How do I sell books to chain book stores?

Wow. That's a toughie Laurah. Your first step might be to call around to local book stores and ask for the manager or general manager. Ask if they would consider carrying the book. Does the money go back in to the community? If so they may consider it. But - it is very hard to get self published items into chainstores. Sorry for the big bummer! I wish I had better news. Someone else might know a better way to answer and may know more than I do about this kind of thing. God bless!

laurah33 said:

. . .They are printed in house on a press bought in 1940, have no bar codes etc. Can anyone help me figure out where to start?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

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Follow normal publishing methods. The company should buy a block of ISBNs (www.bowker.com to get started) and include those plus bar code on books. You can get a lot of useful information from Dan Poynter's Self-Publishing Manual.

I am guessing that one of the books has to do with tangles . . .

--Ken

I've moved this to Ask the Editor, where I think it may get more answers.

- Victoria

Chains

You are going to need bar codes and ISBNs, of course, which you can buy. And there's a very good chance you will have to go through a distributor, if you really want to get in all the chain stores. It's darned near impossible to get it without a distributor the stores routinely deal with.

James is right. Book distributors are really the only way into the chains. But are you sure you want to go that route? General book trade distribution is not a huge money maker for small publishers, and if you're already selling 150k plus copies direct, you are doing great. Remember that a distributor will take anywhere from 27-30 percent, along with the standard trade discount of anywhere from 46-50 percent, so your percentage is pretty small when all is said and done. Factor in returns, over-orders, and the nickel and diming that inevitably goes on with any trade sales, and the money gets tighter and tighter.

That said, I would get a list of the best distributors for your title (some distributors focus only on Christian books, for example. Others take on small and/or university presses, etc.) and pitch your titles to them. Good luck!

Nomad said:

. . . a distributor will take anywhere from 27-30 percent, along with the standard trade discount of anywhere from 46-50 percent, . . .

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Are you sure about those numbers? As much as 80% off the top?

--Ken

How to get books into:

Borders

Barnes & Noble

ResearchGuy said:

As much as 80% off the top?

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Yup. We're grateful that Baker & Taylor only nails us for 65%, & Amazon.com for 55%.

Be vewwy vewwy cawefuw of Wal-Mart & Sam's Club & even Costco -- to a lesser extent Target & Mervyn's & such. The Waltons are the most dangerous because they'll order many thousands of a book that someone thinks will sell well, demand an 80%-85% discount, & then return anywhere from 60% to 95% of their order in less than 60 days & demand their refund in seven business days -- they've bankrupted more than a few small presses who got suckered into this "opportunity." (I don't measn to pick on the Waltons; they're simply the tall poppy at present. B&N has killed a few small presses in its time.)

Anthony Ravenscroft said:

. . . demand an 80%-85% discount. . .

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No one is obligated to agree to those terms. And one would have to be nuts to agree, IMHO. At that discount, it jolly well better be cash on delivery and no returns (and only if the publisher has such a list to production cost ratio as to allow such a deep discount in the first place).

Anyway . . . how could they demand a refund for books they have not paid for yet? Aren't the usual terms 90 days? That is a situation a publisher friend of mine runs into -- college bookstores (his flagship book is a text) return unsold books at 89 days, and then turn around and reorder the same books, giving them another 90 days. They never paid for the returned books because they returned them within the 90 days.

--Ken

It's not unusual that such large orders will be made with a check, which is on the surface helpful, but convinces a small house to go ahead & spend it as though it's not gonna get eaten up in returns -- & when those massive returns come back, there's usually the need to rent extra warehouse space & all that sorta thing, so a small press can readily spend cash it doesn't really have & then get stuck with even more cost.

We severed our relationship with Ingram because they'd order 450 of one of our titles, then either open the boxes & apparently throw the books around a while -- damage rate was very high & certainly didn't look like reading damage -- or never unseal them in the first place. They'd send a fax saying the books were on their way back to us... then before the books even arrived, they'd order 450 more. Our best guess is that the computer system had conflicting protocols: "return 100% of all titles that do not sell xx copies in yy days" collided with "maintain nn copies of any book that's sold mm copies in the past year," or something like that, so as soon as the box was packed the system issued a reorder to fill the empty space on the shelf.

This might not be feasible at all, but maybe it would be more cost-effective for you guys to outsource your printing to companies that have newer technology?