It all starts with sales reported to me from Lulu.com.  In order to keep the price of my book affordable, I opted for a lower royalty, just 67 cents per copy sold through a distribution channel outside of Lulu.  Here are the total copies sold through Lulu and the total money I made from each as of June 8, 2009.

Lulu:

23 copies sold through distribution channels – Amazon  (67 cents each x 23 = $15.41)

2 copies sold through UK distribution channels (67 cents each x 2 = $1.34)

3 Ebook downloads direct from Lulu ($4.00 each x 3 = $12.00)

1 print copy sold direct from Lulu ($3.86)

That’s a total of $32.61 earned direct from Lulu.com the first year.

Sad, isn’t it?  Not really.  Obviously, I sold more copies through Amazon than I did direct from Lulu. Perhaps I could have done more promotion.  Perhaps I could have directed more people to Lulu instead of Amazon to increase my earnings per copy.  However, the majority of readers are more likely to buy through a site they know and trust, such as B&N or Amazon, rather than buying direct from my Lulu bookstore.  Had I never once mentioned the book was available on Amazon, and had I only directed people to Lulu, maybe my earnings would be better…maybe not.

But don’t frown.  That’s just Lulu.  Let’s take a look at Kindle E-reader sales for the year.  For the sake of price changes, discounts, and the various number of copies sold per month, I’ll just show you how many copies sold each month and then give you the grand total of my earnings from Kindle alone.

Amazon Kindle:

June 2008: zero copies sold

July 2008: 2 copies sold

August 2008: 23 copies sold

September 2008: 25 copies sold

October 2008: 25 copies sold

November 2008: 29 copies sold

December 2008: 22 copies sold ( December/January show a decline in sales probably due to the holidays.)

January 2009: 17 copies sold

February 2009: 24 copies sold

March 2009: 73 copies sold (Release of Kindle 2)

April 2009: 33 copies sold

May 2009: 43 copies sold

June 2009: 7 copies sold as of June 8th

Grand total earned from all Kindle sales: $1044.80.  Not too shabby.

I invested in a total number of 30 author copies.  The majority of those copies were given away to friends and family or included in marketing kits.  I did sell five copies to coworkers and through the Amazon Marketplace at $10.00 each.

Total earned from direct author sales: $50.00

Last, we have sales through Smashwords.  A total of 23 copies have been downloaded since I published the book here back on February 18th, 2009.  However, I’d like to point out that I used Smashwords mainly as a marketing tool to help gain Amazon reviews.  Here, my book was offered for free in exchange for an Amazon review.  I only gained royalties from three sales totaling $5.81.  I have not yet been paid for these sales since Smashwords has a minimum requirement of $25.00 in earnings before they pay out.

This brings my total earnings across the board to a total of $1133.22.

That’s a far stretch from being able to afford my cost of living for one year.  Not really even enough for one month.  It is 3 car payments though; it’s even enough to pay my utility bill for 16 months.  As I reported in my last diary entry, almost all of this money was invested in marketing and review copies. But I have no debt as far as this project goes, which is more than some self-published authors can say.

Now, let’s take a quick look at reviews.

To date, I have 10 reviews on Amazon. Nine are from people I have never met face to face.  That’s important because reviews from friends and family are nice, but they are always going to be positive. The first review came from an Amazon Top 500 Reviewer who I sent a review copy to.  Three of the reviews were a result of my free Smashwords Ebook give away. And two of the reviews were cross posted from other review sites. My current Amazon rank is at 1.2 million, but has been as high as 101,000 although it fell fast. My current rank on the Kindle is 104,705.

My first review outside of Amazon came from Rainbow Reviews.  I was sorely disappointed in this review, not because it only gave me three stars, but because the quality of the review itself is horrible.  The reviewer just reposted my book blurb, then pointed out three paragraphs he liked and wrapped up the review with two sentences which pretty much anyone could have come up with just by reading a few pages.  Thankfully, this review was not cross posted to Amazon.

The second came from Floyd M. Orr at PODBRAM.    Floyd cross posted a version of the review to Amazon for me.  I have to admit its a nice critical and well rounded review, just as a review should be.

The last review I received outside of Amazon was from Cheryl Anne Gardner at PodPeep. Cheryl was the first to really point out a lot of my subliminal underlying tones of the book and to really embrace the humorous aspect of the story. Cheryl also cross posted the review to Amazon for me.

And this is where my year ends.  It’s certainly not where my story ends.  Like I said in my last post, this is a good place to end the diary even though my journey as an author is far from over.  I’m not going to recap my mistakes or what I’ve learned from this diary.  I’ll leave those things up to you to find out for yourself in all my previous posts. I have no philosophical words of wisdom to share with you. The diary speaks for itself. I’ll still be sharing news and thoughts about self-publishing in general from time to time on LLBR, but this is where the POD Diary comes to a close.

