Today marks one month of publication for my fifth novel, Book 3 in my Belfast Ghosts series: Matthew’s Twin. To celebrate, it’s on a Kindle countdown deal, so you can grab a copy for only 99p on Amazon UK until 27th November.
Every new book I write becomes my favourite, and each book does better than its predecessor on launch day. I compare my books only to my own back catalogue, for that is my competition. In that respect, Matthew’s Twin has had the most success to date, out of all five of my novels so far. Here’s the breakdown:
Release day:
Matthew’s Twin is reached #94 in best sellers for Metaphysical fiction for ebooks on publication day, and #29 in best sellers for ghost fiction for hardcovers. These were for paid sales, not free giveaways.
Matthew’s Twin was the first of my books to reach any best seller lists on release day; The Blue Man and The Fairy Lights both made it onto best seller lists for ghost fiction and psychological literary fiction respectively, but each achieved this within the first month – not the first day. Woohoo, go Matthew’s Twin!
One week:
The lovely thing about being an Indie author is having control over distribution – and with that comes access to publishing stats. Here’s how my fiction books fared in their first week of sales, ranked in order. Note how my debut novel isn’t included – this is because my publisher didn’t tell me these stats; I receive only biannual royalties statements from them.
Sales in the first week:
The Buddha’s Bone = 44 copies
The Fairy Lights = 34 copies
Matthew’s Twin = 24 copies
Diabolical Dreamscapes = 20 copies
The Blue Man = 19 copies
Here, Matthew’s Twin is middle of the list – but the interesting thing about publishing stats is that, for mine at least, they’ve proven to be comparable to a marathon Vs a sprint. The Buddha’s Bone started off well as it was my first book under my own publishing imprint, with ISBNs I bought from Nielsen and registered at the British Library, and so I plugged a lot of advertising money into that book. And I mean, A LOT. To the point where I’m still in a huge deficit of sales vs advertising expenses. However, in terms of most sales, The Blue Man far exceeds all my other books to date, with The Fairy Lights in second place and The Buddha’s Bone in third place. Only time will tell how Matthew’s Twin does in the book marathon over the course of its first year when stacked up against the others.
One month:
With each book I write, I spend less on advertising (I’m now down to only paying for sponsored ads and distributing a few free copies to book bloggers and ARC readers who I trust, whereas I started out 2 years ago paying for much more unnecessary advertising), yet my sales have been improving. I’m guessing that this means either: a) readers who bought my other books are buying my new ones too, or; b) the publicity I’m getting for my books now is reaching a wider readership. Or both? Who really knows. I certainly don’t have a degree in marketing so I can’t say for sure.
That being said, I’m thankful to literary friends in the writing community on Instagram and Facebook who have helped to promote my book. Word of mouth is very important for Indie authors, and this has helped considerably in getting Matthew’s Twin noticed. Check out these fabulous promotional designs by talented fellow authors:
One last thing:
Thank you to all you folks out there who have bought copies, or downloaded Matthew’s Twin on KU (it’s free if you subscribe). I hope you enjoy it, and please do leave a rating or review when you’ve finished!
Leilanie Stewart 