Statistics for Those Who are Asking.

There seems to be a great deal of confusion on how the other vendors work, including volume. As such, I’m going to expose Playing with Fire’s sales between January 1 to now and the sales for Whiskers on Kittens from its launch to current. (The date ranges are “close enough” for this purpose.)

Hopefully, this will illustrate the basic issue and why I used Amazon’s figures in general.

Please note that getting the data out from the wide vendors is not easy, it’s very time consuming, and no, I will not be doing it for the entire series. This showcases the point sufficiently.

Playing with Fire: January 1 to Now

• Amazon: 580 (87.61%)
• Barnes & Noble: 19 (2.87%)
• Kobo: 23 (3.47%)
• All other Wide: 40 (6.04%)
• Patreon: 0 (0%)
• Total Sales: 662

Whiskers on Kittens: December 2023 (release) to Now

• Amazon: 5,899 (76.04%)
• Barnes & Noble: 440 (5.67%)
• Kobo: 306 (3.94%)
• All Other Wide: 356 (4.58%)
• Patreon: 756 (Per Novel AND Monthly combined) (9.74%)
• Total Sales: 7,757 

Here are some important things to note: the Playing with Fire ratios are more accurate to the overall situation than the new release numbers. Over time, the 76% over with Whiskers will stabilize up to Amazon’s 87%; that’s just how the market works.

Most of my new readers are on Amazon. However hard I try, I simply can’t seem to scrape Amazon’s share of my book career down.

When you have 87% of your shoppers over at Amazon, you must make your primary business decisions solely based on Amazon. (Otherwise, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.)

Patreon is a blessing. It allows me to work on passion projects. It gives me a serious stream of income… but it doesn’t help my backlist earn money.

In reality, books like Playing with Fire, that “only” sell 662 books in a four month period of time, keep the whole party rolling. They cover when new releases don’t do well. They provide stable income. And that income comes from Amazon. While I very much appreciate the other 13% of my income coming in from elsewhere (Patreon actually bumps it closer to 15%. Audiobooks are a completely kettle of fish, and I do not found any of my business decisions on audiobooks. I am doing them purely for accessibility purposes, and if I happen to earn a profit, HOORAY. These are passion items, and I’m willing to take some hefty losses to get the audiobooks available for those who can’t read an eBook or a print book.

(And the people who listen to their books for convenience benefit, but there’s a difference between convenience and accessibility.)

Let’s put it this way: I have more than sixty novels, and they’re all pulling down anywhere between 100 to 600 sales every four months. That is a significant amount of money that I use to pay for the fact that many of my new releases aren’tmaking profit initially.

Over time, things improve, but I really can’t afford to prioritize books that aren’t profiting initially. And so the quest for a successful series continues, and the beloved failures pile up and get rotated through, finished as inspiration and money allows.

I am playing the long game. I want to keep writing for decades, assuming my health holds. I love to write. Sure, some elements of publication are absolutely infuriating, but every decision I make involves a few important factors: feeding myself, feeding my family, paying my rent… and living the best life I can outside of my writing hours.

I want to travel and see the world. I want to buy buckets of gems in dirt so I can look for treasures. (And get the treasures I find faceted.) I want to buy pretty books. I want to get my RV so we can travel even more. (And pay for internet while traveling!)

Are we wealthy? I wouldn’t say so… I’d say we’re what middle class used to be in the United States before the whole trickle down economics scam reared its ugly head and destroyed the entire concept of the middle class.

We don’t live paycheck to paycheck anymore. (But we’re both traumatized from when we did.) We can afford nice enough cars, and we keep them for about a decade when we buy them new. We can go on a nice vacation once a year and a few weekend outings each year or one REALLY nice vacation every two years.

We can’t afford a house. But we get our nice or REALLY nice vacations instead. (And we had the ability to save up for a few years to get an RV, which we’ll buy next year… after we spend another year saving up for it.)

And… yes, we live in a cheap (for our area) apartment, sacrificing space and luxuries so we can do experiences instead. And, you know, have a nice truck and a baseline cheap Corolla hatchback.

It’s one of the situations where you get to pick three out of five and hope you make the right decisions.

The reality of the situation is… for an author, especially one that’s independently publishing, I’m doing really well. But a part of that is due to the careful management of what I release when and a willingness to pivot when things, like my former money maker series no longer being a money maker series.

So no, accounting for the wide vendors and Patreon does not change the story, not when the backlist catalog has a 87% market share, and those old books that sell a smattering of copies here and there are actually the primary gears that keep the cogs going on a daily basis.

The new releases are important, but that backlist catalog is critical. That is what keeps everything going between the new releases. And when the new releases can’t pay three to four months of problems… that 87% marketshare over at Amazon truly dictates the paths I have to take. Perhaps one day in the future, that share will decrease, but for now? it simply doesn’t.

I posted Amazon’s numbers because those are ultimately the numbers that decide how I proceed with all things retail… and while I adore Patreon and the people supporting me there, it can’t keep the ship from sinking. (And it can’t keep the sink from shipping, neither… which is what I initially typed.)

Would I like the other vendors to surge and have a higher marketshare? Absolutely. But I’m being realistic right now.

Amazon dictates just about everything.

And yes, having stuff release on Patreon first just gives me a slightly larger paycheck, but it doesn’t really change much on the retail front.

In the past month, all of my products combined, I’ve sold 146 items on the Patreon store.

And that, ladies and gentlemen and others, is how the cookie crumbles.

I hope this shined some light on the situation for you.