Hello all,

I’m in Tokyo right now, sitting in my hotel room, happy and content.

I’ve just finished the Tokyo Art Book Fair which is officially the best fair for sales I’ve ever done, beating Photobook NZ.

Over the fair, we sold 96 items - 16 prints, 10 pieces of merch and 70 books. I also sold 25 books to stores while I’m here, meaning that this single, week-long trip, has resulted in almost 100 books moving! I almost completely sold out at the fair, and I have honestly nothing but good news from Japan.

This means it’s a good time to review my 2025 goals and let you know how I did!

a) Publish 4-5 books - sell 1000 of the new books and 150 from our back catalogue. Have each one pop off.

I only published 3 books this year - so I didn’t meet this goal. However, if I include pre-orders I’ve sold 348 of the books announced in 2025 and, over the year, 895 books. I fully believe that had the two books come out this year we’d be just about nudging 1000 books. A big win and, honestly, a real tail wind to get those numbers.

b) Sell out of Sunshine, Ambient Pressure and Site Specific (all of these titles have <50 copies left)

Done.

c) Launch a new website with significant branding updates AND a line of merch, sell out of our first run of new merch.

Website: done.

Merch: moving slowly. I wasn’t able to do the marketing work I wanted to do with the merch, but despite this, at in person events, we’re shifting 5-15 pieces of merch at each fair. This is great.

In 2026 there will be more :)

d) Run 15 workshops - a more professional, varied and expansive workshop program.

Done.

e) Spend February-May doing a lot of fill in teaching work

Fail!

f) In June no longer need to do any more fill in teaching work.

FAIL!

I ended up doing little teaching work Feb-May and A LOT from May-December. But I don’t mind how that worked out. It was actually fine.

g) Each of the three exhibitions are chances to showcase my creativity and skill as an artist - I want three exceptionally amazing exhibitions, great documentation and to really show everyone that when I am given an opportunity I push myself and it goes hard.

Pushed back to 2026, and that’s the right thing to do.

h) Publish my own work and have the launch in Melbourne feel so fun and supportive

This has been pushed to 2026, and it’s looking so damn good

i) Be in a financial position to purchase a new to me car in 2026

Impossible in early 2026, potentially possible in late 2026

k) Put SOME money into my superannuation in June, 2025.

Did not achieve.

I think that, overall, this newsletter is one that continues the theme of the previous week’s: this was a year with growth and it was a year I continued to learn a lot. I over-estimated how quickly changes would lead to improved sales, but I can see that happening at the moment. Our improved website and marketing, for example, is definitely leading to more online sales when new products are announced. Merch does sell well, but this sort of explosive sell out that I was hoping for some books didn’t quite happen, but then a few books had some good second wind, in Japan especially.

I think that I remain very proud of the growth that happened this year, and satisfied with my choices to tone down travel, back of sales, and focus on some day job work. I am entering 2026 with some financial question marks (two big printing bills looming) but also some very clear financial windfalls coming too.

This remains the final piece to crack - developing enough knowledge and skill to bring in consistent money with book sales. Workshops I feel are doing well, and if 2026 goes the same as 2025 workshop wise I’ll be stoked.

Entering 2026, I want to share some more concrete goals when I’ve thought of them, but at the moment I want to share a few quick reflections after a week of selling.

a) Asia is truly very receptive to my work, and while cost pressures are real here (people in, say, Singapore do have less disposable income than the US) - it makes a lot more sense to continue to make Asia a priority and only visit the USA and Europe once a year each.

b) My decision to keep my books’ prices lower, often using cheaper production, has meant that my sales are more steady in economically difficult times. This weekend a lot of the people who were from the USA or Europe had lower than expected sales, because the Yen is very low against those currencies. However, my prices were able to be roughly in line with local options meant that many people were able to afford my books. This is also an advantage of coming from a smaller country and selling to a larger one - the Aussie Dollar is rarely more expensive than currencies like Singapore, Yen, USD, GBP or EU. The downside is that my printing costs can be relatively higher but having a more reliable selling position outweighs this significantly, I think.

c) Adding smaller products - merch, prints - has consistently added $200-$500 to event sales. Nothing flies off the shelves, but everything sells a bit more.

d) An improved focus on presentation - from large posters at fairs, to better product photos, to better marketing - has paid off. More people come to my table because of the big posters (and I know because they photograph them), more people ask ‘what book is that photo from?’, and I can see prints and caps and totes sell. A good way to think about these smaller items is that if they can increase the average sale $5-10 cumulatively that’s a big win.

e) The travel has also lent me kudos back home where several artists have commented that they want to work with me because I’m working oversees a lot, because I’m finding new audiences for Aussie work.

I’m in a great mood. Of course the year has not been perfect. Underwhelming sales in France and NYC were really disappointing. One book really stalling out for reasons I can’t share online also took the wind out of my sales. But an excellent pre-sale helped substantially. A big tax return made a big difference. A big challenge for 2026 will be to work more effectively with the feast or famine reality of income so that my feelings about finances (and finances themselves) are more steady.

Thanks for following along. I don’t know when I’ll write next but sometime in January I’ll share what my hopes for 2026 are.

Have a great break,

Matt