And what a year that was, eh? I may not have found a major publisher, yet, and my books might not be in Waterstones and TG Jones and selling two million like Jamie Smart's, yet, but I've not done badly for someone who's made the vast majority of his sales hand to hand and over the table. Yes, almost every one of these books was signed and sold personally by me. At comicons, book fairs, and at a lot of schools, I sign and sell my books, and this year I did it with 2316 of them.
The graph's a bit distorted at the top. The big column shows the 999 Richard The Thirds I sold in total, and below that I've broken it down to show the 750 black and white editions (the ones that, mostly, school pupils buy), and the 249 colour editions (which sell best at live events). Next year, all going well, I'll be doing the same thing with Romeo and Juliets, which haven't really had the chance to be sold in schools yet (12 lucky pupils in Durham have a copy, and a librarian in Potters Bar, along with 38 Kickstarters and a couple of friends). Let us see what the future holds.
Meanwhile all my other major books have exceeded their previous years sales:
Colouring Books 396* (2024: 298, 2023: 379, the big dip last year coming from the loss of online sales which continue to decline as Amazon continues to de-list them). The biggest seller is the Doctors Who book, which I've updated several times through the year, followed by Cult TV, and the various Pop Star volumes. I have about 20 different titles on the go, hence their collective place in the chart.
*Full breakdown below
Findlay Macbeth 176 (2024: 86, 2023: 133) Boosted by a half-tone colourised edition of the book which I launched with a Kickstarter in the middle of the year
Midsummer Night's Dream Team 169 (2024: 155, 2023: 125) Ever the popular favourite, still pulling the crowds
Space Elain 169 (2024: 85) Doubled last year's debut sales, going strong in b&w and colour editions
Hamlet Prince Of Denmark Street 147 (2024: 91, 2023: 143) Sales bob up and down year on year, always the bridesmaid
Others various 90 (2024: 54) I should really separate these out as they include Book Of Esther, who'd rank well, and the new Socks Do Shakespeare, which sold a bunch at The Lakes. Also the kids comics collections (Attack Of The Sausages etc) which always sell well when I remember to bring any.
Shakespeare Omnibus 53 (2024: 29, 2023: 13) Given that this is my most expensive book, at £19, it sells surprisingly well. I should display it more prominently maybe. Or offer it to schools?
Romeo & Juliet 53. As noted above, I didn't get any copies from the printers till the start of December, so it won't get its chance to shine until 2026. You watch it go!
Joseph & Ruth 33 (2024: 31) Now in colour as well as black and white
Tales From The Bible 31 (2024: 21, 2023: 27) Another one that would sell more if I'd remember to stock it. Being A4 it's the wrong shape for the graphic novels on the table and merges with the colouring books.
(Some of these columns don't actually add up, cos I got bored updating them. But the gist is correct).
*Colouring Book Sales 2025
Doctors Who - 105 (sellouts - 10)
60s - 34 (so - 3)
Euro Vol2 - 29 (so - 7)
Cult TV - 27 (so - 7)
Bowie - 22 (so - 7)
80s - 22 (so - 7)
2020s - 21 (so - 4)
70s - 18 (so - 6)
Euro Vol1 - 15 (so - 3)
Punk - 14 (so - 6)
90s - 11 (so - 4)
80s Superstar - 10 (so - 4)
Christmas - 9 (so - 3)
Royalty - 6 (so - 1)
Hollywood - 5 (so -1)
RomCom - 5 (so - 2)
Best Of Euro - 4
ScotPop - 2 (so - 1)
(This only comes to 359 books, and elsewhere I've reached a total of 396. Dammit, I have no idea which is right!)
And for comparison here's last year's graph. See, I even have a better graph this year too.
And while we're at it, I've rounded up and updated the Book Sales At Cons Graph. It doesn't quite match up with the book sales, cos I've drawn this graph based on money taken which, at some events, includes a lot of caricatures at £2 a pop. Either way, the chart looks like this...
So the best places to make money selling books and drawing caricatures in 2025 were:
1 - Cardiff Showmasters in October (one day of which shares the top slot alone, two days of which beat all)
2 - Swansea Stars Of Time in April (one day only, sharing the one-day-takings top slot)
3 - Creed cons various (Gloucester, Bristol & Plymouth all top £400 a day. Only one, out of 9 in all, dips below £350)
4 - The Lakes, Macc Pow & Thought Bubble (Lakes has the biggest single day of the three 'proper' cons, TB the biggest combined two days, Macc Pow's one day beats either individual TB day)
5 - UKCGF and book fairs various, all doing better on average than previous years
2025's Sales via Draft 2 Digital (graph above) is slightly deceptive in that a bunch of those "sales" are free giveaways as part of promotions. But they give a fair indication of which books are popular online, when you can get them. The Top Ten looks like this:
1 - Shakespeare Omnibus (33)
2 Richard The Third (31)
3 - Midsummer NDT (24)
4 = Hamlet PODS (18)
= Sweet Smell Of Sockcess (18)
6 - Space Elain (17)
7 = Tales From The Bible (15)
= Punk (15)
9 - Book Of Esther (13)
10 - Who Notes (11)
The Estimated Royalties for the year puts Richard The Third first at $26.19 and Omnibus second at $25.55, Space Elain third on $10.90, Socks Do Shakespeare fourth on $9.57, and PODS fifth on $7.91.
Lulu won't tell me, in a helpful single place, how many books I sold in 2025 (it was 89) or which was my best seller (and I can't be arsed to work it out), but they do give the list above, which is money paid per month. My total income from Lulu in 2025 was £127.19, and you'll see that features two months where I earned nothing at all from them. Lulu ain't what they used to be.
Onwards and upwards, thankyou for reading this nonsense, if indeed you have.
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