Monday, April 3, 2023

Massive Blow-out Launch Month!

 Welcome everyone!

It's been about a month since The Huntsman and the Heretic launched. It's been a whirlwind for me. I've attended one launch party, two book fairs, and thee speaking engagements! My books are for sale in digital, audio, paperback, and hardback. All that together means I've had my most successful book launch yet, and by most common measures, a fantastically successful launch for 90% of self-published authors! Let me explain.


So let me first give you some context. If you search for "what is the number of sales a successful self-published author" you'll find people from Jenna Moreci to John Adamus tell you: 200 books in the first year or two. That might vary a bit by genre and whether a book is fiction or non-fiction, but for the most part if you can get 200 sales in two years, you're doing good.

For me, I set a goal of selling 100 copies across all formats of all books for the month of March. I looked back at my old data, figured I picked up a few more fans along the way, and 100 copies was my best guess. So that's 100 ebooks, paperbacks, audiobooks, and hardbacks total for the entire Hunter's Rose series.

I also set a way-out-there-crazy goal of 200. If I could get two year's worth of sales in one month, I thought that would be insane. It wasn't a realistic goal, more of a marker, really.

Back in February, I announced that I sold my 500th Copy. So 500 copies since March 2019 puts me at about 125 copies per year or so. That's great! I'm not wildly successful, but I'm doing better than most. 

But what about that "better than 90%" I mentioned earlier? Well, from March 2nd to March 31st, I sold a total of 215 copies! That's 20 months worth of sales in less than 30 days. WOW! 

I can't thank all of you enough. I didn't get to that goal because I'm a great writer or because I have a bulletproof marketing plan. I got there because I have loyal fans, friends, and family who have stuck with me. THANK YOU! No really, thank you. All of your support has helped me through some tough times this year. My success as an author has counterbalanced some very difficult challenges I've faced in the young year of 2023. You've made those hardships easier to bear. I love all of you.

I'll break down the numbers book-by-book in the near future.

For the next month or so, I'm taking a break. I'm exhausted. Launching a book is an enormous amount of work. Time for a rest. But that doesn't mean I've paused my writing. Nope. I'm already well along in my next book. It will be a surprise, I'm sure. I can't wait to share more when it's ready.

Thank you once again for your help and support. I needed it. Take good care of each other out there. Be back soon.

Peace,

-Troy