15% of books sell less than 12 copies

Writing is very hard and I thought I should invest the time with open eyes. This figures was very sobering can deflate expectations for authors and prospective authors. 

But these figures are also based on 1st years sales and do not reflect lifetime sales and they differ across genres. 

The majority of sales (51.4%) are less than 1000. That is what authors are up against and why its important to be realistic and have a playbook on what being an author is all about. A book that sells 500 copies in its first year could go on to sell thousands more over its lifetime, becoming a steady "backlist" seller for a publisher