Get Your Book in the Store!

Congratulations! You've done the writing, found a publisher, even sold a few copies of your masterpiece to some of your friends. Now you are ready to move into the big time...your large chain bookstore! There is a right and a wrong way to accomplish this goal. The right way will perhaps grab the attention of a major publisher. The wrong way will guarantee your writing career will die as it is born. While no one can guarantee your book will make it big, following these steps will at least get you on the shelves of your local bookstore.

First a few notes about the wrong way to get things done:

Don't mail unsolicited flyers or "press kits" addressed to the Manager. The large chains receive one or two of these per day and they go exactly where you file your junk mail! The same holds true for mass faxes.

Don't drop by unannounced hoping to gain a meeting with the Manager. Don't let the often casual atmosphere of your local bookstore fool you; this is a busy retail business and the Manager on Duty will almost definitely not have time to talk to you. If somehow you manage to get a "minute or two" of their time, they may resent the interruption and your book will be connected to a negative impression. Managers are human and are just a subject to the "halo effect" as anyone else. (The "halo effect" is the idea that an impression, negative or positive, will carryover from one situation to another i.e. they like you, they may like your book. Make them dislike you...well...you get the idea).

This next is a huge Don't!
Do not, under any circumstances, place a fake order for your book. Many new Authors are under the mistaken impression that if they somehow get their book into the store the managers or owners will try to sell it. They or their friends place orders for multiple copies of the book and then don't pick them up. Some use false names and bogus contact information so that if the scam is discovered, it cannot be traced back to them. This will be fatal to your career locally.

When it is discovered that the order is fake, the book is immediately pulled from the shelves and a request is made to the publisher to take the book back. If the book is unreturnable it remains in the storage area, away from customers, waiting for a clearance sale where it will be marked down by fifty percent or more. If the book fails to sell it is destroyed.

Once the fraud has been detected the large chains ban the author and his book permanently from their all of their stores. Your book may suffer the same fate in the smaller stores in the area as well because book people talk to each other even when they work for the competition.

To get your book on the shelves of your local (and possibly national) bookstore:

Make sure your book is "Returnable". This means that if your book does not sell, the bookstore can return it to the publisher. Bookstores have to return unsold books to make room for new stock. Remember, this is a retail business not a library!

Get the name of the person in charge of community outreach and contact them directly using the method they prefer. Some have direct phone lines with voicemail and some have email. Set an appointment with them to discuss having book signing. The large chains usually require their stores to have a certain number of locally scheduled events per month and their outreach person is always on the lookout for something to fill out her calendars between the events the company has booked for her. Be patient. The event calendars of these stores must be set up as much as three months in advance so you cannot expect to walk in on Monday and book an event for the following Friday!

Stop selling directly to your friends! Have them order (and pick up!) your book through the local bookstore. This will help your book develop a sales history and give the manager or community outreach person a reason to order copies to put on the shelf.

If you book a signing, do everything you possibly can to promote that event. Place ads in your church flyer, get on the Community Events calendar in your local paper, put an announcement in your workplace newsletter, and post the date and location on your blog. Get as many people into the store on that day as possible. The community outreach people can be very competitive and if you give yours something to brag about you will find it easier to get into the other bookstores in the area.

If your signing doesn't do well, don't despair. If you are gracious to the community outreach person and the staff of the bookstore the "halo effect" may make them more inclined to give your book another chance by allowing it to remain in the store for a few days past the event. "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar".

The book business is extremely competitive. Your local chain bookstore may have more than a quarter of a million books on its' shelves at a time. Getting your "baby" noticed among all that is a lot of work but it is possible to do.

Be on the look out for my next installment where I will discuss how to have a successful book signing. Until then, keep dreaming and then write them down!