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<< Day 6

A short, transparent note about money.

The first question was how many copies to print. When I first mentioned this book, I said 100. Then (sudden loss of confidence) 50. Now I’m saying 250.

That’s what happens when you think things through in public, which is more or less what these emails are.

The 250 came from a memory. The first time I gave a talk about this material in a workplace, it was at a large law firm in London, and 250 people came, including the senior partner. They stayed for the whole hour, despite being very busy, and that number stayed with me.

It feels like the right size for a first edition – not timid, not grandiose, but a room full of people who might find this useful.

Printing 250 copies in batches of 50 will cost £12.62 a copy, or just under £13. Delivering them to me works out at about 30p a copy. There will be other expenses along the way.

One happy additional cost: I decided to pay 15% to my agent, Jaime Marshall¹. He’s my agent for everything, not just books placed with conventional publishers, and I want him to care about this self-published book too. He sounds pleased. (I will find it quite funny and enjoyable to be the one who collects the money first then disburses it, rather than the other way around.)

Shipping will be charged at cost, no markup.

If I sell all 250 copies at £45 each, the gross is £11,250. Take away the cost of printing, delivery, ISBNs, art prints (see below), Jaime’s 15%, and other costs and I’ll earn roughly £26.82 a copy – or £6,705 if we sell the lot.

This takes no account of the work that went into making all the drawings, writing the emails this month, recording the audio, or building the shop. And it takes no account of the financial cost of living with depression for several years. I’m not complaining, just being transparent.

I’m throwing in as an extra for this limited edition an A5 art print (see below) that I normally sell for £35. I’m including it because it has an uplifting feeling and gawd knows that might be a good thing.

On page count: I had previously set myself a target of 128 pages, because that happens to be the length of a book by Maira Kalman – an artist and writer whose work has been important to me as a model of what’s possible when words and pictures work in conversation in a book.

But my own previous hardback, Psalms for the City, published by SPCK, came in at 108 pages, and I think 108 pages may be a good fit for this book too. Either number could work: I value the discipline of aiming for a page count and making everything work within it.

I’m also including a dust jacket. I love dust jackets. And I should mention – in the long and distinguished tradition of signed and numbered limited editions – that a copy which still has its dustjacket is worth considerably more than one without. I am therefore hoping to make you all terribly rich in the long term. You’re welcome.

Finally: each copy will include a signed, numbered A5 art print. This one, which was drawn in hospital immediately after I was taught the exercise it shows:

Do Your Tapping and Think of Something Pleasant (Anything)

I was nervous when I started sharing all this in these emails. I’m less nervous now because of the warmth and generosity of your responses. If any of this feels worth sharing, I would be genuinely glad. A book that might be useful to one person might be useful to more than one. That’s all I’ll say about that for now.

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Speccy Breakdown: The book

Specifications of the object itself

Posted: 15 March 2026

First edition of 250 hardback copies
Numbered and signed by the author and illustrator (me, JPF)

Pages: 124.
Size: A5 (148 mm x 210 mm) – Portrait
Body: Smyth sewn, full-colour printing, navy blue and white head and tail band, 124 pages, 130gsm silk
Cover: Full-colour printing (outside), matt lamination (outside)
End papers: Stock white
Dust jacket: Full-colour printing (outside), matt lamination (outside), 170gsm silk,
Spine width: 12.00 mm

Includes a signed, numbered limited edition A5 art print: “Do Your Tapping and Think of Something Pleasant (Anything)”.

Price: £45 + shipping
Buy with £3 Shipping in 🇬🇧 UK
Buy with £10 Shipping across 🇪🇺 Europe
Buy with £16 Shipping 🌎 globally

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List of supporters

Supporters of the book are listed here: flintoff.org/speccy-breakdown-patrons

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What else can I tell you?

Here’s a list of Speccy Breakdown posts published on this site. Most include audio of me reading the post aloud.

List updates automatically (click any to read / listen):

1. Original invitation to readers

2. Thanks for joining me. Here’s what’s coming

3. The book, and the daily emails about making it

4. “Speccy” is not meant to be unkind

5. Some fragile bloke in a psychiatric ward, drawing pictures

6. Why I hate talking about this – and can’t stop.

7. Smiling in every photo. Wishing I was dead.

8. What £45 actually pays for

9. Thank you to these people who have ordered

10. Specifications of the object itself

11. The moment his hand left the rail

12. The orders came in

13. Making the book, on a difficult day

14. What held me up, and what didn’t

15. The part where I work out postage

16. Crash helmet

17. Every day I think: I have to stop

18. The rules I make up as I go

19. The people I was sure I’d never hear from again

20. Faces I drew on my day off

21. What gave me confidence

22. Not quite going to make it

23. Still at it. And there’s a thank you page

24. Sharing it with The People Who Matter Most

25. Proof copies (also Brecht)

26. There for the asking

27. Chuffed

28. Falling into a padded envelope

29. A nice problem to have

30. Seasick on Zoom

31. A barcode won’t help

32. Gone to the printer

33. He talked with his wife

Last updated: 03 May 2026

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👉 If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a crisis line in your country. In the UK, Samaritans are available any time on 116 123.

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Start from the beginning here.

¹ Paying my agent Jaime. Got the idea from listening to another author who does this, the very successful Hugh Howie, in a podcast interview with Tim Ferris: “People hear me talking about self-publishing and they think that I hate agents and I hate publishers, I hate bookstores. I love all those people. These are all book people and I love the success of any writer however they get published.”