As a bookshop manger of more than 19 years experience, I am regularly asked this by budding authors that I am introduced to. At times they are writers who have self-published their book and so don't have the might of a traditional publisher behind them. Other times it can be an author who believes that their publishing house is not working hard enough on their behalf.
So, making the assumption that your book is well written and has been aimed at a niche of the book market in which can be found customers willing to spend their cash on purchasing it, how do you get your book into the shops?
First of all you have to understand that bookshop shelf space is considered by the owner to be a valuable thing. For the buyer to even look at your book it has to firstly tick all the right boxes for them. The book must be in a format that they are used to handling. It should be professionally printed and the cover is very important. The overall package must convey the right impression to be considered.
The multiple, or chain shop, will be supplied a lot of their books from head office according to what category or size they are in the organisation. Chain shops will often buy titles that fit into the different sales promotions such as the buy-one-get-one-free or three-for-two offers one sees in the free standing cardboard containers around the shop. These are usually complied by the larger publishers and so unless your book is published by one of the big names you will have a terribly hard job trying to get into these displays. Another thing to consider is that the major multiples and the publishers do deals for the titles that will get placed in the front of store in each branch. This is where the largest footfall of customers is to be found. If you are self-publishing your book then you can not expect to get it into this special area in a branch of a multiple. An Independent shop, however, is unlikely to be getting any marketing money from the major publishing houses to give special preference and so the more of these shops you approach the better.
If you are not already an established author and therefore getting the benefit of this promotional activity, you may be wondering how you can ever compete? Well, I suggest that you drum up your own demand for your book. There are various ways in which you can do this. Doing talks on the subject matter of the book is always a good way of boosting sales. When you go to a bookshop offer to sign their stock copies of your book. It will give your book that extra selling edge, especially for customers looking for books to be bought as presents to be given. If your book is on a subject that could sell lots of copies at an organised signing session, then suggest doing one to the shop and see if they are willing to hold such an event.
My company has put together 'Write your way To Freedom' a helpful manual and Audio CD product which, amongst other sections, features an interview with a published author. In the Audio, with accompanying transcript, she explains about her own efforts to raise the sales of her professionally published book. In a second interview, with a Publishing House Representative of many years experience, he explains how to approach a mainstream publisher, or how to go the self-published route. Thirdly there is also an interview with a book buyer who explains what it is that she looks for in a book when considering allocating precious shelf space to a new title.
Nick Thorne has been a director of a bookshop since December 1988. Being passionate about books he and his partners would like to encourage new authors to get published and reveals how to market your book to make sales in the retail environment. They have produced a manual together with 3 Audio CDs called 'Write Your Way To Freedom' Register to get Free tips at:
www.WriteYourWayToFreedom.com
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