My expectations about Selfpublishing

Right now, I’m editing Daughter of the Dark, before I send it to a friend who has promised to crit it. ( Actually, I sent her an earlier version, but this one is much better.) Moira Rogers wrote a blogpost about quiet success recently, and after I read it I started to think about what expectations I had.

I’ll be frank. As much as I like Daughter of the Dark, I don’t think it will sell a lot. Why? Because that is more realistic than expecting it to be hugely successful.

My goal is to sell 100 copies per month, at Smashwords ( incl. the 12 stores they distributes to) and Amazon.

In more concrete terms, I expect to sell roughly 5 books/ retailer each month. (For simplicity’s sake, I’m counting Kobo and Itunes as one retail channel each, despite the fact they distribute to multiple stores.)

This is extremely low sales, and I know that it is likely I’ll sell a bit more than that. But even those low sales would earn me roughly 200 dollars in a month.  Which, considering the very limited budget I’m living on, would be very welcome.

One side effect of  aiming for low sales in different stores,  is that I can take into account the fact that there will be days when I sell zero copies. Or just one.

Heck, there will probably be months when I just sell one book at some retailers. Like the libraries that Smashwords distribute to, but I still plan to tick that box, since I like libraries. :).