Slightly Off the Mark: Haunted Noble County

Showing posts with label Haunted Noble County. Show all posts

I'm Back Dispatching, but Still Writing

So, I'm back to work as a dispatcher.

Just part time, mind you. This still might come as a shock to some, because I've said the job was having an impact on my mental and emotional health. You know, that stuff you used to make fun of when you were younger. Well, I used to.

But this is part time, and I think as long as I limit working long shifts I should be okay. I did feel bad for anyone who didn't want me to come back, but not too bad. More importantly, I felt bad about all the fuss that was made over me leaving, and--here I am again! Seriously, the other dispatchers threw me a party and sent me off with a lot of swag.

They get me.

Some people, when they found out I was returning, asked if I was bored.

No.

I've never understood people who go to work just because they can't seem to think of anything else to do. I have hundreds of books to read, and dozens to write, and that by itself is more than enough to keep me busy. Bored? I'll admit, the first month I mostly just slept, but I have trails to hike, podcasts to hear, museums to visit, and I'm nowhere near caught up on Marvel movies and TV. (Do better, DC.) And grandkids!

Bored? What, do you live at the BMV?

I feel like I earned my retirement. And I do get retirement benefits, which--yay! Lots of people can't count on that. Still, my income, even when added to early Social Security, is short of what I was making on the job.

About, I'd estimate, $12,000 a year short.

I'd have to sell 25,000 books to make up that difference. Okay, I don't really know how many--a lot of factors are involved. But last year we sold around 750, and that's way too few zeroes.

(*NOTE* The royalty statement arrived from Arcadia Publishing: They moved 405 copies of Haunted Noble County and 9 copies of Images of America: Albion and Noble County. So the grand total of books sold in 2025: 979. So close to my 1,000 book goal!)

Anyone who follows the publishing business can tell you being an author is getting harder, not easier. Even if I did sell that many books this year, I wouldn't know for sure until the royalty statements started arriving a few months into 2027.

Not that I won't try selling more. But part of the time I planned to spend writing will have to go toward paying the bills, at least until that three book, six figure deal comes in.

And maybe after, but that's another story.

You don’t have to call 911 to find our books:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: If you stay home reading, you might not have to call 911.

Book Sales Numbers for 2025 ... Well, Some Sales Numbers

One of the strange things about the writing business is that it can be very difficult for an author to find out how well he's actually doing. How many sales did I make in 2025? I dunno. Somewhere between 500 and 10,000, but you can guess which extreme is closer.

For instance, I can tell you Emily and I sold 172 copies of Haunted Noble County, Indiana through direct sales last year. That includes author appearances, website orders, and copies sold by Butterfly Alley Books here in Albion, among other things.

Look! An author!

But that book is traditionally published. Arcadia Publishing not only has it on their website, they got it up on bookseller websites all over the place, and also attempted to get print copies sold in various local businesses and other places. When they did that with Images of America: Albion and Noble County, it appeared on the shelves at a Fort Wayne Barnes & Noble, and I encountered it on a rack at a local Walgreens. So, how many places carried print copies of Haunted Noble County?

No idea.

And How many copies of that book were sold through the publisher and all those websites?

No clue.

That's because publishers only send royalty statements every quarter or (in the case of this one) every six months. Images of America: Albion and Noble County sold 292 copies through Arcadia Publishing the first year it came out, 2015 (in August). I didn't find that out until March 29, 2016.

This will come as a shock to you, but the publishing industry in general is notorious for not keeping authors in the loop.

So when I tell you how many books we sold in 2025, it's a best estimate, which is 565.

That is, 565 copies of all 12 of our titles. Industry pundits will tell you the average number of sales for a new book are around 200 in the first year, and fewer than 1,000 in their lifetime. Is that true? I dunno. If it is, the Images of America book did pretty good. If Haunted Noble County sold about the same then we have reason to be proud, because 292 plus the 172 we know we sold is, let's see .... 464, twice that possibly true average.

But I can't count that higher number, yet. So I'm going with 565, which compares with 539 in 2022, 624 in 2023, and 492 in 2024 (a year in which we didn't release any new books). That's 2,215 copies sold in four years, not counting the Arcadia Publishing numbers. The breakdown for 2025:

172 Haunted Noble County, Indiana

113 Storm Chaser

110 Hoosier Hysterical

107 Coming Attractions

20 The Notorious Ian Grant

15 Storm Squalls

11 The No-Campfire Girls

6 Slightly Off the Mark

6 Images of America: Albion and Noble County

3 Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights

2 More Slightly Off the Mark

0 Radio Red (*sob*! But this is the one we're working on re-releasing.)

My goal this year is the same as last year: to sell a thousand books. Wish me better luck this time around.

Be counted! Find our books here:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter

· Substack: https://substack.com/@markrhunter

· Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/ozma914

· Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

· Audible: https://www.audible.com/search?searchAuthor=Mark+R.+Hunter&ref_pageloadid=4C1TS2KZGoOjloaJ&pf

Remember: Happy writers make for happy books.

Googling Yourself Is Strange

Yeah, I Google myself ... what's your point? And I found out things I, the Googled, um, Google-ee, never knew.

Okay, so, Haunted Noble County is available in the Netherlands. No, seriously:

https://www.bruna.nl/engelse-boeken/haunted-noble-county-indiana-9781467156066

You can read it to yourself, if you can read it. Which I can't.

If one of you can't afford the book, go Dutch.

I haven't gotten around to contacting local libraries about getting copies of our newer books (I know, my fault), but somebody has. Somebody, specifically, in the Plainfield-Guilford Twp Public Library in Plainfield, where Haunted Noble County, Indiana, Images of America: Albion and Noble County, and Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights are shelved in new local history & genealogy. Or so I'm told. It turns out all of our books are evergreens, or more specifically available through the Evergreen library system:

https://catalog.evergreenindiana.org/Union/Search?view=list&lookfor=Mark+R.+Hunter&searchIndex=Author&searchSource=local

I found our 21Alive TV interview on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdh8YfU6JiU

Which makes us a YouTube sensation? No? But we're there, anyway.

"Missed it by THAT much."

Our publisher posted about us on Twitter ... I mean X ... nah, it's Twitter:

https://x.com/HistoryBoooks/status/1957025429329514775

Which, I guess there's really no reason for me to know.

This is also how I discovered I'm now a top 10 Amazon author. Well, sort of: I did make it to number 8, but it was in a subcategory. But the good news is, I can just leave out that small detail.

None of this really bothers me--they're just fun surprises. It reminds me of when I did an interview at the WAWK studio in Kendallville, and right after we stopped at the nearby Walgreens to discover Images of America: Albion and Noble County on a book display. I knew the publisher was going to try to get the word out: I just didn't know when or where.

The Netherlands thing was a shock, though.

It’s really not hard to find us, even without Google:

· Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

· Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

· Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

· Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

· Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

· Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

· Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

· Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

· Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarkRHunter