Selling Books, Part 2

Book distribution services are expensive. Large chains ask for a sizeable commission – if they’re even willing to carry your books. According to the March/April 2009 issue of Writer’s Digest fewer than 20,000 new books published annually are carried by major chain bookstores in the United States. That’s just under 5 percent!

I don’t know what the Canadian statistics are, but it’s clear that the odds of getting a self-published book into a chain store are pretty slim. So what’s a writer or small publisher to do?

The answer is learn how to market, and market aggressively. For me, it helps that almost all my books fall into a clearly defined category: historical non-fiction. And, until recently, all my self-published books had strong local connections. The next question was where was I likely to find readers who’d buy local history?

Museums seemed like a good place to start. Most have gift shops or a gift area, and since museums almost need money they’re usually willing to carry books on consignment. It also helped that I already knew a lot of museum people.

But the results weren’t completely satisfactory. Museums do sell books to tourists, as well as to devoted local history buffs. However, in my experience, museum sales really aren’t sufficient when you’re trying to make a living from writing and publishing. One of the problems is that a lot of readers never even think of a museum as a place to buy books. Another is that those who do may not be comfortable going into a museum.

In addition, some museums lack staff with a good understanding of how to sell books. One museum actually kept all the books it had for sale under glass! As an avid book buyer, I was horrified. Most book buyers have to pick up a book, look at both front and back covers, maybe read the table of contents and a few samples of text before making the decision to buy.

The next step was to get the books into independent book stores. When I started, I didn’t know any of the owners, I had no sales experience, and I was a bit shy about the whole process. But selling is a skill, and like any skill it can be learned. It helped enormously that most of the independent store owners were more than willing to carry my books because they knew that some of their customers would be interested. What also helped was that I’m pretty good at promoting books through media releases, so in a number of instances the retailers were either aware of the book or had actually been asked about it by their customers.

I also tried placing books with gift shops, which, with one or two exceptions, was not quite as satisfactory. Sometimes, the shop owner had little affinity for books, and so they weren’t displayed well. In other instances, the clientele was just not interested in books.

Dealing with retailers means that, in addition to being a writer and publisher, I’m the sales department, the publicity department, and the distributor. As soon as I know a book is nearing completion, I let my retailers know about it. While it’s being printed, I try to get posters to them, usually with a picture of the cover and the words “Coming Soon” included. When I send a release announcing the publication of the book to local media, I mention what local stores will be carrying it. When feasible, I arrange book signings, although I find these tend to work best in conjunction with other events.

Then it’s basically a matter of tracking sales and making sure the retailers have an ample stock on hand.

Aside from increasing my sales, dealing directly with independent bookstores has had some unexpected bonuses. I’ve acquired some interesting friends, most of whom willingly make suggestions or provide advice on what customers like, what they don’t and what they might be interested in reading next. That has been a huge bonus.

The strategies I use can be adapted to almost any kind of book. For instance, someone who has published a cookbook might contact local kitchen supply stores or gourmet food shops. Someone who has written a sports-related book could do the same with sporting goods shops or hardware stores.

However, since most of my retailers are in a fairly limited geographic area, I’ve had to adopt other strategies, including what is called in the book trade “hand-selling.” I’ll discuss this in my next blog.