It’s been a little over a year since I released The Balance of Light, the third book in the Bridgetown Trilogy, and about three months since I released Meet the Lidwells. The sales for all of them have been rather slow and dribbling, but I’m okay with that. They’re still out there, available to anyone who wants them, and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
In fact, since I’ve registered all the books into a month-long summer sale over at Smashwords (If you haven’t gotten them, WELL WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?), I’ve gotten an uptick of downloads, especially for the entire trilogy. Which makes me quite happy indeed! {If you just recently bought them and are visiting my blog for the first time, thank you and Hi There!)
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m playing the Long Game with my books. By this, I mean that I’m not looking for or expecting a large wave of purchases in a short amount of time, but a small but consistent wave over a much longer period. This makes more sense to me, because my aim as a self-published writer was never to become a Huge Bestselling Author (although let’s be honest, that would be nice). It’s about having a nice long and varied backlist that people can check out whenever they like. By the end of this year I’ll have five books on that backlist, with one, possibly two more coming in 2019. I figure in ten years I’ll have a nice fat catalog that potential readers can check out.
Granted, I’ve essentially traded a big payout for longevity, but I’m down with that. In my own fanciful imagination, I’d like to think that ten years down the road I’ll still be getting the occasional purchase notification on A Division of Souls, especially once the next book(s) in the Mendaihu Universe surface.
And it doesn’t hurt that I’ll have a nice lift in sales every few months or so when I hand my postcards out at conventions or sign up for a sales event at Smashwords. And whenever I give myself a bit of a sales nudge online now and again, I’ll get a brief lift there as well. I admit I’d like to do better at the self-promotion, but I’m glad to say what I’ve done so far does work for me.
It’s still a learning process, but I’m glad that it’s going in the right direction!
