I love New York! One of the days when I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off on the subway I saw this guy hawking something further down the subway car. In my typical NYer style I averted my gaze, hoping not to be accosted to give him money.
Lucky I couldn’t do it. I squinted out of the side of one eye to see what he was selling. In his hands he had a fairly large load of paperback BOOKS. His books, it turns out.
I watched him graciously take a $10 bill from a lady a few seats away from me. I tried to see what the title of the book was with no success. So, I stopped him and asked him what was up.
He told me that for the last 3 years he had been riding the subway every day selling his book. He reported to me (and I have no reason NOT to believe him) that he had sold a tad over 48,000 books. That is not a misprint. He has sold a LOT of books through this ONE channel of distribution.…
Let me do the math for you on this one. He was selling his book for $10 – CASH! I’m sure that he is diligently recording every dollar he makes.… The book was about 120 pages. If he prints 3,000 at a time he probably gets them for around $2. So he’s making $8 on every book.
Since he sells about 15,000 copies a year, that comes out to $120,000 net. Not bad. Given he’s on the train so much I’m sure he has an unlimited travel card which costs him about $40 a week or so.
When people tell me they can’t sell books, I’ll be referring them to this individual. His story was about his experiences as a gang member and I don’t even remember his name because he promised to email me. Hopefully you’ll be hearing more from Mr. X!
Exposure of this kind breeds additional benefits. He told me that he’s been asked to speak at a dozen different universities from Pennsylvania to Europe.
The poet and novelist’s name is BLUE (poet) and Brad Bathgate (novelist). You can read more about eBay http://www.ebay.com/sch/bradbathgate/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25&_trksid=p368
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