About Me

Tollesbury, Essex, United Kingdom
I was born in the Summer of 1969 in Dagenham, just on the border of East London. School was largely unproductive but enjoyable, setting me up for something of a wayward but interesting life! On leaving school I had various jobs including putting up stalls at Romford Market, working in a record shop, putting up ceilings, gardening and road sweeping. After resigning from an insurance company to play in a band, I found myself unemployed for two years. Then finally I got back on my feet and I've been a psychiatric nurse since 1997. I wrote A Cleansing of Souls when I was 22 years old and followed it up with Tollesbury Time Forever almost twenty years later. I started writing The Bird That Nobody Sees in September 2011 and it was released in July 2012. In terms of writing, my heroes are Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck. I would also include Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits as literary influences. So that's me I guess - scruffy, happy and in love with literary fiction, music and life...

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Week 3 Update!

Well what an adventure this is turning out to be. It is now three weeks since Tollesbury Time Forever became available on Kindle for download. I also made the decision this week to pull out of Smashwords. Just seemed like too much hassle and too much tax! My hopes, to be honest, were modest - particularly given the less than optimistic views of several agents and publishers (those that bothered to express a view anyway!). I hoped for maybe a hundred copies to be sold in the first year with maybe one or two good reviews.

This past week has been a real blur thanks to all the kind words people have said about the book and also the continuing "Three Bottles of Cheap Plonk" deal at the corner shop.

Anyway, on to the figures!


Week 1 (@10pm on 11th January 2012


Amazon.co.uk  -  54 sales 
Amazon.com    -  5 sales

Total sales        - 59 (average per day - 8.4)


Week 2 (@10pm on 18th January 2012

Amazon.co.uk  -  44 sales
Amazon.com    -  6 sales
Smashwords     -  5 sales

Total sales        - 55 (average per day - 7.86)

 Week 3 (@10pm on 25th January 2012

Amazon.co.uk  -  120 sales
Amazon.com    -  11 sales
Amazon.de       -  1 sale
Amazon.fr        -  1 sale

Total sales        - 133 (average per day - 19)

Total sales after first three weeks:

Amazon.co.uk  - 218 sales
Amazon.com    - 27 sales (including 5 Smashwords)
Amazon.de       - 1 sale
Amazon.fe       - 1 sale

Total sales        - 247 (average per day - 11.8)

Madness I tell thee!! Beyond my wildest dreams!

And if you add into that a total now of 26 reviews (22 of which are 5 stars!) this is beginning to make me think that Tollesbury Time Forever may just have something!

So thank you to all you wonderful people who have bought the book and even more thanks to you who have read it and even greater thanks to you people who have put a review on Amazon!!

Well take care you kind people and keep frugaling up the frugals!!!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Truly, truly awesome and so very well deserved..xx

Stu Ayris said...

Thank you Rosie! I fully expect next weeks sales to be much reduced due to the revised pricing and the fact that everyone that knows about it may well now have downloaded it - all good fun though!! xx

Unknown said...

Hey, Stu, way to go man! Good stuff.

Stu Ayris said...

Cheers Col! One day I may be able to replace this wire that's strung across my bedroom wall with a proper wardrobe!!

Sean Patrick Reardon said...

Hopefully, it is only a harbinger of things to come! Keep it up stu.

Stu Ayris said...

You just never can tell, Sean. All I know is the things, sometimes very personal, that people have told me in terms of how Tollesbury Time Forever has affected them, has made everything worthwhile even if I got no further sales. Life is bigger than books and money and all that stuff. It's about kindness and love and generousity mate and this book has allowed me to share a little of that.

Sean Patrick Reardon said...

I think the combination of the great writing and the fact that you come off as such a good dude, make a great combo.

Charlie Wade said...

Well done Stuart, really good figures they are.

Stu Ayris said...

Cheers Sean and Charlie - just going to keep going with the flowing and see what happens!