How to get your book into stores.. ?

Fiona · Jun 22, 2011

I am based in the UK, but I am guessing that this situation will be the same for many authors the world over.

My novel, The Banishing, was published as both e-book and paperback. Distributed through Ingrams and Gardners, I know it's possible to have it stocked in actual book stores. I have sent an email to the manager of the local book store (who I know occasionally stocks works from local authors) but did not get a reply. What do you recommend I do? Email again? Visit the store? Or cut it as a loss?

Have others here managed to get their books into stores? If so, how did you go about this?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!

Cyia · Jun 22, 2011

You've got a self-published book, yes?

Most bookstores won't touch them. They're not returnable, so unless you get a store manager to agree to take a local author's book on consignment, you aren't going to get placement. For that, you need actual distribution, not simple availability in a database.

veinglory · Jun 22, 2011

A few self-published books are returnable and have a reasonable discount. Most do not and so stocking will be minimal.

Fiona · Jun 23, 2011

POD books aren't a big excitement for book stores, but I've seen it happen - and I've seen it happen with authors from the same publishing company I am with, so I thought it'd be worth a shot. Might try again, see what happens. Thanks anyway guys!

areteus · Jun 23, 2011

If it is a chain like Waterstones, they generally have their own buyers who are centralised and the managers have very little control over what they stock. Though I think local managers in Waterstones have more slightly more buying power than those in WH Smiths from what I have seen and heard.

But generally, when ordering, a manager of a chain shop only gets access to the approved lists of books that their central warehouse has compiled for them. They can't go 'off list' and just buy from a small press publisher or self publisher, as much as they may want to.

If it is a small, independent shop then you may have better luck. There are still some out there, if you know where to look. But that could be a lot of legwork for very little profit for you compared to what you potentially get from a well placed and marketed book on Amazon.

Another alternative is to get a spot at an event appropriate to your genre (a convention or similar). Either offer a percentage cut to a trader at the event to give you some space (and make sure you also have leaflets for the url for the ebook in case some people want to download it rather than buy the physical book) or pay to have your own stall, pile it with books and offer signed copies. The latter is a bigger risk for you - it depends on how many copies you can seriously expect to sell there.

Fiona · Jun 23, 2011

Thanks for that, Aretus. I'll give it some thought, think about what might work

I feel a signing might be risky, I've heard of others who ordered box loads and sold only a handful. Hard to know what to do.

shaldna · Jun 23, 2011

SP books are very hard to get into stores because most people won't touch them. Hell, many small presses have trouble getting books into stores. Even big pubilshers have trouble with some titles. I'm not sure how you would go about it other than contact the manager and see if you can get a meeting with them.

How to get your book into stores.. ?

Fiona

The Banishing, Released March 2011

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Fiona

The Banishing, Released March 2011

areteus

Fiona

The Banishing, Released March 2011

shaldna

The cake is a lie. But still cake.