Nerdology 101: First 150 Days

Oh my Goddesses! It’s already been 150 days since The Fate of Angels and Demons came out. This is awesome! I’m excited. Honestly, I didn’t even realize how long it had been until I started thinking about this week’s topic. It’s awesome that it falls where it does too since I’ll technically be in Orlando, FL doing a book signing at The New Romantics on the 150th day (I write these posts about a week before they actually release because it helps me make sure I can get them out on schedule. Seems to be working because I haven’t missed a post since this blog started in October of last year.). Anyway, sidebar aside, let’s get into some Nerdology!

What’s so special about 150 days?

A lot! It’s a huge post-release landmark in a lot of ways. 150 days is enough time to accurately measure how a book is doing. Early indicators usually are the most accurate when it comes to indie/self-published works, unlike with trad published books where early sales are some of the highest indicators. This is because of simple math. Most of the big name trad authors that come to your mind when you think of trad publishing are reaching the majority of their audience off the bat, meaning that early indicators are probably gather metrics from most of their established audience. The same doesn’t apply to indies. Even if a book isn’t doing wonderfully out of the gate, for indies, that probably doesn’t cover very much of their target audience because they usually haven’t already found said audience. So, every time they post or run ads, they’re likely being introduced to an entirely new group of people. Thus, long term indicators are probably a much better way to ensure accurate measurement, especially since indie books have a habit of doing a 180 when least expected.

What do the long term indicators say about your book?

Well, I’d say the heartbeat is steady but that it doesn’t necessarily mean we’re out of the woods yet. I see the growth, the slow upticks in engagement (specifically on TT this week), the interest from more and more events and bookstores, and even the slow addition of reviews. The efforts of me and my PA are producing some results, however slowly that might be happening. Here’s a more in-depth summary:

Social Media:

Since April 1st (the release date of The Fate of Angels and Demons) my TikTok metrics have been 14.8k views (375.4% increase), 104 profile views (205.9% increase), 360 likes (291.3% increase), 49 comments (1125% increase), and 89 shares (368.4% increase). Those are pretty huge leaps and bounds, but lets put them in perspective by also going over just the metrics of the last 7 days. 1.5k views (109% increase), 11 profile views (450% increase, also like 1/10th of the total profile views since April), 32 likes (45.5% increase), 3 comments (100% increase, had not the week prior), 7 shares (100% increase, had none the week prior). From this, you can see pretty clearly that the majority of this growth is coming more recently. All in all, I’m up 54 followers on TikTok since April 1st 86.2% increase).

On Instagram, the growth is even slower. It only shows the insights from up to 90 days ago, meaning this is doesn’t go all the way back to April 1st, but in my net followers I see that I’m up by 9 and 71.2% of my views are coming from non-followers, as is 43% of my engagement. The totals are 9419 views, 279 interactions, 452 followers. It’s by no means a boom, but it is a slow, hard earned growth.

Sales:

This is going great. Just this week, I heard from another bookstore in my local area wanting to set up a meeting with me to talk about stocking my book. This one came from a referral. My best friend’s cousin stopped by their store and saw that they work with indies, so she told my best friend and my best friend told me. I reached out; they responded. Yay!

I also had to turn down an event for the first time. It was one I had been waitlisted for. They reached out to me due to some cancellations and asked if I could come, but I had already filled the space with another event on the same date in a different state, so I had to turn it down. This is growth because this year is the first year, and the first book, where I’ve had a pretty full schedule and am able to start working on events for the next year ahead of time. It does also mean more sales.

Of course, most of those haven’t happened yet (next week, Sept, Oct), so I can’t give results quite yet. What I can do, though, is tell you what I have sold—and that, my loves, is more than DOUBLE what I had sold this time last year. The Fate of Angels and Demons has MORE. THAN. DOUBLED. the sales I saw from Journey to Rallem.

Year-to-Date Sales (2026) vs. Last Year-to-Date Sales (2025). Paperback sales are depicted in dark blue while ebook sales are depicted in light blue. Screenshot from my IngramSpark Dashboard. Special edition sales are not included, nor are in person sales, direct sales, or website sales. This dashboard only counts sales reported from retailers to IngramSpark. Including sales counts from other sources adds an additional 12-ish? copies.

Needless to say, that is awesome. I don’t think there is a better example of why long term indicators are better for gearing the growth of an indie author. For all the struggling and feeling like I’m getting nowhere, this number makes it abundantly clear that I am. I couldn’t be happier. So, thank you, dear readers, as well as my team and the wonderful people who helped me do this. You nerdy weirdos are the best.

That is all I have for this week, though. Check back with me again next week for the next segment of Nerdology 101. Until then, have a nerdy week!