Past wrap-ups: Cozy Up with Fantasy, Dec. 2025 | Cozy the Day Away, Oct. 2025
Another post-sale stats post, another Fire Emblem screenshot. Why not! (Marianne is expressing a rather cozy sentiment here, and has similar miniscule self-esteem as one of the leads in one of the books I ran. So hey.)
My post for the last Cozy the Day Away was very long (I must have been in a detail-oriented mood), so I am going to wave vaguely at that one for some general context about the sale and about my own situation. I have not had any major releases since that sale, so things are still pretty much the same for me. My newsletter has grown a bit, and that’s nice! Otherwise we’re staying the course.
It should probably be noted that this was a one-day sale, vs. the two-day sale last time. That seems to be the plan for 2026: one day in May, two days in October.
Some ground rules before we start!
- Nothing here is complaining! It’s collecting data for my own use, and making it public in case it’s useful for anyone else. It’s very hard to compare apples-to-apples between any two authors anyway, because there are so many factors in play. I love transparency, I fight against comparisonitis.
- Thank you to everyone who checked out the sale and/or bought anyone’s books!
- Thank you to the sale organizers, Karryn Nagel, Alicia Warne, and Lynn Strong.
As a Reader
These are by no means the full scope of the books in the sale, just some factors that are of interest to me as a reader. Going by the tags/listings on the sale page, this one had:
- 110 books, almost all ebooks with a few audiobooks, paperbacks and hardbacks.
- There were at least a couple of series bundles, as well as a few series where several of the books (if not all of them) were entered individually. So any reader looking to scoop up a whole series had several opportunities to do so.
- 2 science fiction, the rest were various types of fantasy
- 47 tagged as LGBT+ / gender/sexual diversity
- 81 cozy / 30 cozy-adjacent (I’m guessing one of the bundles included both, as that adds up to 111)
- 52 cozy + romance, 13 cozy-adjacent + romance = 65 romantasy overall, or exactly half.
- While this isn’t my primary focus as a reader (or an author), the continuing growth of cozy romantasy makes a lot of sense to me. They’re popular subgenres that mesh well together. I’m curious to see how this will continue to grow and evolve.
Anecdotally, the lineup seemed like a mix of new titles and returning titles, as it generally is.
What I Ran and How I Ran It
Speaking of a mix of new and returning titles, that’s what I decided to do with this sale too. Both of my titles ran in the Cozy-Adjacent section, which is where I parked myself a while back, and where I intend to stay as long as that’s an option.
Returning: I entered the first omnibus of How I Became a Therapist in Another World for $0.99 down from $4.99, which I’ve run in this sale several times as well as in other sales. At this point, my overall number-crunching has revealed that the majority of the copies of this book have sold during sales. I’m honestly okay with this; it is a series starter, after all. My hope is that at least a few people want to continue the series. 🙂
New: I also entered my most recent release (till next week, anyway): the Healers spinoff The Strangers’ Sanctuary. This one has been out for a little over 8 months, and this is the first time I’ve run a sale on it, aside from one outing in an itch.io bundle in November. This also ran for $0.99, down from $4.99.
Now, this is a bit of a risky move, and I hope I’ve included enough disclaimers, content warnings, and overall context that no one is upset. Strangers is waaaaay on the edge of cozy-adjacent: it has a huge focus on healing (not the magical kind), set in a small town in the country, with cooking and gardening and book clubs and friendship and mentorship BUT it does not skip the reasons the characters need to heal in the first place. They’re on-page, especially in the first few chapters. I mention that specifically on the sale page and the landing page for the book and in the content notes in the front. I never wanted it to be misery porn, but make no mistake, there’s some misery.
Some people like that, some people don’t. I desperately hope that those who bought it are OK with the hurt/comfort factor.
So that’s the other book I ran. I had no idea how it would do.
Promotion (by me)
I did not have the excuse of being outside of cell service this time! I sent a special announcement through my newsletter and posted a bit on Bluesky. That’s what I’ve got, that’s what I used.
Results
This includes the day before and the day after the sale (May 7-9), since I include a cushion for the sales price on either side. I first wrote this up on May 9, and things seem to have calmed down now, but I will update any numbers that come through late. [Edit, May 10: A couple more copies squeaked through on Amazon. Updated the chart. All prices are now back to normal.]
| Therapist Omni 1 | Strangers | Total Copies | Royalties | |
| Amazon | 9 | 9 | 18 | $6.24 |
| Draft2Digital | 0 | 6 | 6 | $3.60 |
| Itch.io | 7 | 5 | 12 | $16.40 |
| Ko-fi | 2 | 2 | 4 | $4.97 |
| Grand Totals | 18 | 22 | 40 | $31.21 |
Some notes:
- D2D breakdown: 3 Kobo, 2 Smashwords, 1 Apple Books.
- Itch.io and Ko-fi allow for tips. On top of that, they pay out close to 100% (itch does take a cut when you request a payment) vs. 30-60% for a 99c book on the other stores.
- I included a bundle of both books on itch.io, and many of the readers bought that (thanks!)
Takeaways
My first, jokey reaction is “Well, that’s why I’m still in itch.io, even after all the drama last year.” It really came through this time, and I didn’t particularly promote it above any of the other stores. I wasn’t part of any overall sale bundles, either (I’m out of the loop; I don’t know whether there were any).
It’s interesting that the two books were pretty evenly matched, even with Strangers’ smaller overlap with cozy (see angst outburst above) and Therapist‘s greater longevity in the sale. But on the other hand, we might be at the point where anyone who was inclined to buy Therapist already has. But on the other, other hand, I’m sure the sale brings in new people each time as well as returning shoppers. I’m not sure what the takeaway is from that, but I’m glad some folks decided to pick up either of them.
And…the elephant in the room. I want to be clear that I’m not complaining here. I’m grateful for every reader who decided to take a chance on one of my books. But my sales this time were way down. This time last year, I sold 131 copies, to this year’s 36. I don’t know why this is, or whether it’s just me or a common experience. The organizers did post some stats behind the scenes (page visits etc.), which I appreciate, although I don’t know what most of them mean. 🙂
Now, on the other hand (I have a lot of hands today, apparently), these are still a lot more sales than I usually make on an average day. It does make a difference, and I’m glad I tried the combo of books that I did. I enjoy this sale on the author and the reader side. If I’m accepted again, I would join it again. I don’t know what books I’d run next time, though my spouse has suggested running another series bundle (I ran the whole Healers trilogy in October 2025). I’m tempted. Therapist Omnibus 3 will have been out for… *math*… five months by then, which is a little sooner than I usually like to run sales, but it may be worth a try. I guess we’ll see.
Finally, and it bears repeating, thanks to anyone who picked up any of my books or my spouse’s book, Tales of a Stranger Sister. Or anyone else’s books! And thanks to all the other authors for cross-promoting.