It's the time of year when I report on my book sales and reflect on what I could do better! I hope you find this article useful for your own author business, whatever stage you're at.
My company tax year runs May – April and although I keep a tight rein on my income, expenses and cash flow throughout the year, I only do management reporting annually when I break down my revenue in various ways to figure out what I need to change, stop doing or do more of.
You can read previous years breakdowns on my author timeline here.
[Thanks to Russell Philips, Virtual Assistant at Author Help who collated all my figures from all the various platforms.]
These figures are all based on revenue, the money that has actually come into my bank account.
Because I publish through so many sources, I don't actually track book sales numbers very often. Let's be honest – the money is more important anyway!
Total sales and income
Just to be clear, I'm an author-entrepreneur and my income comes from multiple sources – book sales, affiliate sales, course sales, sponsorship, advertising revenue and Patreon, plus speaking fees. It's all documented in How to Make a Living with your Writing, available in ebook, print and audiobook formats.
The business as a whole is up 8%, which is not hugely significant growth but still heading in the right direction.
My book sales income has remained about the same, about 3x the UK national average income.
At least it's not dropped and I still make more money than most authors, based on the Guardian report that average earnings for British authors are now just £10,500.
Remember, I have never had a breakout success, and continue to subscribe to the consistent hard-working author model! You don't need to be a household name to make a decent living with your writing.
Of course, I also make less than some authors I know – some indie, some traditionally published. But comparisonitis is dangerous, and we should all be comparing our current selves against where we were last year, and where we want to be next year.
Here's the more detailed breakdown. [Click here for last year's graphs.]
Breakdown by vendor
Unsurprisingly, Amazon KDP is the largest chunk of my book sales income at 48% of revenue. Createspace (13%), Kobo and Apple (both 11%) and Audible is now at 8% of revenue – double last year's figure.
This does reflect my renewed focus on non-fiction audiobooks which I have found to be my most profitable audio income stream.
But remember, book sales are only one line item on my company income statement.
Amazon companies (KDP, Createspace, Audible) only make up 13% of my total company income. I am super proud of this as way back in 2014 when the Hachette/Amazon dispute was going on, it was clear that companies who relied on Amazon could find things going very badly when the rules changed. Reporting showed that some publishers had 65% or more of their revenue coming from Amazon, and would be in trouble if market situations shifted. At that point, Amazon companies were around 85% of my income and that's when I doubled down on multiple streams of income.
As I have said before, I am an independent creative and I will not depend on one company for my livelihood.
Breakdown by format
Print is up from 10% last year to 21% this year, and audiobook is up from 4% to 8%.
I have focused much more on print this year, with expansion into workbooks and Large Print, as well as doing every edition in my backlist on Ingram Spark, so my income in print is significantly better.
Audiobook income has doubled, based on doing more non-fiction audiobooks and keeping them exclusive on Audible. I find that non-fiction audiobook listeners are less sensitive to price and length, plus they are not so focused on celebrity narrators – plus, I have a podcast where I can advertise to audio listeners.
Click here for links to all my non-fiction audiobooks for Joanna Penn, and here for thrillers by J.F.Penn.
Breakdown of ebook sales by country
This breakdown is not significantly different from last year, but then I think the global ebook market has probably remained pretty static.
I think we will see more of a shift once streaming mobile internet is more pervasive and online retail becomes more common in big markets like India, Nigeria and the Middle East. Amazon's focus on amazon.in and opening up to Arabic language recently demonstrates that the future growth will be in those markets.
The 5% Other category includes sales in 41 countries, as reported through the Kobo Writing Life portal, which is the only one to include a funky world map!
Breakdown of fiction vs non-fiction
At the time of writing, I have 10 non-fiction titles under Joanna Penn (2 co-written), 15 thrillers under J.F.Penn (2 co-written), and 3 sweet romances under Penny Appleton (co-written with my Mum).
I also have fiction box-sets, short stories and multiple editions of all of these titles.
Fiction and non-fiction sell differently on different stores, as you can see from this graph.
Apple and Kobo are primarily fiction, mainly because one of the most consistent sales methods is a permanently free first in series. Plus, Kobo has a lot more promotions for fiction than it does for non-fiction. Boxsets continue to make up a large chunk of Kobo income, because they are easier to merchandize.
The print sales through Createspace, Ingram Spark and KDP Print are primarily non-fiction, which is not surprising to me, as non-fiction does incredibly well in print. Most of the print books on my own bookshelves are non-fiction. I devour 2-4 novels per week right now on my Kindle, but I only listen to non-fiction audiobooks and I only buy print non-fiction.
Breakdown by author name
I have cycled between 3 author names in the last year, and written books under each of them.
- Joanna Penn – How to Market a Book Third Edition, The Healthy Writer, How to Write Non-Fiction
- J.F.Penn – Map of Shadows, The Dark Queen short story. I also wrote a screenplay but that is not saleable at this time.
