Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Indie Book store

Publishing and Marketing
#1

I just tried getting my books into a local bookstore. I was told they can’t order Felix (my first book) through Ingram for some reason, and didn’t even mention the idea of ordering Huvek, my other book, through Createspace. Instead, they offered me consignment. It means I supply the books, they sell them, and they give me 60%.

Problem is the discount from one publisher is 40%, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same through Furplanet, so I will lose money on this arrangement if you factor in shipping, assuming they sell my books at cover price. Will it still be worth it just to make them available in a local bookstore? They’re far more likely to just sit on the shelf collecting dust, like the 1,000+ other books they have. Just because I’m local doesn’t mean people will be more likely to buy them.

Honestly it sounds like an underhanded way for the bookseller to transfer the risk to me. If the books don’t sell, I’m out the money, not them. The guy even made it sound like it was going to be better for me: “As is, since you’re local, it might be better to do consignment anyway. If I bought outright through Ingram, I would only get one of each. With consignment, you could bring in 5 of each and your books would be a “face-out” and get more attention.” I call bullshit on that. You can order as many copies as you like from Ingram.

This doesn’t benefit me at all. It sounds like a business trying to screw me over, so I don’t think I’m going to do it. I was really hoping to get my books into a local bookstore, too. Anyone else have a more positive experience trying this?

#2

No experience here, but maybe you’d have better luck if you asked them to let you do a book reading/signing in their store, as a local author, and brought your own stock (you can buy your own book at a discount, right?). If the bookstore isn’t up for that, maybe the library would be. Could you donate a copy or two to the library, come to that? They sometimes have a ‘local authors’ display.

#3

Indie bookstores have to struggle to get by and be realistic about what they can sell. So, yes, they will prefer to lay the risk on the author. That doesn’t mean that it’s not also true that bringing in five copies of your book personally might work out better for you than having the bookstore order only one. It’s a way of showing that you believe in your book. How else are you going to prove to the bookstore owner that your book is good enough to sell? At least where I live, there are enough local authors that it would be unreasonable to expect bookstore owners to read all of their books and pick which ones to back.

All of that said, my experience with selling Otters In Space on consignment through a local indie bookstore was that it seemed to be more trouble than it was worth. I think it’s more effective for me to put my energies into selling it online or at furry conventions, which is why I’ll be experimenting with having my own table at Furlandia this spring.

#4

I fully understand the bookstore is a business, and that it’s in their best interest to lay the risk on me, but I don’t care for the sneaky way they’re trying to make it sound like it benefits me to bear that burden.

I would like to get my books in a bookstore, but it does sound like more trouble than it’s worth. I’m through doing things to convince people I believe in my work because every time I’ve done so it has not paid off.

#5

The bookstore is so cramped I can’t imagine where I would do a book signing… except outside… in the cold. Maybe in summer I’d be up for that, but not this time of year :slight_smile: And I’ve done convention appearances and signings before. Few people are interested. It’s a standard paradox of any endeavor: Nobody cares about you until you’re successful, but people must care about you for you to succeed.

As for the library, maybe. From a financial point of view, it’s a huge waste of time, but there’s always a chance to create a few actual fans that way. I’ve been down the road of taking a loss for the sake of trying to create readers before, and have yet to see a payoff. I don’t expect everything I do to have an immediate payoff, but I am tired of taking losses.

#6

I had a few copies of By Sword and Star at a local indie bookstore on consignment (before the bookstore closed) and had similar results. I think I sold one copy, and it was to somebody in the fandom who happened to be in that area. XD So I think it was more trouble than it was worth, too. But I have donated copies to my hometown library just for the fun/exposure of it.

Of course, Rainfurrest also taught me that I hate doing dealer’s tables, so I don’t know if I’ll ever try that route again. I’m okay with doing signings and readings and such, but I hate just sitting behind a table selling like that. :confused:

#7

It’s not an underhanded way to transfer the risk to you, it’s a very open way to transfer the risk to you. :smiley: When the bookstore says they would order only one from Ingram, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t order more than one, it means they won’t order more than one.

