The Barnes & Noble Bonanza
The Barnes & Noble Bonanza
6/19/2024, 1:30 AM
Song in head: Bowser’s Rage (Paper Mario)
You read that right, I am making this newsletter at 1:30 AM. And I just want to say, thank you for signing up!
In terms of news, I was able to go to the Orem, Utah, Barnes & Noble and have a book signing event on 6/15/2024. I was there from 1 pm to 4 pm. After talking with a manager, it sounds like I did pretty good, selling a total of 16 books. Talking with other authors, this amount does seem to be unusually good. I’m grateful to everyone that bought a copy of Rye’s Rite, or stopped to talk with me.
Now to let you know a little inside baseball.
Barnes and Noble had me on a consignment contract, basically that means I keep 60% of the profit, and they keep 40%. After I subtracted the cost of printing each book, which came out close to $5 per book, I made…
Drum roll please…
$46.82! Not a crazy amount huh?
That amount reminds me how many books an author needs to sell in order to make any livable wage. It also brings to mind two other reasons why authors have these types of public events:
- To simply have people get to know them, and…
- Getting their published works out there in the world!
It's definitely not all about the money, especially starting out. And what a ride it was getting into Barnes & Noble to sell my wares!
Some advice to those who only publish their books on Amazon.
Make sure you go through another publisher if you want to sell at Barnes & Noble, because if your book is only on amazon, they won’t accept you in the store. The route I went was being self published through a website called Draft-to-Digital. Once I mentioned this publisher to Barnes and Noble through email, I was able to appear in front of their beautiful bazaar. I will definitely be appearing there again, so be on the lookout for me at some point in the future!
In terms of current projects, between my full time job, going to school, and being a Dad, I haven’t worked much recently on my next novel, Ghost Boyd. And as you can tell, when I do have time, sometimes I’m writing a newsletter. But I hope to work on it a couple days this week. Word count wise, I am only 10,000 words or so away from Rye’s Rite’s length. This next novel does feel like it's going to be a bit longer, but I always remember that Rye’s Rite was close to 100,000 words during its first drafts. A lot had to be cut and rearranged to make each chapter matter, and to tell the story in the way that fit it best.
For the novel Ghost Boyd, I’m currently writing a chapter where our slew of good guys enter a world full of rolling green hills from a deranged, maze-like playground. They spot an old timey stone cottage in the distance. The resident inside turns out to be quite strange, but progresses the story.
For those that haven’t heard the synopsis for this new novel, here is what I have cooking up so far:
“For Boyd, a young boy with a negative outlook, life is only full of people who get in his way. His views change however when he accidentally dies and becomes a warrior of light. He is then tasked with finding all 9 pieces of armor and spiritual relics that derive from the stars, the moon, and the sun. For the creator of the universe, he is one of a select few tasked with preventing the leader of the unborn from rising and destroying his precious mortal offspring.”
I hope to share more about Ghost Boyd when the time comes. For the moment, the novel’s 1st draft is almost 50% done.
I know there are some reading this newsletter who are either writing stories of their own, or are interested in the authoring process. You're welcome to either text, call, or email me your questions. Your question might even appear in the next newsletter for readers to enjoy. My contact info is:
1-385-450-9450
I’ll see you all next week!
