Expectation vs reality

It is over two years since I released ‘Barn Find’ to the world. That day my heart was full of pride and joy, my hopes high, my pride was soaring and nerves frazzled with anticipation!

As an eternal optimist always with a half-full glass, I was excited to see the reports showing number of sales and I was listening for the phone to ring half expecting a call from BBC, ITV or Netflix wanting to battle a bidding war to buy the rights for a TV series or movie. Joking apart, I never expected to make millions but I secretly had a dream of my book income replacing my modest monthly wage so I could leave my job.

The truth is that nobody knocked on the door and not a single sale in the first couple of weeks despite pricing it at 0.99p to tempt readers. After the hard work and countless hours that I had committed I was disappointed at the big fat zero. I actually had no reference or experience to know what my realistic expectations should have been.

I came to appreciate that the book was at least out there for people to discover. It does not have a sell by date on it. Therefore, I brushed myself off because ideas for more stories kept coming so I began a new project. I have now released three books and have many more ideas in my head for the fourth in the series with new characters.

I have decided to take a break though before repeating the cycle. It is an awful lot of effort for very little (financial) reward and I have got a bit demoralised. Don’t get me wrong, writing freely and making up stories in spare time is a joy to me, but it’s hundreds of working for nothing when you don’t sell any copies. My total income from all three books has so far been approx £30 in 2 years.

Here is a report this week of my total stats since releasing my first book, you might be surprised or maybe not.

303 sales seems good but at least 250 were downloaded when the books were on at a FREE promotion. I list them free in the hope readers leave reviews, which I keep reading is a positive way to grow interest. The fact is only 8 of the 303 have left reviews. I am delighted the books all get 4 or 5 stars so I find the positives and appreciate these who do.

Recently I have decided to make reluctant and cautious steps and have opened several social media accounts using my pen name. It’s early days because it is yet more new stuff for me to learn and it’s all quite a mystery to me. The sole intention is creating content that might capture people to like and follow me solely as a promotional tools hoping the activities translate to more book sales. If these new avenue helps I will be delighted.