In the bookstore’s defense, they’re probably getting around a 50% discount on trade published books when they buy them from Ingram, and they’re only asking for a 40% discount to take your stuff on consignment. In a lot of ways the core problem may be that furry publishers haven’t thought much about how to get into physical book stores, and I suspect the subject hasn’t come up very much – to make money selling their books through Ingram, FurPlanet, Sofawolf and friends would need to be able to pay for printing, artwork, editing and, of course, author royalties off of about 40% of the cover price.

tl;dr: it probably doesn’t make sense for you to do this financially, but it’s not because the bookstore is run by jerks, it’s because you can’t buy the books from your publishers cheaply enough to make it work. (Which does not mean your publishers are jerks, either. I don’t really know whether FP/Sofawolf/etc. could offer books at 50% off cover price and still make any money. I’m presuming when they sell you a book at that discount they’re not counting that as a sold book for your royalties, of course – if they are, then the whole question becomes rather moot.)

#8

I dislike the convention thing, too. If I can strike up actual conversations with people it can be fun, but if all I’m doing is trying to sell my work, it’s a drag.

#9

his exact words were if he ordered through Ingram, he’d only “get” one of each. I took that to mean he could only receive one of each, but yeah he could mean he would only order one. I told him several times Furplanet goes through Createspace, not Ingram, but he didn’t seem to comprehend that part.

I know the bookstore only gets so much of a discount, too, and indie books are nonreturnable, so if they don’t sell, the bookstore is stuck with them, which is why most bookstores don’t order them. Ingram’s cut is huge, and I don’t even know what the margin for createspace books is, so publishers are wary of distributing through them. Kinda represents the state of publishing right now: it’s hard for anyone to make money off writing.

I totally get that it’s good business sense not to order any author’s books unless you have some assurance they’ll sell. My problem is nothing I do seems to make the books sell, despite doing things to show that I believe in my work :slight_smile: I’ve shouldered the risk several times and it has not paid off very well yet, so I don’t blame them for not wanting the burden either. It’s not going to be worth it.

#10

I had a similar experience with asking local independent bookstores (that I contacted by e-mail, being bedridden in a convalescent hospital) if they wanted to stock any of my books. The most reasonable reply that I got was that if I could come in for a signing and bring my own books, the store would treat any copies sold as sold on consignment. In other words, the bookstore wouldn’t spend any money to stock copies, but would provide floor space for a signing plus advertising for the signing on its website in return for whatever it made on consignment on any of my books sold at the signing. If no copies of my books sold, the store would be out its costs for the signing. Since I am an unknown author to the public, this meant that the bookstore was accepting the risk that nobody would come to a signing or that none of my books would sell. My risk would be that I would have to get the copies of my books from my publishers for the signing.

This was all academic, since my physical disability made it impossible for me to hold a signing.

#11

I’ve only ever been able to secure signings at local book stores, and even with some of them I’ve had to fight a little to get it!
Saying that, one was successful enough that the store took on a few of my books to put on their shelves to keep - eight months later and they’re still there alas.

#12

sounds pretty standard. I could expect the same thing, though I can’t imagine the store being out very much on costs of signing. Chalk on a board hung in the window doesn’t cost too much :slight_smile:

#13

It’s naive to think our books will sell just because they’re in an actual bookstore :-). Though if the cover catches someone’s eye, I think it’s more likely to happen in a store than it would online. I spun my wheels for a year trying to promote myself once and got no results. Bookstores want what they already know will sell. It’s hard to get started. I have no idea how to move copies…

#14

James, have you tried comic book stores?
They are usually OK with signings for locals, if there’s enough fantasy/sf potential or the cover artist has enough draw.
Their business model is actually kinda friendly books to sit around for awhile.
Just ask, write a press release for them about the event, you and them if they say yes.

Money will not roll in, of course, but its an oft unexplored channel that may get something going as comics cross over with all sorts of media and interest.

#15

I dunno about comic book stores. From my experiences at AC, comic book readers and novel readers tend to be very separate audiences, and there isn’t much overlap. It’s always worth asking, but the last time I tried a comic book store I got no reply.