orz by troy james weaver

i published a single, limited-edition run of the book orz by troy james weaver. it is a new collection of short stories/prose poems/novels, some only a sentence or two, some ~two pages long. it is an excellent book.

 

this post is about the publication of this book, which was fun and flirty and made us both laugh a lot, which is one of my few personal metrics for publishing success.

the book

because the book is limited edition, we did not buy an ISBN or barcode, as these will never be stocked in stores. this saved us several hundred dollars (assuming one were to purchase a single isbn at a time).

troy writes in longhand and then later transcribes his writing on a computer. during the writing of orz, his laptop keyboard was broken, and randomly inserted 'z's in places, which he included, in a good/comical way, in one story in the book. i suggested minor-to-major edits on maybe 5 pieces total, all of which i think troy approved; i suggested he cut two very short pieces, which he quickly replaced with, imo, stronger and less predictable pieces.

i designed the cover and typeset the insides, using microsoft powerpoint and microsoft word, respectively (i also used Preview to stitch together the final pdf).

the back cover is based on my paperback copy of last exit to brooklyn by hubert selby jr., with the author photo, font choice, and author bio placement. i wrote a sort of cheeky synopsis on the back to recreate the 'major press' vibe. 

the front cover and insides are vaguely inspired by japanese books in translation; troy and i have talked about japanese literary fiction in translation often, and he has recommended me some very good books. i modeled the inky, small square blockiness of the insides after my new directions hardcover copy of the setting sun by osamu dazai. the title is also an emoticon that seems popular in japan, according to a former coworker of mine who is japanese (orz looks sort of like someone on hands and knees, head pressed against the floor in despair -- i told troy about this, and he liked it as a title for the book he was writing).

the original digitally-printed proof of the book includes the kanji for 'despair' as part of the design, but i replaced this with a dog emoticon logo. the inclusion of actual japanese seemed too weeby and embarrassing.

i had printed one digitally printed proof from snowfall press to get a sense of how the margins and cover colors looked. i decided to print the actual book with spencer printing, because the books are nicer and the covers don't get warped as easily. but they are pricier. i got one unbound proof of the book from them, corrected one typo, then submitted the full order. they invoiced me after the books had shipped, which i thought was interesting -- if you are working on a low or no budget book project, and you feel convinced you can sell enough copies in a short preorder timeframe, you can use the preorder proceeds to pay for the full printing.

the stunt/the sale 

we listed 50 copies for sale via flat dog distro. all 50 were listed for different prices, in increments of $0.50, from $0.50 to $25.00. the idea was that if we sold all 50, it would be as if we sold them for $12.50 each, which is relatively cheap as far as books of poetry go for, now, i feel. troy and i agreed this was funny and acceptable to do. some people would spend only fifty cents, while others would pay twenty-five dollars. i thought it would be a fun/funny way to encourage people to buy it quickly -- the longer you waited, ostensibly, the more expensive it would get. i was happy that troy agreed to doing a funny stunt with his book. i feel like, in my experience, you can have the most fun in indie publishing by being the least precious of your book, or something like that. not sure i worded that right.

we listed the book for sale at ~11am february 6. each differently-priced copy required some text description to distinguish it from every other copy, such as "orz - the middle one. perfection" for the $12.50 copy and "orz - south park reference ($3.50)" for the $3.50 one. i enjoyed manically filling out this form without having expected to have to do this prior to the book going on sale.

the first 45 copies sold between 11:29am and 10pm on february 6th. the last copy was sold at 11:32am on february 10th. here is the order in which the different prices sold:

$5, $11, $0.50, $8, $7, $25, $10, $19, $4, $7.50, $9, $3, $1, $2, $1.50, $8.50, $10.50, $3.50, $15, $2.50, $9.50, $6, $20, $5.50, $4.50, $6.50, $11.50, $12, $12.50, $13, $13.50, $15.50, $14, $14.50, $16, $16.50, $17, $17.50, $18, $18.50, $19.50, $21, $24.50, $24, $20.50, $21.50, $22, $22.50, $23.50, $23 (enjoying how hard this is to read. i should have made a scatterplot)

i had expected the sales to go from cheapest to most expensive, which did happen about halfway through -- there's a general upward trend once the bottom half sold out, and people started buying the cheapest option available, from $11.50 through $23, which was funny to see. the last 9 orders are in the $20+ range.

but i was surprised to see the first two orders start at $5 and $11 before someone bought the cheapest option, and to see the $25 one sell so early. also interesting that most of the $X.50 copies sold later than the $X.00 ones. seems vaguely related to the 'hack' of selling things for $X.99.

only one order included something other than orz, which was a copy of the goth goth boy edition of sad sad boy by michael o'brien. everyone else only ordered a copy of orz, which i thought was interesting and vaguely bleak from a 'marketing' standpoint. it is my general understanding that presses/record labels/stores in general try to expand their selection kind of broadly to entice new demographics and boost sales of back catalog items. i also don't care -- i'm happy making and selling troy's book only during this.

the money

i charged a flat rate of $4.00 per domestic order for shipping, as media mail packages ship for $3.65 and the mailers i use cost ~$0.40 each. factoring in packing tape, printer paper and ink (for shipping labels), and the cheaper of the free stickers i included, $4 seemed reasonable/slightly cheaper than actual cost for each order. i also included between $.75 and $5.00 worth of other things, such as more expensive stickers (holographic or die-cut), magnets, and/or original pieces of art i had made, with each order, to be nice/build a brand/hope people don't feel ripped off.

we made ~$625 total selling the pre-orders, excluding shipping. the cost to print and ship 55 copies to me and troy (50 for purchasers, 4 for troy, 1 for me) totaled ~$284, which comes to about $5.68 per book sold. this means that we made $6.32 per book, totaling $316. i paypal'd troy $200 and reserved $96 for taxes (self-employment rate is 15.3% on total earnings; 15.3% of $625 is ~$96). i kept the remaining $20.