(book one: GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet)
I won’t be quitting my day job, but it was nice to have this arrive in yesterday’s mail.
Fledgling authors get warned a lot about discouragement and despair in the querying and submitting phase, and I would still consider that to be the hardest and most demoralizing slog to get through. But if, like me, you get published by a small publisher that’s in no position to do promotion and marketing and advertise your book, you’ll most likely face a second discouraging phase once it’s actually in print and it seems like no one is reading it.
My sales didn’t take off like a skyrocket, going ever-higher and higher, but they also didn’t hit an initial max as all my blog readers and followers and friends obligingly went out and bought a copy and then plummet afterwards. Instead, I got a sawtooth of good sales periods interrupting the doldrums and a gradual accumulation, ultimately doing nearly twice as well as I thought I was doing. Later, I’ll do an analysis to see if (as expected) the upticks in sales corresponded to when I did author readings or had new ads out.
This is for the first book, GenderQueer: A Story From a Different Closet. In the most recent months reported, sales have fallen off as my attention (and blogging and advertising) has mostly focused on the second book. But I’m releasing combo ads that tout the two books as a continuing tale (which is true) so maybe that will fuel another good month or two for the first book.
Congratulations! You can now pronounce yourself a published author, a nice little accolade. My only book was published in 1995 and was my publisher’s top seller for that period. The lady I was dating remarked, “I hope we run into my ex husband. I can introduce you as a rocket scientist and best selling author…”
My publisher, Schiffer Publishing, does not remainder their books. If they have one left it is for sale. Twice a year I get a check for like, 79 cents.
Nothing feels quite as good as getting that royalty check – not for the dollars and cents, but because it’s a sort of validation.
I know it’s not a lot, but, heck, I still get royalties from my first book. Even though it was published 22 years ago. When I mentioned this to another author, his response as “It’s still in print?”
From another one who has entered the writing and publishing world, congratulations!
I got a report from my printer/distributor that I will be getting !! $49 !! in publisher compensation for the month of April… in ninety days. You have yours now! (modulo cheque clearing time…)
PS: now I want to read your book.
:: Wanders off to Indigo/Amazon/etc ::
And there it is, in Indigo, Canada’s biggest online bookstore!
