Today's supposed to be the day my book, "The Lyons' Den", officially goes on sale, but it's not up on Amazon in paperback or on Barnes and Noble at all. Hell, it's not even on the publisher's website. I found another site that offers electronic downloads of books -- www.kobobooks.com -- and it is on there, but it's posted as "adult fiction", which is kind of insulting. There's less sex in it than in a Jackie Collins novel, but hers are listed as general fiction. I'm already after them about that.
I'm also trying to find out from my publisher what the latest scoop is, but I don't expect to hear back from them till tomorrow evening.
On top of this, I now have some evidence that Amazon underreports sales. I finally got a sales report from the publisher of my first seven books...well, six of them; one book isn't even on it, so he'll have to send me a new report. Anyway, he says that the third volume of "Bobby Carapisi" only sold 8 paperback copies through Amazon in 2011. Problem is, I personally bought 10 copies and can account for at least 15 in sales through Amazon, alone. I submitted 6 of the ones I bought to a novel competition along with volumes 1 & 2 (didn't get anywhere, but didn't really expect to) and I still have some left.
Now normally I'd think it was the publisher manipulating the figures to keep from paying me too much, but aside from that just being a stupid thing to do, he has the reports from Amazon to back him up. Now we know how their company model makes them money -- only report 75-80% of sales and pocket the price they get on the rest.
One thing I did work out from this is, I'm selling between 30 and 35 books a month, on average (in both paperback and electronic downloads); I'll have a better idea of the exact number once I get the figures on that last book. That's better than I thought.
Y'know, I didn't start publishing my books to get rich. I knew that most of them were for a very limited market, and the fact that I've sold more than 2000 books in less than 5 years, even by my count, is enough to stroke my ego. Especially considering they've gotten damn near zero publicity.
Obviously, I am not on the same level as Steven King. It'd be nice, but I like what I've written, so far and see no reason to change. My characters have got my back.
Too bad the rest of the world see that as an excuse to try and fuck me over.
I'm also trying to find out from my publisher what the latest scoop is, but I don't expect to hear back from them till tomorrow evening.
On top of this, I now have some evidence that Amazon underreports sales. I finally got a sales report from the publisher of my first seven books...well, six of them; one book isn't even on it, so he'll have to send me a new report. Anyway, he says that the third volume of "Bobby Carapisi" only sold 8 paperback copies through Amazon in 2011. Problem is, I personally bought 10 copies and can account for at least 15 in sales through Amazon, alone. I submitted 6 of the ones I bought to a novel competition along with volumes 1 & 2 (didn't get anywhere, but didn't really expect to) and I still have some left.
Now normally I'd think it was the publisher manipulating the figures to keep from paying me too much, but aside from that just being a stupid thing to do, he has the reports from Amazon to back him up. Now we know how their company model makes them money -- only report 75-80% of sales and pocket the price they get on the rest.
One thing I did work out from this is, I'm selling between 30 and 35 books a month, on average (in both paperback and electronic downloads); I'll have a better idea of the exact number once I get the figures on that last book. That's better than I thought.
Y'know, I didn't start publishing my books to get rich. I knew that most of them were for a very limited market, and the fact that I've sold more than 2000 books in less than 5 years, even by my count, is enough to stroke my ego. Especially considering they've gotten damn near zero publicity.
Obviously, I am not on the same level as Steven King. It'd be nice, but I like what I've written, so far and see no reason to change. My characters have got my back.
Too bad the rest of the world see that as an excuse to try and fuck me over.
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