2024 – Year in Review
This is the second year in which I’ve summarised how the past 12 months have gone from a sales and business perspective. Although I don’t have to share this information publicly, I think financial and sales transparency is a very useful thing for the indie writing community and should be encouraged. I went into this in 2020 with hugely unrealistic expectations and didn’t really understand what did and didn’t work when it came to selling books. After reading this blog you might well conclude I still have a lot to learn and you’d be right.
I’m a big believer in sharing knowledge and trying to offer a helping hand to others on this journey. Five years on from publishing my first book I’m starting to get a better idea of how your fortunes ebb and flow as a writer. Put simply, I didn’t sell as many books in 2024 as I did in 2023. However, I’m still going into 2025 feeling optimistic about my writing and future projects.
eBook & Paperback Sales
2023 eBook & Paperback Sales
I’m exclusive to Amazon so let’s start there. 2023 was a good year for me with 565 paid sales for both eBooks and paperbacks. eBooks have always been my main market and I don’t see that changing any time soon, although I am thinking more about how I market my physical books (more of that below).
Key
Light Blue - Hall of Bones - Book #1 in The Brotherhood of the Eagle
Yellow - Sundered Souls #2
Red - Lost Gods #3
Green - A Quiet Vengeance
2024 eBook & Paperback Sales
2024 saw those numbers fall back to 289, despite having more titles available. The spikes in sales in the graphic below reflects running 99p promotions in April and August (which I also did last year). The boost you can see in November and December marks the release of Broken Brotherhood, the fourth and final novel in The Brotherhood of the Eagle series. In April 2023 I released my first standalone novel, A Quiet Vengeance. That did not sell in the same numbers as the first book in the Brotherhood series, Hall of Bones. If I was approaching this purely from a sales perspective I would have been better publishing Broken Brotherhood instead, capitalising on the fact interest in the series was particularly high in the six months after Lost Gods was released in November 2022. Momentum is difficult to build up and hard to regain once it has been lost.
Ultimately, I simply wasn’t in a position to publish Broken Brotherhood in 2023 as the book wasn’t ready so the debate is academic. I still think I was better publishing a standalone in 2023 rather than nothing at all. Although sales of A Quiet Vengeance were slow that book definitely resonated more with critics and reviewers. What was interesting was seing how that book became more popular once Broken Brotherhood came out. Ultimately it was my top seller of 2024, coming out narrowly ahead of Hall of Bones which is something I didn’t expect. It seems most people finished the series before moving on to try out my standalone work, with a smaller percentage taking the alternative route of starting with A Quiet Vengeance.
The other factor at play here is Hall of Bones was offered for free in a couple of promotions towards the end of the year and that will have affected these statistics. I might come back to free sales in another post later this year as the pros and cons of offering your work for free merit more discussion than I have room for in this round up.
I also released a mini short story collection A Roll of the Dice in 2024, which I knew would have more niche appeal. Short stories tend to be much harder to sell than novels and I didn’t expect this to shift in large numbers. My prediction proved to be correct!
Key
Light Blue - A Quiet Vengeance
Yellow - Hall of Bones #1
Red - Broken Brotherhood #4
Green - Lost Gods #3
Dark Blue - Sundered Souls #2
Purple - A Roll of the Dice
Kindle Unlimited
2023 KU Summary
The main reason I’m exclusive to Amazon is Kindle Unlimited (KU) has worked well for me, helping me become established as an author by providing a steady stream of income contrasted with the more up and down nature of eBook and paperback sales.
2023 saw me reach half a million pages read on KU for the first time in a calendar year. A series can do really well in KU, as you can see from the graphic below. KU dropped off after May 2023, which was around six months after the publication of Lost Gods. As a standalone A Quiet Vengeance (which appears in green) wasn’t nearly so popular, in stark contrast to sales of the book.
Key
Light Blue - Hall of Bones #1
Yellow - Sundered Souls #2
Red - Lost Gods #3
Green - A Quiet Vengeance
2024 KU Summary
The level of pages read on KU remained steady for me in 2024, increasing again towards the end of the year when Broken Brotherhood came out. Again, you can see the series factor here. Broken Brotherhood is already on track to overtake A Quiet Vengeance on KU, despite only having been out for less than two months!
Although I’ve not returned to my 2023 levels, over 100,000 pages read on KU is still very respectable and it provides a baseline which helps cover my day to day running costs as an author. The May 2024 boost was down to increased visibility after running two sales the previous month.
Key
Light Blue - Hall of Bones #1
Yellow - Lost Gods #3
Red - Sundered Souls #2
Green - Broken Brotherhood #4
Dark Blue - A Quiet Vengeance
Lifetime KU Performance 2020-2024
The lifetime KU graph more clearly shows the impact of new releases and how this ebbs and flows compared with the underlying baseline level. It’s going to be interesting to see how Broken Brotherhood performs in the coming months.
Key
Light Blue - Hall of Bones #1
Yellow - Sundered Souls #2
Red - Lost Gods #3
Green - A Quiet Vengeance
Dark Blue - Broken Brotherhood #4
Author Earnings
2023 was a very good year in terms of earnings from Amazon whilst 2024 was a more complex picture. Although I’m exclusive to Amazon, I also ran a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in March to April 2024 to raise the money for the production of the audiobook for Hall of Bones. Although last year was much slower in terms of Amazon royalties from book sales and KU once Kickstarter income is accounted for 2024 saw my author income levels exceed those of 2023.
