Imagine that you are an author. You’ve just received a shipment of your first published book from your printer or POD publisher. You admire your book, hold it, fondle it and do your best to keep from dancing around the room. Some of you do dance around the room—I did. I even broke out a bottle of champagne.
You head for the nearest mega-bookstore to experience the thrill of seeing your books shelved there next to America’s bestsellers. You search and you search, but your book is nowhere to be found. As any savvy marketer would do, you approach the store manager.
“I’m sorry,” he says. “We don’t carry self-published.” WHAT? That’s certainly not what your pay-to-publish representative told you. In fact, as you recall, he claimed that your book would be sold in all major bookstores throughout the nation.
Think about it, is that really what she said? Or did she say, “We will make your book available to all major bookstores throughout the nation?” Translated, this means, “If a bookstore manager comes to us looking for a book of this type, we will be sure to tell him about yours.”
I meet numerous disillusioned and disappointed authors each year at conferences, book festivals and online. They are shocked to learn that bookstores will not carry their books and they don’t know where to turn for sales. It might surprise you to know that even some of the small and medium-sized publishing houses do not have access to bookstores as an outlet for their authors’ books.
My advice to these authors is, “If the entrance to the bookstore is closed, go through the backdoor.” I tell them, in essence, “Instead of whining and griping, expend your energies making your book irresistible to booksellers.” How? Promote. Promote. Promote. When customers come in droves requesting your book, bookstores will stock it.
Demonstrate to the powers-that-be at Barnes and Noble and Borders that your book can attract hundreds or thousands of customers and they will carry it. Here’s how:
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