I first met LINDA KELLER at Lori Foster’s Reader Author Get Together in Cincinnati several years ago. Linda and Lori, along with author Dianne Castell, put an incredible amount of work into this fabulous annual event. As a Barnes & Noble bookseller, Linda has won numerous awards, and is extremely well-respected for both her knowledge and her willingness to help authors. Today she brings us part one of her three-part mini-series on publishing, from a bookseller’s perspective.
I. In the beginning…writers wrote books.
Nope, this isn’t about how to get your book published. And it isn’t about the new epub opportunities for digital authors. That is relevant, but we’re gonna talk bookstores. Bricks and mortars. The smell of books. The feel of books in your hand. The art of hand-selling.
We know change is continuous. Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s misleading. I’ve discussed this before in my workshops, so I’ll jump in right now – print-on-demand (POD) publishing choices affect an author’s career when it comes to having your book on the shelf. I understand digital publishing and ereaders. I get that’s the new face of the book industry. I’ll have a few thoughts for digital authors later on. Right now, I’m focusing on those individuals wanting their book in print and in the bookstore.
The majority of print-on-demand publishers do not make their authors’ books returnable for the brick and mortar stores. Books have to be returnable through the same acquisition process used to order a book for on-the-shelf inventory. Books not selling need to be returned to make room for new merchandise. As many as 600 boxes of books arrive at a store in a week, and they all have to find homes out on the floor.
If the POD process is your choice, at least you’ll have the brick & mortar perspective. If small press publishers use POD technology, or don’t use a distributor participating in the return process the company requires, the books are listed as “Prepaid Only”, and “nonreturnable”. “Prepaid Only” means the store is more than happy to order the book, but the customer has to pay for it first, and the book is generally shipped to the customer’s home.
Prepaid Only was a business decision Barnes & Noble had to make. They couldn’t know about or carry every single title published. As long as the book was on bn.com, we were more than happy to order the book for our customers, doing our best to provide excellent customer service and never requiring the customer to pay for orders until the book arrived and the customer could look at it, determining it was indeed what they wanted.
Sadly, people took advantage of great customer service. It became a nationwide problem costing thousands and thousands of dollars. The problem? Authors and their friends, knowing the author’s POD book would never be on the shelves as browseable merchandise, call a store, place an order for the non-returnable book, give a bogus phone number, thinking if no one picked up the book, the store would have to put it on the shelf to sell, thus – browseable merchandise. It backfired. Stores talked to each other and email notices were sent to stores and home office received notification of these scams. And at this point, scams they were.
The ones caught in the middle are you and your readers. Any book a store checks for availability and marked “non-returnable” is listed “prepay only” and “ship to home”. Customers have to pay for the book(s) first; either at the register or over the phone with a credit card and the order isn’t released for ship to home until the payment transaction is finished at the register.
Barnes & Noble’s Small Press Department has guidelines and criteria for you as an author or you as a small press publisher, in getting your book(s) in B&N stores. (email me, lindakaykeller@gmail.com and I’ll send you the paperwork).
This is why it is incredibly important for authors to ask the right questions to make sure publishers understand and are willing to make the returns process a reality. Make the process work for you, not against you. Don’t give away the book of your heart with out being sure whom you’re giving it to.
A word about self-publishing is in order here. When you decide to self-publish, you are the publisher and sales force. It will be your responsibility to contract with a distributor (Ingram, Baker & Taylor, etc.) to handle your books and make them returnable if you want to work with a brick and mortar. The percentage a distributor gets to handle your book can range from 40 to 55%. I know many self-published authors who turned their backs on contracting with a distributor thinking they could make the same sales themselves. You can recognize them. Their cars are in their driveways because the garage is full of boxes of unsold books.
Let’s talk digital. This is a tough confession for me, but I was an ebook snob. Of course, the ebooks I dealt with were the 3.5 floppy disks. Remember them? That was the ebook and the only place to read it was on your computer. Couldn’t get ‘em in the store for signings, couldn’t sell them for authors. Couldn’t order them. Times have changed. Devices have changed. E-readers are multi-functional, classy looking, as much an accessory of your busy day as your cell phone.
Readers’ keeper shelves look different…they’re out *there* in cyberspace. Readers can hang on to a lot more books now. Think about this…when you hold a book in your hands, you see the size of the author’s efforts. You look at 400 pages of words and appreciate the hard work of writing the story. What do you see when you hold an ereader? Does this diminish the reader’s appreciation for the author’s efforts? Just wondering…
Somethin’ to think about…
• Verify publishers you submit to make the books returnable the proper way.
