How Am I Doing (Selling Books) Compared To Other People?

A Literal Literary Loser Lets Loose

After I published my October 25 post, Money Talks: Small Publisher v. Self-Publishing, where I laid out exactly how much I made from a year of book sales, I received emails and social media messages from multiple folks complimenting me on my bravery.

Considering what is going on in various parts of the world right now, I would not consider the act of being transparent regarding monetary issues, bravery.

I simply consider it necessary. Because I also, very often, get emails and social media messages from people who ask me, “Should I pay X amount of money to a hybrid publisher? Should I spend X amount of money on a developmental editor, and a copy editor, and Beta readers, and a cover designer, and a tech expert, and a marketing expert so that I can self-publish?”

My answer is always, “That depends on what you are looking to accomplish.” (I explained as much when I spoke to my History Through Fiction publisher, Colin Mustful, during his 24 hour fundraiser for an Indigenous Writers Grant. Click here to watch. I pop up about 30 minutes into the steam.)

Facebook writers’ groups are full of posts broadcasting, “I sold 5000 books during my first 24 hours on-sale,” or “I’m #1 in X category on Amazon today!”

Those are terrific achievements, but folks often fail to disclose how much they spent on advertising their book that day, whether they slashed the sales price down to the minimum $.99 cents (which means they only netted $.33 cents per book), or whether they listed it as free.

They may have sold (or given away) books. But did they make money? If making money was never the goal, then great! But I do think announcements of best-seller status should come with hard figures alongside them. (As my math teacher husband likes to say, “Big is not a number.”)

I have never sold 5000 books in one day. I’ve given away that many, when I’ve run a promotion for “Murder on Ice,” the first book in my Figure Skating Mystery series, in the hope that it will lead to further sales.

When it comes to my latest historical fiction, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region,” I paid no money for promotion. My publisher, History Through Fiction, took care of that. And, when the book first launched in November of 2022, they discounted the e-book to $.99 cents, which did allow it to achieve #1 best-seller status on Amazon in the categories of Russian Historical Fiction and Jewish Literature and Fiction.

I’ve written at length about how much money I’ve made so far. (Read a detailed breakdown, here.) But, this week, I want to talk about how many copies I’ve sold, and whether “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” can be considered a success on that metric.

In July of 2023, in a post entitled, “Is Everybody Selling More Books Than You?” I quoted the following statistics:

• The average self-published book sells 250 copies.

• The average self-published author makes $1,000 per year from their books.

• 33% of self-published authors make less than $500 per year.

• 90% of self-published books sell less than 100 copies.

• 20% of self-published authors report making no income from their books.

It seems that many books sell less than 100 copies in the first year, with some selling only 5 or 10 in the first month of publication. Apparently the average yearly sales of books in the US is less than 200 a year, with less than 1000 in a book’s lifetime….

So how does this compare to the micro-published “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” in its first year of publication?

In its first year of publication, “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” sold:

• 1483 e-books

• 606 paperbacks

• 137 hardbacks

For a total of: 2226 copies.

That’s definitely more than the average 200-250 self-published copies per year, and even the 1000 per lifetime.

According to Scribe Media:

Research suggests that the “average” self-published, digital-only book sells about 250 copies in its lifetime. By comparison, the average traditionally published book sells 3,000 copies, but… only about 250-300 of those sales happen in the first year.

In 2006, Publishers Weekly asserted:

The average book in America sells about 500 copies.

In 2020, they calculated that: An average book published by a professional publisher sells 3,000 copies over its entire lifetime.

The Letter Review confirms:

Traditionally published books sell around 3,000 copies on average, with only 250 of those sales in the first year. 

So with 2226 copies of “My Mother’s Secret: A Novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region” sold in 2022-2023, I seem to be well on my way to hitting that 3000 mark.

Will I manage to exceed the average book’s lifetime sales? Stay tuned to find out!

In the meantime, let’s all be brave together! Let’s share our own experiences with sales and expenses in order to pay it forward for new writers. I would love to hear your stories!

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While I don’t spend money on marketing, I am constantly hustling to promote myself - and other - authors. My latest book review video, below: