Sales report – April 5, 2013

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly how many copies of “Murder in Wauwatosa: The Mysterious Death of Buddy Schumacher” have been sold. Amazon and Barnes & Noble both rank books among best-sellers, Amazon has an author site that adds up the number of print books sold online and at bookstores around the country, and I have sold about 200 myself. None of these sources seem to include e-books ales, and I know I’ve sold at least one of those as I purchased one for my Nook just to have it handy.

As of the end of March, the Amazon author site lists 598 books sold. That may not even include all the print versions sold as the site says that some outlets may not be included and the total books sold is most likely about 75% of what you’ve actually sold.

I’m guessing that there have been 600-650 books sold so far. No idea how many e-books, though. I’ll get a check at the end of April or early May that will list how many of each version of the book has sold. But it will only include sales from July 2012 to the end of the year. So far, that has been the big sales period.

Wish I could keep you informed as to our best-seller rank, but for one thing, Amazon’s author site has this message: “Your historical Sales Rank data has not been updated since February 1, 2013 while we conduct necessary systems changes to improve this service. We apologize for the inconvenience. Once rebuilt, your historic Sales Rank data will include the missing data since February 1, 2013.”

Right now, as I write this, Amazon says the print version is ranked 133,677 out of more than 8 million books. That’s pretty good, as we haven’t been that high since Christmas Eve. Amazon’s site also shows you how many print versions have been sold in various geographical areas. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the sales have come in the Milwaukee area (498). Indianapolis is next at 52, with Madison, Wisconsin third at 17 and Hartford, Connecticut next at 6. OK, what family moved from Wauwatosa to Hartford?

Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, has the print version ranked 348,699.

Thanks to everybody who has supported me and the book!