• Be very, very cautious when doing a keyword search for “publishers”.
• Check the shelves at your bookstore or library for genres and publishers who interest you.
• If you accept a publisher’s conditions for the sake of having your name on the cover of a book, understand you may have just made your career path very rocky.
II. Let’s talk Publishers’ Reps.
When I was a Community Relations Manager, I was asked how often publishers’ reps came to my store, promoting their upcoming releases. The truth was I probably saw less than four or five reps in the ten years I worked in books. I received visits and phone calls from publicists, but not the sales representatives. The reps I did meet were from small, local publishers, but I received a ton of promotional material from a boatload of publishers – small and large. The pieces of mail I really enjoyed were the catalogs, Spring and Fall releases. It was always a plus to know about new releases.
Sales representatives generally visit the corporate offices of the major book retailers. Most sales people have specialties…like romance, mystery, children’s books, etc., and specific buyers at the chains are the ones they focus on. They go in armed with projected sales figures, marketing plans, and promotional ideas, but they know exactly what they’re doing and whom they want to talk to. When an editor decides on purchasing your manuscript, the sales department at the publishing house becomes the editor’s partner because the editor has to convince the sales people your manuscript will make money. That’s the same information and ammunition the reps need to deal with retailers.
This is why an author can have an edge in the submission process by having a terrific marketing plan of his or her own and have a solid social media platform. If you can show your editor you know how to help the sales department sell your book, you’ve become a very savvy addition to the team. Remember, your work isn’t finished when you write “The End” or get “the CALL”. You’ll soon discover the writing was the fun part.
Somethin’ to think about…
1. No matter where you are in the writing process, think about the sales punch your book can have. Make the social media outlets, the internet, every aspect of branding and marketing work for you.
2. Make a list of five ideas to jump-start your sales on a local level.
3. Phenomenal writing aside, list three reasons your book is a smart investment for the publisher.
4. List three reasons the sales department would say “no” and have a response for each. (Rule #1 of warfare – know your enemy.)
5. Even if book one isn’t finished, take a day to think about book two and develop a three or four sentence marketing tie-in with book one.
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Authors, Linda will join us on Wednesday to answer your questions. Do you understand how book placement works? Do you know how to set up a book signing? Bring your questions and join us again tomorrow.
Check back Wednesday for part 2 of Linda Keller’s 3-part mini-series!
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Bio:
Linda Keller is a three-time award winning bookseller and retired Community Relations Manager for Barnes & Noble. She was the 2006 Central Ohio Fiction Writers’ Bookseller of the Year, 2007 RWA Steffie Walker Bookseller of the Year, and 2010 Central Ohio Fiction Writers Lifetime Achievement recipient.
She uses her 20 plus year knowledge of the industry, love of the romance genre, and experience from her years of workshop presentations, including “The Other Side of the Bookshelf” and “Crucial Things to Know BEFORE You Publish” to help published and unpublished authors understand the publishing process as it relates to the retail and wholesale side of the business. She shares information designed to guide writers to finding a publisher, submitting their manuscript, the consequences of publishing choices on their career, the process of publishing and more.
In addition to coaching the craft/industry side, she breaks down in easy to understand language the retail side of the book culture offering best practices for signings based on over 100 book signings in 10 years, including at least three yearly multi-author signings hosting with over 50 authors each time. She has hosted over 80 fiction-writing workshops presented by published authors and industry professionals and continues to coach and encourage writers. Follow Linda on Facebook.
Similar Posts:
- The Other Side of the Bookshelf: Part 3
- The Other Side of the Bookshelf: Part 2
- Weekly Lecture Schedule for December 5 – 9, 2011
- How to publish your book through PubIt!—and market it, too!
- Monica Burns: The Scoop on Rock*It Reads
Hi Linda,
The idea of book two is solid advice. Focus is my problem. Usuallly a few ideas pop up at the same time. I start each one and see which one flowers first.
Mary Jo
Posted by Mary Jo Burke | December 6, 2011, 7:08 amFocus – oh man, can I relate to that!
Posted by Becke Martin Davis | December 6, 2011, 9:16 amMary Jo,
Yeah, ideas are like flowers. They’ll bloom beautifully as long as the weeds of doubt don’t crowd them out. Hang in there!
Posted by Linda | December 7, 2011, 9:12 amI’m so excited to feature the amazing Linda Keller this week! Linda is a member of the Ohio Valley Chapter of RWA, and she is well-loved by the authors in this area.
