It's almost been a year since I first began publishing...

You heard that right.

I published my first book, My Forever on May 18th, 2014.

Since then I have racked up handfuls of reviews and published a total of 8 books, along with joined an anthology, and released a box set of my Infinite Love series.

When people first decide to self-publish, it's so confusing what to expect. I wasn't sure if my books would immediately be picked up or if it would take a while for me to build that platform. You never know what is the regular amount of sales to expect per day, per week, or per month.

I've wanted to be transparent for awhile about my experiences with my sales. So here goes.

Originally, when I first began publishing, I had my books listed on every platform imaginable. And then, they were only selling through Amazon, so I pulled them all and listed them under KDP Select.

Below, I will list how many books I sold per month and how much money I made.

May '14
Books sold: 9
Money made: $3.06

June '14
Books sold: 14
Money made: $17.74

July '14
Books sold: 17
Money made: $21.34

August '14
Books sold: 51
Money made: $46.90

September '14
Books sold: 103
Money made: $111.45

October '14
Books sold: 149
Money made: $152.33

November '14
Books sold: 150
Money made: $123.73

December '14
Books sold: 79
Money made: $75.79

January '15
Books sold: 348
Money made: $369.65

February '15
Books sold: 510
Money made: $302.14

March '15
Books sold: 673
Money made: $755.00

April '15
Books sold: 344
Money made: $355.00

Total amount of books sold so far: 2447
Total amount of money made: $2334.13

As you can see, I've been generally trending upwards, but the months are not always consistent. We are halfway through May as it is, and this month I'm barely over $100 so far on my sales, if that. The months that I gave away more free books was when I made the most. 

Ideally, I would like to make enough money off my books that I wouldn't have to have another job to supplement my income, or I could have a part time job. This is what I am working towards. I hope some day, I will be able to say all of my hard work has paid off.

As it stands, the most books I've sold in one day was right around 40+. Most days I range anywhere from 4-12 sales. Some days I am below that and some I exceed it. Like I said, inconsistent. However, I am building a platform, and more people have heard of me than ever before. My goal is that by the time I turn 30, which is a year from now, that I will be able to call myself a full-time writer.

I've never had a ranking lower than 6,000 and that was for an anthology I'm in. My individual lowest ranking was in the 8,000's. My goal is that in the next year, I will hit within the 5000's. I hope I can I do it.

I have tried many different things to boost my sales, giveaways, book blitzes, book tours, cover reveals, reviews, etc. And until I find the magical combination, I will continue to try different things. It'll be interesting to see where I might be sales-wise in a year; whether I will still be trending upwards. I really hope so.

Hope this helps some of you out with what to expect. I should also mention that I spent every single day doing some form of promotion, marketing, editing, writing, revising, formatting, etc. So, I've basically been a robot. I published 8 books my first year of publishing. I'm interested to see how many it will be this year.