"But the point is, I have a gold record."
When announcing my goal for selling 2 million copies of Holiday Chick by the end of 2012, I purposely worded it very carefully because I hadn't quite decided whether the goal was going to mean that I wanted to sell 2 million copies all in the span of 2012, or just have my total sales of Holiday Chick reach 2 million by the end of 2012.
Before we get into what I finally decided on, though, I want to talk about a little pet peeve of mine that has come to light since publishing Holiday Chick, because it also played a part in my inner-debate. And that is -
"How many books have you sold?"
Now, when I first published Holiday Chick, the original pet peeve was the question, "Who published it?" At first, this question would catch me off guard because I would never dream of asking an author this - mostly because I could give a shit about who published what, but also because...why would I want to know? Am I asking because I want to know if they got picked up by a huge publishing house and therefore I should be summarily impressed, or do I want to know because I'm the type of nerd who knows the difference between what houses publish what type of reading material and thus it's what I base most of my reading choices on? Neither, Mary. The second irritation came because, whenever someone asked me that, I felt like I had to go into the big long story of why I decided to go the route that I did (and then defend my choice against those who still think that "self-publishing" automatically equals "hack"). However, both these irritations fell away after a while when I realized that when most people asked this question, they really had no point of reference for judging either unless they were an agent or a bookseller.
But the "How many books have you sold?" question still irritates me. Mainly because it's really none of your damn business. I do not walk up to salespeople and demand to know how many units they've sold this quarter. I don't ask people I've just met at a party how much they make in a year. I don't quiz a musician or comedian on Twitter about how many CD's they've sold. To put it bluntly, on a purely social level, the question is just plain rude.You're not asking because you're "just curious."You're asking because you want to quantify someone's level of success with your chosen point of reference for what is deemed successful (in layman's terms, that's called "judging").
However, I do get that, in a time where everything in the book industry is changing, some people are seeking an answer to this question for their own edification...maybe they're flirting with the idea of self-publishing, or they've already self-published and are looking for some kind of metric to tell them what's realistic, what's not, etc. I get that. Sometimes people really do mean well and all that jazz. But I will admit that one of the reasons why I was tempted to just start the book sales meter at zero for #2millin2012 was because I didn't want to share my total book sales. Not because I was ashamed of the number, but because I'm suuuper super stubborn when it comes to principles, and also there was a part of me that wanted to gleefully frustrate those Nosy Nancys out there who were waiting to find out what they were.But anyway.
As of Jan. 1st, 2012, I've sold 202 copies of Holiday Chick. That total - when I finally sat down to calculate it a couple weeks ago...I'm kind of what you'd call "lazy with numbers" - seemed small to me at first, until I realized that that number of books sold largely on its own: Admittedly, I've been kind of lazy with promotion since I published the book. I had a small launch party, I did a couple of book clubs, got the book into four bookstores, did a few discount sales, and threw out some very scattered social media marketing over various channels. So when I take that into account, I'm okay with that number.
But then the question is: Do I subtract 202 from the total of 2 million in 2012, or should I begin the tally at zero for 2012? If I count that number in, that's 202 less books that I need to sell to reach my goal. But it's also 202 books that were not sold based on the efforts that I have and will put forth in 2012. So is counting those 202 copies kind of cheating? Or can I consider them part of my overall goal for this book, which is specifically to sell 2 million copies of it by the end of 2012?
And now my brain hurts, so I'm curious...what what do you think? If this were your goal, what would you do? Count 'em? Or start at zero for 2012?
Before we get into what I finally decided on, though, I want to talk about a little pet peeve of mine that has come to light since publishing Holiday Chick, because it also played a part in my inner-debate. And that is -
"How many books have you sold?"
Now, when I first published Holiday Chick, the original pet peeve was the question, "Who published it?" At first, this question would catch me off guard because I would never dream of asking an author this - mostly because I could give a shit about who published what, but also because...why would I want to know? Am I asking because I want to know if they got picked up by a huge publishing house and therefore I should be summarily impressed, or do I want to know because I'm the type of nerd who knows the difference between what houses publish what type of reading material and thus it's what I base most of my reading choices on? Neither, Mary. The second irritation came because, whenever someone asked me that, I felt like I had to go into the big long story of why I decided to go the route that I did (and then defend my choice against those who still think that "self-publishing" automatically equals "hack"). However, both these irritations fell away after a while when I realized that when most people asked this question, they really had no point of reference for judging either unless they were an agent or a bookseller.
But the "How many books have you sold?" question still irritates me. Mainly because it's really none of your damn business. I do not walk up to salespeople and demand to know how many units they've sold this quarter. I don't ask people I've just met at a party how much they make in a year. I don't quiz a musician or comedian on Twitter about how many CD's they've sold. To put it bluntly, on a purely social level, the question is just plain rude.You're not asking because you're "just curious."You're asking because you want to quantify someone's level of success with your chosen point of reference for what is deemed successful (in layman's terms, that's called "judging").
However, I do get that, in a time where everything in the book industry is changing, some people are seeking an answer to this question for their own edification...maybe they're flirting with the idea of self-publishing, or they've already self-published and are looking for some kind of metric to tell them what's realistic, what's not, etc. I get that. Sometimes people really do mean well and all that jazz. But I will admit that one of the reasons why I was tempted to just start the book sales meter at zero for #2millin2012 was because I didn't want to share my total book sales. Not because I was ashamed of the number, but because I'm suuuper super stubborn when it comes to principles, and also there was a part of me that wanted to gleefully frustrate those Nosy Nancys out there who were waiting to find out what they were.But anyway.
As of Jan. 1st, 2012, I've sold 202 copies of Holiday Chick. That total - when I finally sat down to calculate it a couple weeks ago...I'm kind of what you'd call "lazy with numbers" - seemed small to me at first, until I realized that that number of books sold largely on its own: Admittedly, I've been kind of lazy with promotion since I published the book. I had a small launch party, I did a couple of book clubs, got the book into four bookstores, did a few discount sales, and threw out some very scattered social media marketing over various channels. So when I take that into account, I'm okay with that number.
But then the question is: Do I subtract 202 from the total of 2 million in 2012, or should I begin the tally at zero for 2012? If I count that number in, that's 202 less books that I need to sell to reach my goal. But it's also 202 books that were not sold based on the efforts that I have and will put forth in 2012. So is counting those 202 copies kind of cheating? Or can I consider them part of my overall goal for this book, which is specifically to sell 2 million copies of it by the end of 2012?
And now my brain hurts, so I'm curious...what what do you think? If this were your goal, what would you do? Count 'em? Or start at zero for 2012?
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