Book Distribution Basics for Self-Publishing Authors

Are you dreaming of your book on the shelves of bookstores? It's possible even as a self published author. But before you fork out big bucks to a hybrid publisher or any other organization promising distribution for your book, let's make sure you have the basics and know what is worth spending money on for your book and what's not. So if you're self publishing a book and looking to have it carried beyond Amazon, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the book broad. I've self published four of my own books and helped more than 400 nonfiction authors at Book Launchers, my full service self publishing company. One of the things that comes up a lot is bookstore distribution. Of course there is something so amazing about seeing your book on the shelf. It just makes you feel so legitimate as an author. Your work is being sold in a store for a stranger to buy. It's darn cool. And as a result of that, there's a lot of companies that charge big bucks for you to get that distribution and others that make it sound like they are giving you that distribution when they are really just uploading your book to ingramspark with the rest of the self publishing books in the world. Now first, let's check reality. Of course we want our book in a bookstore, but do you really need it there? I did a video that broke down the sad reality of sales from my widespread bookstore distribution from my first book, and given the enormous effort I put into getting that distribution, I can tell you that it did not have a great payoff. I still have the odd store in Canada that carries my first book 10 years later, so that's kind of cool. But profitable? Not at all. You see, more and more books are purchased online. And why not? You hear about a book, pull up your favorite book buying app and buy it in the moment. So it really doesn't matter if your books are available on a physical bookstore shelf or not. Discoverability isn't really happening at the store level much these days. And not to be harsh, but even if you do all the work to get on the shelves on the bookstore, what are the chances you'll be anything but a spine in a sea of spines? Coverout is so rare because it's for display space. All you need is a product page at the major online retailers. And with Print on Demand, you don't have to have a bunch of books ready to go at a great expense and risk. You can wait until someone orders the book and then Print on Demand. We'll print the book and ship it the Reader never knows that it was printed when they bought it. Print distribution using POD can be set up quickly by anyone at no cost using Amazon KDP platform and IngramSparks platform. Ingram is the biggest book distributor in the world and sells to darn near everyone who buys books. Independent bookstores, libraries, the big chains like Barnes and Noble, Chapters, Indigo and so on. It also has a global distribution network that reaches just about any country you can expect to sell in that is quality distribution within easy reach at a low cost. This kind of getting a listing and shipping the book when it's purchased. Distribution is easy, but it's also very valuable because they are taking care of the fulfillment of the books for you. Where the challenge comes in is selling the book. And that is a different kind of distribution. In traditional publishing, there are distributors that have sales teams that go to retailers and sell books. Sales reps go into the stores and sometimes regional buyers and pitch the books that are going to launch. And if I was a company investing tens of thousands of dollars in each book to print thousands of books in advance, well, I would want to have a sales team getting pre orders before I do that print run. I also want to make sure there's someone generating sales after I've committed to that print run. This is the draw for self publishing authors to some hybrid publishers because some of the hybrids have distribution channels set up with bookstores for physical distribution. This is the case with the one or one or two that promise airport distribution and they've paid to secure space so they can put you there. But if you were paying a hybrid because you want that store distribution, I would ask questions about their sales team or about how they get that space in stores because some of the hybrid options do have that paid space. That's how the company can guarantee that space. And that's totally fine. Retail works that way. A lot of the space you see in stores everywhere is bought and paid for by the company who owns the products on display. The bigger thing to understand is that if they don't have the paid for space, how can they ensure you actually get physical distribution? Or are they just getting the catalog listing through Ingram and saying you have distribution through all retail outlets, which is what we can all get through IngramSpark. In other cases, the hybrid publishers have a sales team. But how can you be sure your book will be pitched or successfully pitched by that sales team that's representing a lot of books? Now, even if the company does have a sales team and they successfully get it into the store, you have to be certain it's selling through because books can get returned by retailers who can't sell them and that return fee stinks. I covered that in my bookstore math video and I'll link to that at the end. So let's put this into context. When you think of buying a book, Amazon might be the first place most people, including you, think of to buy a book. But when it comes to a store and where they are thinking of buying a book, Ingram is the