Book Sales Update: Crossing the 10,000 Unit Threshold

Back in August, shortly after I released Mutation, I had to go out of town and found myself away from the computer for a few days. Thus, I wasn't able to check my ebook rankings (which is an addictive habit - especially after a new release). However, when I was finally able to look at the numbers, I was super-excited to see that Mutation had made it into the Top 1000 in the Paid Kindle Store. I was so giddy that I was practically doing cartwheels at the day job.

Since then (and because I'm slightly superstitious), I've tried to adopt the mantra of "A watched pot never boils" and attempted to avoid checking my rankings a thousand times a day - something that's been pretty hard with two new releases (Extraction and Warden Book 2: Lure of the Lamia) in the last month. So far, today marks just the second time in October that I've looked at my sales so I think I'm getting there, but it's a craving I have to fight every day, like crack. Still, I was elated when I checked my numbers this morning and - after adding them to my total - realized that I had sold over 10,000 ebooks in my Warden and Kid Sensation series. 10,000! Since May of this year!

Of course, I knew I was close. Extraction - my Kid Sensation short story - broke into the Top 1000 in the Paid Kindle Store shortly after publication, and the second Warden book has been bumming around the Top 10 in one of its categories since its release earlier this month.  Still, it's kind of mind-boggling to finally get over that hump - to have five-figure sales. (Of course, there are people who do that and more every month, so let there be no doubt that I am still small potatoes.)

Needless to say, I feel blessed that my stories have found an audience and readers seem to enjoy my work.  And I should emphasize that these are net ebook sales numbers; they do not include free downloads, borrows, or print sales.  Moreover, any returns have been subtracted from the total.

The vast majority of sales have come from the three books in my Kid Sensation series: Sensation, Mutation and Extraction. (I am currently hard at work on the next full-length novel in the series and hope to have it finished soon.) That said, the Warden series is doing great in my opinion, and I'm truly fortunate to have two series that are performing quite well in their respective categories.  I even made it into the Top 100 Authors for one of my categories (Action & Adventure):

As you can see, I'm listed at #98 here (Woo-hoo!), followed by Ernest Cline and then some bum named Patterson - anybody ever heard of this guy?

Seriously though, when I saw this I just had to take a screenshot. I'm assuming there was a glitch in Amazon's system, but whatever alignment of stars that allowed me to rank above James Patterson isn't likely to be repeated (and was undoubtedly only temporary).

I think the James Patterson earned something like $95M last year. Running the numbers, that works out to about $260K per day. I'll happily trade my ranking for his sales - just a single day of his sales - any day of the week. Any hour of the day. Any minute of the...  Well, you get the picture.

Unfortunately, I only have a limited time to bask in the afterglow of my sales numbers. Books don't write themselves, so I guess it's back to the grind, but I want to say "Thanks" again for all of the support I've been given.