No one was surprised when Linda was chosen as RWA’s BOOKSELLER OF THE YEAR in 2007 – she’s always going the extra mile for local authors. Even though Linda is recently retired, she’s still often to be found at the West Chester, Ohio Barnes & Noble, helping set up book signings.
Linda’s out of town right now, getting back later today. She’ll respond to questions and comments here either tonight or tomorrow, and she’ll be with us on Wednesday and Thursday.
Check out the photos on my Facebook page to see some of the book signings Linda has organized. She is the author’s best friend!
Posted by Becke Davis (Becke Martin) | December 6, 2011, 8:03 amMorning Linda..
wow, what a great post! I’m definitely going to read it again, try to absorb it by osmosis! =)
What are your feelings on book signings – are they useful for a not well-known author?
Looking forward to part 2 tomorrow! =)
carrie
Posted by Carrie Spencer | December 6, 2011, 8:13 amCarrie,
Check out today’s Part 2. Booksignings are very much personality driven. You either like ‘em or not. They’re also those creatures, that if you feel you have to do them, you’ll get through them and feel good about it. Remember, they aren’t about making Forbes List of millionaires
Posted by Linda | December 7, 2011, 9:15 amCarrie – Funny you should ask! Linda talks more about book signings in the rest of her mini-series.
Posted by Becke Martin/Davis | December 6, 2011, 8:27 amThis is a very informative post. Thank you for hosting Linda, Becke. After reading her blog, I realise how little I know about the book industry, such as POD. That was a real eye-opener.
Posted by Mercy | December 6, 2011, 9:01 amMercy – A lot of authors have no idea what’s involved in getting their books displayed at a brick-and-mortar bookstore.
Linda is a great source of information, because she has been so closely involved with this.
Posted by Becke Martin Davis | December 6, 2011, 9:17 amMercy,
I can’t tell you how many authors I’ve had to turn away from the store because of POD. It can be very discouraging and painful for some of them. And I’ve even seen the tears fall. That’s what frustrates me. If the author had only known…the tears were probably the catalyst for my efforts to make sure authors knew the right questions to ask. We can’t buy boxes of books out of an author’s trunk and stick ‘em on the shelf. And that’s one thing not explained to an author in entirety.
Posted by Linda | December 7, 2011, 9:19 am“You’ll soon discover writing was the fun part.” Sing it, sister.
What a great perspective to get. Thanks Linda so much for sharing your insights!
Posted by Avery Flynn | December 6, 2011, 9:07 amIsn’t Linda amazing? She’s out of town today, but she’ll be joining us tomorrow and Thursday, when we continue with parts 2 and 3 of this series continue.
Learn about book signings, returns and lots more!
Posted by Becke Martin Davis | December 6, 2011, 9:19 amHi Linda,
A question (in advance of Wednesday): How do press releases figure in, and how can I use them? Also, I had decent luck with my local newspaper and radio station, but dismal luck with the TV stations. Is there a preferred TV approach?
Looking forward to your Wednesday post! Thanks for all the WONDERFUL information!
Posted by Sarah M. Anderson | December 6, 2011, 9:18 amGreat question, Sarah! I’ll be curious to see Linda’s response when she joins us tomorrow.
Posted by Becke Martin Davis | December 6, 2011, 9:23 amSarah,
Most of the media outlets I worked with didn’t have the time for full blown PR. I was told to send date, time, author, title, and a sentence. That took the wind out of my PR sails. When it comes to TV stations, don’t ask for Sales. They want to sell advertising time. Ask for the programming producer or director. A notice reading “Local author writes historical romance” unfortunately, may not seem time-worthy to progamming. What kind of research did you do for your book? Did you spend a week with the local fire department to see how things worked? Did you interview 3 popular professors at the local college to get their take on Native American archaeology? Did you ride with patrol law enforcement for three nights researching the red-light district? An author is “spinning” a tale to the buying public. Take a look at how you researched your book and spin *that* as your approach to the TV station.
Hope this helped.
Posted by Linda | December 7, 2011, 9:26 amHi, Linda. Fabulous post! As a debut author, I have to agree with you about the writing being the fun part! I’m not sure I realized before getting published how much of my time would be spent on marketing. I understand the importance though and I’m still learning to balance it all.
Looking forward to tomorrow’s post!
Posted by Adrienne Giordano | December 6, 2011, 10:59 amAdrienne,
You’re right. There must be balance. During the writing of your book, though, look for ways to maneuver your research into marking after the book’s finished. Who did you interview for information? Did you call your local City Council and tell them you have a mayor and city manager as characters and you’d like to find out how the job descriptions work? If so, you’ve just created a marketing tag.
