What Happens When (Virtually) No One Buys Your Book

You spent all that time and energy on it. Now what?

You keep checking, constantly refreshing the site like a person waiting for concert tickets or a pair of Jordans to go on sale. You’ve been through this before so you know it doesn’t work the same way. Sales are tallied up in bundles, not every single moment, so hitting refresh every five seconds is an exercise in futility.

Still, you keep checking over and over, but the numbers don’t move. How is this possible?

Last week, my seventh book, Philadelphia, was released. In many ways it is the best writing I have ever done, particularly in terms of fiction, and I thought the concept — a collection of short stories, a few op-ed essays, quotes, and lists, all relating to my beloved city of Philadelphia in one way or another — was interesting and appealing.

Clearly, very few people agreed because, well, it didn’t exactly do Harry Potter numbers.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naïve. This is my seventh time going through this process of self-publishing a book, so it’s not like I wasn’t prepared. I know the figures. I know that “the average U.S. book is now selling less than 250 copies per year and less than 3,000 copies over its lifetime” and that over 60% of self-published authors…