How do you get local bookstores to carry your book? Strategies for self-published authors!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ก.พ. 2020
- What are the actual steps that you need to take to get your book onto the shelves at a local bookstore? Today I’ll share my experience and tips to make that happen for your book.
Similar to how I discussed getting your book onto library bookshelves ( • How To Get Your Self-P... ) today I am going to tell you how to actually get your book onto the shelves at a local bookstore. And I can do this because I recently found success with getting my latest book, The Infinite-Infinite onto the shelves at a local bookstore here in Florida.
Need to have your book printed by someone other than Amazon - Amazon has fundamentally changed so many industries and brick and mortar bookstores have not been significantly impacted. It’s not just that they won’t be self-published books printed through KDP, there are cases where they will not purchase books printed through Amazon’s traditional publishing arm. So that means your paperback needs to come from a different print-on-demand service, like IngramSpark ( • How To Self Publish Yo... )
Need your own ISBN and barcode - You need to have a barcode with the price on it. The bookstore owner or manager wants to know from you what you want to sell the book. If they have to guess, it's more work for them. When I went in to drop off my book to be sold at a local store one of the first things the owner did when he looked at my book was turn it over to look at the barcode and the price. He was impressed and appreciative that I had the price listed there.
Need to price it to sell - The bookstore is literally fighting with low cost and free delivery from Amazon. You should have already done your pricing research before purchasing your barcode. But if you are selling a book way above the comps in your genre, it will NEVER move off the bookshelf.
Understand why Consignment is Good - For the local bookstores that I spoke to before I settled on the shop that is now carrying my book, I heard from most that they wanted to work on consignment with local authors. This means that I am going to the store, dropping off my book with them, they enter it into their system and place it on the shelf, and only when someone goes to buy it do either of us make money. This is a way for these local bookstores to support authors in their area without a huge financial investment upfront. The bookstore wins and the author wins when the book sells so the incentives are aligned. But this means you need to have inventory to drop off and be willing to drive out there a few times to drop off more copies as needed and receive payment. The hope is that once you have had to do this a few times, they will want to order more from you. If they see strong sales they just might. Working with a POD service like IngramSpark means you will already be in the system where they purchase books.
Pound some pavement (in person or digitally) - In order to even find the store I ended up partnering with I did a lot of research online. I searched for Tampa Bookstores, St. Pete Bookstores, St. Petersburg Florida Bookstores, Clearwater Bookstores. You get the idea. It was easy to whittle the list down pretty quickly. It's not to say they wouldn’t have been good partners, but if others can find them or get in touch with them, how many customers are probably coming in?
Pick the right partner - After I had two local stores on my list I looked at my calendar and found a day I would already be out and about. Both owners asked me to reach out before I came in to make sure they would be there. The first got back right away again. That one was set. The second, who I had spoken with just a few weeks earlier and was happy to sell my books on consignment, picked up the phone that day and started ranting about how his business is suffering. I can empathize with the struggles his business is having, it's tough, but my books are in libraries. And working with someone who is so prone to mood swings was a red flag for me. They were crossed off the list. I had one ideal bookstore that I wanted to partner with and so far it has been great.
*Based on the questions I've received on this video and others, I wrote a book to help you learn how to expand the distribution for your self-published book outside the Amazon Ecosystem. Check out Going Wide today: 1mkwilliams.com/going-wide/*
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How did you get libraries to carry your book?
Hi Justine, I did a video to answer that exact question for you: th-cam.com/video/-a-3_v7P6dI/w-d-xo.html Best of luck!
@@1MKWilliams Hi Mk I'm Author Phillip Berrian and this was my first time tuning into your TH-cam channel. I have a question let's say that Ingram has 90 printed copies of a Author's book and is shipping 51 ordering copies to whatever online bookstores who is getting them wouldn't Ingram have to order the books from the publishing company please tell me how that works. Thank you Phillip
@@philipberrian6606 so in the case of using IngramSpark they print the books via lightning source and it is print on demand, the books are only printed once they are purchased/ordered.
@@1MKWilliams Thank you so much because I called some online bookstores and they told me that Ingram has 90 printed copies of my book that I wrote called Testimonial of One’s True Greatness with 51 order copies going out as a self published Author which I'm one of them is this somewhat of a big deal?
@@1MKWilliams I wanted to asked you something what happened to Baker and Taylor did they fall off of the map?
Thanks so much for helping us! Much appreciated!
You're welcome!
This is very informative, thank you very much for sharing your experience. I just authored a book, and your video has set me in the right direction.
Glad I could help!
Hey, great video. I just self-published my novella in July and my local bookstore brought it in. Yay! I have shopping with them and have attended author signings they've hosted so and sold my used books to them so they've gotten to know me so began to carry my book when they heard it was published and available. That was the best part of the self-publishing process for me.
