Well, I haven’t looked in on my poor little diaper book in awhile. Last year I went to the SCBWI conference and showed an agent my book, but totally failed to remember exactly what my sales stats were when she asked me. That was embarrassing. So, this time I will have my numbers together.
What are my numbers? Well, I’m so glad you asked. First off, remember that this is a self-published book by a first-time, unknown author/illustrator and it was accompanied by little to no marketing. So, don’t expect big numbers.
It was first published in January 2010, though it didn’t sell much until I put it up for the kindle in May 2010. To date I’ve sold 2,312 copies (43 paperbacks, 2269 ebooks) for a total of $1866.28 in royalties. The paperbacks are $9.75 and the ebook (both kindle and nook) are $1.99. The paperback is twice the price it should be, but that’s the best I can do with self-publishing. Sorry.
Would you like to buy a copy? Well, that would be great! You could get a paperback, a nook, or a kindle copy.
Edit:
The Third Edition (left) with all new illustrations is now out. The original edition (above) is now out of print. The new one is currently available on Amazon both in print and for kindle. It should be available at other online bookselllers soon and I’m working on getting it up on the nook. In the meantime, if you’d like a digital copy for your non-kindle eReader, contact me and I’ll sell you a PDF or epub version directly.
Karen B. Jones - Illustrator 
Congratulations!! 😀
Have you tried print on demand? I’ve been a bit leery of self pub, only because I don’t want to buy all the books and then try to sell them. Has your experience with that been positive or…..?
Thanks,
Shez
Oh, I’m talking about POD self-publishing. I don’t want to invest in a bunch of copies of the book when I’m not sure if I can sell them. That seems like quite a risk.
I’m printing through CreateSpace, which is Amazon’s self-publishing company. I think if I do it again I’ll try Lightning Source. The goal is to get the retail price down to something reasonable, which CreateSpace can’t really do. Not for a paperback picture book, anyway. I talked to Lightning Source, and I think they can do better.
What I’d love to do is get it printed as a board book, but there’s no reasonably priced POD option for that. I’ve looked. I’d have to actually have it printed in China or something and order at least a thousand copies. I’m not willing to take that risk.
Of course, I’d love to get it purchased by a traditional publisher. But, then, doesn’t everybody? 🙂
Thanks, Karen,
I did check out CreteSpace, but they do make it sound like the finished price one must charge to make it work would be significantly less for a paperback. What do you know about Lighting Source? There seem to be quite a few different ones and I think it is recognized as published once a person reaches 5,000 copies. Is that your understanding or is it 10,000 copies?
I don’t know what is considered “published” versus “self-published”. I suppose it depends on what organization is looking at it. I figured it had to do entirely with who published it (yourself or a traditional publisher) rather than how many.
I looked into PODs and tried both CreateSpace and Lulu. CreateSpace’s prices are better than Lulu, at least for what I was looking at. Lightning Source has some up-front fees, but they’re legitimate up-front fees. They’re not a vanity press. Then the per-copy price is on-par with a regular publisher, or close anyway. (Please remember it’s been two years since I looked into this) CreateSpace and Lulu have no up-front fees, but they make each copy cost more to make that up.
Mine was a color paperback and it came out $9.75 retail. I don’t know the price for a hardcover because I wasn’t interested in creating a hardcover for my story. So, I’m afraid I don’t remember what their hardcover prices are like. Paperbacks are less than hardcovers. Of course, almost $10 is still roughly twice what a paperback picture book should cost. But it’s the best I could do with CreateSpace.
Lightning Source feels less user-friendly. It’s not all fluffy and automated like CreateSpace is. Lightning Source is more for professionals who know what they’re doing or are willing to figure it out rather than newbies who need their hands held through the process. That’s my impression, anyway.
Thanks so much for your time and experience. It is hard to gather what’s what from the web sites. As to numbers sold, it does get noticed and push you into the realm of fame or at least taken seriously vs the vanity publisher who never really sells more than 80 or so to friends and family and never moves beyond that state. We all want if not fame or at least a lucrative income, or some income from all the work we put in. I am intimidated by trying to open doors to get my worked looked at. That is a bad attitude and I need to get over it. Give me a shove!!;)
Congratulations !
You have every right to be very proud of your sales. it’s a great book for kids.
in the book “77 reasons why your book was rejected,” (isn’t that an encouraging title) the author pointed out that there are ~2,800 new titles published in English EVERY DAY. The competition is ferocious. Even best sellers are at grocery stores for 40% off within weeks of hitting the book stores.
I’ll have to bring the book down next time we can make it.