Books and Tracking Sales

Sunset Last Evening

I read a post yesterday where an author referred to the, 70,000,000 books available on Amazon. Is that correct? If it is, that is a lot of books. Makes me feel better about my sales rankings for my slower selling titles.

I took a quick look at Amazon this morning and found these numbers,  Soft cover – 34,438,903 -  eBooks, 5,557,018 and hard back, 14,631,957.  Quite a bit short of the 70 million, but this does not include, audio or large print, and various other book categories so it might end up close to 60 or 70 million, and as I said above, “That’s a lot of books.

Breaking down the two most common types, soft cover and eBook it looks like if a writer has a softcover book in the top three and a half million, they are in the top ten percent on Amazon. As for eBooks, a book in the top 555,000 places the author in the top ten percent once again. Interesting.

What is a Best Seller - I occasionally see a book or an author listing their book as a best seller, when I check it out the book often does not make my top ten percent numbers. Not really saying anything here, the numbers are fascinating though.

If I look only at the numbers above I have two books, my two Blade Holmes western mysteries in the top five percent of all books – not bad. So how much do I make from these two each month – drum roll please, around a hundred bucks. Not exactly Steven King or J. K. Rowling money. I do have other books that boost this to enough to make some good pocket money every month.

Good Numbers – Bad Numbers - So how about my worst seller? It’s my attempt at a humorous look at gardening. I like this book with useful gardening tips, humor and four short murder mysteries with a garden setting.  Well, it ranks in the top half in both soft cover and eBooks, actually top 20% in soft cover. Total earning or this book, $42.00.  Not so good, and I like this book. I am thinking about giving this one away for a few days next spring, just before gardening season, see if it can get any traction.

Selling Books Myself - One last thought, my CCC book does not rank high in eBooks or softcover because it is a local history book. I do quite a few speaking engagements, around the area, about this book and the CCC.  I have peddled several hundred copies myself and because it is sold in area museums and book stores it does quite good. This was my first to sell 100 copies and my first to pass 500.

Canyon four miles north of town - nice setting for a western story

Checking Sales - I don’t know of any writers that sell on Amazon who is not, at least, partially addicted to checking sales numbers and author rankings on Amazon. I try to limit myself but it is hard to not check each time I set down to the computer.

Sandy Cove at Guernsey State Park

Have a great rest of the week and keep on reading and keep on writing.

A New Book and A New Spring

I am happy to say today that I, at last, got out my second book in the Blade Holmes western mysteries. This one entitled, The Ghost Dance, follows Marshall Holmes from Fort Robinson, Nebraska to Nevada and back to the Sioux Reservations of Southern, South Dakota.  The book centers on the famous circle dance of the white shirted dancers, the Ghost Dance. This one has lots of authentic western history and is a very nice follow up to, Commitment, the first Blade Holmes historic novel.

In other writing news, I am nearly finished with my final touches of my gardening book, then it will get final edits and off to my first readers. If everything goes well, I hope this one is only a few weeks away.

A bee last summer on one of my backyard sunflowers

So what am I reading? Thomas McGuane – Keep the Change, so far I am enjoying it, even if it does fit best into the dreaded category of Literary Fiction. I am also reading and enjoying, Postcards, by famed Wyoming writer, Annie Proulx.

Not only me that enjoys basking in the sun

My book sales are picking up right now, always a good thing and the weather is looking more and more like spring. Can’t wait to start digging in that terrific garden soil again.

We have spent some wonderful days hiking in the new Spring weather

Keep on reading and keep on writing. 

Commitment, the novel

Today the opening paragraphs of my new novel, Commitment.

Chapter 1 – The Prologue

If the young cowboy had but one wish it would be to live. He would be thinking of nothing else.

But then it was obvious, he did. He thought back one minute to his unfortunate attempt to force legendary lawman Blade Holmes to draw. It was likely the worst decision he’d ever made. If present conditions were not so grave he might have smiled, but instead his mind flashed scenes of his impending death. The cowpoke felt the cold from the barrel of the Colt pressed under his chin, he shivered, but not from the cold.

From the bony tip of the cowpokes shoulder blood had started a slow seep through his threadbare shirt. The blood tickled his skin where the pain was still bearable. No longer standing tall, he seemed now to tilt slightly backward, frozen.

Afraid to move, even to take a much needed big breath, his eyes bulged, his face becoming an artist’s pallet of changing colors, from bright red to what was now a hopeless blue-grey. Still conscious, or so onlookers believed, he slumped against the bar fighting to stay upright. With the help of the bar he was motionless except for the, ever so slight in and out of his chest. The cowboy’s feeble breaths moved him so little that to the untrained eye he appeared more a poorly constructed cowboy manikin than a man under arrest. Didn’t have many years on him, but  he was old enough to know it was best not to move, not even so that he could fall to the floor.

As for the celebrated lawman, he looked business like but appeared relaxed holding the six-gun tight under the chin of the wobbly young cowboy.

The moment had been magical, Blade Holmes reacted so fast to the situation that time may not have moved. Years from now people would swear, actual clock ticking time, had been stopped. Blade Holmes, already a legend in west, made the impossible happen, for a moment he’d stopped time.  And for a moment one young cowboy likely wished he could go back in time, to a time before he’d handmade the unfortunate circumstance that lead to his present calamity.

Want to see more, take a longer, free look here, on Amazon.