Hi Rachel, Wow! Congratulations on your novella and way to go getting your book into the local bookstore. Thank you for sharing your experience so other authors can try to do the same! - MK
Great information, Thank you
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you! You are a mine of information. I am already a published author but because of swingeing contracts and micro royalties, I decided to self publish on KDP to see if I can make more money. I had a few tech/spec book cover probs with Amazon. As a result of your other video on PDF cover rejection by Amazon, I did what you said and my novel is now live as of yesterday!
That is so great to hear! I'm glad I could help. Best of luck as you continue to navigate the indie side of things.
Very informative 👏
Glad you liked it
Good to know
I took my book to local bookstore with no problem and it’s printed by Amazon. They get a percentage of the sale, and they gladly put it on their shelf.
Same here but some rather Ingram spark they just said I had supply my own inventory
Thanks! This is SUCH useful information for authorpreneurs! Do you include a book info sheet for the owner?
In this situation I did not need to present a one-sheet of info but I did have in ready to hand over
@@1MKWilliams Good to know, thanks.
Another cool video, MK. I have another question for you. Where do you get the bar code with the price on it from? Ingram? Thanks.
Hi Sally, Another great question. I have several videos about barcodes. Start here : th-cam.com/video/zfbxXp4lSg4/w-d-xo.html
Hi M.K! Thanks for always being so generous with your information. You're building up great Karma!😊😊 My question..I love the idea of having my book in a local store. (I actually just today reached out to one, and they said if my book is already published or has a publication date and ISBN I could email them. To include the ISBN and a link to the book's marketing page (which I do not have), They want a cover page, book description, retail price, etc. And to include my ties to the area and if the book is set locally. i live in South Florida and this local bookstore is in Key West so I don't think I would be considered local to them? My Question: I just got my ISBN, but still need to get my LCCN and upload my book for copyright. Should I do this first? Or should I go ahead and get my barcode since I have the ISBN, get the book printed to send to them to see if they would even be interested. And where is the best platform to get my book printed? Sorry so long.😅😅
Wow, congratulations on getting so much done. I would suggest focusing on the barcode, LCCN, and the other items you need so you can get the copyright page, printer interior, and those details set up. Once the book is listed with you distributor then send those details so they can see the publication date. Ideally you want a pre-order timeframe where you can promote the book before it is released. As for the platform to have it printed with, that depends. I like IngramSpark and LuLu for distribution and printing. Best of luck! If you have more questions or want to talk through strategy, you can book some time with me: calendly.com/1mkwilliamsauthor/author-coach-consultation
@@1MKWilliams awesome. Thanks so much for the quick reply. When you say listed with my distributor you mean Lulu or Ingram sparks correct? And I will be booking a call with you for sure. Love that that option is available and price is reasonable for a call like this as I know I need the help. Feeling stuck in perfection overthink mode! 😅
Correct distributor being lulu or ingramspark. Looking forward to chatting more :)
I just got news this AM with pictures of my book is bookstore out of my state that I reached out to last year. As for local bookstore, do they typically split based off the retail price OR is it based off the profit after cost of production?
Congratulations!! As for local bookstores it may depend on the method with which they procured the book. If they purchase from your distributor with a wholesale discount, the profit for you is fixed. If you do a consignment deal, you may be able to negotiate the split, just make sure it covers your printing cost.
Thanks M.K. for sharing your experience! For a paperback, do you use the same ISBN that you bought, on both KDP and IngramSpark? And 2) Do you use the same Barcode for that paperback on both KDP and IngramSpark?
Hi Andrew, yes, for my books since I own the ISBN I can use it on both Amazon KDP and IngramSpark for my paperback books. I do the same for the barcode.
@@1MKWilliams Thank you! A follow-up on the barcode - Do you add the retail price to the barcode to IngSp (needed for B&N) and if so does that mean your KDP print books have the same retail price on their barcodes?
@@AndrewThiriot Hi Andrew, Yes if I am pursuing a brick and mortar strategy I have the price on the barcode and I use that same price on all my retailers except for limit discounts/promotions.
@@1MKWilliams Thanks!
MK - Hope I'm not monopolizing the thread here. Would this method allow you to sell directly to the local store (via consignment), at a good discount rate for them, eg 55%, (printed via Ingram) but maintain a lower discount rate, eg 30% with IngramSpark for distributing to online stores.
Can I do consignment with my KDP author copies? Don’t want to do Ingram yet…
Yes, you can. Check with the bookstore on their consignment rates to make sure you still make something after the print and ship costs though
Did you try Oxford Exchange? I'm kinda feeling like you did...
Hi Sylvia, Are in the Tampa area? I did not reach out to them actually. I had tried to work with them to do their local author book fair one year and it was very difficult to get a hold of them so I didn't even ask. It was a lot of work to get this set up and I did... in February of 2020... we all know what happened to local stores for the next several months and more. I'm hoping to visit some new stores in the new year and see about this option again. Best of luck with your books!
@@1MKWilliams I was but I’m not currently. I still have family in the area though and have them on my list to call when my next book comes out this spring. If you do end up working with them, i’d love to hear about the experience!
