Business Posts: Funny Numbers and Backlist Information (Patreon ONLY) (Patreon)

Last week, I pulled some information on backlist sales and the like. And realised, while I was doing that, there was a bunch of information that people might like. Of course, there was also a ton of data thta I don't necessarily want to go out, so I'm doing a Patreon only business post.

Truthfully, I'm blacking out total revenue amounts anyway, because I don't necessarily feel comfortable giving all that information. I also am not breaking it up by series, that won't be helpful, but some of this (like price points, marketplaces, etc.) might be of use. Anyway, I'm not going to do as much analysis on all this as usual, but leave it up to you all to ask questions.

The first image is all about publication years. You can see them dropping off by year, going back to 2017 when I started writing for the first time. Obviously, this year was the biggest sales amount, but previous years do make a significant dent (see below images for exact percentages).

You can also see how I do with regard to each marketplace. DE is huge for me, because of my translations, and that pushes the US down sgnfiicantly (as well as everything else, really).

This is the giant graph of what I earn by book. You can see what a 'lead' book does, with the Third Realm coming out earlier in the year and beating the Third Cut that is right next to it. Everything else comes after, but you can also see how the backlist becomes more and more important. And, you might be surprised to see, I have a larger paperback % than most people talk about (with many, many other publishers only getting 1-2%). But, I do try to push paperbacks as much as possible.

Not much to talk about. You can see English being a huge amount, with DE another large chunk. The other major amount there is a weird 'not marked' that Amazon does, which is really an Amazon thing. yes, I have other translations, they actually don't take as much as this shows.

Sales by Offer Price is fascinating to me, since you can see how my higher price books can make a nice chunk of cash (they're translations OR omnibuses). Whereas the majority of my income still comes from $4.99 which is my base price. 

I might shift that higher eventually, as inflation keeps happening. :(

Last one, that pairs a little bit with the sales by publication year with more detail. It's funny, but everything past 5 years is only 16% of my income, as sales for older works shrink. Note though, if I release an Omnibus in 2021 for a series I finished in 2019, it registers the publication year as 2021, not 2019. It's based off the SKU; so some of these more recent sales come from repackaging old content. 

More important, and more interesting - pre-orders and how much they make. Again, remember, this is ONLY Amazon sales, and because I have Kickstarter and my Shopify store, my pre-order income is significantly higher than what is shown here. Though, as a %, it's probably lower since I don't do pre-orders of audiobooks.

That big blue one on the right? That's KU income. It's 53.8% of my Amazon income, but as a total percentage, it's actually lower around 25%. Audiobooks actually make around 52% of my income this year (and all the data and income isn't in yet for audiobooks). Last year, it was 49%. 

Audio is HUGE for me.

Questions?

Feel free to drop them here. No promises I'll answer them directly, but I'll give as much information as I feel comfortable.