That’s not a typo, and it’s not clickbait. This week, my book Back to the Futures crossed 5,000 copies sold across print, audio, and ebook versions.
When Doug Peterson and I set out on our self-publishing adventure a little over three years ago, I did what any economist would do: I dug into the data before setting a goal. What I found about book sales was sobering. The vast majority of self-published books sell a few copies. Many never sell a single copy. And it’s not much prettier on the traditional side. Proprietary data shared by a publishing insider indicates that 15% of books put out by the Big 5 publishers sell fewer than a dozen copies over their lifetime. The next 50% sell somewhere between a dozen and a thousand. Do the math: roughly two-thirds of books that survive the full gauntlet of literary agents and professional editors never crack 1,000 copies sold. (See the blog post available here for full details.)
Against that backdrop, I set a minimum goal of 5,000 copies sold to consider my publishing project a success. I realized that was a lofty goal given how hard it is to sell non-fiction books these days. But go big or go home, right?
That sales goal is now in the books (pun fully intended). One important note: this figure is not padded with free giveaways. I’m an economist. Only paid sales count. Show me the money!
Importantly, I could not have reached this milestone alone, and I want to say thank you. The first is to my co-author and great friend Doug Peterson, who took a naïve first-time author and made him look like he knew what he was doing. Partnering with a pro who has 70+ books to his credit was the best decision I made in this whole adventure.
To every literary agent and editor who passed on the book. A sincere thanks ot pushing us into self-publishing, and it turns out complete creative control suited us just fine. (The funny stories you wanted us to cut? Readers tell us they’re their favorite part.)
Next, to the professors who adopted the book for their courses, the reviewers who took the time to post their thoughts (I know how rare you are among non-fiction readers!), and everyone who recommended it to a friend, a student, or a colleague. Word of mouth is the engine that got us here.
And most of all, to every single person who plunked down their hard-earned money to read about crashing dirt bikes, chasing cows, and how commodity futures markets really work. You made a first-time author’s goal a reality.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work. My next goal of 10,000 isn’t going to sell itself.
Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign