Now that 2010 is over I figured I'd look back at my sales figures and see how I did and the results are a little mixed. I'm still not where I'd like to be (selling thousands a month)...but sales did improve dramatically this past year. They were over 6 times better than 2009 so I am happy about that. I don't have the final Barnes and Noble figures yet as their system is down but most of my sales are from Amazon anyway so it doesn't really skewer anything. Here's how my books rank by sales. These include both paperback and e-books.
1) The Assassin
2) Escape
3) Bounty Hunter
4) Deadlock
5) Day of the Assassin
Here's how I look at it: The Assassin is by far my best seller at more than 2 to 1 over Escape and almost 3 to 1 over the #4 Deadlock. I always assumed Escape, which is a thriller, would eventually take over the sales lead since Westerns aren't as popular but it's never happened and I don't think it's ever going to. I tend to think it's because Assassin isn't a straight Western and has some Mystery elements to it so it may get some people who wouldn't have read it otherwise. Bounty Hunter and Deadlock are more straight Westerns and are pretty much where I expected them to be, though I actually thought Deadlock would be 3rd, but they're still pretty close. Day of the Assassin has sold about what I expected for a short story collection so I'm ok with its sales. E-books continue to be the bulk of my sales. In 2009, 92% of sales were from e-books. In 2010, 96% of sales were from e-books. Of course, I'm totally fine with that. The prices are much more attractive to readers, and I get just as much royalties from it as paperbacks. I'd love for the paperbacks to be less expensive but there's not much I can do to lower them. I've tried.
So all things considered 2010 was a really good year for me. Thank you to everyone who has given even one of my books a chance. It means a lot to me to know there are people out there reading my work (and hopefully enjoying them). I really can't say thank you enough. I am very appreciative of your support. I will be back with another post tomorrow outlining my goals for 2011. I am planning on this being my best year yet. I will definitely have out 3 new releases. Empire and books one and two from The Evil Series. Depending on how fast I write I might have as many as 5 or 6 though. We'll see but I'm hopeful. Hope everyone's doing well, had a good 2010, and an even better 2011. Thanks so much!
