Latest update on my book sales for the interested

 What's latest on my book?

One and a half years ago, I published books on World Travel in low budget- in Kannada and English languages. Unfortunately covid stuck soon after and travel came to an halt worldwide, rendering my book practically useless as people are not able to travel due to covid risk and restrictions.

However for the interested, here're some updates on what all happened with my book since its launch.

1. Couldn't qualify for Karnataka State Library purchase grant

In Jan 2020 I spent some time and effort to submit my book to Karnataka Govt's central library for purchase under Govt Grant. Govt grants certain funds every year to library department, to buy books useful to readers. Library department has its own process  to make authors and publisher submit an application, give few copies of their book and await their decision. Many publishers print in bulk just for library sale, as qualified books get an order of about 300 copies. However, my book was priced at 220 Rs, because it is self published and cost per copy is high. Everyone told me this is very high price by Govt standards. They don't see quality, content or value of a book. Their decision is largely based on pricing per page. A 120 page book should be priced about 60-70 Rs to win the deal.

Needless to say my book didn't qualify. Lost a few copies, a few hundred rupees in the process. (had to travel to BLR, submit a form and so on)

Detailed process of how to apply for Karnataka State Library book purchase.

2. Gave copies to Govt Library, books are nowhere to be seen.

I have a copy to central library in Cubbon park while registering the book, gave 2 copies to South End circle library but no luck.

Couldn't spot my book in Cubbon Park library one month after I submitted it.

In South End Circle library, I tried checking after an year if my book is visible. They don't even have a section called travel and the building is flooded with big boxes of new books not even opened yet. So obviously my book is lost in haystack of lacks of books.

Have given a copy to my village library, need to check the status

3. International sales is a failure from NotionPress

NotionPress promised they will list my book for international sale if I order 50 copies. I needed 50 copies for myself anyway so I did order. But then their international listing is a failure. A cousin ordered in Germany, his order was cancelled and book was never delivered. Didn't get any notification of book being sold anywhere else internally. I guess Notionpress is not able to pursue this or may be covid has complicated the process.

4. Physical Book store- a few copies sold

I visited multiple book stores in Bengaluru to check if they are willing to keep my books for sale. Sapna Books, Ankita Book, Navakarnataka etc. All of them counted the pages, saw the price and decided they don't want to keep the book. Their computation is again on a per page basis and my self published book is clearly expensive for them.

Read my experience talking to Book shop owners.

Eventually Total Kannada in Jayanagara accepted to keep the book. In one year it looks like they have sold 2 or 3 copies. Of the 5 copies I had given, I could see 2-3 still in store. Yet to collect payment from them.

5. Interview on Akki Studio

Gaurish Akki conducted a video interview of my about my book and published it on his youtube channel. This was a positive development. This happened sometime in Jan 2020 but again, before its effect could cascade into purchase, covid scare kicked in. Watch the video below or click here . Got a few other media mentions as well.

6. Kannada book available online on Mylang

Mylang books are launching ebook version of several popular books. They approached to launch my book as well and I permitted. You can read more details here and buy my book here.  A few dozen copies were sold over an year and that is a good news.

7. No time to publish ebook of English version.

I had on my plan to launch an ebook or kindle version of the English book, but didn't pursue this, as sales were not that good and covid anyway made international leisure travel impossible

8. Random sales still happening

My book is registering a slim number of sales every month. A few copies are being bought by enthusiastic customers once a while. God bless them and make them travel soon.

9. Gave a few complementary copies. Sent a copy to Kunzum travel cafe and few copies to traveler/blogger friends. Hopefully they found it useful. Thanks to many friends and relatives who bought it at price without asking for free copy.

10. Less than two dozen amazon reviews

Over 600-700 copies of books have been sold so far (English, Kannada, online, offline, Kannada ebook + complementary copies all combined). But I have only about 24 reviews on Amazon for my book. (10 for English, 14 for Kannada) Asked once in social media for review support but can't force anyone against their interests. It take some time, effort and interest to submit a review. People are busy with their life or too lazy to review so I will manage with what I have.

One person gave a very poor rating and that review is sitting on top of the review list and scaring everyone. if you're read my book kindly consider giving me a review. Link to English version here, Kannada version here.

11. Physical Book launch in native place

We held a physical book launch program in my native place during Jan 2020. About a 100 people attended and a few copies were bought. It was good to have several interested audience attend the event and learn about the book and travel. Thanks to Pavanaja sir for visiting and thanks to Ramesh Belagodu, Udupi Kannada Sahitya Parishad for facilitating the event.

12. Didn't win any award. 

I was told of a book award by Shivamogga Kannada Sahitya Parishad and submitted a copy. They called and asked for 3 copies as they have 3 judges. Didn't get any further communication- obviously I didn't qualify for any award.

I have not taken up any paid service from NotionPress, so they don't have any motive to promote my book much.

Overall the book publishing excersise hasn't been a financial success, but I learnt a lot from the process, about writing a book, mistakes to avoid, pros and cons of self publishing vs conventional way, marketing the book and so on. Partly corona played spoilsport crushing travel worldwide, rendering tips from my book useless, but then I am sure good times will return. Lots of tips I have given are relevant to domestic travel too, so you can use same tips here as well.

What next?

Once corona virus scare ends and travel begins to return to normalcy, I am planning to launch an updated version of the book (may be 2022 edition) with tips for post covid travel. But before I do that covid scare should end, travel should open up and it should be safe to travel as a tourist again, without risk and expense of quarantine or getting infected by someone sitting 3 rows behind you in a plane. I need to travel a bit in post covid world to experience it first hand, before I can update the book and give tips to others.