- Penny Appleton – Love, Second Time Around, Love, Home at Last, Love Will Find a Way
The time spent on the Penny books doesn't warrant the revenue received – and hopefully gives an indication of how difficult it is to start a new author name in a new genre without much marketing.
I have significantly more fiction books in total under J.F.Penn than I have non-fiction, but the larger revenue comes from Joanna Penn books. That's because I haven't written much fiction this year, and I have a much easier time with marketing non-fiction. So this split is not unexpected.
My thoughts on the results
I'm slightly disappointed that the total sales figure has remained the same given the number of books I put out last year – but my focus is often split between my multiple streams of income, and I'm not in KU or focused on book marketing every day.
As my friend and mentor, Yaro Starak, said on a recent podcast about website traffic, if you are not constantly feeding your income sources, they will atrophy and die. That's true whether it's web traffic or book sales.
But wait, I hear you cry! Didn't you write How to Market a Book? Why aren't you rocking the book sales and making six figures a month like A.N.Other indie author?
The truth is that I know what I should do if I want to earn more money from book sales:
- Write under one author name – instead of three: J.F.Penn, Joanna Penn, Penny Appleton, which splits my focus.
- Write in one (preferably popular) genre – instead of multiple genres: non-fiction self-help, action adventure thriller, religious conspiracy thriller, crime, dark fantasy, and sweet contemporary romance. Again, this splits my focus.
- Put out books in a series regularly, preferably within the 90-day window, instead of writing one book a year in multiple series. Yes, you guessed it, this splits my focus.
- Cut out some of my other multiple activities – of which there are many, all splitting my focus!
- Be consistent and organized with advertising my books instead of getting to the end of the month and flinging some ads up, or remembering to do ad stacking on launch but not for the rest of the year.
But one of the most important things in a creative career, or in fact as part of life in general, is to Know Thyself – as the ancient Greeks had carved above the temple of Delphi.
I know that I can't just do one thing, my brain doesn't work that way. I can't just write one genre, or one series, or do the same thing for too long. My creative self would go nuts, so some form of focus splitting is inevitable for my character type.
So Creatives, do what I say, don't do what I do! (Unless like me, you are an eclectic mind who can't stop doing all the crazy stuff!)
So, what will I do to increase book sales revenue in the next year?
With all that focus splitting in mind, here's what I intend to do:
(1) Stop writing Penny Appleton
Mum and I have agreed to stop doing Penny Appleton books. It's been a good run but we are not a natural writing partnership and she needs to move forward with her writing career separately from mine.
I need to get back to writing what I love – which is thriller, crime, dark fantasy, and horror. I'll be doing a podcast with Mum to discuss lessons learned in the next month or so. We're both pleased with the 3 books, but now that episode is complete and we can move on.
(2) Focus on writing J.F.Penn books for the next 18 months
I want to keep serving the writer community (you guys!) but I can do that through my podcast, blog, YouTube channel, and my courses, so no more non-fiction books until 2020. I'll be recording some video lectures on different topics, and I'll be updating the older books, but no more new books for Joanna Penn.
My writing time is for J.F.Penn. I'm currently working on Valley of Dry Bones (ARKANE #10), and probably a novella based in Amsterdam after that. Then the next 2 books in the Mapwalker series. Then I have a standalone horror I want to write, and more in the London Psychic series.
As much as I have been enjoying screenwriting, I just can't focus on it right now. It's a whole new way of writing and I need to focus on my first love, which is fiction. I read for at least an hour every day for pleasure – and it's always books. Never scripts. I'll circle back to scripts at some point, but for now, back to the novels.
If you want to keep up with what I'm doing for fiction, you can follow my journal at www.JFPenn.com/now.
I'll also be focusing more on content marketing for fiction, and yes, there will be some sporadic paid ads for launches.
(3) Make more of what I already have
Update my older non-fiction books and get my backlist into audio and other print formats, like workbooks and Large Print.
Expand formats. I need to get all my books onto Google Play. I intended to do that last year and didn't get round to it. Now PublishDrive has signed a deal with a Chinese ebook distributor, I'll be using them for Play and other vendors – in addition to going direct with Amazon KDP, Kobo Writing Life, Apple Books, and also using Draft2Digital.
License rights to foreign markets. Even as I type this, we are negotiating a deal for South Korean rights. Rights deals add money to the bottom line without taking any more time to write more books. They make more of what we already have. You don't need an agent. You can pitch and negotiate deals yourself. Read these 2 books before you try anything! Closing the Deal on your Terms by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and How Authors Sell Publishing Rights by Orna Ross and Helen Sedwick.
So that's my round-up. Have you reported on your annual sales revenue and broken it down this way? Please do share in the comments if you have anything, or ask any questions you'd like answered.
