”The True First Edition”
Understanding Paolini International
Paolini International published the first-ever edition of Eragon, this wasn't the company's first book, but in fact their fourth. They printed a pre-childhood education book, a reprint of a 1940s book and a memoir of Kenneth and Talita Paolini, Chris’s parents. These books had very limited print runs and are hard to find today. They had no publishing connections, no outside advertising for these books, just their own website factsource.com to promote their books.
A common criticism of the Inheritance Cycle is that Christopher is a nepotism baby due to his parents owning a publishing company, this is far from the truth. Paolini International used a print-on-demand company to print their books, they were no more than a business name. They had no bricks and mortar facilities, no mass of wealth and no connections.
“If you're talking about me, you're sorely mistaken about the wealthy parents part.” - Christopher Paolini
"I grew up in a log cabin with a 55 gallon steel drum for a stove. We had to use chewing gum to plug the holes between the logs when it rained. And after that we upgraded to an almost 90 year old farmhouse with asbestos shingles on the siding." - Chris
Eragon was a family affair, both Chris’s parents put their lives on hold and put all their effort into making Eragon as successful as possible. Kenneth and Talita edited and formatted Eragon into a book, they took Chris around Montana and Texas promoting a book they hoped would put food on the table.
“Near the end of 2001, my dad formatted the book in Adobe PageMaker for publication. He determined how wide the text block would be, how much space would occupy the top and bottom of the pages, what the chapter titles should look like, how the cover should be designed, and much, much more.” - Christopher Paolini
“We started by doing signings in bookstores, but quickly learned that no one shows up for an author they have never heard of. I was very determined, and would stay for eight hours straight and talk to every person who came in the store and try to sell them a copy. On a good day, I might sell forty books. That’s not bad for a signing, but it’s a lot of work.
I then learned that if I went into a school and did a presentation, in one day we could sell 300 books or more, and simultaneously inspire students to read and write, so I concentrated on that. We also started charging a fee for the presentation, to help cover travel expenses.My dad and I made two trips to Houston, where my grandmother lives. I called numerous school librarians and spoke to them about Eragon and my presentation. They didn’t know who I was, so it took a bit of persuading, but I managed to arrange to visit several schools, along with a few bookstores, that first trip. One of the librarians posted an enthusiastic recommendation of my presentation to an online teachers’ forum, so by the time we returned home to Montana, my mom already had a second trip to Texas planned, and I didn’t have to do any cold calls. That second trip was a solid month long, with three or four hour-long presentations every single day.” - Christopher Paolini
“I always scheduled an event at a public library. I then called local newspaper, radio, and TV stations to see if they would like to interview me, which many did. My family and I tried many ways to reach people. And I was persistent in making calls to schedule events and media interviews. Yes, it was scary and uncomfortable, but it worked. Over the period of about a year, I did over 135 presentations in bookstores, schools, and libraries, speaking about my book and inspiring young people to read and create stories of their own.” - Chris
Luling Junior High School, Luling, Texas. February 11, 2003.
“Helped by his family, Christopher self-published Eragon in February 2002. They sold nearly 10,000 copies through diligent self-promotion (including sales from the family car and Paolini visiting schools to address students his own age, in medieval costume).” - SFFWORLD
Eragon was printed by Lightning Source, a very popular print-on-demand company, Due to quality, cost and storage, they ordered batches of 50 to 100 books and filled up their living room with stock.
Here you can see Chris on the floor surrounded by Eragons and Lightning Source boxes.
Vaerhonse: “I am part of the Arcaena Discord and we're doing a study on your 2002 self-published. So do you happen to have any inkling or idea of how many prints y'all did? I know it was like a print-on-demand thing but we've discovered some numbers in the back of them that we're trying to figure out, like like a print code kind of.”
Chris: “The numbers I don't know. My dad would be the one I'd have to ask that because I'd have to look at them. The official figure is that we sold about 10,000 copies. But I'll tell right up front that's a rough estimate. That was sometimes used for marketing. It was around 10,000, but it wasn't exactly 10,000.”
Related articles from paolini.net
Judy Salisbury, East Helena school librarian, Montana, USA, 2002.
Klein Intermediate School, Harris, Texas, USA, 2003.
The Self Published Book Tour
The first books arrived in November 2001, this would be the start of a massive book tour that extended all the way into early 2003. Chris did over 135 signings. The entire tour was done in the family car, carting books across Montana and Texas. The whole time Christopher wore a medieval outfit that he got from Museum Replicas Limited. During the Northwest Book Festival on October 24th, 2002 the Paolinis received an email from Michelle Frey, an editor at the Alfred A. Knopf publishing company, wanting to publish Eragon. Chris would still tour well after this, promoting the Self-published edition, he would eventually stop sometime in 2003, the exact date is unknown.
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