Comparing my kids 2022 edition
Still exploring the new KDP report system and one of the first things I did was rank my books according to units sold. This is not the first time I’ve “compared my kids” but still, a disclaimer: I have different goals usually for each book, and my books are not meant to compete with each other on a silly scale like “units sold.” But still…I like looking at these things and trying to learn from what this tells me.
So here are my top 10 (of 35) titles as of today, listed according to most units sold on KDP in their respective lifetimes.
1. Fairy Tale Fail (2010). This blog has documented the experiment that was releasing this book on Kindle at all, and look at that. Twelve years later it is undeniably responsible for giving me the kind of career I have now.
2. Love Your Frenemies (2011). In my own memory I still think I released this book too late, that if I released it sooner it would have given the buyers of Fairy Tale Fail a second book to purchase right away. And yes? But even with the delay, this is still #2. Not bad at all.
3. What Kind of Day (2018). Proud of this performing well because I really sat down and made intentional choices here. Characters in their 30s. Higher heat. How to convey that my characters are Filipino, celebrate being Filipino, but also want better for us. Photo shoots. Faces, eyes, lipstick shades, outfit colors. Author name on top. (Not my doing but was extremely helpful and I am so grateful: coverage by fellow authors and bloggers. Thank you for boosting a book that had all these Choices.)
4. Kiss and Cry (2019). Same series as What Kind of Day, same choices about Filipino-ness and asserting such against backdrop of global publishing. This is, if we forced only one category for it, a “hockey/skating romance” and sometimes I wish it had more in common with its “global publishing” peers because I read and loved many of those books before writing this one. But the problem of money always bothered me even if I enjoy hockey/skating romances, and making them Pinoy slides that problem into a story’s foundation that I couldn’t just wave away. My choice though, and I had the best time writing and researching this. (And that’s a real PH hockey jersey on the cover!!!)
5. Better at Weddings Than You (2017). I wrote this as a fun thing for me, as a way to change gears after writing super serious stuff, and reader support at this level helped me decide what to do next. (Which became the Six 32 Central series that started with What Kind of Day.)
6. So Forward (2020). I consider this book a baby, and sometimes I think I don’t talk about it enough? But quietly it’s climbing over my books that have been around for years.
7. Interim Goddess of Love: The Complete Trilogy (2014 ed). Release a compiled edition of your trilogy! Yeah that’s it.
8. Iris After the Incident (2016). The ~heavy book I had been writing that stayed with me for a while. I’m glad it’s up here.
9. Interim Goddess of Love #1 (2012, unpublished). This was the first edition of Interim Goddess! At the time it felt like such a struggle self-publishing this “older YA” title and I’ve since learned to not stress out over this. Which led to the compiled edition that has now outsold #1, cool cool.
10. Totally Engaged (2021). Surprised that another book I still consider a baby is here!
Anyway, I do this, but I love my books, and no book is a failure. Lucas, from Fairy Tale Fail, is always a rock star though.