If you publish with Amazon, is it still an advantage to have your own ISBN and barcode? What places can you sell your book if it is published by Amazon?
Hi Pam, I always advocate for authors to own their ISBN because it gives you more autonomy to publish your book anywhere you would like, now and in the future. When you publish on Amazon your book is only on Amazon. If you want your book available at B&N, Kobo, walmart, target, etc. you would need to publish with those sites directly or an Aggregator (like IngramSpark). When you own the ISBN you can publish your book on any of these platforms. An ISBN provided by Amazon or another service is owned by that service and can't be published on another platform. Barcodes can be used on any platform, not as many restrictions there.
@@1MKWilliams Is it possible to first publish on Amazon, then save more money and send it to IngramSpark about a year later? It looks like IngramSpark has a lot of fees that Amazon doesn't have.
@@grandma.p Absolutely! As long as you have your own ISBN you can definitely do that. There is currently a promotion running with IngramSpark where you can get a free upload through March 2021 using the code NANO. They usually have some kind of promotion running.
Can my book be printed by Amazon AND another printer? Are you suggesting not to stop at Amazon? Does amazon allow that?
Yes, as long as you own the isbn you can list the book on multiple platforms or even go directly to a local printer. One thing to look out for is kindle Select for eBooks, then you are agreeing to an exclusive contract with Amazon. I have a few videos about that on my channel too
Have you ever tried dartfrog? I tried them, but they rejected my book.
No I haven't heard of them before. What do they do?
Wish I saw this video a long time ago. 😬
Sorry it found you so late. Hope it can help a bit now
Hello. I have a book on Amazon with an isbn they assigned me. Where do I go in order to generate my own isbn and barcode in order to sell to other stores?
Hi Alyssa, There are actually quite a few steps to that process, I suggest reading my book Going Wide where I spell out the exact steps to take: 1mkwilliams.com/going-wide/ and check out this video as well: th-cam.com/video/HOxtMh8Ck5M/w-d-xo.html
@@1MKWilliams Thank you.
In your experience, if your book is printed by KDP and Ingram...
Will bookstores consider buying the Ingram version, or are you still disqualified because of working with Amazon on the side?
Great question, when a bookstore goes to order a book to stock they will go to their database (which is through Ingram) and search for the book there. They can't see that it is also available through Amazon, they just care that it is in the system they use, that they are getting a discount, the barcode has the price, and that they aren't being asked to make a purchase through the company that is putting them out of business (Amazon). Most of the stores I've spoken to appreciate it when I say my book is available through Ingram, they don't ask about Amazon.
yes, I'm an author and my book is through amazon KDP. I've done expanded distribution which means retailers can find my book but like she said in the video, they turn away fast from amazon. I don't know if I need to sell through Ingram or something else but I did amazon because it's prettyy much free and very affordable for me and those buying my book. I've also sold many copies and want to continue doing so through book stores. I was thinking of emailing my local bookstore with a good pitch. Yes, making extra money at 20 years old would be ideal for me since I spent a good year working on building something beautiful for someone else.. but I didn't write it with a goal of acknowledgement or income. I do what I do with a mission mindset to help others by using not only my biggest passion.. but the most broken parts of my story.
Do the bookstores pay in advance for selling your book? Or do you have to pay for them stocking them?
Typically stores purchase the book at their discount and that's the end of the transaction (unless they have extras to return). I've heard of some bookstores offering to sell books on consignment (you buy the inventory and bring it in.) I've never heard of a store charging a stocking fee for the book to the author.
what if I printed my book on amazon already, is it still possible to print them with another company as well?
Hi Julie, If you own the print ISBN then yes, absolutely!
@@1MKWilliams yes but I mean when I used an KDP ISBN, is it possible to remove it off of KDP and use my own ISBN?
Yes, I did a video on just that: th-cam.com/video/HOxtMh8Ck5M/w-d-xo.html
I also wrote a book on this process since it is important to make a plan that makes sense for your book and your future plans for that book: www.amazon.com/dp/1733392971
What if you have the barcode that Ingram spark gives you and you want to have your book at Your local Barnes & nobles…
In this case, ask that local store first if they would be okay with carrying the book, they might say yes. If they object because of the barcode you can always edit the cover file and include your own
@@1MKWilliams gotcha thanks
Does this also go for Barnes and noble ?
And do you think $12.99 is too steep for a children’s sbokk
Book
Yes, same process for B&N, I have a video on that here: th-cam.com/video/bP6ItH4uxM8/w-d-xo.html
Also, in terms of the price. You'll need to look at a few things: 1. the cost for comparable books. Look at the age range and page length. 2. What is the print cost and wholesale discount you can offer. You can run those numbers here: myaccount.ingramspark.com/Portal/Tools/PubCompCalculator You want to at least break even on each sale.
Your videos are excellent and cover everything an author needs to know. However, may I suggest that you speak a tiny bit slower. It would help us older folk understand better. Thank you.
Your bumper sound is crazy loud.