Six months ago I shared which formats and which channels were driving the most sales for my debut novel The Not So Average Life of Average Jane. I promised an update when I hit 1,000 books sold and here we are!
Recall that even though indie book sales data is less precise than data for traditionally published books, it’s generally known that the average self-published book sells around 250 copies in its lifetime—as in forever.
I’m thrilled that in one year I’ve sold 1,015 copies of my book! I think all indie authors can break the 250 copy threshold, which is why I’m sharing exactly how many books I’ve sold by format and which channel is driving the most sales.
Just as we saw at the six month check-in, paperbacks continue to be the most popular choice among readers. However, at one year in, paperback purchases have increase by nearly 3% as compared to the previous six months.
E-books remain the second most popular, although they account for about 1% less of sales compared to the previous period. Finally, while hardcovers account for nearly 10% of all sales, this is a nearly 2% decrease when compared to the previous six months.
A few factors may contribute to the changes in format popularity. The previous six months covered the holiday season and typically hardcovers are more popular during this time period when people are shopping for gifts.
Once you get past the holidays, markets and book events are typically less frequent in the early months of the year, at least in my area. But the arrival of spring brings the return of events! I’ve participated in five book festivals or markets this spring, which likely contributed to the uptick in paperback sales.
At the six month mark events accounted for 46% of sales. At one year in, this has jumped to 55%. In addition, the brick and mortar retailers included in this graph are all retailers that I’ve connected with personally by visiting their bookstore or boutique to create a partnership, which further reinforces the importance of face-to-face connections.
If you removed events and brick and mortar retailers from this graph, that would leave just 322 books sold from digital channels.
Indie authors cannot solely rely on e-commerce and digital algorithms to reach readers!
Since our last check-in I added two new digital sales channels: Draft2Digital for expanded e-book distribution and direct sales on my website.
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