December book sales update

Here's a quick update on the sales of my two books in the month of December 2019.

November & December 2019 sales summary of my books. You may want to read this post I had written after first 100 copies were sold.

Key Highlights

• About 92 copies were sold in December 2019- 30 copies of Kannada book and 62 copies of English edition. (A few orders placed on last day of the month would be counted for next month once it is confirmed- there're a few more orders placed but yet to be processed, not included in above report)
• Amazon accounted for almost 50% of the books sold, followed by NotionPress store and just a few on Flipkart
• Amazon did run some ads on my book as well- a few friends showed me ad of my book appearing on their feeds. May be it helped.

• Amazon reviews for English book have begun to appear. Except one review which said book has nothing exceptional, other reviews were positive. Also amazon seemed to be slow in approving reviews.
• Amazon also has rejected many orders citing some technical reasons- I was told by Notionpress these were due to some issues in payment processing. I am aware of at least 4 such instances in December. When friends brought such issues to my attention I have requested them to order on NotionPress store instead. 

• Met a few bookstores in Bengaluru to check if they would like to keep my book for sale- 3 stores rejected [details here], Total Kannada in Jayanagar has accepted. You can grab a copy from this book store as well. Have kept 5 copies there- result of the sale I will know only on my next visit.

• English version didn't sell as much as Kannada book overall- Of the 190 copes, about 128 copies were Kannada and 60 were English. May be English readers have lots of travel tips available freely on internet hence may not have a motive to purchase a book. Of course in December English sold more copies than Kannada as English edition was launched end of November.
• Have given copies of the book complementary to many people close to me- few of them offered to pay but I declined. Complementary copies are not included in above count.
• I was interviewed about my books on Gaurish Akki Studios youtube channel. Watch the video below.



• Had given few copies to leading Kannada newspapers, but other than Udayavani, other papers haven't given any coverage yet. Among English papers The New Indian Express has given a good coverage while I was told The Hindu doesn't review self published books.

• I've not done any gorilla marketing- like paying people to write positive reviews, buying my own books etc. Whatever has happened so far has happened naturally.
• Holding a small book launch function in my home town this week. Hopefully more copies will sell during the event. If you are in Kota, do attend the event.

Happy new year to you and I am looking forward to 2020