Update on real Indie Author figures
- Ben S. Mackay
- 15 hours ago
- 3 min read
One day I will invest in a proper promotion campaign, but today is not that day. With that caveat in mind, let's dive in!
Orders
First up, a screenshot of my total orders!
May 11 is when I first opened my KDP account, but the books weren't released until the end of May (1.5-2 months ago). Why am I making this post this week and not waiting for two full months? Because 140 orders, 80 for Air Superiority and 60 for Compromised, was such a beautiful set of numbers that I couldn't resist.
It looks like my initial prediction held true. After the initial spike of friends and colleagues, there's a small trickle of people ordering (roughly one a day). For context, this tends to keep Air Superiority somewhere around 100k-200k on the UK rankings.
Kindle Unlimited
Pages read is still my favourite metric, because I can see avid readers demolishing the book in a single sitting or two! I know I still have a lot to work on, but it makes me so happy to know the prose doesn't keep people from drowning in the action.
Air Superiority seems to be read in binges, while Compromised only has a few big reading sessions. My current theories are:
(1) It's the nature of grounding Harrington = it's slower paced
(2) It's not as good as Air Superiority
Either way, I'll have Harrington back in the air more in Renegades, so we'll see how that changes things in future!
Royalties
My ebook is 0.99 (euro, dollar or pound), which gives me a super low royalty rate. Am I about to increase it? No. It hasn't been professionally edited, this is my first project, and I want feedback. Why not make it free? Because this makes me feel more like a "real" author, and it is validating when someone spends money on something I have made!
To everyone who has spent money on my books, thank you. I toast my coffee in your honour and hope reading it gave you the same pleasure as my overpriced ice latte.
*My selection for the KENP estimate is based on the previous month's rate
Ratings/Reviews
The most exciting part of the last few weeks by far has been my reviews. I'm up to three, and each made my day when I first read them.
My only Goodreads review needs no text. I don't agree (not that I say this because big film studio IP teams scare me, honest) but I still love it.
I have two Amazon reviews, one from the US and one from Germany.
The German one is super lovely - a really concise overview for people decising whether or not to buy the book. Thank you Ricardo C!
The American one is a review for me as a writer, which makes it the most valuable. It is also the one that makes me laugh. Someone who views bisexuality as a criticism still gave it five stars? What an absolute win. In all seriousness, if you're out there, thank you, Nate. I see your feedback on not giving the squadron enough backstory and take it on. Rather than slow down Renegades, I think I would have fun writing a prequel. All the main characters have (in my head) very interesting backstories, so it would be a lot of fun weaving everything together.
"Unusual find", "Twisty story", "Fast paced", "Fun to read"... I published these to figure out if I had something worth polishing. I wanted to find out what people thought of my plots, my characters, and my narrative style. It was scary but it was definitely worth it.
I am sure bad reviews will come, and I am sure they will hurt. Some I will learn from, some I will ignore, and all of them will help me grow as a writer and as a person. If there's one thing I have learned from this whole experience, though, it is that I need to start posting reviews when I love a book. I used to think "why would anyone care what I think?" but now I know there is an author who probably genuinely does care.
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