Book sales - so much for Eurovision, live beats online

Now that's more like it. Before you read the rather maudlin post below about the state of my book sales, written early on Saturday morning, check out the update that came about during the rest of the day at Clevedon Literary Festival.

After a morning stood behind my table, as above, I then did a Comic Art Masterclass for 28 kids, all of whom had brought their parents. Which meant I got to sell books afterwards. 

After the morning session, 10am - 1.30, I'd sold £80 worth of books. After my class (for which I get paid, by the way) my total had gone up to £145. In short, I ought to do more days like this. The sales were:

Prince of Denmark Street - 7 copies

Findlay Macbeth - 5 copies

Midsummer Night's Dream Team - 5 copies

Shakespeare Omnibus - 1 copy

Colouring books - 4 copies

+ one badge (first time I've had them on sale)

You'll see that the graphic novels are the big sellers, and you'll see from the photo that they're what I primarily promote in person. Now read on, showing how the online world compares to the real one...

Here's the big seller of the Eurovision books, but in all honestly it's hardly setting the world on fire. It would seem that the month of the Eurovision Song Contest, which one would expect to see sales rocket, was no great shakes for sales. I conclude that, selling my books to Amazon via Lulu ends in very few getting through and selling. Here are the Lulu sales for the month of May:

£48.33 for the month shows no growth, and compares feebly to the May figure of £52.26, April just £8.56, March £38.57, Feb £35.25, and Jan £26.84. The breakdown by book is even more disappointing:

Eurovision Best Of British - 21 copies (1 Canada, the rest UK)
Eurovision Volume 2 - 5 (US)

Eurovision Vol 2 Swedish Edition - 1 (Germany)

Punk - 2 (US)
80s Superstars - 1 (UK)
80s Pop Stars - 1 (UK)
60s Pop Stars - 1 (US)
2020s Pop Stars - 1 (UK)
Royalty - 1 (US)

Captain Clevedon - 1 (UK)

Tales From Bible  - 1 (US)

Findlay Macbeth - 1 (UK)
Midsummer Night's Dream Team - 1 (Australia)

So the sales of the foreign language editions of the Eurovision book have vanished entirely. Last month I sold 12 Spanish, 7 French, and 4 Swedish editions. This month only 1 Swedish and none of any of the others. Something must have happened, maybe they've been banned from listings. Whatever, there is no point in continuing with those books. I can just conclude that they were fun when they lasted, and in the glory days when I was able to sell them direct through Amazon, but now they're pointless. I'm also curious that only 1 copy per book has sold of any of the others. Does that mean some organisation is sampling them before they choose not to list them? I really don't know. But let us wave goodbye to colouring books once and for all, shall we?

Etsy Sales May 2023 = £58.05 (compared to £171.05 in April)

Eurovision Vol 2 - 4
Eurovision Vol 1 - 1
Punk - 1
Scottish Pop - 1
Eurovision Digital 1 - 4
1960s Pop Digital - 2
1970s Pop Digital - 1
1980s Pop Digital - 1
80s Superstars Digital - 1

Sales of junk on eBay keeps the side up. It's hard to see your month by month sales, just this 90 day figure. But it's higher than last month's £259.90 so I guess that means I sold about £120 worth of junk this month.

Draft 2 Digital (which only has ebook versions of my 4 graphic novels on it) doesn't really add to the coffers.

Oh yes, and then there's Blurb. Look on the works of my publishing empire ye mighties and despair.

NB: Re the sales I made at Clevedon Book Festival, those figures are for total book sales, whereas the 

Lulu/Amazon figure is for my share of the profits, after Lulu and Amazon Print On Demand have taken their cut. The Etsy sales are the total sale amount including postage.

Once again, I conclude I really have to finish those two almost-ready crime novels, and get them out there (by whatever means). 

My Books and where to get them:

Findlay Macbeth - Amazon  - Etsy 
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy 
Midsummer Nights Dream Team  - Amazon - Etsy 

Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Amazon

Tales From The Bible - Amazon -  Etsy 

Eurovision Colouring Vol 1 - Amazon -  Lulu  - Etsy 
Eurovision Colouring Vol 2 - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

Eurovision French edition - édition en français

Eurovision Spanish edition - Libro para colorear

Eurovision German edition - Popstar Malbuch

Eurovision Italian edition - il libro da colorare 

Eurovision Swedish edition - Popstjärna Målarbok

Eurovision Colouring Best Of British - Amazon

Doctor Who Colouring - Amazon - Lulu  - Etsy 
Punk Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

60s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 
70s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon  - Lulu  - Etsy 

80s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

80s Superstars - Amazon

90s Pop Star Colouring - Lulu - Etsy

2020s Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

Bowie Colouring - Amazon

Scottish Pop Star Colouring - Amazon

Rom Com Colouring - Amazon

Royalty Colouring - Lulu

Christmas Movies Colouring - Amazon

NB: Etsy editions are signed and posted by me, and generally cheaper