November 2025 Transparency Post

 

First, let me give a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported me this month by buying my books. 🙏 This is by far the best sales month I've ever had or expect to have at least until I release book 3 of the Prophecies of Zarune.

Background information – Relentless Blades (RB) has been out for a little over a year, and Ashbound Oaths (AO) released on 11/18/25. I had the AO cover reveal on 10/8/25. I had SFFinsiders.com assist with that. They are fantastic at collaborating with indie authors to present high quality cover reveals. That was also the day I began taking pre-orders and began my personal marketing campaign. When I say ‘personal’ it means that I did all promoting. No paid ads of any kind.

Prior to the 11/18/25 AO release here were my book sales and eBook pricing:

RB ($2.99) – 3 sales

AO ($1.49) – 35 pre-sales (again, all my own personal marketing)

I rarely use paid ads, but for this release month I decided to try a few. My strategy was to discount RB (eBook) to drive sales to that book in the hope people will like it and then buy AO later. I set a Kindle Countdown promotion, so RB was priced at $.99 from 11/18 – 11/24. I kept AO at $1.49 as I felt that was already a very low price for a 465 page book.

I chose the following paid, 1-day advertisements, with pricing and RB sales for each day.

Robin Reads – date 11/21 - $60 – 4 sales

Book Barbarian – date 11/22 - $40 – 20 sales

Fussy Librarian – date 11/23 - $18 – 10 sales

Results – I paid $118 for 34 “potential” sales. I say potential because I was also consistently marketing myself during that stretch, so some of the sales could have come from my marketing and not paid ads. At this point, I consider the ads a failure. I hoped for many more sales. Now, it’s possible it may still payoff down the road if all 34 people end of buying AO at anything close to regular price, but for now I’m not impressed. For context, a $.99 eBook sale only nets the author about $.65 in royalties when on a KDP countdown promotion.

However, I urge you to scrutinize the numbers. My results do not mean they will be the same for you for a variety of reasons. The first of course is different books. But there are many others: choice of promotional month, and choice of promotional days of the week being two major factors. In hindsight I would have had the sales coincide with Black Friday rather than ending right before Black Friday really begins. I’m also not sure November was the best month to have the sales, although I’m not really sure.

Final November numbers (Amazon):

AO – 65 (35 preorders, 30 after) sales which was 60 eBooks and 5 Print

RB – 50 sales which was 48 eBooks and 2 print

*I had 1 AO sale through Barnes and Noble and 2 through Ingram Spark as well in November.

It’s important to note that there was not a day in November where I did not promote one or both books personally through various social media platforms. I used X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Threads. Most days I promoted at least twice on many platforms. Advertisements consisted of messages with pictures of the book, pictures of me with the books and videos.

In summary, I was thrilled with the sales but already feel the momentum waning. As I type this, I have no sales or KDP Page reads to report today (11/30) and had no sales yesterday, although I had some KDP page reads. This will likely be my last transparency post for a while. I’m not saying I’ll never do another but will be cutting back on them.

During the discourse around transparency posts last week, many people pointed out that transparency posts can come off as unprofessional and as a form of bragging. The unprofessional point stuck with me. You don’t see the literary titans posting their monthly sales figures. It’s like the great Barry Sanders who just handed the ball to the ref when he scored a touchdown; act like you’ve been there. When (or if) I do make more transparency posts I will try to include metrics again.

Then why did I make this post? For three reasons. The first is that I am so thrilled with the sales that I had to share. The second is because I said I’d make this post last week, and the third is my hope that the details I presented may inspire other indie authors or at least provide them with some context and information they may find useful for their own marketing. I especially feel that context is important. Numbers without context are too easily manipulated and misinterpreted.

Thank you all again who have supported me, and I hope you found this interesting and valuable. Now, go buy RB and AO. 😀

 

 

Live Chat with Author Russell Carroll (Beast Friends Forever 119)

Ashbound Oaths is Live!

 I'm so excited to announce that Ashbound Oaths is now available in all formats. Purchase links are in the title bar above. I am hard at work on the sequel. I have currently written 55,000 words. Been a little slow lately as I've been focused on promoting Ashbound Oaths, but I plan to get more focused soon, I hope!

