I started keeping tabs on Andrew Smith after I read about him in Quill and Quire magazine last fall. The Canadian author of two traditionally published non-fiction books couldn’t find an agent or publisher for his first novel, Edith’s War, so he decided to self-publish it. He has been blogging about each stage of the writing, publishing and marketing process ever since. I think one of the most interesting things about his blog is the tally he’s kept of everything he’s spent bringing this book to life.
Smith printed 2,000 copies of Edith’s War and launched the book this spring in Toronto. As of June 7, 2010, Smith’s blog indicated the total cost to create and market the book had reached $14,026. (Smith spent $2,000 on copy editing and $4,300 on printing, by the way.) That means it cost him approximately $7 to make each 380-page copy. Considering his paperback is available on the chapters.indigo.ca website for about $15, Smith should start making money once he sells the first half of his 2,000 copies… unless his marketing costs keep climbing.
To follow Smith’s ongoing self-publishing adventure, and to see what he spent on self-publishing his book, go to www.edithswarselfpublish.com/Site/Home.html.
Hey – glad you’ve been following Andrew’s progress – I’m hoping Quill and Quire will do a follow-up story now the book’s been published.
What can I say – it’s a good thing I didn’t know the average self-published novel sells only 50 copies when I first started working with Andrew on social media marketing and traditional PR. We set a target of minimum sales of 2000 copies and I believe we’re at least a quarter of a way there. But I’ll let Andrew tell you more about it himself. And if you’d like to follow his progress more closely, there’s also a Facebook group for the book: http://www.facebook.com/edithswar. (Sorry, it’s what I do!)
Congratulations on approaching or reaching the quarter mark. I’ll check out the facebook page. Cheers. M
Absolutely right about me having to sell 2,000 books before making any money. 300 gone so far which isn’t bad for the first two months of publication by an unknown first novelist. The promotion is a killer though, not financially but in amount of time spent. But it’s beginning to pay off with really good blogger reviews and Tweets at #edithswar. See latest blog June 10th, at http://edithswarselfpublish.com. It’s the 70th anniversary of the internment of Italians in UK and Canada, during WWII. Which is a central event in ‘Edith’s War.’
I saw that, and appreciate that you shared your conflicting emotions on the blog. Best of luck!