Writing

How to Get Your Self-Published Book in Bookstores

Carrie Rollwagen, author of The Localist and co-owner of Church Street Coffee & Books
Carrie Rollwagen, author of The Localist and co-owner of Church Street Coffee & Books

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Church Street Coffee & Books, one of our sponsors for the Bloganista Mini-Con presented by Laura Vincent Printing & Design.

There was a time when self-published authors got little respect from the literary world, but things are changing. Slowly but surely, self-published authors are being seen in the same light as talented independent filmmakers and musicians — artists producing great work that they are determined to share with the world no matter what.

Unfortunately, however, it can still be pretty tough for self-published authors to get their work sold in brick-and-mortar bookstores.

But it’s not impossible.

Carrie Rollwagen has been on both sides of this table. She’s the author of the self-published book The Localist Book: Think Independent, Buy Local, and Take Back the American Dream. She’s also co-owner and book buyer for Church Street Coffee and Books. So if anyone can give a self-published author advice on getting her books in bookstores, it’s Carrie.

Carrie was kind enough to do a guest post for us listing the dos and don’ts for how to get your book in bookstores.

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From Carrie Rollwagen:

Don’t be pushy.

The number one problem self-published authors have is being pushy and aggressive. This makes sense, because being proactive is a good thing in some sales situations, but bookselling just isn’t one of them. When approaching a bookstore, remember that it’s our job as authors to make our books attractive to booksellers and to make a convincing case that our books could make money for the bookstore — it is not the job of a bookseller to put time and effort into promoting or selling our books for us, or to give us shelf space just because we put time into writing a book.

Do offer your books on consignment.

This is one part of the process that self-published authors almost always mess up, and it’s the one that’s most likely to mean you’ll never see your books in stores. In order to be considered for shelf space in most bookstores, you’ll have to offer the store at least 40% off the cover price, and you’ll need to offer your books on consignment instead of asking a store to buy them outright. It’s true that this makes the process much more annoying for us as authors because we’re never sure if our books will be returned, and we might even have to pay shipping for returns. But if we’re going to ask bookstores to give our little books a chance in their stores, we need to offer terms similar to the returns policies and discounts they get from more established publishers. A 40% discount and consignment agreement is really the only way to do that.

Do leave a free copy of your book.

When you self-publish a book, it hurts to give copies away for free, especially when you’re fairly certain they won’t be read. But it’s important to give free review copies to booksellers anyway. Don’t leave a copy of your book and ask that it be returned to you — booksellers receive anywhere from dozens to hundreds of review copies each month, and they just don’t have time to keep track of returns. Giving away review copies for free is just part of the cost of doing business in the world of publishing.

Do be willing to wait.

Booksellers and managers are often very busy, so don’t walk into a bookstore and expect someone to have time to meet with you (although you should be prepared with a copy of your book and a consignment agreement in case they do). Tell the bookseller you’re an author who’s hoping to see the store carry your book, and ask what the best way is to reach the manager — usually that’s leaving a copy of the book so they can look at it when they have time, or sending an email with a summary and contact information. (Never interrupt while customers are buying books or when a bookseller is trying to make a sale.)

Don’t tell a bookseller how to display your work.

It’s a great idea to provide marketing materials like free bookmarks or posters for book signings, but do not tell the bookseller that they SHOULD use these materials. Do not tell a bookseller how much shelf space to give you, or tell them that they need to set your book face-out, or tell them that if they would only sell your book, they’d be making tons of money. Give the bookseller enough respect to assume they know their business better than you do, and let them be the ones to decide how to market and sell your book.

Do be a customer.

If possible, buy something at the store when you visit. This isn’t always doable, but proving that you’re a smart bookstore shopper who cares about the financial health of the bookstore will usually go a long way toward getting you an audience with the store’s book buyer.

Do follow and communicate with the bookstore on social media.

The more the booksellers know that you understand their store and pay attention to what they do, the more likely they are to give you a hearing when you come in and ask them to pay attention to your book. Follow on social media, favorite a post once in awhile, and retweet when you can — often the person running the social media account is the same one you’ll be talking to when you pitch your book (or at least those people work closely together), so a little positive attention can really help.

Don’t mention Amazon.

Amazon is an incredibly touchy subject with a lot of booksellers because the company is actively trying to destroy local bookstores. Most customers, and sadly, most self-published authors, don’t understand this, and try to use Amazon numbers, Amazon reviews or Amazon rankings as reasons for stocking books. There’s no need to attack Amazon, but it’s probably wise to avoid mentioning them when talking to independent booksellers. (Also be aware that if your book is published through one of Amazon’s self-publishing services, you could meet a lot of resistance with brick-and-mortar stores.)

