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Another $320 in Donations from the sale of my first Novel

As I promised almost 4 years ago when I first published my little novel about the 173rd Airborne Brigade during the Tet Offensive in part to thank the soldiers — mostly Vietnam Veterans — who contributed so much to my development as a young Army officer, I am continuing to donate half of my earnings from Youth In Asia.

With a generous matching contribution from my employer, this brings the total to about $2,300. And I am again donating to the VFW National Home for Children and Families. There are a lot of good charities staffed by hardworking, caring individuals. This is the one I picked to donate to. I value the focus on helping familes get back on their feet, and taking care of children.

From one perspective, $2,300 is not much money. From another — that of an aspiring novelist — that my first work of published fiction has done so well is gratifying.

Sales have certainly slowed, and last month (November of 2018) was the first month out of 45 months that I sold less than 1 copy a day. December has been a better month of sales, and I’m going to be back above 1 sale a day. The trend though is clear: sales are continuing to slow.

Of course, it is never too late to buy a copy to help me generate more money to donate, and leave a 5-star review to help drive more sales. 🙂

I can’t complain about how it has done so far. Almost 4,000 copies sold, 4.4-star rating from 67 reviews on Amazon US, more reviews WW (4.3-star rating from 16 reviews in the UK, 5.0-star rating from three reviews in Canada, etc.), and 105 reviews on GoodReads with a 4.1-star rating. All and all, it has been well received and I have gotten some good feedback on how to write a better story next time.

My goal when I published it was to sell 365 copies and get no less than a 4-star review average. My more important goal was to learn as much as I could about self-publishing, and I certainly have.

So in all ways this has a been a huge success for me and modest help to a few charities. With that, I’ll call it a good year.

And a big thank you to everyone who has bought a copy and left a review which helps me reach more people.

100 Goodreads Reviews

This morning, after rolling out of bed on this 4th of July, I saw that my first novel had gotten its 100th review on Goodreads and its 66th review on Amazon. From the same person, and only 4 stars, nonetheless it was exciting to hit 100 on Goodreads. That is just one of many metrics that can describe my book’s success in the market.

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Over $2,000 in Donations from Sales of my Novel

Though sales of my novel have continued to slow as it is coming up on 3 years since I published it, I’m keeping my promise to donate half of my earnings. Since I made my last donation early in the year, I’ve earned another $400, so I’m donating $200. Because my employer matches my donations, that means another $400. I have again decided to donate to the VFW National Home for Children.

I really like this organization’s focus on families. They seem to understand that it takes a family working together to get back on its feet while you also have to help the children.

This focus on protecting children is also a key theme in Lonely Hunter and the subsequent novels in the series. More on that in a future post.

So in total, with a partial match, I’ve now been able to donate over $2,000 to organizations that help our veterans and their families. That makes me feel good and it is pretty exciting that my first novel has sold so well.

Speaking of book sales… Given that I’m kind of a data geek, I have long been tracking my monthly sales. You can see below in blue the average sales per day on a monthly basis, and the red line is the running average.

You can clearly see in blue how sales fell almost immediately (very typical for a newbie), and then climbed as I figured out to pick keywords that would actually get traffic. Sales peaked at over 7 books per day, and then fell dramatically in September of last year. Amazon clearly made a change that impacted my sales. When I spoke to them, they said they did not know what they could have done, but obviously, something happened. The change before and since has exceeded two standard deviations, which strongly implies something material changed.

In all events, I’m not unhappy. It has been a great run, and with the strong reviews and continuing sales, I’m very proud of how it did and the people who have helped me — my wife, one of my daughters who made the map, and my editor.

It has been a good year. 🙂

Best wishes to you and your family and for all your writing projects for the New Year!

$1000 donation from books sales to the VFW

I am happy to share that since I last made a donation in March, my sales of Youth In Asia about the 173rd Airborne Brigade during the Vietnam War have generated more than $600 of income for me. Not bad for a book priced at just $1.49, and of which I only get 30%. Since I’ve promised to donate half of my earnings, that is $300 more to donate.

Additionally, Crawford Roberts, the accomplished producer of the audiobook version of my novel had offered his services at a discounted rate, and then, after working on the projected, offered to complete it for free. I did not feel right keeping the $200 I had promised him, so I have added it to the $300 I will contribute. That makes $500.

Better yet, my employer again agreed to match my total contribution, so (in part due to Crawford’s and my employer’s generosity) I have just made a $1,000 contribution to the VFW’s National Home for Children.

With your help, I have now donated $1,650 to the VFW, Wounded Warrior, and similar organizations from my book sales to help our veterans

I will also donate a portion of my revenue from Lonely Hunter. Two of my children are chronically ill, so I’m happy to give to organizations doing medical research from which my children and all children will someday benefit.

Keeping my promise: Donating another $500 to help our Veterans

Sales of my novella of been good. The story is about young men in combat during the Vietnam War, and how they live with themselves and each other years later. As I promised, I am donating half of what I collect from sales to organizations that help our veterans.

With a match from my employer, today I’ve been able to donate another $500. Last time I donated $150 to the Wounded Warrior Project. This time I have donated to the Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation.

I have now donated a total of $650.

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Donating proceeds from my novel to the Wounded Warrior Project

When I published my short novel about combat in the Vietnam War and how it affected the participants, I promised to donate half of the proceeds to organizations that help our injured veterans. At the time I published it, I was hoping to sell 1 copy a day at a price of $.99. It was my first publication, so I wanted to keep my expectations in check.

When you sell through Amazon, if you price below $2.99 you only get to keep 35% of the sales price. Borrows through Kindle Unlimited and sales of my paperback are at different rates. So there are a variety of formulas in play, and I’ve changed the price of my book a few times. But in short, I was expecting to only collect about $125 dollars for the year, of which I’d give half to such organizations.

The great news is that my book has sold far better than expected — actually cracking the top 10 of several of Amazon’s Bestseller lists — and I’ve stabilized on a price of $1.49.

In short, I’ve now collected over $500 in revenue in less than 9 months. Though my total production costs (editing, some modest advertising, etc.) are close to $600, I’m keeping my promise and sending half of all I collect to organizations that benefit our Vietnam War veterans. Above is a screenshot of the first check.

In the grand scheme of things it is not a fortune, but I’m sure every dollar helps, and there will be more coming. When I hit a total of $600 collected, I’ll send another $150 check.

If you want to help me raise more money for our Vietnam veterans, please buy a copy of my book — which is dedicated to our veterans — and forward this link to those who care because there are soldiers who still need our help. This check went to the WWP, but that is not the only veterans group I’ll donate to over time.

Thank you, and thank them.

Vietnam War novel: New Video Trailer

Hey everyone. Wanted to let you know that I have just released a video trailer for my novel of the Vietnam War. Titled Youth In Asia, you can read more about it here. Obviously the intent is to help market my book. So give it a look and let me know what you think and if you think it will help promote my novel. Thanks! Allen

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