Just wondering if you’d be willing to share sales figures on “The Variant.” How many copies sold? I’d like to get a gauge on how feasible using the digital market is over print copies.
— Jeremy W. Bouchard
The Variant, a Borgesian spy-thriller short story, was my first experiment with self-publishing on the Kindle platform. You can find it on Amazon here.
As of March 31st, I’ve sold 4,608 copies through Amazon at 99 cents. I get 35 cents on each, earning me $1,613.
The majority of these sales came in the first six months. I now sell between 10 and 45 copies per month.
I also sell The Variant as a direct download, for which I give up only a small transaction fee. I’ve sold 740 copies, earning $732.
I haven’t tried selling The Variant through iBooks because, honestly, it’s a massive pain in the ass. As annoying as Amazon’s DTP scheme can be, Apple’s is byzantine. There are aggregators (like Lulu) that take some of the sting out of it, but for a surprisingly large cut of the action.
If self-publishing were more than a hobby for me, I’d definitely focus more energy on getting the maximum value out of both The Variant and its successor, Snake People. (Which, by the way, is desperately in need of some reviews. If you’ve read it and liked it, I’d appreciate some feedback on its Amazon page.)
I have a few book-like projects I hope to put out this year, but I haven’t made firm decisions about what form they will take. They might be physical books like A Book Apart‘s great little tomes, Kindle-able ebooks, PDF/ePub combos, or even iOS apps. Ultimately, it will depend on what’s best for the content, and which can best reach the audience.