Do Book Stores Matter for Book Sales in 2021?
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- čas přidán 14. 01. 2021
- Selling your book in a bookstore makes you feel like you're made it as an author. There really isn't a better feeling than seeing your book sitting on that bookstore shelf, but what is the cost of getting a bookstore to carry your book? And, what is the rarely talked about the math behind book store returns of your self-publishing book?
In this video, Julie Broad of Book Launchers takes you through some important financial considerations if you want to sell your self-publishing book in bookstores. Subscribe for our weekly videos to help you self-publish and sell your book on Amazon, Kindle, Bookstores, Kobo and beyond:
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At first, I wanted my end goal to be in Barnes and Noble. Over the pandemic, I’ve changed my mind, and after watching this video, you’ve helped solidify the idea to sell online for now. Mostly because I will make more money. And if bookstores wanna sell the book later, I’ll work it out. ;)
EXACTLY!!
There was a time when I wanted to see my book in the bookstore, but now I am so glad that I decided to choose the do not return option.
That 'do not return' does mean your book won't be sold online to most book stores either ... I still check that but I just keep my whole sale discount at 30% with Ingram which will prevent a bookstore from putting it on their shelf.
If/when I self-publish, the only shelves I will care about seeing my book on really are my own, after a lifetime practically living in libraries and bookstores. But since I’m planning to do gamebooks for teens and up, a few other options I have identified are Kickstarter, which has the added benefit of huge exposure for my target audience (gamers and branching story readers); DriveThruRPG, which does PDF and print on demand sales, and a combination of AmazonKDP for Kindle sales and paperbacks, with an Etsy store for special signed editions that come with “feelies” like custom bookmarks and other swag. Thumbs up and subscribed for all the great math... had no idea the ROI was so low for self-publishing to bookstores. I don’t need a second job! Thanks so much for this video.
You're welcome! And welcome to the family. :)
Your plan sounds really good - I wish you much success.
As always, an awesome video! My plan is to stick super, super local. I'm from Chicago, but I have connections with the book scene in Peoria (I went to school in Peoria and I made friends with authors and local shop owners). I did some research, and while I will reach out to book/comic stores in the Chicago burbs (where I currently live), I'm not giving my hopes up.
Peoria is a better bet because it is a little city with an incredible artist community. The culture there is so much more supportive of local artists than anywhere I've been before. Plus, there's a surprising amount of local bookstores for such a small area.
Of course, at the end of the day, I was never doing this for money. I turned my 100+ page online graphic novel into a book just for kicks. It has been a year since I started this journey, and I'm already pleased with how far my little hobby has taken me. I wrote, drew, edited, and published my novel all on my own (while using the guidance David Wogahn). That's awesome! As for now, if I can have my book sold in a few local Peoria stores owned and run by friendly folks, then that's success for me.
I think it was James Daunt who summed up selling through bookshops as "Gone today, here tomorrow.".
Ha! I haven't heard that before but it's clever.
Yep. I have my author copies in two small local businesses that exactly serve my niche. And online with the bigger retailers through Ingram, but not on the shelves. One of the advantages of living in a smaller city is personal face-to-face interaction with local businesses. They are generally very happy to help out.
Did you sell your books directly to them or put them on consignment?
I learned all this by doing it. Wish I had this video last year! My expectations were low anyway, but when you lay out the simple math as you did Julie, it does open your eyes! Well done. Thank you.
THANK YOU for commenting the day a video is released. You’ve been entered to win some of our sweet Book Launchers swag. The draw for the winners will happen on our next livestream on January 26th at 2pm PST right here on BookLaunchers.TV.
ALSO - if you missed the invite, I’m building my pre-launch army of supporters for my book launch. If you would like to read an early copy and write a review sign up here: www.booklaunchers.com/army - emails with details are going out next week.
1st! Haha been ages since I could say first. Great video - I intentionally decided to put my ego aside and not bother with bookstores, not until I'm profitable (in a big way)! Bloopers and cameo appearance are awesome lol, love it.
#NoBoringBooks
You were fast! This was six minutes old when I clicked on the video.
@@Drathaar01 I happened to be browsing videos when the notification popped up, couldn't resist watching this one first!
AWESOME! And congrats on your number one victory.
