couldn’t think of a clever closing statement, so this will have to do. Blame my husband. It was his idea.)