I’m a word guy and I hope that’s obvious. But numbers are important, too. Here are some numbers to date with regard to the Verbitrage effort of publishing Primacy.
Number of pages: 400
Number of words (before proofreading changes): 116,507
Number of typos found after printing: 1
Number of days the book has officially been on sale as of this writing: 13
Hardcover price: $24.95
Hardcover price as discounted by Amazon: $18.96
Hardcover price as discounted by Barnes & Noble online: $19.01
My gross proceeds on trade sales of a hardcover: $8.73
Those proceeds net of expenses: given fixed costs etc., so far way less than 0
E-book Price: $9.99
Discounted Kindle Price: $7.99
Discounted Nook Price: $7.99
My net proceeds on a $9.99 e-book: $6.99
My net proceeds on a $7.99 e-book: $5.59
Wholesale sales lay-down: 4749
Number of warehouses that had to reorder during the lay-down period: 2
Returns: 1
Number of copies I delivered myself to a local bookseller: 12
Number of hits to the Verbitrage home page: 4578
Number of hits to the Buy Now page: 415
Number of copies I’ve sold directly from the Verbitrage website: 10
Number of Facebook ad impressions: 317,715
Number of clicks on those ads: 87
Number of customer reviews on Amazon: 3
Average number of stars on those reviews: 5
Number of customer reviews on Barnes & Noble: 3
Average number of stars: 4.5
Hardcover sales rank on Barnes & Noble (morning of 9/13/11): 411,722
Nook sales rank (morning of 9/13/11): 104,377
Best Amazon hardcover ranking so far: 103,566
Best Kindle sales ranking so far: 21,304
Number of video interview appearances so far: 1
Number of radio interviews scheduled as of this writing: 14
Number of airport stores carrying the book: 185
Number of friends reporting they saw it in an airport: 2
Number of friends reporting they didn’t see it: 1
Number of trade reviews: 3
Number of trade reviews that were largely positive: 3
Number of those that used the word “appealing”: 2
Number of known on-line reviews, excluding trade reviews and re-posts: 6
Number of those I’d characterize as positive: 5
Number I’d characterize as middling: 1
Number of times the middling review claimed (wrongly) that the book is only available as an e-book: 1
Number of times my aunt in Florida was told by a clerk at Barnes & Noble that the book is only available as an e-book: 1
Number of hardcover copies my father bought from Barnes & Noble stores in Florida: 10
Number of known print articles about the book: 1
Number of Q&A’s with me, currently online or forthcoming: 5
Number of guest posts to blogs, out or about to come out: 3
Number of blogs doing book giveaways: 6
Number of reviews on Goodreads: 6
Average rating: 3.5 stars
Average rating if you go right now and give it five stars: 4 stars
Number of Goodreads members who have marked it as “read” or “to-read”: 197
Number of copies offered for September 15 Goodreads giveaway drawing: 10
Number of people registered for the giveaway: 1084
Number of times a real, live bookseller told me only my mother would show up if I made an author appearance: 1
Number of times another real, live bookseller, upon reading the book, exclaimed it “a perfect beach read” and offered to help me promote it in her store with two different appearances: 1
Number of times I have smiled at the email she sent me offering to do this: 23
How much all of this is costing me: that’s between me and my accountant
Odds this effort will lead to a job offer: 1 in 1,000
Odds I’d take the job, if offered: 1 in 1,000,000
Odds I’ll write another novel instead: 1 in 1
Odds I’ll publish that novel exactly as I published this one: 1 in 2
What it adds up to: too early to say whether I’ll make some money or lose a lot, but at least, so far, the reviews are good!
Last week: Publishing Primacy — Folio 25: The Virtues of Process
Next week: Publishing Primacy — Folio 27: The Trouble with Free
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Visit the Verbitrage website.
Publishing Primacy posts every Wednesday by 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
Wouldn’t you know that the second I put numbers to paper (or to pixel) I’m made a liar. Just looked and best Amazon hardcover ranking is now 87,994. Best Kindle ranking is 18,069. Heading in the right direction.