This will I'm sure be remembered as one of the odder events of the month at which I tried to sell books, stood on a windy street in Rhymney (it's pronounced rum-ney not rim-ney, before you ask) drawing caricatures as part of a project led by the local vicar to improve the image of the town. I sold more books than I expected.
Live events / classes et al - £1718.86 = 190 books
Kickstarter - 19 FM (inc postage & some artwork) £367
Etsy - £8.98 (1 book, 1 download)
D2D - $3.73 (118 books, most on free promo)
Lulu (Amazon) - £6.93 (11 books)
Blurb - $0 (0 books)
Live Sales July 2025 = 190 books (£1718.86)
Weds July 2nd - Rhymney - 5 books (£54.95)
1 x Richard colour
1 x Tales From Bible colour
2 x Esther colour
1 x Joseph & Ruth colour
Fri July 4th - Ruskin Juniors, Swindon - 31 books (£217)
31 x Richard The Third @ £7
Sat July 5th - Aintree Comic Con - 23 books and a lot of caricatures (£292.82)
5 x Richard col
1 x Richard bw
2 x FM
1 x Omnibus
2 x Space Elain
1 x Joseph colour
8 x Drs colouring
2 x Eurovision vol 2 (sold out)
1 x Bowie
Mon July 7th - Whitchurch Primary Harrow - 4 books (£28)
4 x Richard bw @ £7
Thurs July 10th - Arden Academy Solihull - 13 books (£102.97)
3 x Richard colour
10 x Richard bw @ £7
Sat July 12th - Frome Festival - 13 books (£112.87)
3 x Richard col (sold out)
1 x Richard bw
4 x PODS
4 x Space Elain
1 x FM
I sell the last of my Richard colour copies. I ordered more from Lulu on July 3rd. When do they arrive? Stay tuned.
Sat July 19th - Pontypridd Kids Book Fair (above) - 19 books (£148.87)
6 x Richard bw
1 x MNDT
1 x Omnibus
1 x Space Elain
1 x Bible bw
1 x Esther col (sold out)
1 x Humpty kids book (sold out)
3 x Socks superheroes
1 x Punk (so), Bowie (so), 80s (so), 70s
Mon July 21st - Flowerfield Arts Portstewart - 16 books (£147.81)
6 x Richard bw
5 x Space Elain
2 x Omnibus
1 x Findlay Macbeth
2 x Prince Of Denmark Street
My week of 4 art centres in Northern Ireland begins with me realising, as I should have in advance, that I've not brought enough books, especially the most popular ones. I've brought 50 books, and only 10 apiece of Richard The Third and Space Elain. (With no colour RIchards because they've not come from Lulu, despite being ordered on July 3rd). Which, as we can see, was a stupid lack of foresight. I planned, loosely, to have books sent directly from D2D to the first art centre of the week. But I left it too late. So, for the third year running, I was limited to however many books I could squeeze into a suitcase. A fool to myself, I'll never learn. Still, it was a good day's classes, and a great sales result, after a fashion. That said, the variety of books means that I'm far outselling last year per venue.
Tuesday July 22nd - Ards Newtownards - 13 books (£120.92)
4 x Richard bw (sold out)
2 x Omnibus (sold out)
3 x Space Elain
1 x FM
1 x PODS
2 x MNDT
Dammit! Not only brought not enough books, but too many of the wrong books. Of course I should have brought 20 Richards (I left some at home! Why?) And I sold out of all the Omnibuses I had, exactly as I did last year! (Again, that said, this year far outstrips the £55s worth I sold at this same venue last year.)
Memo for next year: more Richards, more Omnibuses, less of the others. Now I have 2 days to go, with 2 Elaine’s left (should have brought more of those) and 8 each of the less popular books. Doh!
Weds July 23rd - Ardhowen Enniskillen - 14 books (£111.86)
1 x Space Elain (sold out)
5 x FM
4 x PODS
4 x MNDT
Turns out, even when the best books are gone, the kids want to buy something. I now if I'd had Richards, especially colour Richards, and Omnibuses left I'd be selling even more. But I can't sniff at this, and with only half a dozen books left to sell, I mustn't grumble. (Last year, a not incomparable £92)
Thurs July 24th - Strule Arts Omagh - 4 books (£26.99)
1 x FM, MNDT
2 x PODS
Small class in the morning, even smaller class in the afternoon, it was never going to be a big sales day.
Mon July 28th - Hull Libraries - 9 books (£82.92)
3 x Richard bw
3 x Space Elain
1 x Omnibus
1 x PODS, MNDT
Tues July 29th - Nottingham libraries - 16 books (£157.85)
3 x Richard bw (sold out)
6 x Space Elain
2 x Omnibus
3 x PODS
1 x MNDT
2 x Socks Shakespeare (first time on sale)
Two sellout classes and we just whup Portstewart for the best after-classes except-for-a-school takings of the month. But god I'm low on stock. I've been waiting for colour Richards to arrive from Lulu since July 3rd - by far the longest wait I have ever had for a book order from them. Very poor.
Thurs July 31st - Bexleyheath libraries- 14 books (£112.93)
3 x Richard bw (sold out again)
4 x Space Elain
1 x Omnibus
2 x FM
1 x PODS
1 x MNDT
2 x Socks Shakespeare
I flog three remaining copies of the original Richard print run. And when I get home I find the colour Richard The Thirds, that I’ve been waiting for since July 3rd from Lulu, have finally arrived. Too late to figure in July’s live sales.
July live Book Sales - £1718.86
12 x Richard col
72 x Richard bw
13 x FM
18 x PODS
10 x MNDT
28 x Space Elain
10 x Omnibus
2 x Joseph
3 x Esther
4 x Socks Shakespeare
3 x Socks Superheroes
15 x Colouring books
Total live sales = 190 books
July 2025 D2D Sales - (a very deceptive) 118 books, but only $3.73
As this blog explains, the Smashwords promotion means over 100 people downloaded my ebooks for free. Actual sales were:
Socks Shakespeare. $1.29
Richard bw. $1.31
PODS 79c
MNDT 35c
As for the freebies, which we can think of as ‘exposure’ they were:
25 x Shakespeare Omnibus
16 x Sweet Smell of Sockcess
12 x Punk an Illustrated History
10 x Tales From The Bible
9 x Richard, PODS, MNDT
7 x Who Notes
6 x FM, Space Elain
5 x Esther
4 x Joseph
5 x 60s
2 x PODS
2 x 70s
1 x Royalty
1 x Eurovision Swedish
These are figures we expect to see plummet next month as almost all of those books have now been "rejected from Global Distribution" for having "low content". Which means they'll no longer be on sale on Amazon. They now show as "currently unavailable". I link to the Lulu editions, which you can buy direct from Lulu, on my website. No one ever does. So the whole colouring book market is now restricted to copies I can sell live in person.
Kickstarter campaign for Findlay Macbeth new art edition (above) - £367
19 signed first edition Findlay Macbeths, plus postage, plus a couple of pages of art.
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Richard The Third (Colour) | Doctors Who? Colouring | Socks Do Shakespeare | Kids Comics Annual 2026 |
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Richard The Third (bw) | Findlay Macbeth | Prince of Denmark Street | Midsummer Night's Dream Team |
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Shakespeare Omnibus | Comic Tales From The Bible | Joseph, Ruth & Other Stories | Space Elain |
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