Selling "The Social Event" in an Indie Bookstore?

After having written my book, and having sold the first one hundred copies, visions of bookstores danced in my head. I saw my cover, poster sized, plaster prominently as I entered Antigone, Mostly Books and Bookmans. Yes, even Copperfields Books up in my native Sonoma County had my book's image looming large upon entry. Each store had given me a couple square feet of table space (that's right, table!! Not lowly shelf) near the front. And they even placed a few hundred of those free promotional bookmarks I had printed up placed near the checkout. It was the closest thing to a wet dream I had experienced since my teenage years. 

Then I awoke.

The simple truth of the matter is that many single-location, independent bookstores have trouble making payroll their margin is so tight. If you're an indie author with a debut novel and no other writing track record, there is virtually no chance that an independent bookstore will want to buy your book and carry it in inventory - no matter what the price. However, if I am willing to absorb the risk and costs of my book occupying space in their store, there is a way. It's called consignment.

Typical consignment arrangements are a 40/60 split of the sales price, with the 60% going to me. Most, but not all, independent book sellers will not accept my book for consignment sales, however, if I can't meet the following basic criteria: 

• My book must look professionally done -- a high quality cover design, professional looking formatting and print quality, industry quality cover and page stock and industry standard size are a must. If I cut corners here it will show quickly.
• The subject matter must be acceptable -- this is subjective and up to the owner or book buyer to interpret -- I probably will not be able to get a wiccan book into a christian bookstore.
• A quick scan must reveal no glaring errors -- we all know what a well written, well edited book looks and reads like, my book must look like that.

What can you do for me?

If I do decide to trod down the consignment sales path I must remember, they're doing me a service, they don't have to. In return, I need to be driving business to their store. Every chance I get, I am telling people to go to that store to buy my book, or any book for that matter. Another way I might drive business to the bookstore is by donating a copy to the public library, or place it in a venue where it can drive readers to the bookstore. The “library shelf” at an indie coffee shop in town is another good place to leave a copy, or drop it into waiting rooms (doctor’s, dentists, and veterinarian’s offices make great sites). And put a big fat sticker that says, “Lobby copy - available at the Such and So Bookstore - Buy Local!”

So there are options. And, dreams can come true. Now, off to work, I have books to sell!

Books on a shelf... Waiting for readers.

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Winner in the Amazon War (?)

Trot out the pawns and cannon fodder…

I like the NY Times. I am a subscriber, of the old-school paper version no less. But their taking a position on the Amazon-Hachette squabble bothers me. And that is what it is: a squabble. Two multi-national corporate behemoths engaged in a sissy-girl slap-fight (“I get to make the rules!” “No! I get to make the rules!” “No! I get to!” “No I get to”) – and it deserves about that mush press. But I digress.

The Times’ involvement in this bothers me the same way that I am bothered when a friend who knows better uses a derogatory remark as a joke in front of those the remark defames. It is a sad, unfortunate seen and you are deeply embarrassed for your friend’s ignorance. But yet, they continue.

Pander They Must.

The Times reported recently on Stephen Colbert’s ill-informed punditry. The back-story is that Colbert, a few weeks ago, piled on with the others and began tossing out words like monopoly and such. And in a defiant act of “I’ll show you,” he elevated to fame the Hachette backed debut author of the post-apocalyptic novel California, Edan Lepucki. Colbert implored people to go forth in droves and pre-order her book from independent bookstores, explaining that this whole spat was “toughest on young authors who are being published for the first time.” For Ms. Lepucki, this was a lotto winning moment.

Have Some Faith.

The Times reported, “Nobody expected much” from California. They relate that corporate giant, Hachette Book Group, assign to the project an editor with virtually no experience and would only fork up for a paltry 12,000 copies in the first printing. Oh, and the marketing budget? Goose egg. But then lightning struck.

I congratulate Ms. Lepucki. I wish I were her. I wish someone like Colbert would single me out, hold my book up, and say, “Let’s teach those giant multi-national corporate publishing empires a lesson. Go out there today and buy this great book produced entirely by a self-published author.” Dang!

There is a story within a story here, lest we not notice it. California was not written by one of Hachette’s corporate stable of writers. Its publication was no doubt the payoff of a lot of hard work and persistence by Ms. Lepucki’s agent. The Times dutifully noted that the author’s first book failed to be picked up by a publisher. So this second work must have shown much more promise. But obviously, Hachette did not have a lot of faith in it prior to the Colbert report. And while the book has received a ton of praise, it is hard to know whether that praise came before or after the lightning strike. Many authors with books to sell have attached their names and praises to what has become Hachette’s biggest selling debut novel, ever. That is going to be some good exposure.

Sure, I am envious. Who wouldn’t be? But take away the Colbert plug and you’d have another unknown author who sold their rights to a corporate giant. And for the privilege, they were given six months and no marketing budget to ether be a hit or be forgotten. After six months, if you failed to meet certain metrics, Hachette will pull your book, relegate you to no-man’s land and there your work will wither, because it is not your work anymore. It is theirs.

Mr. Colbert should note that this is what is toughest on authors just starting out: the lack of faith, and the time necessary for a debut to gain traction and take off. Six months and no marketing support is a strategy that relies on luck just as much as any business acumen.

Congratulations Ms. Lepucki. You are one very, very lucky author. I wish that would have happened to me.

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