CS door prize

At this year’s Bloganista Mini-Con you could win a free copy of Rollwagen’s book The Localist and an adorable Shop Small tote bag designed by Rebecca Minkoff. Be sure to bring your business cards to enter to win this and other door prizes!

Why Writers Must Be Entrepreneurs

Pen, Diary and Glasses
Image by GenerationBass.com via Flickr/Creative Commons

Writing and personal branding coach Nikki Woods believes that writing a book is one of the best ways to build your business as it gives you credibility. However, she also believes that writers must be business-minded.

In a recent blog post she writes, “Let’s face it, most creative people expect someone else to handle the business side of their operations. But it’s a new day.”

Even writers with book deals and especially those who self-publish must learn to market their own work. And this isn’t just about trying to sell a single book. This is about creating a long-lasting career.

Woods writes: “Royalties and book advances are great if you can get them but you can’t depend on them to sustain you. The sooner you begin to promote your book through speaking engagements, conventions, seminars, etc., the sooner you can build up an audience, your brand and your bottom line. ”

Not sure where to start? See Jane Write is here to help.

Join us at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, June 16 at the Books-a-Million in Brookwood Village for D.I.Y. Marketing for Authors. Learn how to be your own publicist and promote your book and your brand. This free workshop will feature author A.D. Lawrence and See Jane Write member Chanda Temple, who is the co-author of the Birmingham’s Best Bites cookbook.

Get more details here and RSVP via Facebook.

DIY Marketing with Books-a-Million

Birmingham-based authors, learn how to be your own publicist at the next See Jane Write event.

On Tuesday, June 16 we’re partnering with Books-a-Million to bring you a FREE workshop on how to market your book. You’ll also learn more about BAM! Publishing and Books On-Demand — which could be just what you need if you’re looking to self publish your next book.

The event will feature talks by Chanda Temple, co-author of the Birmingham’s Best Bites cookbook and A.D. Lawrence, author of the book When the Lioness Roars.

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Chanda Temple worked as a journalist for nearly 20 years before switching gears to public relations in 2012. This change meant that no longer would she cover buzz-worthy events but would now be responsible for building buzz and she’s going to help you build buzz for your book, too. For the past three years Temple has crafted numerous public relations campaigns that the public and media noticed.

Her latest success was coauthoring the Birmingham’s Best Bites cookbook. The self-published paperback book sold out three times in late 2014 and earned an international gold medal award in 2015. Also in 2015, her public relations campaign for the book and the Birmingham food festival it was connected to, won a first place state award in public relations.

AD Lawrence

Although, A. D. Lawrence is new to the official writing world, she is not new to the art. She has spent a lifetime putting pen-to-paper to express her deepest feelings and thoughts and to do research.

A.D. grew up in Tennessee at a time when children were to be seen and not heard. In 1989, she moved further south where she believed blacks were treated the same. During this major transition, she wrote. This era helped to hone her writing skills by giving her an outlet for unspeakable truths, while she dealt with social changes.

Lawrence is the author of When the Lioness Roars, When the Lioness Roars…Again, and When the Lioness Roars…Again and Again. She also has two works in progress. One is entitled Life Beyond the Shadows and the other is A Coloring of Hearts. The underlying theme in both deals with personal disappointment, struggle, growth, and survival. Unlike these two, the current book uses humor, anger, fact, prayer, rhyme and reason to produce a personal journal/textbook.

Join See Jane Write and Books-a-Million as these authors share the secrets to marketing their books. Zach Kendrick of Books-a-Million will also be on site to tell you all about the Espresso Book Machine and how you could use it to self-publish your next book.

This book is free and open to the public but seating is limited so arrive early.

DIY Marketing for Authors: How To Be Your Own Publicist

Hosted by Books-A-Million, Brookwood Village in Partnership with BAM! Publishing and See Jane Write

6 – 8 p.m. Tuesday, June 16 at the Brookwood Village Books-a-Million

The Geography of a Memoir: An Interview with Amy Bickers

Amy Bickers edit

I met Amy Bickers on March 24, 2011, the night of the very first See Jane Write Birmingham event. That night Amy told me about a book she wanted to publish — a memoir. “What’s it about?” I asked jovially. “Well,” she said, “my husband killed himself in front of me.”

I was speechless. I wanted to know how she could survive something like that. I wanted to know how she could ever be whole again. But I didn’t ask her because I knew these were questions only a memoir could answer.

Now four years later, Amy has written that book — The Geography of Me and You: A Memoir — and she’s raising money via Kickstarter to self-publish.

In this candid interview Amy talks about how she found the courage to finally share her story.

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Member of the Month: Teresa “T.K.” Thorne

TK-ThorneToday I’m excited to announce that the See Jane Write Member of the Month for May is local author Teresa “T.K” Thorne.

Teresa has had a passion for storytelling since she was a child and she says this passion only deepened when she became a police officer for Birmingham as that career taught her about what motivated and mattered most to people and gave her plenty of fodder for her writing.

