The first edition — a retrospective

Today (May 31, 2014) marks the last day on which the book’s first edition will be available for purchase. I would like to thank everyone whom I have had the pleasure to stand beside and, together, watch this project move from its embryonic stage into flight mode.

That includes everyone who has taken the time to send in their comments, suggestions and critiques, the 757,000 readers of the online edition, the 446 readers who supported the project with donations, the 2,898 readers who bought the print edition, the many people who took the time to write about the book, as well as the bookshops that were kind enough to stock the title, obscure as it was when it first came out. And, of course, a special thanks to the volunteers who have put in the time to translate the online edition into their own languages. The Spanish translation by María Corchero has been read over 30,000 times so far, and I’m excited about the prospect of several other translations seeing the light of day soon.

It has been a wonderful journey, and I trust that it is one of many to come.

Since December 6, 2013, 73.18% of the first print run has been sold, which amounts to 2,898 copies. Average daily sales remained healthy over that period. 85.14% of books sold through Amazon.com, with the rest selling through a small number of bookshops in San Francisco, Australia and England. A very special thanks to Foyles who have been phenomenal in supporting the project from the very beginning and to all the other bookshops for obliging my request to stock the book. The wonderful staff at Book Passage were kind enough to choose the book as a Staff Pick.

In terms of financials, the project cost $53,442.05 in initial investment and running costs. The net revenue as of today, including receivables, is $60,296.82. Of that, $2,112 is from donations. This means that the project will likely end up turning a profit of $6,854.77. All of that money will go towards financing an upcoming work, tentatively titled Hans in the Land of Bards, which aims to teach young readers about fundamental algorithms through the means of a short story. The project, which I am very excited about, will be available online for free under a Creative Commons license.

Selling through Amazon.com’s Marketplace introduced a number of constraints, one of which was that the book could not be shipped to Canada. That did not stop Canadian readers from enjoying the print edition, however, seeing as I had the immense pleasure of packing and sending 89 copies their way! Pushing boxes of books to the Post Office in my daughter’s stroller bemused many a passerby and proved a welcome, albeit inadvertent, source of social interaction.

The project corroborates a finding that others have voiced in the past, that it is possible to successfully finance a self-published book. Though the priming stage demands a lot of time, effort and tenacity, particularly for a first-timer, smoother sailing thereafter is certainly an attainable aspiration.

Since the print edition was first released, a number of publishers have shown interest in obtaining the rights to the book, a venture that I have been willing to consider for three reasons. Firstly, because a good publisher would be able to better distribute the book, secondly, because they would likely be able to better edit it, and thirdly, because such a development would free me up to work on further educational projects.

I am happy to announce that going forward, the print edition of the book will be in the hands of The Experiment, an independent publisher based in New York. The online version of the book will of course remain as is, which is to say freely available, under a Creative Commons license. The Experiment’s books cover a wide range of practical non-fiction and are distributed by Workman Publishing.

The second edition of An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments will retail for $14.95 and will incorporate all of the changes that have been made to the book since the first edition was printed. The second edition is scheduled for release in late September 2014 and will be available for preorder starting June 1, 2014. It will be distributed in the UK and Australia by Penguin Books and in the US and Canada by Workman Publishing. For a full list of online retailers that will offer the title, please take a look here.

If you haven't done so already, remember to add yourself to the mailing list (scroll down to the bottom of the main page). Have a great weekend.

— A. A., San Francisco, May 2014