Chupacabra’s Stats
Writing numbers and business-type neepery ahead.
I announced the publication of a story in the Magic ex Libris universe called “Chupacabra’s Song” a week ago, and was curious to take a look at sales channels and such. The short story is available for $.99 at the following outlets:
Amazon | B&N | iBooks | Kobo | Smashwords | Google Play
I haven’t done any channel-specific advertising or anything like that. After a week, the sales break down like so:
- Amazon: 250
- B&N: 19
- Smashwords: 9
- iBooks: 8
- Kobo: 6
- Google Play: 3
Here are the percentages, if you prefer to look at it that way:
That’s a total of 295 sales in a week, which isn’t bad at all. Given the different royalty rates, which range from roughly 35% to 50%, I’m guesstimating the story has earned a little over $100 in royalties. Not bad for a reprint, especially considering there will probably be some additional sales trickling in over the coming months and years. I’ve more than earned back the money I invested to prepare and publish the story.
Has it covered the time I invested? That’s a harder question, and depends on how I assign an hourly worth to my time. I’m leaning toward no, because I spent a fair amount of time prepping things, getting the files uploaded to various sites, and so on. But I’m okay with that. I’m happy about getting the story out there for more readers, and as a proof-of-concept, it certainly shows there’s a bit of demand.
Remember, this story was a reprint, so some folks had already seen it. A longer, original piece will likely do significantly better.
My thanks once again to everyone who picked up a copy. Especially those of you who posted a review at Amazon, Goodreads, and elsewhere. Very much appreciated.
Tune in next week for even more charts and data, as I pull together the 2015 writing income report.
HoosierDragon
January 2, 2016 @ 2:21 pm
And here I was expecting the D&D stat block for a chupacabra.
Jeri Lynn
January 2, 2016 @ 4:43 pm
Do you get better percentage at some sites than others? Which one pays you the best?
Sally
January 2, 2016 @ 4:56 pm
Gosh, I’ve always wanted to be one of the 1%.
Jim C. Hines
January 2, 2016 @ 5:10 pm
Amazon is 35% for anything under $2.99. B&N looks to be 40% for this one, and Google Play is about 50%. Kobo is around 45%. Finally, Smashwords is between 45% and 55%, depending on whether you buy direct or through one of their affiliates.
mjkl
January 2, 2016 @ 7:18 pm
You should try posting a reminder about it (FB, Twitter, here) and see what happens. I bet there are some people for whom it got lost in the holiday/end-of-year craziness who might buy it if they were reminded of it (like me, off to purchase now.)
Jim C. Hines
January 2, 2016 @ 7:56 pm
Well, I figured today’s blog post could serve double-duty that way 🙂
I’ll also be sending a reminder in the newsletter that goes out next month.
David Youngs
January 2, 2016 @ 9:28 pm
Would it be available at B&N’s print on demand?
Jim C. Hines
January 2, 2016 @ 9:57 pm
E-book only, sorry.
Nick
January 3, 2016 @ 12:18 pm
Huh. The fact that only 3 people (including myself) purchased the story from Google is interesting and (as someone with a substantial library of Google books) a bit concerning to me. Is the ratio of sales into each channel similar to what you see in your other offerings, like your traditionally-published novels?
Jim C. Hines
January 3, 2016 @ 2:46 pm
It’s pretty similar to what I’ve seen from my other self-pubbed stuff. I don’t have the data to compare it to the traditionally published books, unfortunately.
DTL
January 4, 2016 @ 9:55 am
Nice result! Apparently late December/early January is good for ebooks, since people get gift certificates for Amazon or new kindles for Christmas.
Did you also see a rise in sales on your other self-published work? I can imagine that people who like this will also buy other stories from you now.
Pam Adams
January 4, 2016 @ 11:29 am
I had replied to the original ‘are you interested’ post, and then got busy and didn’t notice the ‘it’s up now’ post. Luckily, Amazon knows my tastes and suggested it as a purchase.
Jim C. Hines
January 4, 2016 @ 8:21 pm
I haven’t noticed a bump in other sales, but I also don’t do a lot to promote or publicize the other things I’ve self-published. That’s another thing I need to look at as I get more into the self-publishing side of things.
Sally
January 5, 2016 @ 9:07 pm
Then I’m glad I bought through Google so you could get the whole 49 cents. Do spend it all in one place. I’ll give you a penny if I see you, to round it up to a usable amount.