A bookstore… I’ve always thought standing on the shoulders of giants was just fine. But now I’m thinking of taking my paperbacks inhouse. I’d love to hear of your experiences.
This is my Insecure Writers Support Group post, in which we share our successes and failures as writers, our insecurities, in fact. Anyone can join in, just sign up at the IWSG Sign-up page, write a blog post on the first Wednesday of the month, and go back to that sign up page to link with everyone else–or a goodly sample. Our host is Alex J Cavanaugh, and cohosting this month are:
PJ Colando, Pat Garcia, Kim Lajevardi, Melisa Maygrove, and Jean Davis
The trouble with Distribution
Synergy is a wonderful thing. I get a message from my paperback publishers (Blurb.com) to say that Ingram (who do the distribution to stores and enable those stores to list my paperbacks) will be dropping those titles that havent sold a paperback copy in the last 12 months. It’s in their Ts & Cs.
Last time this happened, I identified the books (2 of them, in the middle of my ten book series) and just bought a copy from different stores. That worked. But this time, I’m beginning to think (a) how many this time and (b) should I really bother?
Then I find a timely article on paperback distribution on Jane Friedman’s wonderful blog. It’s a guest post by David Woghan and you can read it all here.
I added my comment to the many who found it helpful:
That’s extremely helpful, and timely. I do my paperbacks with Blurb.com, very happily now for over ten years, but the 40% to get them on the Network Distribution means price is pressed and royalty is cut…
And then every now and then Ingram decide that certain titles havent sold in the last 12 months, so they’ll drop them. I don’t understand why they drop something that just sits in their database, but maybe they have memory problems on their server…
I got over this last time by buying a couple of the titles through Bookshop.org.
This time I’m thinking – why do I do it? There’s only one title that consistently sells on Amazon in paperback, the rest are all ebooks. I sell my paperbacks in person at fairs. Why don’t I just drop the distribution element and sell them myself if people want the follow-ups in paperback. The ebooks will still be on Amazon, and iBooks, Kobo, B&N….
sigh… new learning curve… a shop on my website.
Do I want to run an online Bookstore?
I’ve always said not, because of the pain of taking them to the post office for despatch. But I gather that has changed, and some logistics companies will collect them from me. And, realistically, how many paperbacks am I going to sell?
Am I just holding on for the joy of seeing the paperback listing on Amazon? Does it really verify to someone that I am a real author? (oh, yes, comments on that, please!)
- The most likely person to buy a paperback online has already bought one from me in person
- The second most likely person to buy one is someone who for some reason doesnt like ebooks. But they have heard about my books and want to read one.
That second person is probably the most likely person I’d lose through not having them on distribution.
I can sell paperbacks right now
I can give people the direct link to the book of their choice to buy from Blurb. But not if they are on distribution with Ingram. And because I want to keep the prices low, my junior reader Cavies of Flexford Common (not available in ebook), and my five short story volumes (widely available as ebooks) are only available at Blurb for paperback.
If I took all the other fiction books off distribution, they would be cheaper to buy (probably), but not free of shipping costs. Those can be big these days. I was thinking of sending three books to a friend in California and discovered it would cost nearly $40. Actually, if I ordered them from Blurb, they’d go on local shipping costs. Hmm, hadn’t thought of that!
And to people who buy from my book fairs, I’ve offered free local delivery of the next in series!
But then, it would be best to set up a bookstore on my website. A proper bookstore. I’m sure I can do that. I know other authors sell from their websites.
What have other people done and why?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments. Is it just pride that I want to have the paperbacks available on Amazon? Is there really any other benefit, when it’s the ebooks that sell?
I think the problem is that nagging feeling, that if I don’t have my paperbacks on Amazon, or findable on Waterstones, I am not a proper author.
But as Mr Woghan says in his article. Times have changed.
BTW If you check the article, read down to David Sieber’s comment, and the response from Mr Woghan noting KDP expanded distribution to BN and Bookshop.org
Question of the Month – and Big News!
What were some books that impacted you as a child or young adult?
IWSG June 25
I was a voracious reader. Every horse book, and especially animals in the wild, like Joseph E Chipperfield or Elyne Mitchell probably influenced me to commit to animal welfare and conservation. But I always had a strong fantasy element in my head – my favourite, as you may have heard before, was the Wind in the Willows (although unlike most kids, it seems, I was never a fan of Mr Toad). As for teen years, and later… well scifi and fantasy took hold in a big way.
