One Year Since Publishing My First Book
What I've achieved (and haven't) since publishing "Big Head on the Block."
According to an email from Substack this morning, from today through November 4, the platform is offering eligible subscribers a 1-month trial they can redeem in the app. It’s a business gimmick but a great way to remind you to upgrade for $5 (or less) a month and join my Attic Club.
One year and one week ago, I published my first collection of stories.
I didn’t have grand ambitions for Big Head on the Block. The book featured stories from old blogs and others that started here on Substack. I published it using Amazon’s Kindle Direct platform. Instead of paying for marketing or advertising, I wrote personal text messages to any friends I thought might enjoy it. I emailed lots of folks and carried around giveaway copies in my car (I still have a box of them in my garage). I didn’t use ChatGPT for any of it.
Some days, I believe that words from a fellow human matter more in a time when half of what’s written online is made either by robots or dudes working in cramped content farms in Nepal, Russia, and Nigeria. I’m not always convinced. But I’m doing my best not to lose hope.
Here is a recap of what came from the book.
Copies sold: ~110
Most were purchased on Amazon, where you can buy the e-book for $5 or order a print-on-demand copy for $10. I sold at least 30 copies at Bear Den Books, which has since closed. The co-owner, Tex, now sells diesel fuel—because that’s the state of America for artists and booksellers in 2024. (He also co-hosts a podcast of two dudes reading and reviewing adult romance books.) I also left five signed copies in a Bayonne bookstore, though the owner has yet to return my messages or promote it despite promising she would. A prophet is never welcome in their hometown.
Reviews left: 13
Because I didn’t submit the book to be reviewed on blogs or websites I don’t read, and I wasn’t sure how to get a hold of the Nepali content farmers, I asked anyone who purchased or listened to it to write a review. I’m unsure if Amazon reviews help writers as much as Rate My Professor helped me decide which college professors to take and avoid. But a lot of my friends stepped up, taking 5 or 10 minutes to write kind words that mean a lot on the cloudy days when depression has pummeled my spirit.
These are some of my favorites:
“Brian has a heart in a world that loses it more every day. These stories are specific in such a way that it will have you remembering, and recalling your own stories too. And that's such a gift for a writer to give,” Sam Scott, creator of Stories Talk Good (a much better Substack; he also co-hosts the smut pod with Tex.)
“We have all stood in a mountain stream and imagined the fish that will make us a fisherman. We have envisioned the goal that would make us a champion. But for those of us who write for work (and less often for pleasure), Brian challenges us to consider the importance of the art we dream of creating versus living the life that gives rise to it,” Gazza Sanderson, part-time English business developer, full-time Knoxville soccer evangelist
“Shortly after purchasing the book, I read the story, ‘I’ll Never Be a Frontiersman’ to my children. Within the first 5 minutes, we were all laughing. They miss the nuance and wit of Canever’s stories, but they keep asking me to read more of the book to them,” Austin McLaughlin, ex-Bible study leader and CrossFit coach
“This book was a delight: it has, for me, among the highest ratios of pages to laughs and insights of anything I've read recently. Brian's at his best when he's writing about the things that are the most personal and raw…Reading this beside my wife, I often found myself needing to read excerpts to her.” Joshua Rosenberg, college professor, cycling enthusiast, and the guy most likely to not have worn shoes for an entire summer in college
“This was such a refreshing read. I hope the next one is honestly longer. I've enjoyed being able to watch Brian's Substack from time to time, but there's something really magical about it being in a physical copy. My two favorite excerpts that I bookmarked were "The Joy of Reading" and "Dispatches to My Children.". It's been a while since I've read a feel-good story, and I really needed it. This book reminded me, similarly to how he teaches, why I love writing,” Lauren Ward, former student and Substacker.
If you read or listened to the book, please take a minute to write something nice about it.
Listens on Spotify and Apple: 174
While I like to imagine my writing supporting my family one day, I’m lucky to have two paying jobs right now. I recorded audio versions of every story in BHoTB, usually between 4-5:30 a.m. after being woken up by one of the babies, and uploaded them to Spotify, Apple, and YouTube for anyone who didn’t want to spend a dime on the book. Even though listenership was lower than a single episode of my soccer podcast, in January, I reworked four newer stories I’d read at Bear Den Books and released audio versions on every platform I could using DistroKid (you can also listen to them here). I plan to do the same when I publish the e-book version of my Paddlehands saga in a few months.
Media appearances: 2
If you know me personally or can assume based on how often I promise you short reflections that turn into long rambles, I like to talk. I welcome every opportunity to talk about my work, whether at conferences, workshops, on podcasts, or over a cup of Joe with a cigar in hand. To promote the book, I was able to book a segment on WATE (Channel 6) through a connection local entrepreneur Chris McAdoo made for me to the director of Maker City. It was a short interview and led to no book sales, but it was still worth it. I also gave a heads up to a friend who runs communications efforts for the college I teach in and graduated from at the University of Tennessee, and they had their writer interview me for a web story. That was more fun since off-camera interviews permit you time to make friends with the interviewer, and I could always use another friend.
Number of people who liked my Book Announcement on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram: 375
Many of them congratulated me, said they couldn’t wait to read it, and even shared the announcement, encouraging their friends to buy the book, too.
Number of those people who actually purchased the book: 5
Further evidence that social media is not real life.
Royalties (KDP): $209.73
In all, I made about $300 total from the book, possibly more. I spent about the same amount on software to organize and lay it out for printing (I use Atticus, if you’re curious) and for a Pakistani designer who I hired off Upwork for the cover. My friend, Donna Spencer, a writer and professional editor, donated her services because, even in our capitalist dystopia, some saints remain.
A few weeks ago, I signed up for a writing workshop in Buenos Aires run by Hernán Casciari’s editorial business (an excuse to meet him and see some friends and family). And yeah, I’d like to figure out how to pay for travel without tapping into my regular work income. But I’d much rather be able to pay people to come alongside and work with me to tell good stories and combat the deluge of bad, robotically-produced, sales-oriented content flooding the internet. Social media and the World Wide Web are going to be worse next year. We need folks doing their part to kick the habit.
That’s why my next book, Paddlehands: The Most Epic and Absurd Ping-Pong Story Ever Told, will be more funny than serious and reflective. If the ship is going to sink, we might as well be laughing as it does.
Fun fact: The movie Balls of Fury, released in August 2007, was inspired by my rivalry with Eddie Finck and our epic doubles final in April of that year. And yet, I’ve made fewer royalties from it than from BHoTB. The director, Robert Ben Garant (Reno 911) is a Farragut native, and I’d like to see him ignore me when his mother’s restraining order expires in 2027.
If you bought my book, reviewed it, or continue to open my emails and read this Substack, thank you. There are days when quitting is tempting. But, for now, I’d like to keep this alive. I have many more stories half-written in my Drafts folder—stories about taking my boys on Man Walks at the beach, being confronted by my Future Self in a trailer park, wanting to be a cowboy, the origins of my last name and the search for my family online. I have two books in the works. And I have hemorrhoids again, which has nothing to do with my literary career but is an unwelcome feature of being nearly 36.
Getting old sucks. But you can make it better.
Order my book. Listen to me on YouTube. Leave me a comment. Write a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Send me a text message. It all helps.
I’ll be back soon with more stories. And, if by some miracle I find the time, my next big project may wrap before Christmas—fingers crossed.