True, James. But with some time and some money, you can get to quite a few of them. In the past two years, a close author friend has visited over six hundred bookstores. I've been to over eight hundred different stores in two years.
You spend a lot of time writing a book. Why should you let its success or failure be determined by fate? The more booksellers you meet, the more books of yours they'll sell. Doesn't it make sense to invest in that?
Why wouldn't you travel to the West Coast and visit stores? Driving from Seattle to San Diego takes about ten days, and you can visit two hundred stores in that time. Depending on the number of friends you have in those areas who you could stay with, and if you use your own car, the cost can be quite low.
And while publishers can earn a profit before the book earns out, I've been told by several bigshot editors (over cocktails) that out of every five books published, two lose money, two break even, two make a profit. We weren't talking about royalties.
I would guess that the percentage of books that earn out and pay royalties are much fewer than 1 out of 5. Out of twenty or so thriller authors who I'm chummy enough to talk about money with, I'm the only one who has earned out.
Interesting that I'm also the only one of two who visits a lot of bookstores. The other author who visits that many bookstores earns ten times what I do per book, and is a bestseller.
Again, no one is forcing anyone to spend all of their time promoting. I didn't become a writer because I wanted to travel all the time. I certainly don't enjoy it.
I consider self-promotion to be an investment. A stitch in time saving nine. I don't want any book I've written to die a quiet death because no one knows it exists.
Can my efforts make a big enough impact in my sales to matter? Not directly. Let's say I fly to LA and visit the 40 bookstores in the area. Let's say it cost about $500 to do so.
To make back my money investment I'd have to sell 166 hardcovers (assuming the royalty is $3 each.) That's a lot of books.
Depending on how good your distribution is, and how many books of yours are still in print, you perhaps would sign anywhere from 40 to 200 hardcovers, plus a few hundred paperbacks.
Chances are, you won't. Some of the books you signed won't sell--they'll still be returned. And even if your publisher pays for the trip, we aren't taking into account your substantial time investment.
But immediate sales are only the direct, tangible effects. The intangibles are the important ones.
Becoming friends with a motivated bookseller is worth a lot. I know a dozen booksellers who have each handsold hundreds of my books. In some locations, they've sold as many as six hundred copies. How much is that worth?
I know over a hundred other booksellers who have handsold smaller, but still substantial, numbers.
Plus, these booksellers put me face-out on endcaps without my publisher paying coop. They pimp my books to reading groups and book clubs, and write about them in their newsletters. They invite me to speak at their sales meeting and conventions---I get these gigs from booksellers I've met, not through my publisher.
Add in the snowball effect---each handsold book reaches a reader who becomes a lifelong fan, buying many books and telling their friends and family about me, and suddenly the one week/$500 investment seems a lot smarter than a newspaper ad or printing up a bunch of bookmarks.