How do self publishers secure broad distribution?

[Ingrid Ricks]

I recently talked with a best selling non-fiction author (HarperCollins).  She strongly advocates self publishing in today's world because of the mess in the publishing industry.  She sent me a link to this Wall Street Journal article today about a woman who hit it big with a digital book on Amazon - which I think is exciting.

I'm wondering, though, how to secure broad bookstore distribution?  Any thoughts?

[Rex Lee Reynolds]

You are very welcome Ingrid.

[Ingrid Ricks]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts/experiences. Definitely helpful! Good luck with your third book!

[Mari]

Prue,
You an inspiration! I think I'll continue to self-publish my River Jordan books, but I hope to begin a new series in the fall and I also plan to try traditional publishing first for the same reason!

[Regulo Zapata Jr.]

Hi Martha Ciske,

Reference getting your books on the shelves in the stores!

It's a constant battle really! I've actually have had to go into the book stores and tell them to restock my books.

Book stores tell me that they don't re-stock books automatically unless your one of the bestsellers in their stores Barnes & Noble, Borders etc... I've been told they only keep books on the shelves in the stores for 30-90 days. If your book does not sell enough in the store, they will return the books back to the distributor and the distributor returns books back to Publishers at his expense on shipping cost!.

I am also told that an arrangement is made between the (Distributors) and the (Book Stores) on keeping books in the stores and when to return the books back etc... More on this to follow!

Over all, I believe it takes close coordination between Publisher, Ditributors and the stores on policy on getting books on the shelves! A lot of follow-ups!

Has anybody else heard of this information before? Please share!

The other issue is how many books has your Publisher requested to get printed? Publisher spends a lots of money to get your book printed, therefore he can only print so many books and have them shipped to Distributors. The Distributors will ship books to different stores upon store request and this is what I understand!

The Publisher hopes then that they can sell all their books and recovery the monies they have spent for printing and shipping, advertisements etc...

Has anybody else heard different?

[Rosalee Stone]

I have recently published my book The Dove a Gift from Archangel Micha/el through Lulu publishing. My book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books Inc, Borders.com. Amazon and B & N, lists an author profile as well as the" Look Inside" feature as well as making my book available on Amazon.com/uk and in european markets like France, Japan, and Germany. Store front book sellers will order my book on request, though not routinely stock it unless it achieves some notoriety. Which I of course hope will happen. I am happy with Lulu and am about to publish my second book through them. I have also received my first royalty check through them.

[Ingrid Ricks]

Hi Rosalee,

Thanks for sharing this info. I've heard of Lulu and thought they were strictly e-Publisher. Do they handle the books on a print-on-demand basis? And do they handle e-book translation for the foreign markets?

I've just started pondering the challenge of handling foreign markets as a self publisher. I would love to hear more about the overall process you experienced with them.

Thanks! - Ingrid

[Rosalee Stone]

Hi Ingrid, Lulu will print on demand. My book is available as print or e book by Lulu as well as amazon etc.If you wish to pay for the services they will format and edit your cover and contents, and will list your book on the major data bases. They give you an author page for free and lots of hints on marketing. I am new to all this so I am still figuring out the marketing other than the facebook, twitter, and blog page formula. I will be doing a u tube upload soon also. Overall I have been pleased with Lulu as they do give what they promise when you start your project. It doesn't cost anything to get started with lulu. I heard about them on the George Noory show, he has published through them and has guests on his show who have published with them also. They are worth looking into and you can decide for yourself.

[Mari]

This is by far the best discussion I've found on Book Blogs. Thanks, everyone, for sharing your knowledge and experiences.

[Ingrid Ricks]

I agree. This discussion has been so helpful. Thank you everyone!

It's clear there is no magic bullet here. I'm a marketer in my day job but trying to navigate the book publishing world is an entirely new ballgame.

I think it will be interesting to see what this same discussion looks like a couple of years from now.

[Marian Perera]

People sometimes say that publishing is counter-intuitive. I agree, it's not like any other business out there.

Through a discussion board, I've talked with a few writers who either self-published or went with a vanity press that didn't provide marketing/distribution because those writers had connections, or experience in marketing. One of them even worked as a weather forecaster or announcer (I forget which) for a TV station, so I was sure that he would have an advantage in spreading the news.

They all agreed that the effort of doing the distributor's or marketing department's job was considerable, though a writer wishing to go this route can make matters easier by ensuring the book is reasonably priced, targeting the appropriate market and so on. Oh, and be careful about vanity presses (these days, some try to pass themselves off as self-publishers). The announcer's book was printed through one, and it went nowhere.

[Maria Ross]

Hi Ingrid!

Just to add what we discussed the other day, I just published my first book, Branding Basics for Small Business (www.brandingbasics.info). I used a small publisher in Indiana. I did most of the marketing on my own due to that being my expertise and created my own page on my website which links to my publisher's shopping cart, but the publisher dealt with getting the book on Amazon, Amazon.uk, BN.com and Borders.com; they secured the ISBN number and they created the direct shopping cart/splash page off of their site (so I don't need to bother with a shopping cart on my own site). They also sent a few review copies to legitimate reviewers who requested one from my publicist (after she did an initial review press release on a certain database devoted to book reviewers).

My book is not POD or self-published. However, it falls under Ingram's Lightning Source catalog which also carries the POD and self-published works (this is a subcatalog of Ingram's normal one that all the big bookstores use - Ingram is the big distributor as far as I know). The publisher was rhe one who got it listed for me and they have to list on LS due to their smal size. So that can be a strike against you with some outlets, who avoid anything self-published or POD. My publisher has told me that they often have to point out to people that their books are not POD, so I guess there is a certain stigma with that if you want mainstream distribution.

I don't think it's too difficult to get your book listed on Lightning Source/Ingram if you are self-published or POD. I just don't know what the process actually is but I'm sure it's on their website. The bigger issue is whether the bookstores will actually pay attention to it, given everything else in the Ingram catalog. So you may have to do some PR on your own to specific bookstores (like if you are a local author, I've heard it's best to visit the bookstores personally and show them your book and tell them where it can be ordered)

[Ingrid Ricks]

Thanks Maria!