Disappointing Sales

NOTE: My mom passed away on Friday, March 3rd around 2:22 am. I want to thank everyone who prayed for her and thought about her during the one year and two months she fought lung cancer. My return visits to your blogs and replies to your comments may be delayed while I process and heal. Thank you for your understanding!

I, just like any other unknown author—no matter if you are self-published or traditionally published—feel the bitter disappointment of few to no sales. It is impossible not to feel upset over no sales when you are doing everything in your power to get your name and your book out there.

I published two eBooks by 2014. In the beginning, I struggled as a new author—as any new author with no readership, no presence, and no writer friends would—but I did receive nice support from a small group of authors with my publisher and saw a boost from KDP Select’s five free days. (For my first short story eBook, I was completely okay and excited about those five free days, hoping for visibility when I was invisible.)

However, that quickly diminished, and by the time my second eBook came out, I noticed the small amount of sales and reviews that I was proud of for my first release did not arrive for my second release. (Side note: My publisher no longer participated in KDP Select at that point.)

When my third and fourth eBooks came out, I had an even harder time. When my first print book came out, it became an out-right battle. When my second print book and next short story came out (which to date has been my poorest selling eBook, despite the fact that I am extremely proud of this work), that fight turned nuclear.

Shouldn’t it become easier with each release?

In theory.

But that is not the state of publishing. Not then, not now.

Not seeing sales despite marketing yourself to the bone is hard to swallow. Sadly, it’s something all of us have to swallow, like a bitter pill.

I wish there was something we could do about this, and maybe there is. Perhaps if we banded together to fight the flawed system, change would occur. There are authors out there who stuff their Kindle Unlimited books to get more money, who do illegal tactics to get reviews that are against Amazon’s Terms of Service, and so much more.

However, there is something you can do, as an individual—don’t give up. Ever.

You may want to, but please don’t.

We need all the good, honest, hard-working (hard-writing) writers in this. We need you!

When a writer gives up due to disappointing sales, it makes me sad.

I get it. I really do. I’ve uttered the words (actually, I’ve yelled them) that I want to give up, but I never could. Even if I only sell to a handful of readers, because those few readers are precious. Even if I don’t make a buck—and I barely do. (How’s that for honest?) Even if I get rejections. Even if I don’t see the fruit of my efforts. Even if I continue to struggle—year in and year out—I won’t ever be able to give up. Depression tried its mightiest, and burnout came the closest, but I have a writer’s bone in my body, a writer’s muscle that needs stretching, and writer’s blood that keeps my writer’s heart pumping.

I am a writer.

You are a writer.

Don’t stop writing.

Keep on publishing.

Stay strong.

I have the hope that one day things will change for the better for all of us hard-writing writers, and I want to be in it when it does so that I may finally yank my feet out of the muck and climb up to where I should be, wherever that is. And I want you to be in it, too.

I want us to be in it together.

After a while, I did quit…

I quit looking at my seller’s rank on Amazon.

I quit looking at my sales.

And then I quit comparing my marketing efforts to other authors and stopped SHOULDING myself. So-and-so does this, so I should, too. 

By not looking at my ranks and sales, my stress cut down to half and I began to heal from my depression and burnout. 

Then, by not doing the things that were heavy shoulds, I started feel light and happy again.

I know that nothing has really changed; I’m not naïve, but sometimes ignorance really is bliss.

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