A Million Book Sales a Year.

Each of the top books on The Times best-sellers list for the UK sells less than one million copies per annum. The top book was around 700k last year and Richard Osman had two books in the top four with a combined sale of around a million. Yet, I think I’m doing well because sales of my books are in the very low thousands. Then again, I’ve not had the benefit of years of TV exposure and nobody has approached me with a view to making a film or series out of any of my books. I take comfort that I am one of the majority – which includes some amazing authors.

However, the purpose of this post is to provide information about the hard graft of self-publishing…

Project Management

One of my favourite phrases about project management is that it is the first 90% of the project that uses up 90% of the time allotted, the remaining 10% of the project also uses up 90% of the allotted time.

I’m now able to confirm that this applies perfectly to the task of self-publishing a book.

The completion of the first draft is a very satisfying feeling. The story is told, committed to paper, or at least committed to some piece of disk storage somewhere. (Hopefully with a back-up copy committed to another piece of computer hardware somewhere else). We’re 90% of the way there!

Now, there is a series of proof-reads to be done. First by myself, then by one or more of my willing bunch of helpers. Next, the corrections need to be applied. I also get at least one printed proof copy made (nearly £4 each – hang the expense!). It never ceases to surprise me how many mistakes can be seen in print that are seemingly ‘invisible’ when viewed on a computer screen.

Once the changes emerging from the paper copy are made, there is one final proof-read – often this helps to pick up mistakes made when the previous corrections were entered into the text and, hopefully, doesn’t result in further editing errors. This all takes place with the parallel task of amending and approving the cover design and additional text.

Now it’s time to commit the work to the publishing process, with crossed fingers. In my case, this usually involves further minor changes because at least three chapters manage to now end with one or two lines of text on the last page.

And that is where I now am! The fourth novel (fifth book) is close to being available to purchase.

So, only the marketing blurb, social media posts (plus graphics) and an email to ‘interested parties’ are to be prepared and sent out – then the process is finally finished and ready for readers to find amongst my books for sale on Amazon. That final 90% will have been completed!