Since book royalties are one of the key components of my survival, I do regularly track the progress of my biography ‘Dalai Lama: The Dénouement’ released on February 1 on Amazon.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) keeps a meticulous record of the number of copies sold and royalties earned that the author can access at any time on an impulse. This is one feature that separates KDP from the traditional publishers who tend to send sale/royalty statements every few months. I could have easily taken the traditional publishing route the way I did with considerable success when the original edition of this book was published in 2007, first by Doubleday/Random House, as ‘Dalai Lama: Man, Monk, Mystic” and then by more than 20 publishers worldwide.
Now that the rights to the book having been reverted to me, I can do what I want with it in terms of its content, design, distribution and so on. Of course, I get no advance against royalties the way I did with the traditional publishing. There is always a trade-off. Life is a trade-off.
Coming back to the current book, in the past 19 days since its publication, it has sold five copies. That is almost a copy sold every four days. Is that good? Who knows? I am just stating facts as they are without editorializing them even though perhaps I should.
I am in the process of mounting a publicity campaign for the new version which has four new chapters adding up to 20,000 words, including a detailed conversation with the Dalai Lama. This is apart from the many I had for the original version.
The problem with self-publishing a title’s new version, even if it was first published by top of the line publishers, is that it takes much longer for the media to take note. This is notwithstanding that I have been a journalist for the past 38 years and know a lot of fellow journalists who would consider reviewing it. The only way a self-published title can get traction in the media is through its sales. Therefore, my sense of urgency to see how it is moving. So far so meh. However, I will change that soon.