How Tim Bete Did It
“When our daughter Anna Maria was born, she slept a lot — except when we wanted her to sleep.” This is the first sentence of Tim Bete’s humor book, In the Beginning…There Were No Diapers. The opening is not exactly as memorable as “Call me Ishmael” or “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed,” but the book is funny and was good enough to be listed for a time in the top ten parenting humor books on Amazon.com. On his website, Tim tells the story of how the book came to published by Sorin Books, an imprint of Ave Maria. Tim has a lot of good advice about the challenges of marketing books. The economics of the enterprise are gruesome. Tim fearlessly does the accounting for the world to see:
Publisher sales
2,535 copies sold totalling $16,855
Average sale price of $6.65 per copy (avg. 51% discount)
Original print run was 6,500. (Sold 39% during first six months.)
Author advance: $1,500
Royalties due author: $1,761 - $1,500 advance = $261Author sales
133 copies for a total of $1,728. Profit of apprximately $600.Total author income from book: $2,361 (first six months)
I’m glad I’m not in it for the money!!
Comment on October 28, 2005 @ 6:53 pm
Excellent information especailly the media kit and his own personal experiences with a publisher.
Perhaps the “general” funny parenting book market is oversaturated at this time? Would it have sold more if it had been “targeted” to a more “Catholic” audience with his original more “Catholic” title. Was Sorin really the best publisher for this type of “general parenting” book? “First Years of Fatherhood’ limit it too much?
Many questions for a really funny writer who, I think, could have sold more books in six months…
Comment on November 1, 2005 @ 1:37 pm
Tim Bete wants to make a comment but the comment function isn’t working for him for some reason. Here’s what he wants to say:
I posted the sales figures on my Web site because I thought it might help other writers. In addition to being a writer, I’m director of the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop at the University of Dayton. More than 4,000 writers subscribe to our newsletter — http://www.humorwriters.org I told our readers that I’d put all my cards on the table regarding my book.
The most revealing part for me was the disconnect between sales and positive reviews. My book has rec’d great media coverage and rave reviews but it hasn’t translated into big sales numbers. You can see all the media attention at http://www.timbete.com/newsclips.html
The parenting humor book market is oversaturated. Humor books are an impulse purchase; people don’t go looking for them. Sales may have been better if the book was targeted to a more Catholic audience, although I’ve had great feedback and reviews from many denominations.
Tim Bete
Comment on November 2, 2005 @ 7:29 am
“Disconnect between sales and reviews,” unfortunately happens most of the time, even if your book is reviewed by the ultimate of reviews: The New York Times.
Comment on November 2, 2005 @ 11:06 am
Might be fun to try to get a book like this included in pre-Cana classes within a diocese… “You’re getting married. You’re probably going to have children. Here’s a fun read about what to expect…”
Marketing, marketing, marketing…
Comment on November 4, 2005 @ 12:45 pm