I've sold physical books of mine via selected stores plus via online larger distributors for select titles. The money is in getting those customers who buy from them onto the email database after that. So you can afford give away a lot of the profits to achieve that outcome.
100%
My mind went 💥. Can't wait for the next one.
THANK YOU!
This was interesting. I was wondering why I found new books for sale in my 99 cent store. This is very informative. Thank you. I was also wondering how people could under sale the author on Amazon. I see with that a 55% discount will give them a little return at the same time undercutting the Author. The 30% sounds better than allowing people to undercut the author by giving a 55% discount.
Thank you for all your videos. This channel is a gem! I've been debating over adding Ingramspark with KDP. You just made my decision for me. Thank you, again! Now I need to watch how to do local stores to consignment. And a media kit!
If you liked this video you will LOVE my new book: Self-Publish and Succeed. You can grab it here: books2read.com/ap/RDOjGr/Julie-Broad
Hope to see you again soon!
Oh and since it sounds like you're getting close to selling a book we have a download you might like: our Gameplan for selling 1000 books with less than $100 is a great way to start planning your book marketing. You can download that for free at www.booklaunchers.com/gameplan
Eye-opener video! Great explanation....Merci Julie👍
Hi there, I did go with Ingram and have been extremely happy. One thing I did was before I do a twitch stream or any online engagement I have a local book store hat works with me on the event so people can click on a special link to order a signed copy of my book. So the book store orders the books and ships them for me. All I do is go in and sign the books . I also will split the markup for the special book price difference with the retail price with the store so they make some extra money to help my local store.
That's awesome!! Thanks for explaining. So the books get ordered online to the store location, you go in and sign, and the bookstore ships them out? Do I have that right? This is a great partnership model.
@@BookLauncherscorrect but you alway want to talk with the book store ahead of time so they know all the details of when your event will be so they have time to place a order if need be to have books on hand
@@xjp1998 Great!!
Valuable info! I’m not going to pursue bookstores for sure.. except like you said maybe a few local ones for fun. Thanks!
Rock on!
Glad it was helpful! Happy Friday! THANK YOU for commenting the day a video is released. You’ve been entered to win some of our sweet Book Launchers swag. The draw for the winners will happen on April 20th at 2pm PST right here on BookLaunchers.TV. I do hope you can be here. If not - you can catch the replay to see if you won.
==== > And on Saturday, April 17th we’re doing another Deep Dive Training on writing techniques! You’ll meet some of our writing masterminds from the Book Launchers team. Register: www.booklaunchers.com/deepdive
Thanks Julie@
Another great video Julie. Thank you for sharing your personal experience.
Thank you
Addressed a lot of questions I had. Has to be a battle to keep yourself from wanting that book in a shelf.
You can still pursue it on a small local scale ... we'll help you with those details!
You’re amazing thank you
:)
With so many Christian bookstores closing even before the pandemic, my expectations were low. Thankfully, I haven't received that return bill from Ingram. But this is a great way to look at things. Thanks for sharing these insights.
THANK YOU for commenting the day a video is released. You’ve been entered to win some of our sweet Book Launchers swag. The draw for the winners will happen on our next livestream on January 26th at 2pm PST right here on BookLaunchers.TV.
Thank you very much
You are welcome!
Interesting perspective
THANK YOU for commenting the day a video is released. You’ve been entered to win some of our sweet Book Launchers swag. The draw for the winners will happen on our next livestream on January 26th at 2pm PST right here on BookLaunchers.TV.
ALSO - if you missed the invite, I’m building my pre-launch army of supporters for my book launch. If you would like to read an early copy and write a review sign up here: www.booklaunchers.com/army - emails with details are going out next week.
Well thanks, you confirmed what I had decided might be the way to go. My book falls into a niche category but a very popular one at that, so I am going to magazines and websites that cater for my intended audience, to advertise. Then POD with IS and get my social media and a website going. All under my control.I will know who is buying, when and I will get feedback. Thanks, great video and it is one of the most useful I have come across. From sunny and almost CoVid free Australia.
Glad it was helpful! :)
Enjoy the almost Covid Free life ... I bet it's nice. Wishing you much success,
Julie
Thanks for the excellent video, Julie! Can you do a video on selling through Bookbub and Goodreads?
