How Do I Get My Book Into Bookstores?
Many authors who choose self-publishing find a tremendous barrier to their ultimate goal of seeing their books in stores. Even many author services companies or hybrid publishers have difficulty with this. The first question to consider is whether bookstores are a viable option in light of online retailers, the pandemic, and the general closings of box stores.
The landscape for bookselling is always changing, but books provide a tactile experience that will bring book buyers to the stores. Book lovers enjoy browsing, which is why our store, debsbookparadise.com, provides a virtual browsing experience while people have been sheltering in place during the pandemic. We know from our preferences that half the fun is searching for something you don’t know you want or need. Larger online book sites design their search process, so you almost need to know precisely what you want before you get there.
But the question is, how do I get my book into bookstores?
The answer is, mostly, you can’t.
You may convince a local bookseller to showcase your self-published book in their stores, but that is not the same as getting your book distributed into a bookstore. As in any business, book buyers need quality control. They rely on the publishers and distributors to provide products that they are likely to sell. This isn’t something personal against indies. It is to maintain business standards. You may have a fantastic book, but you will likely be ignored if you do not have credibility to reduce the buyer’s risk.
Writing is an art, but publishing and bookselling is a business. Publishers build reputations for supplying good and marketable titles. This process gives the distributors the ability to sell the books to the buyers who do most of their purchasing two times per year.
With the right branding and marketing, an unknown author can sell books without bookstore distribution. We offer a process for finding an audience and reaching them. You start with a professional book that is well-edited and designed and then work to build readership.
Bookstore distribution is an option, particularly with our company, because we offer this to those authors whose books can compete in the marketplace. For a book to be successful, it needs to have an audience. First, we find the audience, then we help build visibility, so the audience knows you exist. This is how this game is played. Bookstores will happily take a chance on you if you show a market and work through a credible publisher with an experienced distributor.
We believe we have cracked the code of how to get books into bookstores. We make sure we have professionally edited high-quality books with a clear market.
We offer branding services to build a viable author platform.
And we offer our books to our distributor.
The business side of being an author is the part most uncomfortable for most people. That is why we created Micropublishingmedia.com and authorbrandingsolutions.com.
As long as there are writers, there will be readers. Our job is to bring the two together.
Deborah Herman is an author, publisher and digital marketing strategist.