I am rather fond of the chap, having seen him win I'm a Celebrity and having had the pleasure of him sitting behind me during a performance of Les Miserables in London and hearing him laugh his way rather loudly through both acts.
In an age where you expect the celebrity (be it A or C list) to have the edge over unknowns, I was surprised to hear of the poor sales..
Anyway, I was just wondering if any of you have managed to beat Biggins in traditional print or digital format. If you have, you can be an honorary wearer of an imaginary 'I Beat Biggins' T-shirt. (I'm afraid those who are current holders of my 'I've Been Rejected' T-shirt won't be eligible (as it will be hard to get one over the top of the other!)
This made me giggle Wendy - thank you. I would love to beat Biggins with sales >3000 of anything, but for now I'll settle with the 'I've been rejected' T-shirt :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's time you gave it back, Tracy!
ReplyDeleteI am very surprised at those sales figures, but I hadn't heard of his book so I'm going to check it out. Maybe we should all buy it :-)
ReplyDeleteYes. Poor Biggins - still I'm sure he'll manage to laugh in the face of adversity (see above post!)
ReplyDeleteI can't say it's a book I'd particularly want to read, Wendy. No reflection on poor Biggins, I just don't read any celebrity-type books.
ReplyDeleteI've read two of Stephen Fry's ones but that's all, Rosemary
ReplyDeleteTo go by the books in Waterstones' windows you' d think being a celebrity of any kind would guarantee you some kind of publishing success. But the book world is notoriously fickle. I believe Anthea Turner's biography is recorded as being one of the biggest celebrity flops selling less than 500 copies. Julian Assange coming a close second. What is even more surprising about Br B's sales is that he presumably had a publicist helping him promote said book. That is not to say 3000 copies (or less) is not admirable – although I am sure his publisher will think otherwise! We are so used to hearing of the A celebs selling hundreds of thousands of copies of their books, if not millions, it is easy to forget than 93% (or is it 97%? - I can't remember off hand, grrr!) of writers sell less than 1000 copies of their first book ( and most of them average 200 copies or less...
ReplyDelete"Nielsen Bookscan has found that of 86,000 new titles published in the UK in 2009, 59,000 sold an average of 18 copies." ...
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1239252/How-77million-books-year-turned-pulp-fiction.html#ixzz2Sgs8kpjz
I feel pretty pleased to be above average with The Blue Suitcase selling well over a 1000 copies of paperbacks and hundred and hundreds of e-books. I dont know for sure if ebooks and paperback sales together reach 3000, but if they don't, they will ;o) Food of Ghosts looks all set to do the same. Clearly, sales are not making me a fortune but neither am I or my publisher are spending a fortune on promotion and distribution – this means we don't need to sell thousands to break even. We are instead, slowly but surely building a readership and developing distribution, preparing the way for future sales without it costing us an arm and a leg and avoiding ( hopefully) pulping books - which is another shocking wasteful side to the book industry:
"Publishers are quietly disposing of around 77million unsold books a year, it has emerged. So many titles no one wants to read are being produced that they are being shredded, pulped or sold on market stalls at a fraction of their original price. Industry insiders say companies are forced to destroy them after they are returned by bookshops.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1239252/How-77million-books-year-turned-pulp-fiction.html#ixzz2SgszeR2h
Not really sure what I want to say with all that ... ha ha ha... I think it is that it is very surprising that Mr B didn't sell more copies but most writers don't sell a lot of books at first, rather they work away slowly but surely to build a readership and sales. Celebs who rely on celeb status to make one-off sales are in danger of finding out just how popular they really are - or are not! ;o)
My goodness, Marianne - thank you for all that information! I am especially amazed at the statistic that 59,000 out of 86,000 new titles only sold 18 copies...that's unbelievable! It's a wonder anyone writes anything. Please don't get me wrong, 3000 copies is not a small number under normal circumstances - just when you're a celebrity. You do realise that now you absolutely HAVE to aim to Beat Biggins with one or both of your books ...I am relying on you (and proud that by buying my copies of each I have helped you on your way.
ReplyDeleteHi Wendy, I thought I'd written to you again but my comment seems to have gone awol, yikes! No worries, just to say, I didn't mean to rant, just to explain a little about books and numbers. Thanks always for helping me on my way to that "I beat Biggins T-Shirt ;o)
DeleteUnfortunately I'm not sure that this would be a book for me, it's not the sort of thing I read but I wish Christopher well. As it takes such a long time to write a book and get published it must be soul destroying if sales are then poor, particularly when it's a biography of a well known person. I hope the situation improves for him, and that he doesn't regard this as a reflection on his popularity.
ReplyDeleteIt won't be top of my reading list, Sharon - but then again I don't read autobiographies as a rule. Poor old Biggins!
ReplyDelete