January 2026 Indie Author Report

I’ve been posting an indie author report at the end of each month as a transparency project. My hope is that by doing so, other aspiring authors can see how every author’s path to publication and definition of success is different.

This month was awful for sales. I didn’t have any live events, newsletter promotions, or retailer sales scheduled. I also didn’t get a chance to visit my indie bookstores to see if any restocking was needed. Why didn’t I do any of this? A lot of my mental energy was given to larger LIFE decisions.

Beginning the second weekend of February, I will be rejoining corporate America as a full-time employee. (I do plan on continuing to write!) Despite reassurances from a very supportive partner, my writing progress throughout 2025 was paralyzed by a lot of financial fear. This is a larger topic I hope to write more about later. However, I wanted to note it here as well so it’s connected to this marketing slump resulting in sales slump.

Here are the January 2026 numbers: