[crobertsbmw]

I wrote a book, Computer Engineering for Babies. I’ve sold about 25k copies in the last 12 months, but I don’t have a publisher, a marketing team, or even an Amazon listing. I talked to a publisher once, they told me if you sell 10k books you can easily be classified as a best seller. But The NY Times, or anyone else, doesn’t care about some guy selling baby books out of his living room, and I don’t care enough about awards to try chasing them.

[listenallyall]

> I don’t care enough about awards to try chasing them.

It's great if you're satisfied selling what you're selling, but placement on the NYT list is more than just an award, it's a huge marketing opportunity. Getting on the list could easily 5x your sales and revenue, and have publishers and booksellers knocking on your door instead of other way around.

[bombcar]

The "best selling" lists have some pretty "strict" criteria, and they're all kind of lame, even if arguably some are there to prevent "gaming" the system.

And "best selling" as a substitute for quality doesn't hold that well, either.

[PuppyTailWags]

"Best selling" by the NYT has its own algorithm which weighs audiobooks, ebooks, indie vs big store sales, etc. all differently. Additionally I would suspect selling children's books would have to compete with school-sized purchases. 25k over a year is great, but in the realm of children's books you're dealing with Scholastic magazines book hawking to every school in the nation.

[nicoburns]

> I don’t have a publisher, a marketing team, or even an Amazon listing

Interesting, how do get them manufactured? I guess there are printing companies that operate separately from publishers?

[phpthrowaway99]

There are countless self publishing companies, and while idk if it's still active, even Amazon had a try at this.

[eslaught]

Yes, Amazon still runs theirs. It's part of the KDP program now.

lulu.com is another relatively big one. (They have a nice service, Lulu Xpress, if you just want to print copies for personal use.)

And then there is the other monolith, IngramSpark.

[tshell]

I just got my copy a few weeks ago! My 14 month old loves it, though she hasn’t yet figured out the AND gate yet. :)

[germinalphrase]

Good work. How did you market your book?

[crobertsbmw]

Thanks! At first it was just a couple posts on Reddit and HN,m. Every once in a while someone will share it on Twitter or something and it will blow up for a few days. I’m spending a few hundred dollars a day on paid ads right now, but even that ebbs and flows on wether it’s profitable.

[smegsicle]

> HN,m

what's the 'm' ? typo?