Hi Joanna, thank you for creating this incredibly honest, helpful and insightful blog post! I am a newbie in self-publishing and I’ve already learned SO MUCH from you. My background is in economics and I love your graphs! It gives us a really clear picture of your sales and how should we think about our approach to building our business as well! I also really resonate with your Know Thyself point. Got to do what you love! A Big Thank You for all your hard work! 🙂
Late to the party here, Joanna, but thank you. I just listened to your Advanced Salon with Orna too and now have a list of new actions – but one of them is to do a deep review like this one and then decide what not to do going forward. Simplification definitely needed. And focus!
Glad you found it useful, Clare 🙂 Here’s to simplification!
Thank you for sharing these results once again. You are sooooo right about “Know Thyself.” I have tried off and on for years to go against myself and do what I intellectually know would be better for income. It never works out because that part of myself that craves diversity and challenge, and needs a bit of my heart, works against those 100% business decisions.
One of the reasons I love to follow your career is because I think we are creative sisters–not in the same genres but in approach. Like you, I cannot write in one genre. Though I have been cutting back from five (4 fiction and 1 nonfiction) to only three this year, 2019 will see a more significant focus on just two fiction genres and exploiting my non-fiction work. Though fiction is my first love, non-fiction is a lot quicker and easier for me to write. I like your idea about making a decision not to write more non-fiction in 2019, but to exploit the content you already have. I’d been considering that as well, though I have a couple of short nonfiction books I may ty to schedule in. 🙂 When I did my 2019 schedule a week ago, I really packed it with fiction because I did not do so well with my fiction releases this year.
Thank you, again, for just being honest and willing to share yourself and your career with others.
Thanks so much, Maggie, and I’m pleased to hear from another eclectic creative 🙂 Happy creating for another year!
Thank you for the awesome post! I love how much you’ve experimented this year. I also need multiple projects and have a deep love for nonfiction. I find myself happiest when I spend about 30% of my time in fiction over the course of the year.
Thanks Monica, and great to see that you are still managing both as well!
HI Joanna,
Thanks for sharing this. Your site has been very helpful for me. I love your honesty and openness about your creative career.
Jasmine
Really helpful. Thank you Joanna! My work is so far all non-fiction. Now I know why Kobo sells practically nothing for me!
I have asked them about this – very strange!
Hey Joanna,
I am so thankful to be one of your followers. You’re open, honest and loyal to your followers. We don’t get many authors like you. You share your work, you give free advice, you don’t mind making your resources available to us. I have learned much from you and your website tools and resources. You always reply to emails and i appreciate that. You make me feel that I am not alone on my writing journey. Because of you, I am not giving up on writing.
Again thank you for always sharing.
Have a blessed day and continued success
Thanks so much for your kind words, Deirdre. I’m very grateful that you find the site useful and wishing you all the best with your writing!
Thanks for posting your details in a format that helps aspiring writers such as me. This is the sort of detail I crave.
Glad it’s useful 🙂
Hey Jo! Thank you for the candid look into your business! You said that you were going to focus on fiction and not put out any new nonfiction. I noticed that in the chart Fiction vs. Nonfiction, Nonfiction dominated. I know that may not be relevant in terms of dollars, so I was curious to ask if the focus switch is a good idea? Are your existing nonfiction titles holding their own and that’s why you’ll be focusing on upkeep rather than new titles? BTW, I am looking forward to new fiction adventures from you. 😉
The non-fiction is a bigger chunk this year as that is where my focus has been in terms of number of books published and ongoing content marketing through this site and the podcast. And the non-fiction continues to be a consistent seller.
But it’s also about what we all want to be known as. I love helping people but in 10 years time, I want to be known for my fiction – not for the method I publish them under 🙂
I’m not ditching non-fiction – just pausing it while I give J.F.Penn some love 🙂
This was so insightful, Joanna. I love how you’ve broken down your experience for all of us to learn from. Your graphs really helped to make sense of the numbers and your journey is frank and inspiring as well. Thanks so much for taking the time to post this and giving me some motivation!
Thanks Christa! All the best with your books.
Great review. Looking forward to see how refocusing more towards writing fiction will work out. Quite sure it will be a great decision.
I’ve put it out there now, so next year better be different!
Hi, Joanna,
I am so impressed with your level of transparency and authenticity. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, strategies, and tactical decisions. It’s really hard to concentrate on just one thing. I write children’s books, non-fiction, and am embarking upon cyber thrillers. You have been one of my unofficial mentors from the beginning. One question I have is,,,are you finding your LinkedIn advertising paying off? Because I haven’t found announcements about non-fiction books to convert. Maybe the advertising does? Anyway, I hope to meet you at one of the conferences this year as you are one of the only women in a leadership role in the Indie Author world (especially in areas other than romance.) Looking forward to your continued success!
