Woohoo! Sales are good :-)
A lot of people have asked me about how sales of the book are doing. Actually, that’s almost the first question I get asked and, strange though it may seem, I am continually surprised that they are asking this. Perhaps I shouldn’t be. However, what’s more surprising, I think - or at least to the person asking - is my reply to that question, which is invariably:
“Haven’t a clue, and I don’t wanna know either.”
Is that weird? I’ll tell you my reasons why: I spent 7 months on the book, desperately trying to get things done to deadline while simultaneously selling up, moving house and beginning wedding plans. I certainly hoped I’d hit the target and that the book would be well received. Certainly the feedback I’ve had right from the beginning has been overwhelmingly positive. However, I was also worried that the last thing the world needs is another book about HTML and CSS, regardless of how well it’s written or how standards-compliant all the advice given is. So, I went by this rule:
Ignorance is bliss.
If I don’t ask how sales are going, I won’t be told, and therefore if sales are not good I won’t start getting all depressed that it was a failed venture and nobody was interested. If I remain blissfully ignorant of that possibility, then I will, I figured, remain optimistic and will continue to do the most I can to promote the book not thinking that I’m not flogging a dead horse. So, since publication I’ve been asked the same question and given the same answer all the time.
Yesterday I received an email from SitePoint which was, among other things, about sales. I’ll quote it here and insert my thoughts as I, well, thought them while reading it through:
“Just thought I’d let you know that your book is doing pretty well in terms of sales … “
Mmm, ‘pretty well’, not ‘really well’ or ‘fantastically well’. Reading on then:
” … from our site right now. Most books that we sell get an initial sales spike when the emails go out and then tail off. Your book, on the other hand, didn’t get that initial sales spike (as we expected pretty much) … “
Yeah, that’s the thing - trying to sell a book that’s aimed at complete novices is difficult to sell to people who already frequent SitePoint.com or subscribe to the newsletter and so on. They know this stuff already. Selling sand to the Arabs, and all that.So I carried on reading:
” … but it’s had much stronger ongoing sales. At the moment, it’s outselling every other book from our site once the spikes are removed. Good job!”
So, I wasn’t asking for sales news, but I’m more than happy to hear this, that’s for sure!
“Early reviews seem good too.”
That’s the one thing I’d love to see more of though. I’ve put together a collection of (summarised) reviewsof the book here, but would love to see some more out there in the wild. So, here’s a personal plea: if you read my book and enjoyed it, please do consider putting together a write-up of it. Currently if you search for reviews of the book on Google not a huge amount is turning up. And remember that if you are an Amazon associate you could earn a bit of commision from any sale that results from someone searching for a review, landing on your site and then clicking through to Amazon.
If you would like a copy to do a review on your site, please do drop me a line. I can’t promise to get you a copy (it’s SitePoint’s decision and obviously it’s dependent on your audience/influence etc) but if you don’t ask you definitely don’t get!
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