Since I started selling books at my classes in 2023 then really ramped things up with Richard The Third and selling books in schools this Spring, it starts to feel like this is a significant part of my business. Standing behind tables at comic events has lost out to school events, in volume of book sales, for most of the last six months. Profit wise, I have the new challenge of having sold out the print runs of my three original books, which means I now have to order FM, PODS, and MNDT in batches of 10 from Lulu. These cost £44 inc postage, meaning my unit price is £4.40 a book. I've bumped up the cover price to £6.99 (from £5.99) but they are still less profitable than they were. Richard remains the best seller and the most profitable (a second print run of 500 cost £1200, so £2.40 each).
Chipping Barnet Library (photo above) Aug 2 - £127.84
8 x Richard The Third
3 x Space Elain
2 x MNDT
2 x Joseph & Ruth
1 x Any 3 Shakespeares (@£18, was £15)
1 x PODS
Coalville & Hinckley Libraries, Aug 5 - £122.82
13 x Richard The Third
2x MNDT
2 x Esther
1 x Joseph & Ruth
Wollaton & Notts Central Libraries, Aug 6 - £109.92
8 x Richard The Third
3 x Any 3 Shakespeare
Shipley & Keighley Libraries, Aug 12 - £52.95
2 x Richard The Third
1 x Omnibus
1 x MNDT, FM, Space Elain
Bexleyheath & Erith Libraries, Aug 15 - £101.90
4 x Joseph & Ruth
2 x Omnibus
2 x PODS
2 x Space Elain
1 x FM
1 x Richard The Third
The Cresset, Peterborough, Aug 16 - £80.91
4 x Richard The Third
3 x Space Elain
3 x MNDT
1 x FM
1 x PODS
St Benedicts Derby Aug 19 & 21 (my prediction: no sales - and I was right. It's a summer school for next year's Year Sevens, so no opportunity to flog books to parents)
Ropetackle Shoreham Aug 22 - £214.73
Best post-class book sales yet, I think. Two sellout classes, with lots of parents in the room. The perfect arrangement for flogging books. Actually, having more stock might have been even better (I had no FMs and sold out of Space Elains)
20 x Richard The Third
5 x Joseph
4 x Space Elain
1 x MNDT
3 x Socks Superheroes
1 x Nativity
Coventry Comic Con Aug 25 - £314
Is this a one day record for a comics event, with no original art forming part of that total? Probably. A certain thing is that about two thirds of that was people paying for their caricatures, at two quid a time, but not buying any books I had a constant through-flow of families with kids, so busy that I didn’t even break for lunch and was working solidly from 9.30 to 4. Very few said no to their caricatures and let me keep them, half a dozen at most. God, can you imagine before the Bristol event this spring I used to give the caricatures away for free?
115 x Caricature only
8 x Richard The Third
3 x Space Elain
2 x Omnibus
3 x Colouring Books
4 x Socks Superheroes
1 x FM
1 x PODS
1 x MNDT
St Ives Book Festival Aug 31 - £19.99
The two smallest classes of the month. We worked out that last year my classes had been part of September Fest and had been listed in a programme, so they sold out. This year they weren't so they weren't so they didn't. 5 people in the morning, 7 in the afternoon, including the parents/grandparents as part of each class, so very few paying punters to choose from.
2 x Space Elain
2 x Richard The Third
TOTAL (up to St Ives) = £1138.99
66 x Richard The Third
18 x Space Elain
14 x Midsummer Nights Dream Team
12 x Joseph & Ruth
8 x Findlay Macbeth
8 x Prince of Denmark Street
5 x Omnibus
3 x Colouring Books
My Books and where to get them:
Shakespeare Omnibus Collection (all 3 books) - Paperback
Sweet Smell Of Sockcess - Putting A Show On At The Edinburgh Fringe -
Amazon -
ebook
Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories - Amazon
Colouring Books: Punk, Cult TV, Eurovision Vol 1, Eurovision Vol 2, Eurovision Best Of British & Irish, 1960s Pop, 1970s Pop, 1980s Pop, 1990s Pop, 2020s Pop, Bowie, Scottish Pop, Doctors Who
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