Thursday Thoughts: The Cost of Profit (Book ads)

The last time I put my book on sale (99 cents), I paid various companies (Reign of Reads, AuthorsXP, Book Barbarian, Crave Books, DigitalBookSpot) for inclusion in their emails. The result? I paid $130 and made $30 on 35 sales, so it cost me $100. I have had a couple of book 2 purchases in the last 2 months ($8), which brings my loss to $92.

This time I decided not to spend any money on advertising. The result? I sold 7 books and two book 2s (at full price) for a total of $9.37 profit.

I did crack the Top 100 Science Fiction, currently holding down the #95 spot.

My takeaway? Well, duh. $9.37. But seriously, Those previous 35 sales may result in more book two and three sales in the future and if all readers finish the trilogy, I will make $192.50, minus my previous loss of $92, for a grand total of $109.37.

Not bad for an indie author swimming in an ocean of indie authors, I guess.

So, if I get the read throughs, you can say it is worth it. It is hard to always have to discount a book to get readers, and I feel that putting a book to $0.99 cheapens the work I put into it. But, would I sell more at 99 cents than at the current $2.99? Maybe. Is my book worth more to me than $0.34 profit?

Yes.

-Leon

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Leon Stevens is a multi-genre author, composer, guitarist, songwriter, and an artist, with a Bachelor of Music and Education. He published his first book of poetry, Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures in January 2020, followed by a book of original classical guitar compositions, Journeys, and a short story collection of science fiction/post-apocalyptic tales called The Knot at the End of the Rope and Other Short Stories. His newest publications are the novella trilogy, The View from Here, which is a continuation of one of his short stories, and a new collection of poetry titled, A Wonder of Words.

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