The China Books Postmortem

I have two self-published, China-related books on the market: one a short e-book “guide” published in April 2011, the other a paperback novel (and e-book) published in July 2011. Now that they’ve been out for a while, I wanted to publicly assess how they’ve been doing. Well… I haven’t been able to quit my day job, but sales have at least covered all of my publishing and marketing expenses.

The teaching guide, for instance, has consistently sold 10-12 copies every month since its release and has appeared on a few “things to get before traveling to China” lists. Actual feedback has been scarce, however, except for the occasional complaint that the book is too small. Apparently, people don’t like paying $1 for something that has the words “quick guide” in its title and advertises itself as a 5,600 word handbook that doesn’t end up being a full-length novel. Go figure.

I’m actually a little worried A Quick Guide to Teaching’s presence is hurting sales of Yes China!, since readers may buy the former, thinking they are getting something more akin to the latter but at a steal of a price, then walking away disgruntled. The two books were supposed to stand alone (and possibly complement each other). I doubt everyone else sees it that way.

But Yes China! has still been doing okay. It was originally pushing only 4-6 e-books and 1 paperback every month. Then things picked up in November and December when it sold upwards of 10 e-books and 8 paperbacks per month. For a while, I was thinking the paperback market was dead, so it’s cool to see paperback sales finally competing with e-book sales.

There are a handful of reviews on Amazon for the book, but only a few third-party websites have officially reviewed it, including Seeing Red in China, Books and Novels to Read, Lost Laowai, and Mark’s China Blog. It’s a lot harder to get someone to review a book as opposed to a movie or game, and many of the active China bloggers out there don’t typically cover non-political, tongue-in-cheek teacher stories.

That said, reception of the book has been fairly divided. The emphasis on teaching, the humor, and the disjointed order of events were all conscious choices but have been met with as much praise as they have criticism. These features were my way of separating Yes China! from the multitude of other “American in China” stories, with Peter Hessler’s trilogy being the biggest competition. But when it comes to China, maybe readers don’t want different.

I’m not taking that to mean there is no market for silly travelogues, though. Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods and even David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day were both big inspirations when writing Yes China!, and people who enjoy those kind of half travel books should find something to like here. If I write another “Yes Country” book, though, it looks like I’ll have to cut down on the self-referential jokes and talking about whatever work I’m doing there. In this case, it was teaching, and most people felt those chapters were the weakest parts.

6 January 2012 | Anything Goes | Comments | Home
tags: writing

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