Here are the sales figures for all 5 of my books

Yes, with actual numbers.

My God, it is difficult to discuss numbers in this industry. I think it’s because we’re monetizing art (an inherently absurd idea), and we’ve been subtly trained to see publishing as a zero-sum game, where someone else’s advance feels ripped from your own bank account.

It’s all so personal, you know? I’m envious of author friends who sell more copies than me, yet dismayed when a bud’s beautiful book doesn’t do numbers. It’s emotional. It’s messy. It seems best—easiest—to keep those thoughts locked deep inside, lest they make me seem ~ungrateful~ or ~tacky~ or, God forbid, ~unlikable~.

And yet—I’m so grateful and inspired whenever another author is upfront about their advances and/or sales.

Leah Konen

bravely discussed her own advances, ranging from “nice deals” to upper-end “good deals” in the parlance of Publishers Marketplace, in a recent post (she gives actual figures, go take a look).

Amie McNee

opened up about how her appearance on a massive podcast affected her sales (or not), with a screenshot of her sales portal.

Vera Kurian

showed us a breakdown of how her various income streams keep her afloat, and over on Threads, an author on the New York Times bestseller list shared exactly how many copies she sold to earn that particular honor.¹

So, in deference to my general feelings about 2025: F*ck it, we’re doing it.

Below, I’m sharing the exact number of sales I see in my author portal for the first six weeks of each book’s life. This is ebook, audio, and hardcover combined, as well as some details and context, like the publication date, what was going on in the world and with the book at the time, and more.

Penguin Random House’s dashboard isn’t perfect; I’ve found these tallies are somewhere in between BookScan and the figures I later see on my royalty statements. But certainly, it’s a rough estimate, and good enough for comparing one title to another.

Are we doing this? We’re doing this: