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Yesterday marked the first anniversary for the release of my self-published historical romance, AMBERSLEY. I try not to make a habit of hawking my own books on this blog, but I do want to mark this occasion and share some statistics that might be of help to other writers who are exploring the possibility of self-publishing their work.
First off, I had very little idea of what I was getting into and had no real plan. Much of the success of the book can be attributed to the following factors:
- Cover art that successfully enticed readers to purchase (thank you, Laura Morrigan!)
- Popularity of historical romance overall
- Positive feedback from reader reviews outweighed any negative feedback
- 99¢ price point at a time when that pricing worked (it doesn’t work nearly as well in 2012 as it did in 2011)
- A few lovely mentions by The Cheap website’s Facebook pages rocketed my B&N sales
I also like to think I delivered a quality product: a well-written story with interesting events and engaging characters. Frankly, I wrote the kind of book I have always enjoyed reading, in the hopes others would enjoy reading it,too.
I’m proud to say that thousands of people apparently did enjoy the book! At least a few hundred have “liked” it, tagged it and left reviews on places such Amazon, B&N, and Goodreads. The book wasn’t universally loved, but I accept that as a given. Reading is a subjective experience, and each person has his or her own tastes when it comes to story. I tried to put my best work into Ambersley, and I will continue to do so with future books.
In its first year, Ambersley sold over 36,500 digital copies. It has sold all over the world through Amazon, Apple iBookstore and Kobo. It hit the #1 Bestseller spot on the Historical Romance list for both Nook and Kindle books. And it hit the overall Top 100 eBooks on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
My baby has “Bestseller” status.
It’s also netted me $17,000+ so far. No, I’m not getting rich, but in one year I’ve earned more than many authors receive for their first traditional publishing contract advance. Not bad for a single book by a pretty much unknown author with no marketing push. I didn’t do a blog tour, I didn’t do a lot of advertising, I didn’t send out dozens of review copies or give away thousands of downloads.
So, thank you to my dozens of family members and friends—and the thousands of readers I’ve never met!—who took a chance and purchased this book. I hope you enjoyed it. And my deepest appreciation goes to those who took the time to email me with feedback. Receiving notes from people who loved my characters is a joy I only dreamed about for many years.
For anyone interested in purchasing a print copy of Ambersley, it’s in the works. I have to reformat for printing, but the print edition should be available by the end of summer. Because it will be print-on-demand (POD), it will be what they call a trade paperback size (roughly, 6×9 inches) and the cost will be in the $15 range, I suspect. It’s a long book, so a lot of pages. If you want to be sure you hear about the print edition release, sign up for my newsletter or email me.
Thank you all! –Amy