What’s next for me, you ask?  Well, I’ve often referred to myself as a literary medium.  There’s always another character or storyline in my head waiting to be born, usually several at a time actually.  I’ll still be promoting my book and seeking out reviews, and checking my Amazon rank every other day, and wait eagerly for more Kindle royalties, but it’s time to put my focus into something new.  Another story, another character is calling and I’ve ignored the messages long enough.

For the readers out there who took time to read my book, I thank you.  And for the writers out there who have followed my diary this past year for information or inspiration, I say to you what I say to every author I encounter who takes the self-publishing path:

Don’t give up!

The first major disadvantage I discovered is that CreateSpace books are only available through the CreateSpace website and through Amazon.com, but the more I thought about this, the more I thought about it not being so bad.  After all, self-published books are often frowned upon in chain bookstores because of their big price, small discount, and non-returnable stipulation.  For an author who doesn’t mind eliminating the capability for bookstores to be able to order your books through wholesale, it’s not such a bad thing.  I’ve noticed this limitation also keeps pricing low, but we’ll talk more about pricing later.  For now, just know that it allows your books to be affordable enough to invest in enough of your own stock to sell to indie bookshops, at conventions, book fairs, signings, etc. on your own.

CreateSpace allows creative individuals to make their own DVDs, CDs, videos, audio downloads, and of course, paperback books.  For the sake of the blog and being an author, I’ll be discussing the book option. After creating a free account, an author follows four simple steps to publication. The first step is Title Setup.

Title Setup is where you enter all the basic information about your book: title, subtitle, volume number, description, and imprint name.  Here, you can also enter your own ISBN number if you already have one or you can choose to have CreateSpace assign one to you.  There is no additional fee for their ISBN. You also choose what category you want your book listed under; you are only allowed to choose one so pick carefully. Next, you choose a reading level which starts with preschool and goes up to college graduate student.  I would have liked to have seen at least a few more levels beyond the graduate student range such as adult male, adult female, parent, single parent, senior citizen, etc.  Otherwise, college graduate student becomes quite broad.

There’s also a section where you choose where your book might have been previously published.  Although this is probably there just to help CreateSpace capture where their customers are coming from, it’s interesting to note that there are only four choices to pick from: Not Previously Published, LSI, Lulu, and Other. Publication date, country, language, keywords, authors and contributors, and an author biography are the final steps in Title Setup.

Step 2 is File Review where you will upload your book’s cover and your manuscript, both of which have to be in PDF format.  You’ll also choose what size your book will be.   There are 13 sizes to choose from ranging from basic 6 x 9 to magazine size 8 x 10. Learn more about Trim Sizes on the Get Started page.   I’d also like to point out the information on the Trim Sizes & Artwork tab which thoroughly explains how to create your own cover file.  From minimum cover width and height, safe zones, cover bleeds, spine width and variance, and ISBN barcodes there is a lot of information on this one page which can be applied to any DIY Publishing model where you would be responsible for your own book’s cover (including Lulu).

So, authors needing a good reference on this should definitely bookmark this page even if you aren’t using CreateSpace.  It contains very valuable information! For those authors who might want some easy and free assistance with creating a book cover, CreateSpace offers that too. Just click on Create a Cover when you are on the Upload File page. Now, be warned there is a lot of free artwork available here, so someone else’s book having a similar cover to yours is bound to happen.

In Part 2 of this article, I’ll be discussing Step 3 of the publication process, pricing, CreateSpace’s Pro Plan, shipping, and more.

I had the pleasure of reading Robert Toonkel’s book, Chappaqua, in August as part of our Back to School focus.  Just yesterday, I noticed Robert’s book had gone live on Amazon since the review.  I decided to cross post our review to his Amazon page and also noticed the book had a new cover.

I was so impressed by it I decided to email Robert to let him know about the review and to congratulate him on the new cover.  Robert quickly replied to let me know what’s happened to Chappaqua since it was reviewed here at LLBR.  His news immediately put a smile on my face and is a quick reminder of what POD and this blog is all about.  I’d like to share Robert’s email with you now…

Shannon:

I keep meaning to e-mail you to update you and other Lulu Book Review readers on where Chappaqua has gone since you so kindly reviewed it. I’m not sure how you find the time to do your regular job, publicize Stealing Wishes, write, and review all those books. I can barely find the hours to handle the first two of those.

There have been so many times where I’ve just wanted to put Chappaqua away with the publisher rejection letters it received, but as I know you felt with your book, I couldn’t let go of the time and effort I had put into it. So I’ve been self-promoting like crazy, borrowing some ideas from your blog (Thanks!), adding some of my own. I don’t know where Katie Fitzpatrick is going to go from this point, but regardless, I can say that I’ve basically done everything I could for her.