Ashbound Oaths Art

The Ashbound Oaths cover art has been revealed and it's beautiful. It turned out better than I hoped. Originally, I planned to use the same artist from Relentless Blades, but he took longer than I wanted in responding to me, so I went with a new artist: Jesh Art Studios https://www.fiverr.com/s/o8kNGRA

He did a fantastic job at a very reasonable price. Here you can see the progression of his work from the concept to the finished product. 

    This was the concept sketch I had my daughter develop. I sent this to Jesh, along with a lengthy           description, so he could see my vision for the cover.

    This was Jesh's first concept sketch. I could tell right away he got my vision.

This was his first colored version. I loved it right away, but I wanted a dragon peeking through the clouds and felt the background needed to be more visible.

This was the next version and came very close to what I envisioned but still needed a few tweaks. I felt the characters were too close together and I wasn't a fan of the dragon's arms.

And here we have the final image with no text. I love it!

The final cover with the title and my name. It perfectly captures what I was going for. Not only is it a scene directly from the book but also lets a perspective reader know exactly the kind of story they are in for if they read it.

Ashbound Oaths Cover reveal 10/7/25

 SFFinsiders.com will be doing my cover reveal for Ashbound Oaths on 10/7/25. Save the date! I can't wait for you all to see this cover. It is on fire!!!

Ashbound Oaths Release Date November 18, 2025!

I've been very busy and very active, but admit that I've neglected my blog. I can only keep up with so many different social media accounts and I've become much more active on X, TikTok and YouTube as of late. 

However, I have exciting news to announce. As the title suggests, Ashbound Oaths, the exciting sequel to Relentless Blades will be available for purchase through Amazon and Barnes and Noble on 11/18,2025. That's roughly a year and a month since Relentless Blades was published.

I'm very proud of this book and can't wait for you to read it. In some ways I'm more proud of this than Relentless Blades. I was felt much more pressure writing this book. I'm grateful that Relentless Blades has resonated with people. As I type this it's sitting at a 4.7/5.0 rating on Amazon and 4.6/5.0 on Goodreads with over 50 reviews each. That's fantastic, but it also means that I have to live up to the expectations I've now set for readers. 

I went in knowing I'd have to expand the scope of the story and the cast of characters. I wanted to explore writing from a female character's point of View and thus we have many chapters in Ashbound Oaths dedicated to both Everleigh and Alyndra. 

It was challenging lining up the timelines and following three distinct adventures that all relate to each other without getting confused. I believe it all worked out and that you will have a blast reading it.

Get excited because Ashbound Oaths is coming soon!

First Draft of Book 2 Complete

 I'm very late in making this post, but I finished the first draft of the Prophecies of Zarune, Volume 2. I actually finished it on February 28, 2025. I was in a funk and had only written 32,000 words as of December 17, 2024. That was over the course of several months. 

I finally sat my butt down and figured out the full plot for volume's 2 and 3. Once I knew what I wanted to say, the words came to me. Over the next 2.5 months, I wrote 82,000 (rounded) words and finished the first draft at 114,000 (rounded) words. 

After a week of editing it, I sent it to my sister and close friend, as well as my wife, for them to read and give me feedback. Once they read it, I'll edit it again, then find beta readers to send it to. 

The one issue I'm facing is the ending of Volume 2. This book has several storylines happening simultaneously and I know I've wrapped two of the three of very well for this book, while still teasing more to come in the final to the trilogy. 

My issue is with the third storyline. I'm not sure it's the most satisfying for a reader, but to change it means adding probably four to five chapters and another 6,000 - 10,000 words and I'm not sure I want to do that either. 

I've been mulling over what I'd write if I add to it and may do it because it's bothering me, then see what my readers say when deciding whether to leave it as is or add in the new material. 

I also need to come up with a title for the sequel. I have a working title, but I don't love it. I also need to think of cover art. That's a struggle because I want something eye-catching, but that doesn't spoil this book or Relentless Blades. So much to do, but it's fun! Stay tuned...