Teresa has won several awards for her work including “Book of the Year for Historical Fiction” (ForeWord Reviews) for her debut novel Noah’s Wife. Her first non-fiction book Last Chance for Justice, which is about the 1963 Birmingham church bombing case, was featured on the New York Post’s “Books You Should Be Reading” list. Lately, Teresa has been busy with book signings and book club appearances to promote her newest historical novel is Angels at the Gate.

Teresa has been a supporter of See Jane Write for years. She was a panelist on our 2013 event “I Wrote a Book, Now What?” and she helped arrange last year’s public speaking workshop with Attorney John Saxon.

I had a chat with Teresa to discuss her new book, her writing process and her words of wisdom for other women who write.

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Tell us about your latest book, Angels at the Gate? 

Secretly raised as a boy in her father’s caravan and schooled in languages and the fine art of negotiation, Adira rejects the looming changes of womanhood that threaten her nomadic life and independence. With the arrival of two mysterious Northmen, rumored to be holy men, Adira’s world unravels. She loses everything she values most, including the “Angel” who has awakened her desires. Caught between her culture and freedom, and tormented by impossible love, she abandons all she has known in a dangerous quest to seek revenge and follow the “Angels.” With only her beloved dog, Nami, at her side, Adira must use all the skills she learned from her father to survive the perils of the desert, Sodom, and her own heart.

Angels at the Gate is a story of adventure and the power of love, a compelling saga based on historical research about the ancient biblical world of Abraham, Sodom and Gomorrah, and the woman who “became a pillar of salt.”

You’ve said before that your passion for storytelling deepened when you were a police officer. How so? 

Being a police officer exposed me to situations and people that I would probably never otherwise have encountered. The experience was a crash course in life . . . and death. Seeing how people, including myself, reacted to challenges and crises expanded my capacity to empathize and understand human nature and increased my desire to write about it.

You’ve published both fiction and non-fiction. Was your writing process vastly different for those different genres? Was your marketing strategy different? 

With fiction, I write organically from a character-oriented base. Everything proceeds from the character and is about her journey of discovery and change. For example, in Angels at the Gate, Adira’s character started with the fact that she had a little problem with obedience, and so when she stashed a puppy in her robes, it was natural that she would have “stolen” it from the litter. Then I had to figure out why she would steal it, and, as a side effect, the character of Chiram the cook—who grumbles that he is going to throw the pups in the cook pot—was born.  This kind of approach allows for the surprises and twists that make writing a joy.

Doing the research for a historical novel is very similar to writing nonfiction. The process feels like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. The more pieces you have in place, the easier, but it can be quite daunting n the first stages. My nonfiction book, Last Chance for Justice, might lean toward “creative nonfiction,” as I used narrative tools to tell the story.

The marketing is the same for fiction and nonfiction in these ways:

  • Marketing is about building relationships with readers.
  • Finding your target audience and the best way to reach them is key.
  • It is important to build an email list so you can market more than once to your target group(s).

Marketing nonfiction is different in that:

  • Nonfiction is easier to market, in general because the target audience is usually more readily identifiable.
  • More opportunities exist to be invited as a speaker.

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What advice would you give to other women writers who want to publish and promote their books?

1.  The only way to guarantee failure is to quit trying.  Don’t quit.

2.  Learn your craft. Read good stuff. If you find your heart strings pulled or that you are anxious about what happens next, or you go “Wow!”–stop. Study how the author did that.  Go to writing conferences. Participate in critique groups. Write. No matter how may words you get down; a book is written word by word.

3. You must be prepared to market. The days of a reclusive writer sitting back and letting a publisher do all the work are, for the most part, gone.

What do you like most about being a member of See Jane Write? 

This community of women writers is a very special one.  I feel that we all want to support one another, and that is a rare thing in business. Having a mentor like Javacia who is focused and works constantly on finding ways to encourage us and help us reach our goals and dreams is quite unique. Writing is a solitary endeavor for the most part and it is helpful, mentally and emotionally, to have others to lean on and learn from.  I love talking to writers about the process of writing. I always learn something, and their questions make me dig deep.

Anything else you’d like to share with the See Jane Write network? 

Follow your dream.  There are many disappointments and challenges along the way, but when readers tell you they can’t put your book down or they have read it twice, or, as someone recently told me, she sat in the tub reading my book way past the hot water state, you realize it was worth all the time and effort.  My goal is to write at least one book that will move readers and continue to be read long after I am gone.  I hope Angels at the Gate, and perhaps Noah’s Wife, may do that, and I believe Last Chance for Justice has added to our recorded memory of civil rights history.  I can think of no greater satisfaction.

Send your nominations for the next See Jane Write Member of the Month to javacia@seejanewritebham.com.