Posted by Linda | December 7, 2011, 9:30 amLinda -
Thanks so much for being with RU. I’m curious about the returns aspect of publishing/book-selling. Do you know how this process came about originally? And are there other industries that use this sales model?
Many thanks,
Kelsey
Posted by Kelsey Browning | December 6, 2011, 12:06 pmKelsey,
The returns aspect is supply and demand. Publishers/distributors supply and customers demand. No demand, no sales. Books which don’t sell have to be returned to make room for new stock arriving daily.
Don’t know the time frame of how or when returns became a process, but I’m sure it wouldn’t have been long after a store’s bottom line with inventory and room came head to head. At one time ALL books were returned at the publishers’ expense for the purpose of redistribution and sales, but shipping became extremely expensive. When you consider the most popular format in the store is mass market paperbacks, those puppies weigh a lot. ISBNs used to be on the back cover only. Now they are on the inside of the front cover. Know why? Because mass markets are stripped – THE most painful sound to a booklover. Stores scan the inside cover ISBN and through electronic inventory systems, those titles show as unsold and the covers returned to the publishers.
On the inside of the book, on the title page (copyright date, title, Library of Congress info, etc.) you’ll see a notice which reads, “If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book”. ”
The only good news in this is that the stripped books are now recycled.
That was why I always tried to hang on to my authors books through the multi-author signings. If there was limited stock in warehouses and I ordered quite a few, I knew returns would not equal additional stock for me to reorder.
More on returns in part 3.
Posted by Linda | December 7, 2011, 10:50 amHi Linda,
Thanks so much for joining us!
Even though I visit my local B&N every Friday night. I’ve never “connected” with any of the staff in a personal way.
My debut historical releases April 2012. Do you have any tips on how I can make that connection without seeming like a salesperson? Is there anything I can do to attract their attention in a genuine way (I love my local B&N!)?
A side question–does corporate decide what books go on the shelves and how many of each book the B&N stores receive or do the stores decide which books and how many they’ll buy?
Thanks!
Tracey
Posted by Tracey Devlyn | December 6, 2011, 12:56 pmTracey,
Two great questions! Get to know the romance section very well. Ask at Customer Service who sets the section because “as a reader, you appreciate the effort going into making the section look fantastic”. Okay, here’s a big secret for everyone…when you compliment booksellers, or managers on the way the store looks, ALWAYS refer to how easy it is to get your favorite titles and BUY them – talk bottom line…money…dollars. Stores need to make certain sales levels. Once you’ve carried on a similar conversation as the one above, then when it comes time for your release, your conversation should be “I’m local. I have a lot of family and friends and I’m committed to early promotion, so I’d like to drive sales into your store for you.” Managers looooove money-speak.
Question 2. The publisher reps will go to BN corporate and deal with the specific buyer (romance, childrens, cooking, etc.) about their releases. Hopefully, your agent and editor are pushing for you. That meeting is where the number of books in how many stores is decided. Is that it? Is it over for you if they don’t *buy* your title for the stores? No. Refer to my answer to your first question. As long as your title is in the distributors’ warehouses, is returnable through the same process as acquisition for the store, your title has a shot.
Posted by Linda | December 7, 2011, 9:40 amJoin us again tomorrow when we present Part 2 of this three-part series.
Linda Keller will respond to today’s questions tomorrow – hope to see you then!
Posted by Becke Martin Davis | December 6, 2011, 5:00 pmHi Linda!
Wow…I’m still shaking my head at the POD order scam.
If a store returns a particular author’s book because it didn’t sell well, would that influence the buyer’s decision to purchase future books from that author?
Posted by Jennifer Tanner | December 6, 2011, 5:53 pmNot necessarily. Just because it doesn’t sell well in one store, doesn’t mean sales were low all over. They consider all over sales. The challenge has always been to discover the determining factors in low sales versus higher sales. If you know what those factors are, you, your agent, and your editor have something to work with.
Just a note here on a misconception…signing stock does NOT stop a book from being returned. In the past, we received autographed copies a some bestselling authors. Simply because the books were returned to the warehouses, then ordered by some other stores.
Posted by Linda | December 7, 2011, 9:45 amTo our readers: If you are just reading this now, be sure to check out Part II of this series. Part III will be published at RU tomorrow (Thursday, December 8).
Thanks, Linda, for responding to our questions!
Posted by Becke Davis (Becke Martin) | December 7, 2011, 9:52 am