Just some of the things I’ve done – you’ve done a bunch of these – but in that case, I just want to reiterate how helpful they are:

Lulu – Sure, Lulu doesn’t have the reach of Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but it isn’t a dead end either. Chappaqua went from the 30,000th best selling book in September to the top 3,000th in December, placing in the top 100 one week. I’m not going to get rich off the royalties, but people are buying it. And more than a dozen people (more than half of them unknown to me) were kind enough to write reviews.
Cover – You have a brilliant idea with helping to design covers. I paid a college girl $200 to design Chappaqua’s current cover and it says so much more than the quick one I did “just to put a cover on it.” No one has to pay a “professional designer” thousands of dollars to make a cover. But a small investment will go a very, very long way.
Amazon Kindle – I haven’t sold a single copy in the ten days it has been on the site, but having it out there offers potential (and also makes it more legitimate). Telling someone your book is on Amazon is instant recognition.
Facebook – In August, I gave Chappaqua a Facebook page – which has gathered more than 100 fans and 2,000 views. A great way to keep people in the loop about the latest developments, and also to publicize events and happenings.
A “Trailer” – Not as hard as it seems. Download Google’s “Picasa 3,” arrange a series of photos with text, put it to music and put it up on the web. It can be done in under two hours, even by someone as design-impaired as me. It’s on the Facebook page. Several hundred people have viewed it.
A “Baby Book” – Photos of Chappaqua’s development from the original idea to the current edition. Posted as an album on Facebook. People love to see the nuts and bolts behind the finished product, and understand that a book, like Rome, wasn’t built in a day.
A Website – I bought a domain for less than $10 a year, use a simple web-building tool, and gave Chappaqua a website (www.chappaquanovel.com). Everything you need to know about the book, with a sample, pictures, reviews (including a link back to you), and thanks to PayPal, an easy way for people to order the book directly. I set it all up in less than a day. More legitimacy.
Publicity – I’ve used a printing company for Valentine’s Day and Christmas cards in the past, so I turned to them to make postcards, bookmarks and small (11×17) posters for Chappaqua. They turned out to be very valuable for…
Local Bookstores – I went to the local bookstore in Chappaqua and offered them a chance to be the only storefront to carry the book. I told them I would put their name on the postcards and bookmarks. They grudgingly agreed to take 5 copies on consignment for 60 days. Those sold in 59 days. They asked for 5 more. Those sold in 6 days. They asked for 13 more. Those sold out in a weekend. They have the postcards and bookmarks at the checkout counter and people become interested. Recently, they expanded the “few books on a shelf” into a complete display. (A side note: I had offered the book to a second local bookstore and was told that they did not accept POD books under any circumstances. Three months later, they called me to ask for a dozen books because people kept coming in and asking for it to the point that they had created a waiting list).
Libraries – My local library scheduled a book talk about Chappaqua for 19 December. Unfortunately, New York was hit with a massive snowstorm that day, so it was postponed until 19 March. According to the program director at the library, a few members of the media had called to make arrangements. The library is another place where I left postcards and bookmarks.
“A Press Kit” – Bio, press release and one-pager on the book. As a communications person by trade, I can vouch for the importance of this.
A Unique Angle – It goes without saying that you have to explain what makes your book different/special than anything out there. I’ve come up with a unique way of talking about Chappaqua to people who don’t read books or who lie well beyond my target audience. When my fourth grade teacher invited me to speak to her class, I brought up some of the facts from this section of the Chappaqua page (http://mysite.verizon.net/res11mw5h/id71.html) to their attention. They might not be interested in the subject, but they’re always amazed that I know how many times I used certain words, which leads to creative exercises like trying to write a paragraph without using “the” or avoiding words that begin with “s.” Then they go home and tell their parents about this interesting lesson they had. It also gives adults an interesting fact to remember. In the long run it might be worthless, but I think it’s fun.

That’s where Chappaqua stands as of now. Who knows what will happen in 2009?

Thanks again for your e-mail, your review and all your efforts to promote books such as Chappaqua. I hope 2009 brings you all kinds of good things for Stealing Wishes and for the new novel that you’ve been mentioning from time to time.

Rob

When I read the part about what happened in the bookstores, a smile came across my face!  It just goes to show what word of mouth can do for your book right in your own community.  Congratulations to Rob on his success!

Visit Chappaqua on the web!

Become a fan of Chappaqua on Facebook!

If you have purchased a distribution service for your book, your book is available through expanded distribution channels. When a customer buys your book, these sales are reported to Lulu based on a monthly sales summary provided by our retailers which we use to update your account. Due to additional restrictions on our expanded distribution network, effective immediately, sales reported from these outside retail channels will now post to your account within 6-9 weeks following the date of sale. These sales will appear in your account as one consolidated cart per retail channel (as if one customer bought all copies). Revenue from these retail sales will then be dispersed to the creator following the specified timeline based on the payment options you’ve previously selected for your account.

My immediate thought about this was that it might have something to do with the recent uproar concerning Amazon forcing POD publishers to use Booksurge printing services for copies sold through Amazon.  My reasoning is because of the length of time it takes to get paid through their Associates Program.  Sales reported each month don’t get paid to you until about two months later.

In most circumstances, this allows for a 30 day return policy, and another 30 days for accounting to balance the books.  Although LuLu did not mention Amazon as being the source behind it’s reasoning, if it is then this is just another way Amazon’s new policies affect both the publisher and the author.