THREAD
1/
I’d like to share a small publishing milestone.
‘Drystone - A Life Rebuilt’ has gone into a second print run.
And because publishing is famously opaque, and there are so many wildly unrealistic ideas out there about how it all works, here are the numbers in plain terms...
#Writing #WritingCommunity #Publishing #Reading #Authors #Books
@kristiedegaris congratulations on the second print.
@kristiedegaris congratulations! 🎉🎉🎉🎉
@kristiedegaris Congrats on the second print run!
If you live in Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand and you want to read this (and I highly recommend that you do) there are three copies in the local library.
@kristiedegaris
Fucking champion!
I am so very glad for you, and that your book is making quiet progress despite the meatgrinder that is publishing.
@kristiedegaris neat! thanks for that. I'm self-publishing a book in the next month (my first) and this helps to understand the territory. at least I know now not to complain about getting $5 per print copy.
@kristiedegaris Congratulations on the second print run! That’s quite an accomplishment.
And the financial aspect is really interesting. I knew writing paid badly unless you’re very lucky - but I didn’t realize just *how* badly.
@kristiedegaris People come to me asking for advice about publishing books because they want to make money and see me as a moderately successful author. I’m transparent with them about how little I earn from books and about the huge investment of time and effort involved. Getting a minimum-wage job is literally more realistic as a “get rich quick” scheme.
I have various reasons for writing books. Money is at the bottom of the list.
2/
The first print run was 1,500 copies.
In the first four months (including pre-orders) we’ve sold just over 1,200 hardback copies of the book.
@kristiedegaris that is very good! Well done 👍
3/
For a debut literary memoir from an independent Scottish publisher, that’s considered a pretty strong start. Many books in this category sell only a few hundred copies across their entire lifetime. A second print run isn’t flashy, but it is meaningful to me.
