A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...well back on February 5th of 2011, I launched my novel DUST as an ebook.
I just wanted to experiment with this new fangled book form called Electronic-Books-That-Aren't-Printed-On-Paper! Read about the beginnings here: beginning. By this time last year I'd sold 8406 copies of my ebooks. This year my grand total is 9383 books. That's less that 1000 books sold in this last twelve months. In the business we call that a big drop off in sales. I see this as a sign that the sales in the ebook world has slowed down (at least for me). Everyone's ereader is stuffed with books. It's not the wild west anymore. Here are the sales from the first 7 months of 2013.
In total I brought in around $1000 for my bottom line. Since I didn't have to do any extra work selling these books, it's a pleasant amount (but nothing like the year before when I made $6000 from ebook sales). My sense is that sales will continue on in this vein, making it a comfortable addition to my income, but not a game changer. I did decide to take my Northern Frights books off of the ebook market and sell the rights to HarperCollins (who will be putting them out soon). This is mostly because YA books still sell the majority of their copies in paperback. Kids are reading paper books! Those rebels!
I did write a book intending to release it as an ebook but at this point am holding on to it to see if there is a better option for me.
Tune in next year when you'll hear me say: I didn't see that coming*
*what "that" is, I don't know at this point.
Here are the requisite clickable links to my books, including the two "grown up" books I've published under the name Stephen Shea. If a book isn't available in your area as an ebook, it's because I'm still negotiating the erights for that book.
