Yep. Got the results of quarter one in. Given the controversy around MNW, particularly with the no advance thing, I decided to put the details on my blog.

I suddenly thought it might be of interest here, particularly as someone from another writers' site posted a link to it on their boards and I was inundated with hits.

The book is a hard back, by the way.

Roger, thank you for being prepared to be frank about this. It's really interesting. Though MNW authors clearly aren't going to make a packet, it's not peanuts, is it? As much as many a literary-ish first-time author with a 'normal' contract would expect to make. And what a lot of copies! That's terrific. It's more than I thought the initial print run was, so they must have reprinted, no?

Emma

That's marvellous, Roger - very well done indeed. Way beyond my wildest dreams could hope for, both in terms of money earned and numbers of books sold - many congratulations!

)

A
xxx

Thanks for being so open about that, Roger, very interesting. Well Done on the number of sales. And the amount you've earnt certainly isn't to be scoffed at. Congrats.

Casey

Well done, Roger. That seems like pretty healthy sales for a hardback to me.

I really enjoyed the virtual reading as well.

All the best

Harry

Doesn't seem half-bad to me, but then I'm used to the salary of an author. Good hardback sales - is the paperback out now?

Thanks for sharing this.

Emily

p.s. and the book is definitely my Twirl mug of tea.

Thanks everybody. I was pleasantly surprised when the statement arrived. It's not life-changing, but as I am freelance it enables me to devote a little more time to my writing without feeling I am robbing my family.

The book was reprinted twice, I think. Once before publication to meet orders that were more than the publisher had expected and once soon after publication for the same reason. So the original print run must have been quite small (I never asked and they never told me!).

I haven't heard whether there will be a paperback - but that is where you hope to sell a bit more volume I think. I don't know whether they see mine as having that kind of potential though. It's not everybody's cup of tea - or Twirl mug as Myrtle put it!

Two reprints is excellent, Roger! I think I remember the bloke who started it saying initial print runs were about the 800 mark, in which case your sales have been very impressive. Does the MNW setup allow for pbs? The economics of them are very different from hbs - and the royalty correspondingly less. I do think Taking Comfort would look very smart as a pb.

Emma

That's great!

Emma, see my post above about the paperback issue. I am assuming it's not going into paperback because no one has told me it is. In fact, they have hinted that it isn't.

Gosh, Roger, that looks pretty good to me. Probably looks good to the Revenue too, unfortunately. But why should sales drop off? It's still early days, it's a beautifully written and quirky book, and word of mouth will surely build. And when Faber bring your detective novel out in Feb 2007, the synergy between them will be a boost to each.

It goes to show that the whole 'no advance' whinging from sideline begrudgers was so much monkeyshine. 20% royalty ... yes, please, I'll have some of that if anyone's offering.

Jim

Fantastic, Roger. And thanks for being so candid. Best of luck with the new book(s) and the continuing sales of Taking Comfort.

Tiger

Congratulations Roger!

Thank you for sharing the information.

Wishing you every success with the continued sales of 'Taking Comfort' and looking forward to your next books.

Sarah

Thanks for the good wishes everyone.

Jim, the reason I think sales will drop off is because there was bound to be some interest around the time of the imprint's launch. I was lucky to be one of the first six titles. This undoubtedly boosted my sales above what I would have been able to achieve if the book had just come out in the normal way. Now that interest has died down, sales will inevitably fall off. Having said that, a lot of the attention was negative so maybe it put more people off than otherwise! Arrggh. I think I will go mad trying to work out what's going on, so I will just say 'Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has bought a copy so far - especially the ww-ers. I wonder how many sales I would have achieved if you take ww-ers out of the equation?'

Roger, I see what you mean, but don't do TC down: WWers are of course about to take over the world, but I doubt if we're responsible for all 2,000 of those sales. All books have an arc to their sales - Random House's sales have plummeted because DVC has just fallen off the back of the year-on-year figures, if you see what I mean.

And my impression - not very scientific, I agree - was that while it was all very negative when MNW was announced, the reviews on the whole of the actual books were pretty good, though it was annoying how they tended to be measured against the press stories of MNW, and not always on their own merits.

Emma