Unless your book is being sold by a major publisher, there
is a slim chance you will get your book onto the shelves of a major chain. Some
major chains also ask for your marketing plan to sell your book. A marketing
plan will detail how you will promote your book, stated as actions, financial
commitment, and time commitment. For big chains like Borders to sell your book,
you need a sales history of previous books.
Your best option as a new writer is to ask local,
independent book sellers to sell your book. List down independent bookstores
around your area, and pop them a visit instead of just calling. Even then,
don't have high expectation that bookstores will automatically want to promote
your book purely because it has been published. The initial contact is
important, dress nice to impress, and always be humble as a self promoter.
Offer to sell ten or twenty copies of your book to a few
local book stores, then check back in a week or two to see how many of them
have been sold. Remember to set a lowest amount you are willing to take for
your books, being said and done- the bookshops are there to run a profitable
business. At the end of the day, if the store was able to sell your book, they
might want to buy more copies. If not, you can always try another store.
Another tip is that bookstores will also respond to customer
requests. If you have Print On Demand on your side, and perhaps if you could
rally a group of your personal readers to order your book from a bookstore, the
store is more likely to take notice of your title when you give them that
visit.
Once your book has a bit of sales history and you are able
to develop a marketing plan, then the time has come for the next step - to
approach the larger chains!
© 2011 BookPal Australia Pty Ltd - All Rights Reserved
Worldwide
http://www.Bookpal.com.au/ is helping self publishers all
around the world to successfully self publish and market their books with cost
effective solutions to create bestsellers. Get your free ebook on self
publishing or request a free consultation today valued at $150 at www.publishmenow.com.au
Terence Tam is the founder of BookPal, he previously spent 6
years as an academic and was a contributing author for several academic books.
Frustrated with the level of service he was getting with traditional
publishers, he set up his own self publishing company to help other authors
publish and market books with cost effective yet efficient solutions.