However, running a Kickstarter also means you have a project to deliver for your backers. Every penny was ploughed back into delivering the Hall of Bones audiobook and the associated backer rewards.
2023 & 2024 Amazon Royalties Breakdown
Key
Light Blue - Hall of Bones #1
Yellow - Sundered Souls #2
Red - Lost Gods #3
Green - A Quiet Vengeance
Key
Light Blue - Hall of Bones #1
Yellow - Lost Gods #3
Red - Broken Brotherhood #4
Green - Sundered Souls #2
Dark Blue - A Quiet Vengeance
Purple - A Roll of the Dice
Overall Financial Performance
There are underlying costs to independent publishing which aren’t captured in these graphics. My main expenses are cover art, maintaining my website, physical proofs, reviewer copies and ISBNs for the books. I account for my income and taxes in April each year, so to give you an idea of what this means after expenses are taken into account:
2020-21 = £606 loss
2021-22 = £101 loss
2022-23 = £1,508 profit
2023-24 = £1,288 profit
I’m expecting to make a loss in 2024-25 for three reasons. The first of these is obviously the drop off in Amazon royalties (since the income and expenses from the Kickstarter basically netted each other off). Becoming a SPFBO 7 Finalist in 2021 was massively helpful in raising my profile as an author during 2021-2022 and I’m sure this was a factor in sales and KU performance in 2022 and the first half of 2023. There’s a long lag between people hearing about a new author, picking up their book and then starting to read it. However, we’re now in the middle of SPFBO 10, so attention from that competition has quite rightly moved on to other books and different authors as the years have passed.
I also incurred additional expenses buying copies of my books as I explored options for direct sales, plus I attended two conferences in 2024 including WorldCon in Glasgow, which was a five day event and thus involved travel, accommodation and conference fees. It was well worth the money as a one-off experience but it didn’t help the bank balance.
Goals for 2025
Where do I see myself at this stage in my writing career? I think the best way to describe it would be I’m now a mid-list independent author, which is a world away from where I was in 2020. Although royalties have levelled off I’ve pulled off the difficult challenge of getting my first audiobooks funded through Kickstarter and that represents a real opportunity this year. A Roll of the Dice was released in August 2024 as a reward for my supporters and my first full-length audio production with Hall of Bones will be coming out in early 2025. This is a chance to market the first book in the series once more and help to increase its loyal and enthusiastic fanbase.
This is also a step in diversifying my income so I’m not wholly reliant on Amazon. Both these titles will be distributed through a wide range of other retailers as well, including Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google, iTunes and Spotify. I really hope Hall of Bones does well because ideally I would like to plough audiobook royalties back into recording the rest of the series. If you want to see that happen then please do buy the audio version of Hall of Bones once it’s released!
Finishing a series is also a huge milestone. There’s a significant reader base out there who consume books back to back and they don’t want to wait years for the next release. Tapping into those readers who are interested in reading a completed series is another objective for 2025. I’ve never really advertised my work before and that’s something I now need to consider adding to my business plan if I want to reach new readers.
I’m also debating selling paperbacks directly at more events (Amazon requires exclusivity when it comes to eBooks but not other formats). I’ve had mixed results doing this so far and the biggest issue is the time commitment selling at conferences involves. It is good fun meeting potential new fans at events and pitching your work to those who are interested, so this is something I’m thinking hard about as I look at the logistics.
Obviously the most important objective of 2025 is to write more books, even though it’s only about six weeks since my last novel was released. I have several ideas in development and I’ll provide further details on what I’m working on next as 2025 progresses.
Conclusion
If you’re new to independent publication or thinking about releasing your first book then I hope this has been useful and given you something to think about. In conclusion, there are a few key messages I’d like you to take away from this post:
You don’t have to spend thousands to independently release your own work - As you can see from the figures above, getting my first book out there in 2020 left me around £600 out of pocket. I’ve seen authors spend a lot more than that on their cover and editing. A reputable editor is always going to be money well-spent and a book isn’t going to sell without a great cover. However, far more important is the quality of your writing and establishing and engaging with your fanbase. You can’t spend your way to success long term, so set a budget you can afford for your book and stick to it.
It takes time to become established - My readership is slowly growing but this is a business where you need to be thinking in terms of years, not months. Honestly, this is the hardest thing I think I’ve ever done. It’s also been the most rewarding experience of my life. You need to love writing to do this long term. If you have that passion your readers will see that and your fanbase will grow.
By ready for ups and downs - When I started out I thought sales and royalties would be on a steady upwards trajectory. However, that’s not realistic. Your next book or new series might not sell. People may curb their optional spending (and yes, books and/or KU membership falls into that category) depending on the economic situation and their personal finances. You might be really productive one year and have nothing to release the next. So many factors come into play and it’s important to accept you’re not in control of all of them. Again, it’s the same message - do this first and foremost because you love doing it. Oh, and get ready for a wild, unpredictable ride!
