Mascot paid me! Mascot is my hybrid publisher for the cookbook — they handle book distribution through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and Amazon. We started taking pre-orders in January or so, I think, so this is about 8 months in, and is the first real check; they have to collect the money from those places before passing it on to me.
They’ve sold 431 copies in this statement, which translates to about $6700. I’ll have to run some more numbers at the finance meeting on Thursday, but this will definitely go a long way toward paying my part-time Serendib Press staff through the end of the year, and should mean Kevin and I don’t have to loan the press money. Big relief.
We’re still planning to re-launch the cookbook post-Covid, with a book tour and all, but this goes a long way towards our goal of ‘not losing masses of money on the project.’
Let me take this moment to thank everyone who’s taken the time to review my book — I’m sure that helped! I just glanced at the page on Amazon, and there are 15 reviews — all 5-stars. I’m honored and humbled. Thank you for loving and supporting my book!
I should ask Stephanie how many copies we still have in their warehouse — I expect sales will slow down dramatically, given most of these happened pre-Covid when we had the early press for the book, though it’s hard to predict. I want to guesstimate about 1300 copies left there? Maybe?
Regardless, I might buy myself something pretty to celebrate — probably something cooking-related.
Pictured is something else pretty I bought recently, and happen to be wearing today — a Ceylon rupee from 1944, turned into a pendant. Maybe it’s good luck; money to bring the money! Although it does have King George on the flip side, which is perhaps a slightly weird choice for someone trained in post-colonial literature… I can wear it ironically, though, right? 
