PA on Twitter

There's a PA author on Twitter tweeting "A million sold" plus the link to her book in the PA store.

A quick check of Amazon shows no sales ranking, which pretty much means no sales through Amazon.

Since Math Is My Friend, I decided to see how long it would take PA to print a million copies of her book on their POD machine. The Espresso Book Machine can make a book in under 5 minutes, according to the news stories. So, let's be generous and say PA can print a book in 3 minutes.

1,000,000 books times 3 minutes per book = 3,000,000 minutes
3,000,000 minutes divided by 60 minutes per hour = 50,000 hours
50,000 hours divided by 24 hours per day = 2083 days 8 hours
2083 days 8 hours divided by 365 1/4 days per year = 5 years, 8 months, and 13 odd days to print 1,000,000 copies one at a time on the POD machine

Date book released: 15 June 2010
Time warp required: Yes

But wait, this is a 48-page paperback. Let's say it only takes half a minute to spit one of these babies out.

1,000,000 times .5 minutes per book = 500,000 minutes
500,000 minutes divided by 60 minutes per hour = 8333 hours 20 minutes
8333 hours 20 minutes divided by 24 hours per day = 347 days 5 hours 20 minutes

Days since release: 312
Time warp required: Yes


And that's assuming running the POD machine 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, holidays included, no down or maintenance time allowed, no other authors' books printed.

No f*ing way.

I know we're supposed to respect the author, but this is either a spectacular delusion or just flat-out lying. [ETA: Or, as Gillhoughly will point out in the next post, naïve misinterpretation of web hits/sales ranking from a source other than Amazon--thanks, G!]

Great illustration of why POD isn't an efficient printing method for best sellers, though .

That's all.

Many younglings mistake a sales ranking for sales, or web hits for sales, so she may be getting her numbers from another source than Amazon and is even now picking out a new Lexus.

She'll wise up when the first royalty statement with ZERO SALES arrives, and I feel sorry for her.

Other PA members might correct her. Some do take the time to do that.

DreamWeaver said:

There's a PA author on Twitter tweeting "A million sold" plus the link to her book in the PA store.

A quick check of Amazon shows no sales ranking, which pretty much means no sales through Amazon.

Since Math Is My Friend, I decided to see how long it would take PA to print a million copies of her book on their POD machine. The Espresso Book Machine can make a book in under 5 minutes, according to the news stories. So, let's be generous and say PA can print a book in 3 minutes.

1,000,000 books times 3 minutes per book = 3,000,000 minutes
3,000,000 minutes divided by 60 minutes per hour = 50,000 hours
50,000 hours divided by 24 hours per day = 2083 days 8 hours
2083 days 8 hours divided by 365 1/4 days per year = 5 years, 8 months, and 13 odd days to print 1,000,000 copies one at a time on the POD machine

*****

Great illustration of why POD isn't an efficient printing method for best sellers, though .

That's all.

Click to expand...

You know, one of the party lines over there is that they're "just like" [insert best seller] once they're printed through PA.

Using your formula, lets see about that...

As of 2008, 400 million copies of the Harry Potter novels had been sold. So, assuming JK Rowling is on even footing with a PA author --

5 years, 8 months to print 1,000,000 books (I'll spot 'em the days) times 400 = 27,200 months, divided by 12 months / year = 2,266 years (and change)

Yeah. That's an identical set-up if I ever saw one.

(DH sold something like 15 mil in the first day, according to Yahoo. That one day's talley would take PA 80-odd years to match, just in the printing capacity alone.)

Gillhoughly said:

Many younglings mistake a sales ranking for sales, or web hits for sales, so she may be getting her numbers from another source than Amazon and is even now picking out a new Lexus.

She'll wise up when the first royalty statement with ZERO SALES arrives, and I feel sorry for her.

Other PA members might correct her. Some do take the time to do that.

Click to expand...

OK, I'll go along with possible misinterpretation of web hits/ranking. It's certainly nicer than my two alternatives.

Now I feel bad I didn't think of that.
Bad Dream! Bad Dream!!

That author is now tweeting about another book with two million sold. It's through a division of Dorrance that charges close to $1,000 for the basic package.

Again, there's no Amazon ranking on the book. Like Gill, I hope the author is not counting money before the royalty checks arrive.