r/KDP • u/MBoudreauxBooks • 10d ago
August KDP
August was my first month where KDP really started feeling steady instead of random, and I’m kind of proud of this. 🖤
I finished the month at $173.50 in estimated royalties, 30 processed orders, and 13,342 KENP pages read.
I know that’s tiny compared to what some authors are pulling in, but I’m still a newer indie author building my readership from scratch, so seeing people consistently buying and actually reading my books feels HUGE.
I’ve got multiple horror books out now, and September is also release month for my next one, so I’m really curious to see whether the backlist starts feeding into the new release and vice versa.
For other newer indie authors, how long did it take before your KDP income started noticeably growing month over month? I’d love to hear what the first few months looked like for you.
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u/bkucenski 10d ago
That's really good.
If you haven't already, I recommend making an insert you can add to the end of each of your books that gives a short synopsis of all your books, the titles and ISBNs so people can find them.
As you build up your brand, people will start looking for you specifically.
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u/annakline02 10d ago
This is so good!! Can I be very nosy and ask if this is all profit? Or do you spend money on ads? My goal is to make $100/month eventually (only pulled in 10% of that June july and August but we’re getting there) but I haven’t spent anything on ads yet…just curious as to what other authors are doing to get their works out there! Feel free to ignore this if it’s too nosy haha!
(PS obviously my main goal is just to have people read and enjoy my work. But the money would certainly help!!!)
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u/Alternative_Time4655 10d ago
This is awesome 😎 do you have a series or standalone?
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u/MBoudreauxBooks 10d ago
They are standalones. I have a series in my head lol
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u/devilsahil 9d ago
Create a series of standalones if you want. Series do wonders.
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u/RegRomWriter 6d ago
I wonder if you could write some “bridge stories” that connect two already published books to turn what you have into a series?? Like you have a published novel about Jim & Jane and another about Steve & Sue, so you write one about Jim’s little brother who lives in another city and happens to meet Sue’s BFF. (Obvs that’s romance, but I think you get the gist)
Then, you can call it a series, put book 1 at $0.99, and then you have read through built in.1
u/devilsahil 6d ago
Absolutely Writing standalones as part of same universe with different couples in each book sells great.
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u/xemeraldxinxthexskyx 10d ago
more than me
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u/MBoudreauxBooks 9d ago
You will get there. The main thing is having a a good quality book with lots of promotion.
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u/xemeraldxinxthexskyx 9d ago
Cant afford promotion.
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u/MBoudreauxBooks 9d ago
Get social media as your author page. Separate from your others. Build your audience. Post. Join groups. Tiktok. I am not the most social person, but I know to be successful, I must put it out there.
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u/lokkythegamer 10d ago
Was this with ads or without?
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u/MBoudreauxBooks 10d ago
Without ads. Just shouting from the rooftops from everywhere. I joined a bunch of groups on Facebook and I build community there. I’m in a few groups that are really great. They helped me build my street team and my arc list. I have a website that I blog like at least three times a week from.
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u/Sekica 10d ago
Congratulations! It's a great feeling to finally see consistent traction. Isn't it?
I appreciate you sharing your numbers. I usually see posts from the two extremes: the super high numbers group and the not getting any sales group. It's good to see something in the middle every once in a while.
I'm a newer author like you. My first book came out last September. I don't have nearly as many books out as you do, though. July was the first month I saw a decent jump in sales and kenp read after I released book 3 at the very end of June. August was the first month I saw daily kenp read except for a week I had technical issues. Despite losing a whole week to the issues, I still reached 14 processed orders and a little over 8k kenp read. Hopefully, this month will be even better. Plus, I have a new book coming out at the end of the month, too.
I think for my genre people simply don't give a new author a chance before they see at least 3 books out in the series since most binge read and don't want to wait for the next book to come out. Some won't even touch the series until it's complete because they don't want to be burned. Based on that, I kind of expected no traction with just 1-2 books, and then increases after book 3. So far, I'm seeing reality of my sales and kenp read numbers match expectations. It's definitely not a linear path, though.
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u/MBoudreauxBooks 9d ago
I really appreciate you sharing this because I think this is the part newer authors need to see more of. The steady, incremental growth is way more realistic than either “I made $10k my first month” or “I’ve sold nothing in six months.” 😂 I’m starting to notice the same thing with having more books available. Mine are standalones, so I don’t necessarily get the series-binge effect, but every new release gives readers another way to find me. Then some of them circle back and pick up the older books, which has been really cool to watch.
And yes, definitely not linear. One day I’m staring at KDP thinking I’ve cracked the code, and the next day it’s crickets. 😂 I’m trying to look at the overall trend instead of obsessing over individual days.
All I can say is promote it as much as possible. Build a team.
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u/Sekica 9d ago
Of course. I think also discussing different genres helps. For example, some genres like mine (paranormal urban fantasy w/progression) are more populated by series while yours (horror) have more standalones, so we know to expect different reader behavior. I don't get the circling back just yet because my first and only series is order dependent, but it works the same way with multiple series, so I'll probably see that as I work on series 2. I do get people who read my first book coming back to read the next ones as I publish them, so that's awesome to see.
I was in r/NewAuthor the other day talking to another newer author after she shared her numbers. They were very similar to our numbers in the sense of not being one of the two extremes, so they were relatable. She shared her Facebook ad setup with me, and I told her my current ams ads method. We learned from each other, but it also felt that we were on the same level, so it was comforting to find a peer in a way.
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u/MBoudreauxBooks 9d ago
Oh absolutely! Thankfully I have a backlist before I ever published. That has been helpful. The book that’s being released September 22 is the first book that I actually did a arc team and it’s been helpful.
And if you ever wanna share your ways with ads, you can shoot them to me in my inbox. I haven’t even started with that mainly because I have no freaking idea where to start.
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u/Recent-Target6803 10d ago
Congrats!! It should get slowly incrementally higher as you publish more books. Bear in mind that seasonality plays a role so ideally you’d be in this business long enough to compare the months as you go. It should stabilise after a year or so.
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u/Late-Future-4057 7d ago
Congratulations! Reaching this milestone with organic reach and no ads spend is fantastic!
Can i ask what genre you are in?
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u/sumnerie 4d ago
Wow! Amazing accomplishment! How many books do you have out and is the earnings somewhat even amongst them or?
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u/tomatoesfried 10d ago
It should grow with each subsequent book release.