September 2011 Short Story Sales Stats

The numbers are definitely doing well for September. Here are my numbers for all works under 10,000 words and their collections:

Amazon (US/UK/DE):
         # of works:  16
         # of sales:  33

B&N
        # of works:  16
        # of sales:  2

I've actually had a few sales from Apple as well.  It's hard to keep track of my progress there because I publish through Smashwords and they update their sales reports roughly the same speed as evolution.  But I digress.  Most of my Apple sales have been for my two western novellas.  But in July I did sell one copy of an under 10k story.

I continued to have "Celebrity Space" set at free for the month of September.  The number of free downloads I have on a daily basis on Amazon has remained steady.  So that's promising.  When I first set the story for free there was a huge spike the first week or so and then it started to taper off.  I was worried that eventually the free downloads would stop altogether but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The free option seems to be making no lasting effect whatsoever on B&N.  I don't know how many free downloads I have had total (again, Smashwords) but I've been watching the sales rank over there.  It fluctuates up and down so I do know that someone is downloading something over there.  Based on what I've observed watching my other stories there, I would hazard to guess that I "sell" 1-3 free copies every day.  While free seems to encourage Amazon buyers to try other stories in my series, B&N continues to remain an elusive animal.

I do plan on keeping "Celebrity Space" free for another month.  It seems to be helping me more than hurting.   If if ain't Baroque, don't fix it (music joke!).

Comments

  1. The Daring NovelistOctober 7, 2011 at 9:17 AM

    I have had good luck on B&N freebies -- but you have to wait a LONG LONG time to know for sure. And not every book does well either as a freebie, or when it goes back to priced.

    And like you, I find my novella does best at Apple.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alain GomezOctober 7, 2011 at 11:44 AM

    That's true, I never considered maybe changing what's free to suit what sells on B&N. Do you find that your freebies on B&N have translated into sales for your other work?

    ReplyDelete

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