Amazon of book distribution. Now there are some distributors that work hard to get shelf space for authors. So rather than go with a hybrid, you could seek representation through a distributor that will be working hard to sell your book. Most of these options are university type distributors who work with university presses more than self published authors. But IPG will work with self published authors not through their main program but and even then they still have to accept your book. But they do have a program and it says on their website. Publishers with an established ongoing publishing program that are interested in distribution through IPG should email with the following a description of your publishing program, link to the website and a catalog or the list of titles and isbns and any additional marketing or publicity documents that would allow them to evaluate your promotional efforts. Then you're going to email that to them. Now, startup publishers and smaller publishers, for example, anybody with fewer than 10 titles who are looking for distribution services, they can visit Small Press United. Small Press United is designed to help publishers break into the market and succeed from the start. So they have that option for distribution. Now Baker and Taylor is where most libraries have a distribution account, but as I mentioned before, libraries will buy from Amazon. So if you want a listing, you can just create demand for your book and pitch to libraries to get ordered. I mean you have to do that anyways. Create demand. Being in the Baker and Taylor catalog doesn't guarantee a listing in a library no matter what. So if you're interested in a distributor, which means you've done a print run of your books and you need to get them distributed, you you can look into distribution options by going to the Nonfiction Booksellers association, which I'll link to the website in the description below. Or you can visit the list that our friends at IBPA have as well, which I'll also put that link down below. Keep in mind that any distributor is going to be interested in how you're actually going to sell the books. So you need a clear promotional plan that they can see and buy into. If you do a print run and then work with a distributor, this is especially a good route for specialty books like poetry books, academic books, gift store type books with a lot of images or low content. They will usually warehouse your books, assign a sales rep and ship out your books when ordered. Most have catalogs for the stores as well. But there are other ways to get your book into bookstores. It does mean you become your own sales force and pitch the book around. Or you're working with a company like Book Launchers and we're helping you with this piece. There are regional bookseller associations that you can contact and try to work with. There is also some of the other strategies we've discussed before and we'll always review here. So make sure you're subscribed to the channel and have those notifications on. And of course it's a great idea to also be on our newsletter list@booklaunchers.com newsletter so you get the news and tips in your inbox every other week. Finally, if you're looking for bookstore distribution, you can sign sell books to many bookstores on consignment, meaning you give them the book and they pay you when it sells. What I'm really trying to say is that there are plenty of options and you can achieve what you want to achieve, but ultimately it goes back to your bigger picture goals and what is really important to you. Because you don't need your book to be on a shelf for you to be discovered and purchased. And given the cost financially and energetically, you may not want to focus on bookstore distribution at all. What you do need is a good sales plan. You need to know what your big picture goals are, the tactics you'll take to execute that, and what you're going to measure to see what's working and what's not. To help with that, you can get my book Self promote and Succeed and you can get it in audio format for free. Or you can buy the print or the ebook version anywhere you buy books. This is the follow up book to Self Publish and Succeed and is the no boring books way to build your brand, attract your audience and market your nonfiction book. The free audio is@self promoteandsucceed.com Audio Remember, you can fairly easily get your book widely distributed through Ingram. Distribution does not mean discoverability or even a sale. It is your job to drum up demand. At least with Print On Demand there isn't the overwhelming pressure of selling 5,000 books that you pre ordered in a print run weighing you down, weighing down your wallet and weighing down your mind. With KDP and IngramSpark Printing and Distribution are all wrapped up into the same service and you can still order in bulk if you need 100 copies for an event or if you want to do a Kickstarter and have specialty copies printed you can use a printer like Book Vault to create a special type of book. I talked about different printing options in a different video which I will link to at the end but that's printing not distribution. Print on Demand is such a gift to authors. We don't have to take a big risk with a print run and we can still reach readers or almost everywhere they are buying books. Now let's make sure you know the math behind selling to bookstores. Here's the video I did breaking that down for you and this is the video on five things you should know about printing your books. Both are going to surprise you so head on over and leave a comment when you do. I reply to almost every single comment. Go ahead and test me.