When I started out, I had a couple of goals, “threshold numbers” I wanted to hit. I passed the first one (100) a while ago fairly easily, as expected. The next number was 700, roughly the number where I was certain I had broken even on cash costs for editing, cover art, and this website. I’m now halfway there (not counting the 8 units borrowed by Prime members). If sales hold steady at the current rate, I’ll hit 700 in three weeks or so, call it mid-February.
I’ve been watching the numbers creep up, and the sales rank fluctuate. It’s mostly been around the #7,000s in sales rank the last few days, which equates to an average of somewhere between 15 and 25 a day, something like 20 a day if This Table is to be believed. It’s clinging to a spot in the Military sci-fi Top 100 chart, but fallen off the chart in sci-fi Action-Adventure completely. To be ranked in the “Action adventure” chart, which is much more competitive and has many more titles, it would have to be ranked roughly #3,000 overall. So, I shifted categories to sci-fi space opera from action-adventure, and kept the sci-fi military. Keeping on the charts keeps it visible, which has to help sales, and the #100 ranked title on the Space Opera chart is way down at #11,000 overall rank, roughly a dozen sales a day. No idea how much that will boost sales, but being visible on two charts instead of one can’t hurt, I don’t figure.