Big Red Logic Books: half year report!

Self-publishing seemed exactly appropriate for the Big Red Logic Books. They are aimed very particularly at students, so why not make them available as widely as can be? — free to download as PDFs, for those happy to work from their screens, and at more or less the smallest possible cost for the significant number who prefer to work from a physical copy.

I’d certainly warmly encourage others to self-publish, if it is appropriate. However, as Bishop Butler didn’t quite say, every book is what it is and not another book. And every author’s situation is what it is. But if you want info about the whys and hows and wherefores of self-publishing do get in touch.

With minor hiccups, my experience with the Amazon KDP system has been very easy and straightforward. I started writing up some detailed techie notes to post here, but quickly realized they were likely to be of very little general interest! But some might be interested, and a few encouraged to follow my example, by the raw figures for the first half of 2021 (so this is the period after the initial flurries of downloads and sales last year, and without any particular advertising efforts).

I’m rather surprised by the very different ratio of downloads to sales for GWT. Overall,  I am more than happy with these figures. And no, I’m not making a fortune! — the royalties are set at pennies per book. The hope was just to cover set-up costs, and to defray some of the hosting costs for Logic Matters.  I’ll re-do the sums from time to time and lower the prices further if I can.

As I’ve noted before, there is now a hardback for libraries of GWT which has, to my surprise, sold 62 copies in the first two weeks. Or so say Ingramspark who provide the hardbacks. Though whether anyone has yet seen a copy out there in the wild, I have yet to hear! I’m still myself waiting for a copy from Amazon and a copy from Blackwell’s (two copies, so I can send one off to the British Library for posterity …).