My fourth Shakespearian graphic novel, Richard The Third, has proved to be my most popular, and has had a very good year in 2024. Today I produced a revised edition (above) which is the version that will take us into 2025.
I published Richard in October 2023. I'd run a successful Kickstarter campaign which enabled me to commission a 500 strong print run. About 100 of those went out to the patrons who'd supported it, leaving me about 400 copies to sell in person. It also sells online through Amazon (via Lulu and Ingram D2D, see below).
By April 19, as I note in my blog, I was down to the last 60 copies, and was now selling them in schools with a surprising success rate. So I ordered a second print run of 500 copies (for £1200, this time with no Kickstarter to support me).
It is now December and I have 23 copies of the second print run left. The final 30 of the initial print run (which was a larger edition, with the Shakespeare play in the book) was sold in one go to one school, Kingsway Park on December 5th, a fine last splurge of the year.
So that's 1000 copies of Richard The Third sold, mostly live and in person, between the end of October 2023 and the start of December 2024. Let's call it 1000 copies in 12 months. Not bad at all.
The initial 500 copy print runs of my first 3 books (Findlay Macbeth, Prince of Denmark Street, and Midsummer Night's Dream Team) all ran out this year too, since which time I've been ordering short print-on-demand runs. Those had all been printed in 2020, so it's taken them three and a half years to sell out. They still sell well live, but nothing compared to Richard.
So the new edition of Richard is in production, currently only on a print on demand basis. Which means they'll cost me £4.50 a copy (rather than the £2 a copy when I commission a full print run) so my profit margin is lower. Whether I can address that with a full print run will be dependant upon cash flow.
Also we'll have to see whether the kids buy them in such large numbers now that the logo doesn't resemble Dogman's any more. That was a cheeky move on my part, and has led to quite a few kids thinking it was in some way connected. In fact at a couple of events they've come up to me thinking I was Dav Pilkey. So now the book has its own distinctive logo, let's see how well it does.
I have many other plans for 2025 and my Shakespeare books, some tied up with my agent and her endeavours with publishers and some hopefully seeing me self publishing again. Stay tuned.
PS: Sales notes. Online my books sell way fewer. Above are my 2024 sales on D2D/Ingram, showing that Richard ties with Sweet Smell Of Sockcess, each selling 46 copies in the year. Midsummer Night's Dream Team comes an impressive third, on 42 sales. I'll be totting up the rest of my year's book sales in another blog near here.
Prince Of Denmark Street - Amazon - Etsy - Kindle
Midsummer Nights Dream Team - Amazon - Etsy
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