Sales of Accidental Intelligence hit 200 units sold, making it time to give you an update on what I’m seeing. As a heads up, this post is aimed mostly at other writers—especially indie writers—though anyone is welcome to follow along.
If you’ve bought my book, please consider leaving a review. I’ve gotten many amazing reviews, and I appreciate everyone who took the time to let others know what they thought.
Trend Lines in Sales of Accidental Intelligence
There are several trends I see in my sales.
- Barnes & Noble sales were almost all friends and family wanting a physical copy, and sales there have dropped to not much. I imagine this was exacerbated when I added print-on-demand hardbacks and soft backs to Amazon—they’ve been strong.
- My Apple Books sales have also dropped off. This reinforces my theory that much of my success on Apple Books was built on my history in the Apple space. Apple offering in-Books.app advertising options would help, as would Apple offering print-on-demand options for indie authors.
- Amazon is flexing its muscles as the market dominator for my book. I get a steady trickle of new sales there, and my personal share of sales have decreased for Apple Books and Barnes & Noble, and increased at Amazon.
- Google Play sales…lolwut?
King Amazon
As I mentioned, sales of my book are showing why Amazon is the market dominator. Remind me why the DOJ went after Apple during the Obama administration? I’m really looking forward to Bookshop.org adding ebooks, and I hope sales pick up on Apple Books and Barnes & Noble. I’m going to add direct sales as soon as I can, too.
All told, Amazon Kindle and Kindle Direct Publishing have 58% market share of my person sales of Accidental Intelligence.
Apple Books, a (Less) Strong Second Place
Sales of my book at Apple Books have largely tapered off, but I do still have 32% share of sales of Accidental Intelligence from this retailer. That’s lower than my first two reports. but much stronger than Apple’s 10-12% of the overall market.
I’m repeating my call for Apple to do more for indie authors. I’d really like to see some advertising options in the Books app—if there is an option, I haven’t found it. Also, please Apple, offer print-on-demand physical options! You’ve done such a lovely job on photo books. I would love to see those quality options brought to bear on the indie book market.
Barnes & Noble
Sales of Accidental Intelligence have settled out at 20 units sold. I suspect that I get absolutely no exposure from searches on Barnes & Noble. Though, who knows? There are even fewer tools on Barnes & Noble than Apple Books for indie authors. Still, I’m happy my books are on their site, and my share on B&N is 10%.
By the bye, there are tons of great bookstore accounts on Threads. The Barnes & Noble account is a great one to follow, and I am in no way promoting them hoping that they mention my book*. They make very funny posts, and there’s a budding bromance with the Bookshop.org account. Both of these social media managers deserve raises, IMO. The Literati Bookstore is another solid account. There are surely others, as the writing community is so strong on Threads.
*LOL that’s a lie.
