What a hectic 12 months this has been. The last quarter of 2016 saw me full of nail-chewing nerves (though I didn’t actually chew my nails — I comfort ate instead). It was going to be reasonably close, with a final surge in sales.final results

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, the 1K Book Challenge involved me declaring that I would get a tattoo if any one of my books reached 1000 sales between April and the end of December last year.final results

Paperback sales were slow online, but performed really well at the various pop culture conventions I attended in Melbourne (Australia) — Supanova, Oz Comic-Con and AMC Expo. I’d love to attend some of the interstate conventions but sadly I’m not making enough money yet to justify it. Perhaps next year …

Ebooks sales were good, probably because they’re cheaper than a paperback and easier to lug around. I still like having the paperback option though.final results

As an independent author, spreading the word about your books, and getting them in front of the right audience, is a challenge. Multi-author promotions that only cost a tweet, post and plug in a newsletter were a good option. Paid advertising was hit and miss. I’ve crossed a few companies off my ever-shrinking list. Bookbub continues to elude me. It doesn’t seem to matter what I submit, I get rejected, though I’ve heard the same thing from lots of other authors as well, so I can take heart from not being alone in not having achieved the holy grail in book advertising … yet.final results

What else have I been doing?

Building my email list. InstaFreebie is a great way to connect with people who like to read the sort of things I write. As the names suggests, a freebie is given, for which the person downloading the book agrees to be added to your mailing list. Many of you reading this are my instaFreebie Angel Followers (that’s what I call my subscribers) and you’ve proven to be just as faithful and supportive as my organic subscribers. One of my books is going to be featured by instaFreebie on February 22, so hopefully that will gain me a few more Angel Followers.

I now have three ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) teams, to read and reviews copies of my books as they come out. These wonderful people have offered to devote some of their precious time to do this, and I am grateful for their support.final results

I also started The Prolific Reader (an instaFreebie repository) in December. It started out with only a few select genres. Around 70 authors participated and close to 80 books were on offer. I quickly learned that everyone (readers and authors) wanted more, so expanded it to all genres except erotica. It quickly grew to nearly 300 authors and 400 books.final results

So, here are the final results: