The BookSmarts Podcast, with Joshua Tallent
Arts:Books
Episode 20: Todd Sattersten on The Magic Number
In the first episode of 2022, Todd Sattersten, Publisher at Bard Press, discusses his research on The Magic Number: the number of units a title has to sell in the first year in order to go on to be a greater success. This conversation was inspired by Todd's insightful blog post from April 2021 on this topic, which I highly recommend you read.
Todd's research into self-help and business books shows that if a title does not sell 10,000 copies in the first year after publication, there is only 11% chance that that title will ever sell more than 10,000 copies. However, if a title does sell 10,000 copies, it has a 40%-50% probability of selling enough copies to move into the next lifetime sales target of 25,000.
This research sheds some light on a particularly important topic that publishers should be aware of, and Todd and I were able to dig into some of the strategies that he uses at Bard Press to ensure that every title gets the support it needs in the first year, and beyond.
You can follow Todd's thoughts on publishing at the Bard Press Blog, and on LinkedIn.
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