How a French Newsletter Turned a Fun Outro Into €60,000 in Book Sales

Bulletin is a weekly newsletter, launched in 2020 and published in French, that dives into some of the friendliest corners of the internet. (Recent editions discussed fondue, the practice of pruning trees, and the social history of cycling.) Every issue ends with a section called “Le Mot De La Fin” — which translates to “The Final Word.” It’s one of the most popular parts of the newsletter.

And in 2022, Bulletin founder Jean Abbiateci launched a fascinating project: He took some of the best editions of “Le Mot De La Fin” and turned them into a book, “The Dictionary of Extraordinary Words.” Since launch, Bulletin has sold nearly 4,000 copies of the book, at a price of €20 each (about $21.50 US) — an impressive profit for a book featuring republished material from a newsletter!

Abbiateci spoke with Marine Slavitch, a journalist at French publisher Médianes, about the book, and the team at Médianes has graciously allowed us to republish their interview here. In this interview, Abbiateci talked about the process of monetizing a section of a free newsletter, the ins and outs of creating and distributing a physical product, and the importance of building real relationships with readers over time.

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How did you come up with the idea of “The Dictionary of Extraordinary Words”?

This book was based on the “Final Word” section that was created at the very beginning of my newsletter, Bulletin. I think that a good newsletter should always end with a nice little takeaway for the readers. This section has always been easy to write and set up. Each week, I dissect a foreign word that does not have an equivalent in the French language. As the editions went on, I realized that people were really interested in discovering these words. Half of the messages I received were related to this. And many asked me to make a book out of it.

At first, I refused. I expected it would be a lot of work, and I had neither the desire, nor the time, nor the means to invest in such a project. But the demand continued to grow, so I finally agreed. I knew I wasn’t taking much of a risk as I was pretty sure I would break even, the demand being so strong.

What distribution method did you choose?

I spent a long time pondering whether I should go through a publishing house. Eventually, the product being quite simple, I felt that I could do everything myself. “The Dictionary of Extraordinary Words” is easy to produce — there is certainly a need for a little design, but the texts are already written and don’t require much rewriting. Going through a publisher would have delayed its release by several months and would have added all sorts of constraints.

The real question was how much the Bulletin community could be monetized through this project. After all, the subscribers have been with us for two years, and we’ve never asked them for anything in particular. Would they be willing to buy a physical product that would bring in some revenue for Bulletin? I chose to take as little risk as possible by distributing exclusively online. Today, the book is available in a few Swiss bookstores I live close to, but we wanted to keep as much leeway as possible from an economic point of view by avoiding looking for distributors or intermediaries.

What tradeoffs did you make to keep the project profitable?

When you start a project like this, you have to learn to slow down because you always want to create the most beautiful book in the world. We immediately wanted to make a book that was economical, trying to add as few expenses as possible to make sure the object would bring in money. We started working out a nice model with my designer, and we wondered whether or not we should include illustrations. We looked at the prices — we knew it would cost us a lot of money. There are sixty words in our dictionary, which implies sixty illustrations. We had to rethink the design of the product so that the book would be both nice and cheap to produce. Hence our choice to illustrate the words by playing with the typography and adding some visual effects. 

Why this square format?

This Dictionary does not have a huge amount of text — it can be left on a table corner. It’s not a linguistic encyclopedia. It’s a book meant to be flicked through while having a drink or to be browsed through in the bathroom — to be picked up when you feel like it, really. We tried to make a product that was both simple and very graphic and colorful.

My designer, Loris Grillet, was inspired by Austin Kleon’s square books on the working environment. We saw a lot of ourselves in those books. If there is an investment to be made, it is in the graphics. People enjoy browsing through a beautiful product. 

How many books have you sold?

We have sold almost 4,000 copies of the dictionary. That’s about €60,000 in sales [about $64,500 U.S., which included some sales of the book in bookstores at a discounted rate]. For a small, frugal medium like Bulletin, this source of income is not negligible. From the start, we wanted to add sustainable lines of income that were not dependent on a fundraising campaign. I think that the economics of a publisher cannot depend simply on participatory financing, even if these can work very well. The day these campaigns stop working, we are stuck.

Is it a sustainable product?

We chose a beautiful printer [the Manufacture d’Histoires Deux-Ponts, a French printing house founded in 1935] so as not to make a book on the cheap. We used vegetable-based inks and recycled paper. We did not want a book printed on an obscure website. The product is simple but has ambition regarding its materials.

It was also important for us to operate locally. The dictionary was designed in Evian, it is printed in Grenoble and my graphic designer lives in Switzerland. [For those not familiar with European geography: Despite a border, these cities are all located quite close together.]

What was important for me is to have something that fits in with the evergreen issues. This book will ensure me sales over a year or two compared to a magazine that will inevitably become dated at some point. It’s much easier to have a product that lasts over time. I wanted something that would last.

How long did it take to design this book? 

The work time was quite small. The design took three or four days, the rewriting took four days. In two weeks, most of the work was done. The most time-consuming part was the mailing. I can’t quantify it. Over the year, it’s manageable, but when the holiday season comes around, it quickly becomes burdensome. 

Is the “Dictionary of Extraordinary Words” profitable today?

Yes, it is. On a product like this, where there is a financial risk, we have invested nearly €10,000 [about $11,000]: a third on the design and the rest on the first print run. You have to be sure that you will be able to recoup your costs, which is why it is important to listen to your readers before taking any risks. For a model like mine, I can’t afford to spend €10,000 and earn €2,000. Here, honestly, I was sure to break even. The audience is willing to pay when you offer them something tangible, especially when it comes from a project like Bulletin, which is generalist. We are not a judicial magazine. We are not part of the professional press. So people are ready to have a small paper product. There’s a Christmas gift aspect to it and a supportive dimension as well. I think it’s the best idea I’ve ever had, and it will allow me to start 2023 more serenely.  

If you had to do it again, what would you change?

Today, my house is a mess. There are boxes everywhere. I have a house but it’s not Versailles. All the books are piled up. The logistics are pretty impressive.

I think if the project continues to grow, I’ll try to find a mailing, distribution, and packaging solution to make this step less time-consuming. But the experience was good to take — you have to go through these ungrateful moments to understand and make sure for the future that the logistics match the business. In doing so, I discovered everything! From the rates of the post office to the choice of envelopes and packing. This allowed me to progress in my skills. 

Do you have any advice for those who would like to monetize all or part of their newsletter? 

Capitalize on what works best. The mistake is to make a product in addition to your newsletter. It is better to propose a product based on what is best in your newsletter. You can do audience studies, ask your readers, but in general, what works best, we feel it very quickly.

We’ve done some targeted and strategic advertising on Facebook, but the main channel, by far, is the loyal subscribers who have been reading us for two years. And I did very little promotion. We’ve had a few papers in the press but I didn’t go running to the radios. It’s all the more time-consuming because I’m not based in Paris. Think about sustainability. Events work well, but when you are a small operation like Bulletin, it’s complicated to mobilize readers. 

Finally, you have to keep in mind the question of longevity. For two years, I’ve put together projects that people have become attached to. You can’t just show up out of nowhere and say “go ahead and buy my book.” For two years, I didn’t ask my readers for anything but their opinion.

Thank you to Marine Slavitch for both the interview and translation of this story. And thank you to Médianes for first publishing this piece. They’re a France-based consultancy and resource center to help media outlets produce better journalism and monetize it. You can find the original interview in French on the Médianes website.