Thank you so much for creating this website and providing this information. I have been writing since I was 7 yrs old. It has been a life-long dream to become a successful author. I am stepping out on faith and preparing to publish my first written work. I expect success and I expect it to be a life changing, encouraging, joyous experience for each reader. I pray that all is well with your career and that God will bless you with great success. Thanks again. Ant.B.
Apr 01, 2008 Rating
Answering your question, Steve by: Steve Richardson
Actually, I have a good friend who is a Rep. for Books Are Fun who has a lot of connections in the company. He distributes in Colorado, Utah, Northern New Mexico and Wyoming. For some reason Billy's Mountain did really well in Wyoming, sometimes selling as many as 10 copies per school. A good book will do 1 to 1 or 1 book per school and if they feel it will sell 1 to 1 Nationally they might buy 50,000. Since they felt Billy's Mountain was only a regional book I am trying to do books that might sell on a national level now. I think it was a mistake to locate Billy's Mountain in Kansas when I could have simply set it in the Midwest. It actually outsold many of there books that were distributed nationally, so I am not sure why they won't try in nationally.
My next three books are "Alexander Trout's Amazing Adventure", "Canlandia" and a children's book about New Mexico's history. Since I live in New Mexico I can do lots of local book signings and try out promoting it for sales in schools like one poster did. Sending out order forms to parents so they can get signed copies. I think that is an awesome idea! I was thinking of doing that more as a fundraiser for each school giving them a % of the sales plus giving a free book to the library. The other two books are more like Disney adventure stories and if my Books Are Fun contact has good luck with the sales perhaps he can persuade the buyers in New York to go national with them. The only problem with Books Are Fun is that they don't pay much so you have to get your quantities way up to get the cost down. If they decide they want 50,000 books then my cost would probably drop to around a dollar per book and they might buy them for around $4.00. In that case I would make $150,000. If I can sell the New Mexico book directly to parents and teachers giving the schools perhaps $2 per book I could do very well with it locally. I would rather do the local book directly to the schools rather than with Books Are Fun because I will make a lot more.
Apr 01, 2008 Rating
Thanks for a ton of good thoughts by: Steve B.
I'm struck most by your telling us that Books Are Fun is responsible for nearly all of your sales. I'm sure that's something you hadn't expected when you started out on Billy's Mountain. You probably hadn't even heard of them!
To me, it's a reminder of two things.
First, that the 80-20 rule applies in bookselling, as in elsewhere. In other words, the bulk of your book sales come from a small percentage of your distribution outlets.
Secondly, because 80-20 is operative, it's incumbent upon the self publisher to put the thought in to how his/her book is to be marketed. It's not a matter of listing on Amazon and waiting to sell out. It's a matter of taking a cold, hard look at who your most likely purchasers are and then finding the best way to reach them.
In light of that, I'd be interested in knowing:
After your first experience self publishing, did you find yourself - prior to writing - putting more thought into shaping your work for a particular audience (or distributor) on subsequent efforts?
Apr 01, 2008 Rating
Go Billy by: Lp
Congrats on your success Steve - and sound recommendations.
The only thing I would question on your scenario is the cost of bar codes. There are many cheaper suppliers out there than what you quoted. Delivery is a simple online download. I printed my book in India and would not neglect other Far East countries besides China. All you have to do is go to the local kids section and you'll see books from all over the Far East.
The other thing I've learned recently is that it is important to get your book reviewed BEFORE it is released. You could get advance copies air couriered to you before your main shipment arrives to do this. And the truly scary part of self publishing is how short your window is to make it happen. You can be old news quickly in today's world. I've been playing catch up on a book I self published in 2005 because I didn't do all of the above fast enough.
