Saturday, March 30, 2013

Book marketing #2 Why bookstores may not be your best bet

While there are many possible venues and routes for selling self-published books, traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores are probably not your best bet. Here's why:

1. Most small, independent bookstores carry only 1-2 copies of any particular book unless it is guaranteed to be a big seller (usually a new book by a well-known author).
2. It is up to the distributor (that's you) to check to see if they have sold the 1 or 2 copies of your book and need another 1-2 copies.
3. They expect a 40% discount from the list price. Depending on what your book costs you, you may make only pennies on the sale, not enough to cover your gas in visiting the store and checking to see if they sold that one copy.
4. They will expect you to take the book back if they don't sell it.

So you end up with a lot of effort for the sale of 1-2 copies of your book. There are better ways to go.