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...

Saturday 5 January 2013

Tollesbury Time Forever - one year on...

On 4th January 2012 I pressed the 'publish' button and propelled Tollesbury Time Forever into the eBook world. It was a world of which I had no knowledge, no experience and few expectations. The novel had been summarily dismissed by agents and publishers and, to be honest, I decided to publish it on Amazon Kindle as a means of saying goodbye to it, getting it out of my system if you like. My hopes, (for I always have hopes!), were that it may sell a hundred during its life-time. I didn't consider reviews at all, positive or otherwise, and I certainly didn't think that it would be the first of a trilogy - a trilogy that I hope to complete this spring.



So to the facts and figures!

Sales per month (eBook and Paperback combined):

January      302
February    165
March        306
April           121
May             71
June            87
July              89
August         87
September   57
October        76
November    58
December    96

Total              1,513

These are made up of 1,114 UK/Europe sales and 399 US sales

The eBook/Paperback split is:

eBooks               1,393
Paperbacks           120 (only available since end of August 2012)

Now to the reviews:

                                  5 stars  4 stars  3 stars  2 stars  1 star

Amazon UK                 70       8          1          1          1
Amazon US                 27       3          1          0          0
Goodreads                  46      16         7          1          2

Total                             143    35         9          2          3

Percentage                   75%   18%   5%       1%        1%

Well that's the numbers. Now to the actual reviews. Here's the links to what people actually said...

Amazon UK 
Amazon US
Goodreads

Well there you go!

Just a little reminder that The Bird That Nobody Sees, the second book in the FRUGALITY trilogy is available in eBook and Paperback from Amazon UK/US and the final part of the trilogy will hopefully be available in the spring.

So thank you to everyone wherever and whoever you are.

You're all WONDERFUL!!!

Cheers!!!























11 comments:

Nigel Bird said...

It looks like it was a good year all round for the book. Well done on the figures and those great reviews. Upwards and onwards.

nigel

Stu Ayris said...

Cheers Nigel! Certainly has been great. To the toppermost of the poppermost!

joo said...

Tollesbury is certainly a book that is out there on it's own.
Would it have been successful before Kindle? Who knows?
As you know, I enjoyed it. It's one of them books that you've no idea where it's going, but you are there on the journey.

Stu Ayris said...

Thank you Joo!

Bit like life then!!

Nick Wilford said...

What a great year you've had Stu, I'm sure there will be many more to come. I think Kindle has enabled readers to take control in the industry rather than the gatekeepers... I can't wait to see how the series ends!

Stu Ayris said...

Cheers Nick! Yep it has been wonderful! And I agree - let the people decide, not the moneymen. Get in there!

D.M. Andrews said...

That's great, Stuart - and nice to see that I'm not doing that bad because mine's not too dissimilar to your own (and I've given you a mention, too!)

See: Writers-and-Publishers.com

But how come I don't get so many UK sales as you...?

Stu Ayris said...

No idea mate! It's all a mystery to me!!!

CallyPhillips said...

Thanks for those stats Stuart - it's always good to see what the truth of what folk are doing is (amidst all the ridiculous claims of 'success') When you talk 'sales' are you talking paid sales or have you included free promotion 'sales' as well? Just interested to know what percentage is part of a promotional giveaway and what is actual cash out of folks pockets! And also what sort of work you put in and where, to promoting it. I'm guessing Goodreads was your prime market? But it'd be good to know the story behind the figures (though don't want to take you away from writing part three.) But stats get to you. You get some figures you want more figures.... whatever though, it's a great book and I'm glad its getting a constant readership. Wish it was 10 times that (i bet you do too!)

Stu Ayris said...

Hi Cally!

Yep - they are all paid sales. I did a free run a couple of weeks after the release and then it was just a case of discovering things like Goodreads, the UK Kindle Forum and a little bit of Twitter. And I love stats too! Comes with being a cricket fan I guess!

What's lovely about the way the book has gone is the fact that I don't really do much promotion at all yet people seem to continue discovering it, reading it and liking it. It is a truly wonderful feeling. I'm hoping when I Woke Up This Morning comes out that people will give The Bird That Nobody Sees more of a go (I actually prefer it to Tollesbury Time!) in terms of the trilogy being complete.

Fun times though!

Cheers for all your fantastic encouragement!!!!

CallyPhillips said...

Sorry so long to be back here... good to know they are all paid sales. Proves one doesn't HAVE to be giving it away for free. Good clean stats is what we like (well, I hate them but I'd rather they do what they're supposed to if I have to engage with them!) So glad you are spreading through word of mouth. Me, I do no promotion I sell nothing. I do promotion I sell nothing. At least I'm consistent!
I'm looking forward to part 3 for sure but TT is THE ONE for me. Out there on its own standalone BRILLIANT. Now to prove I'm not a robot and get my words up here...