We've been mastering BookBub as a platform and I'm getting close to feeling ready to do a video on it. I have done this video on Goodreads: czcams.com/video/cRTCwBkeess/video.html
Interesting....Thanks El inmigrante venezolano@ Writer
Great video. You talked me out of book stores! 🛑🤣
Nothing beats that feeling as an author when you see your book in a store but financially I'm pretty shocked at the numbers. You can still look at a local store or two if you were keen ... they might buy direct from you or do a consignment arrangement.
@@BookLaunchers thanks! I will see what bookstore are in the city.
Blessings@
Julie, could you do a video for us Canadians on how to get our book listed online with Indigo Chapters, as a self-published author.
Online is super easy - set yourself up with Ingram Spark.
Getting it into stores takes a little more effort but online - Ingram Spark automatically creates that listing.
@@BookLaunchers ok thanks. I will check out Ingram Spark. I only published it on Amazon so far.
When you invest in a publisher, what should they do for you as far as getting recognition
This is confusing because if you are investing in a publisher that doesn't sound like you have a publisher ... at least not in the traditional sense.
A traditional publisher would not ask you to spend money on your book but they may not do anything to promote your book - it could be all up to you.
@@BookLaunchers I didn't think it would cost either. Someone referred him to me and I did my research. I need to see what he does. According to him and his page, he helps promote and everything. The only downside was that it's going to take a month for the book to be released. Thanks for your response to my question
If you self publish and own your own ISBN number, can that same book be posted on Amazon and Ingram?
Yes with your own ISBN you should use the same one on all platforms for each format.
Stupid question, so is the best thing to do to choose the "Do not return option" *&* and to keep your whole sale discount at 30% ? 🤔😅
Well it depends ... I recommend Return & Destroy + 30% so long as you aren't trying to get books on shelves of bookstores. With those settings they will still sell it online.
Last stupid question, as now after watching the video and not caring if my book is physically in the bookstore hahaha, what do you mean by, "Well it depends?" 😅 (As if they will only sell it online is perfectly fine by me lol)
@@asdfghjklasdfghjkl321 oh I meant it depends on what is important to you. There isn't one answer to your question by I gave you my generic answer for most of our clients.
Pre-launch that is always how we set it up. Post-launch we look at changing the wholesale percentage if someone has lined up bookstore interest.
@@BookLaunchers Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to answer my annoying questions! 😅🤗
Hi Julie Broad!, I published my first non fiction book after seeing your videos and the book name is "Mind Feast" available on Amazon for universe, would you review/ read it? I am so happy if you could, anyways Thank You Julie Broad...
Congrats!! I wish I could read and review more books but I don't get to read all our clients books as it is. Keep asking people though- it's the only way you'll get the reviewers!
I am sad...l imagine my books in bookstores....Romantic or naive!!
Wow. I guess maybe bookstores aren't all that great. Especially since I hate flying.
Wow - aren't you writing about an element of flying?? ;)
@@BookLaunchers Me? No. I have part of a book written about working for TSA, but that doesn't involve me flying. I'll fly if I have to, I'm just not comfortable while in the air. Takeoffs and landings scare the crap out of me. I have nightmares about it. For real.
@@Drathaar01 Oh man that's rough! I think I assumed because you worked for the TSA that you flew a lot ... also where you live vs where you're from!
@@BookLaunchers I was a Baggage Lead for TSA, I worked in the dungeon of the airport, far away from unruly passengers. Thank God. My mouth would have got me in trouble a lot 😅
Yeah, I had to fly here but I didn't like it. One of the reasons I haven't visited the US yet is I don't want to fly. There needs to be a bigger reason than a simple visit to get me on a plane.
Oy vey. My head is spinning with all the math. I’m thinking of the POD option. It’d be so sad to have one of my books returned. 😢
I know ... sorry for the math but I felt it was necessary. Also, the returned books thing was so hard emotionally. I get it.
@@BookLaunchers Oh no worries! It wasn't a bad thing. I'm just terrible with numbers. It was all very good information!
Ego 🤐😷.
I guess going for bookstore listing depends on your goal. If making money is not priority then go for it.
There was a part of me that wanted to soften that statement, but really, that was coming from someone who put almost 3 months of her life into driving widespread bookstore distribution so .... :D
There IS value in being in a bookstore and it definitely makes you feel more legit as an author BUT the value is not financial. :)
Bookstores..who needs them anyway?
I still love bookstores but I go to the library a lot more now ...