Andrea Kamenca/Andi Cann/A.C. Ellmore
Thanks, Andrea – and I have never used LinkedIn advertising. That is not really my target market.
I do distribute my blog posts to LinkedIn, but hardly ever engage there.
I appreciate your comments about being a woman in what seems like a male-dominated space. I can assure you there are lots of women involved in the indie world, but I think the trend right now is to focus on paid ads and that is definitely male-dominated!
I’ll be at NINC – and also at Indie Author Conference in Philadelphia in November. Perhaps I will meet you there!
HI, Joanna,
It must be your blog posts that are showing up! Unfortunately, I will not be at either conference. My only conference this year will be 20B to 50K in Vegas. 2019 is still a question mark. Thanks for responding!
Andrea
You have been an inspiration to my writing career. Still unpublished, but just passed 100K words.
I’m curious, if you’ve made a study, comparing your books to the most commercially successful ones in your genre? There must be differences you can identify.
Thanks for your openness and good luck on your next book.
I read a lot of “commercially successful” books – and of course, I try to learn from them.
But beware comparisonitis 🙂 https://www.thecreativepenn.com/comparisonitis/
Every genre has their own expectations, so you have to be careful what you try to emulate. Also, as an indie author, there is no point comparing yourself to famous trad pub authors like Lee Child who have a huge media department behind them.
I looked at the comparisonitis video. It doesn’t apply to how I evaluate other author’s writing. Listening to an audible of a very successful fantasy author last week, her story wasn’t, in my opinion, the best part of her writing. What saved her novel and will have me listening to the next book in the series, was the humor she used. I loved her characters because they were clever and funny. I Kindle Spied her books and their revenues are about 100K per month. I don’t feel bad that I will never have her success, I won’t live that long. But some of my characters will be funny more often and I might sell more books when they are, thanks to comparing myself to her.
This was super interesting! Thanks for sharing Joanna, I wouldn’t have thought the fiction – non-fiction ratios would have been so different for the different stores!
I’ve had a split focus for years and the result has been lots of half started projects, whether they are books, websites or career paths. I’m hoping to refocus so I publish fiction constantly, while working on something that will financially fuel that passion.
Sounds like a plan, Daniel! All the best with it.
Hello Joanne I have followed your career for many years admiring your veritable agility. I’m envious of your success! You’re generous with your wisdom which is excellent because you have something to show for all that effort.
I have read everyone of your articles done some marketing courses despite all of that, I’m in limbo I’ve heeded a lot of good advice(there’s a lot of garbage out there) However no matter what I try and I’m tenacious, I’m ploughing a stony furrow.
I have just finished my 29th and 30th psychological crime suspense but my first books are getting nowhere. Kobo has provided better results than Amazon. The problem is I know the fundamental reasons for my dilemma but not a remedy. So thanks for this post. I may go back to basics yet again for the 5th year in a row. #llap
Hi Honor, I just had a quick look at your books. My main feedback would be that the covers are wrong for that genre (which I do read in as a British crime thriller lover). The blurbs look good, but I think redoing the covers to a more genre specific look, using KDP Select to get things moving, get some ads on book one, might help.
Thanks so much for this! I need to focus. The problem with believing anything is possible, is too many things at once. I have been a cop, comedian, actor, producer,writer. I need to focus on my publishing speaking business. This really helped. Keep sharing!
Sounds like you’re an eclectic sort as well, Cliff 🙂 All the best with your next reinvention!
Eye opening information Joanna. I self-published about two years ago in order to dedicate the book to my late brother Nick. Now with your encouragement, may actually begin another and try my hand at marketing.
Thanks,
Larry
Thanks Larry, and happy writing!
Joanna – I can’t tell you how grateful I am to hear you speak about (not) comparing ourselves to other authors. I’ve had to back off from some of the social media groups specifically because a majority of the posts have a tendency to take me to that ugly place of comparison, followed by a dark sense of failure.
I write about “Creatives” and teach the “Art of Observing,” but the bottom line is I’m a creative, and as such, must be careful not to be pulled in to how others perceive success. Of course I want to be financially successful, but for me, striving to push through my own creative boundaries is a fundamental part of the process of writing and the arts in general.
On another note, I thoroughly enjoy your podcasts, especially your latest interview with Steven Pressfield! Thank you 🙂
Glad it helps, Mandy! I also have a lot of social media on mute for the same reason.
Happy creating!
You are amazing! Thank you for sharing so generously.
What a great article and insight into how to make a living, I am early in my career as an author and this has been a really helpful insight into how I can make forward progress. I am going to spend some time in the coming days really looking at the whole of my business (while I continue to write) and make plans for the next season. Thanks again. Be blessed.
Glad you found it useful 🙂