Every month I share sales and social media numbers for my indie author career. Everyone’s path through the wild journey of being indie author is different. My hope is by being transparent with my growth, I can help fellow authors set realistic expectations and goals.
August was a rough month for sales numbers. Online sales were low, and I couldn’t determine my audiobook sales numbers because of the recent mess between Spotify separating from Voices by InAudio. A lot of my attention was given to preparing for an important Kickstarter campaign for the Track the Wolf audiobook production, so online marketing efforts for the Alex Steward series suffered.
I’m attending many more live events this year to determine where to find my readers. After each event, I’ve logged stats including the type of event, where it’s located, what type of event it is, how far I drive to attend, how many days and hours the event lasts, the table fee, gas costs, transaction fees, any other misc expenses including food, and what I sell. I’ll share stats on what I’ve discovered at the top of the next year, but beyond one outlier, I think comic conventions are still my strongest event investments. Book festivals would be a second and something I may explore more of next year.
Here are stats for August 2025:
August 2025 Sales
- Audiobooks: $?
- Print books: $18
- E-books: $24
- Website direct sales + payment link sales (all book formats): $56
- Bookstore direct sales: $0
- Live events (all book formats): $ (3 events: 2 arts festivals and 1 oddities festival): $736
- Total: $834
August 2025 Social Media Growth
- Author Stefanie Gilmour on Facebook: 290 (+8)
- Author Stefanie Gilmour on Instagram: 308 (+18)
- Author Stefanie Gilmour on “The TikTack”: 612 (+4)
- Stef’s VIP Mailing List: 329 (-6)