All new authors want to see their books in bookstores. Although you do need to have books available for orders, setting your sights on attracting booksellers to your title may not be the best use of your time. Here are some things you need to know about how bookstores work.
Book Distribution
If your book is available for wholesale purchases on Ingram or in your garage, you can sell to the trade (stores). But did you know that IF a store wants to stock your book, they might only stock one or two copies at first? You may be convinced that without bookstores you can’t succeed, but there has got to be a better way. If you get fifty stores to buy one or two copies you have distributed 50 – 100 books. For an indie author or press, that method is a ton of work for not so much of a return.
Author Events
Publishers worked around the small orders by setting up big author tours, where a store would normally purchase about 20 copies for a lesser known author’s appearance. Getting the buyers in the store to purchase them, well that’s another story. If only two people attend an event, then most of those copies go back to the warehouse. Big publishers pay for shipping to and from the bookstores and they take returns.
Discounts and Other Protocols
Bookstores require a wholesale discount. On Ingram, that means discounting your book by 55%. Ingram gets 15% and the bookstore gets 40%. Also, you will be asked if you accept returns. If you do not, then you will not sell wholesale copies to traditional stores. Amazon is a different story.
Merchandising
Five stores each order two copies of your book. Where will the copies be? On the shelf? Spine out? How will people see it? This is where merchandising comes into play. There are several different options for shelving books including spine out, front cover facing, tables, end-caps, and displays. All, except for spine out, usually cost money that comes from a publisher’s marketing budget. It depends on the size of the store and how they choose to merchandise.
Don’t get me wrong, I love bookstores and I’m a browser who might see your book on a shelf–spine out. But, when you are starting out as an author, especially in the indie world, think of alternative ways to get your books to readers. You will be dwarfed by the big publishers and authors if you try to start out in the traditional retail marketplace.
Highways and Car Trunks
Here are a couple of examples of authors doing it differently:
E. Lynn Harris was a maverick in many ways. He wrote ten best-selling books and you know how he started? He sold books out of the trunk of his car. A couple of decades ago, Harris was building his army of readers on the ground.
Michael Connelly used to meet a guy on the highway in California. Michael would sign a couple of hundred copies of his latest hardcover so they could be sold to collectors. This was a way of marketing and selling to a niche audience that would not be able to find a pristine, cello-wrapped copy in a store.
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