Lindsay Buroker has been doing some excellent posts on building a fan base--well worth a read.
But I was most interested in the post where she reveals her sales numbers for the first month for each new release: 2,000 copies of the fourth book in her Emperor's Edge series, 2,500 copies of the fifth book, and 3,000 copies (and counting) of the sixth book.
Why was that so interesting? Because those numbers really suck!
Or at least they suck by traditional publishing standards.
If Buroker was with a large, commercial publishing house, she'd have to sell between 20,000 and 30,000 copies of each title to get a contract for her next book--and she'd have to do it within a few months of release.
I've said this before, but I'll say it again: This is what makes me happy about self-publishing. A niche novelist with a relatively small audience can make a living on writing alone--writing fiction, no less.
Oh, and I get to read her books!