From research, I used these two statistics to set my goals:

1. Self-published authors rarely sell more than 75 copies and most of those copies are to friends and relatives.
2. Small publishers sell 20 to 30 copies of each title per month.

Given those two points, I figured selling 10 to 20 copies of Sage per month was a good goal. I’ve only published a few pieces in online zines, so my name is completely unknown. Since I was selling into the Kindle market, I didn’t have to worry that relatives or friends would be buying significant copies–no one I knew had a Kindle!

Sage made the 10 copies per month pretty easily and hit twenty plus–in fact, it averages twenty copies per month. It took me less than six months to reach 75 copies. So from that standpoint, I think we could say I reached the bottom tier of self-publishing pretty easily.

Sage will never be a blockbuster, nor will it generate significant income–it’s priced at $1.00. What it does do is generate interest and serve as a cheap way for readers to sample my writing style. It did well enough that I decided to publish a novel, Catch an Honest Thief.

My goals for Thief were to sell 20 to 30 copies a month or get close enough to figure out if the market was receptive to my work.

Thief had a rocky start. It made the twenty and then sagged for a couple of months. The reviews and feedback on both Thief and Sage were good, however. By November 2009, I still didn’t know whether the model made sense. Sage was meeting expectations, reviews were meeting expectations but sales were under expectations with Thief.

I decided to go ahead with Executive Lunch. My goals were the same as for Thief: twenty to thirty sales per month. If sales for either of them didn’t get there, Lunch would probably have been my last Kindle edition. (Keep in mind that while all of this was going on, I did have a completely different series subbed to regular publishers.) I’m a big believer in attacking from different angles to reach my goals.

Executive Lunch was what I will term my Kindle “break-out” novel. It averages over 100 copies per month. It helps sales of the other two books as well, pushing them into the 20 per month since it went live. Some of its success is probably due to the good reviews on the other two, plus some good early reviews for Lunch. Some of the success is probably due to the fact that it came out in November, very near the big Christmas shopping season.

I used the success of Lunch to tweak the book description of Thief and also to improve the cover.

The bottom line: My goal was to sell 500 minimum within 18 months to declare any kind of success. With Executive Lunch, I reached that number today, after four months. My audience has been kind–maybe because I don’t charge much for my novels, maybe just because they are kind people. At any rate, the second in the Executive series will be out this year. My goals are a little higher now that I have some numbers. Realizing the whole thing could fall apart due to the economy or fate or alien zombies, I’m hoping to sell a thousand copies of Executive Lunch by the end of this year–and five hundred of Executive Retention, which I expect out in July, priced at $2.99.

It’s been a lot of fun, a lot of work, but I’m enjoying myself. Watch the blog–I’ll be having a cover contest to choose the covers for my next two books!

I noticed that the story displays much cleaner on Explorer than it does with Firefox (I haven’t tried other browsers). For that reason and because I’m into e-readers, I’m thinking of making the story available for download in an e-reader format. What do you think? It is short enough to read online, but it might be more convenient to read on the go!

Since it isn’t yet converted for download, feel free to go read it, but let me know if you would like a version for your e-reader.

As always, with my published short stories, after the exclusivity period is over, I also make them available over at AnthologyBuilder where you can add any of the very large inventory of stories into a print book and have it shipped to you.

It is soooooo hard for me to not take one of every kind! Or two. Or…flowers. Or…okra??? I’ve never grown okra!

I did better than in years past because last year was so hot, it was difficult to take care of the garden (read: little produce and lots of backbreaking work, an expensive watering bill…) The thought of the heat from last year made me put two plants back. Oh sure, I still have more than I need. I’m counting on the neighbors. There must be a neighbor on my block who needs a tomato plant or…five. Cucumber plants anyone???

I put the sad looking cucumber plants outside and planted some more. They were left too long in pots and just wilted. Not the best looking plants I’ve ever tried to raise. Hopefully the new seeds will come up looking perkier.

There are weeds all over the yard, in the garden…just calling to be dug up. I pulled a few, but it’s starting to drizzle which is a good enough excuse for me to come inside and post rather than do actual work. It’s supposed to rain for the next couple of days. We could really use some sun, but I suppose the plants want the water too. Spring is here, but it’s not in the best of moods.

I can only assume that your prices are so ridiculously high you are ashamed to print them in the ad that you sent. You are so appalled at your own pricing, you won’t even admit to the price online IN THE MENU. Save yourself money and save my time. If you are going to spend money sending me an ad through the mail, I guarantee that you need to tell me the price of your pizzas in that ad.

In your case, game over. Will not play.

He’s always been partial to flowers.

Green tea cream is supposed to be very good for the skin. It helps with dryness, redness and inflammation. I already have several creams that help with these symptoms and have had moderate success with most of them. But for a few years I’ve wanted to try a green tea lotion–one that didn’t cost 40 dollars an ounce with no label to tell me just how much green tea I’d be getting.

I’ve finally decided to do a white tea/green tea infusion. This is a method of soaking tea leaves in an oil to impart the properties of the leaves into the oil. I thought about using the crockpot (heat on low for a couple of hours, stirring often, strain with cheesecloth) but decided on the “sun tea” method. It takes longer, but I don’t have a lot of time to monitor the crockpot temperature today. I’m, well, supposed to be editing my manuscript, not concocting tea leaves!!!

So tea leaves and oil are sitting in the sunny window. I used wheat germ oil, even though olive oil is the standard oil of choice. We’ll see how it goes. At the rate I try different creams, I should look 2, not 60.

I have at least three tomato plants that would like to be transplanted outside. Too bad we still have a couple of nights this week when it might freeze. And since it is only 50 out, I’m not feeling particularly enthused about going and digging in the cold, wet ground. Sigh. Spring. It’s sort of here, but it’s hesitating.

Maybe it’s because I’m a writer, but I had to wonder about the history of this book plate. Did the book ever get published and circulated? Who came along later and thought the best use of the plate was to repair a floorboard? The frustrated writer? A careless relative?

The image itself is very interesting. Here’s my guess: The book was written during the war when the end date was not yet known. The author was writing his/her opinion of the war or a personal experience. You know the person lost someone dear. That question mark makes me wonder if the person wasn’t certain the war would ever end. What did the author lose? Were they doing the book in secret? Did they ever finish it? Did they live to tell their story or did the war end and things begin to change so quickly that the author never finished the endeavor?

What do you see when you look at the book plate?

Seems like everyone is jumping on the bandwagon–another new e-reader was introduced yesterday (snazzy looking, but with a 500 dollar price-tag). The Entourage Edge bills itself as a reader on one side and a netbook on the other. Someone at the company might have been reading the Amazon Kindle boards–they put in an SD card (a common request of those owning the K2), a user replaceable battery (another common request) and it can read EPUB and PDF files. No, it doesn’t read Kindle DRM files or Nook DRM files. However, so long as a file isn’t DRM protected, you can use free applications such as Calibre to convert the books to EPUB. (For the record, my books are DRM-free at Smashwords.com and at Amazon. They can be purchased in EPUB format from www.smashwords.com or you can buy them from Amazon and covert them to whatever format floats your e-reader.)

This Entourage device appears to be offering some real competition (if you ask me!) The iPad announcement was flat. It didn’t grab my interest, but maybe it wasn’t ready for prime-time. I think its failing was that the price tag was that of a netbook, but without the functionality. The Entourage seems like it might offer netbook capability and the e-ink screen for reading.

If anyone happens to buy one and has an opinion, let me know what you think! Be happy to provide a free coupon for one of my books in exchange for your analysis of the device!

I’m also very interested in the Mirasol technology I keep hearing about.