Which is why I’ve been writing another scifi book in my Viridian System series, and I’ve set a publication date of 12th August. It’s not so much scifi as biography. How Pete and the Swede arrived at the point where the series kicks off. All those hints they’ve dropped about their pasts. You can find out how it all happened. Read more here.
Please help me launch it!
I would love to have some help launching this during July and August — so if you’d like to promote it, interview me, interview any of the characters, have an excerpt, or just give it some love on your blog, please email me (or leave a comment to that effect and I’ll email you). Graphics coming soon.
Thank you!
Hi Jemima – that sounds a very interesting project – good luck with it. Also all the best for the forthcoming release – cheers Hilary
Thanks, Hilary!
Congratulations on the next book!
No idea on distribution. We have several publishers and many self-publishers in the group – ask around.
Thanks, Alex
Congrats on your upcoming book release! I could mention it in my Follower News in August. Good luck figuring out the paperback distribution. It sounds like you need it for your book fairs at least.
Thanks, Natalie, a mention would be great. I should have banners etc to add, which I might just put at the bottom of next month’s IWSG for anyone to grab if they’d like some content 🙂
I have a small stock for my book fairs, and delivery of reorders is fast (within the week). And as I already use Paypal’s Zettle to take credit cards there, I’m wondering if I can also use it to take them online… but then, they are just changing the system, so I may have to wait and see….
Happy IWSG Day! I used to have an online bookstore. I may consider it again in the future. For me, having an ebook presence has served well, but I’ve never done well with print sells online. I’ve always done well with print sells in person, at live events. I hope your launch goes well. If I wasn’t having so many issues with my web hosting at the momment, I’d love to feature you, but I have to get this sorted. I’d hate to let anyone down in that way.
Trouble with web hosting takes priority, and a lot of energy. Good luck.
I love Wind in the Willows, but don’t remember really reading it until I was about 20. LOTR was probably most influential on me—read the whole thing at about age 10 and fell in love.
Book stores… I do sell from my web site, in theory, but in a low-tech way (and have not had a sale there in years; probably only one or two total). I just list the books and tell people to email me if they want to buy a signed copy. Just about the time I got it set up with buy buttons and a cart, PayPal dropped that feature unless you have a (paid, I think) commercial account. Which kind of makes sense, but I don’t want to pay every time a friend sends me money.
I’d forgotten the possibility of more fees… but then I use Zettle already, and they take a percentage of card sales through that. More things to worry about.
I suppose I want it to look professional, without people seeing the desperate paddling that goes on under the surface.
Meanwhile, I’ll procrastinate and put the new book into paperback format, just in case….it’s up on Smashwords, but not yet as a formal pre-order.
Hi,
Interested, definitely , in the promition, – though not at all qualified to review sci-fi or fantasy. Years ago, as a student, I claimed not to have read any fantasy
Response, deadpan, from a tutor. ‘ Odyssey ? ‘ -English trans, of course,.
Long ago, translated into Irish Gaelic by a great great great etc uncle.
Remote possibility that our IT dead zone might be about to change, Involves Openreach, cooperating with everybody else. Life in the real 21st C could be interesting.
Although set in a fantasy world (space), this is more a memoir, so you might like to give it a go. Good luck with Open reach.
Good luck with our new upcoming book. No advice on distribution – I’ve never been at a point to worry about distribution, not yet anyway.
Congratulations on your upcoming book, Jemima! Best of luck with its publication, I’m excited to see it out and about in the world.
I have a store and I’m looking at adding my physical books there. Here’s what I’m considering (I have Payhip and I’m going to add Bookvault):
https://bookvault.app/selling-books-direct-with-payhip/
https://help.payhip.com/article/313-bookvault-integration
Joanna Penn also has a nice tutorial on how to use PayHip: https://www.thecreativepenn.com/selldirecttutorial/
I’ve emailed you about your launch 🙂
Ronel visiting for IWSG day Revitalising the Backlist
Thanks, Ronel. I’ll look into it some more after I’ve got the launch things ready for Quest for Orichalcum.
I also loved Wind and the Willows. Although it was a little too descriptive in parts for me, I loved Mr. Toad’s antics.
I haven’t done any distribution myself, but I think Darci Pattison, who has a substack for indie authors, has an online bookstore. Here’s her substack: @indiekids