Book Sales
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Author U Extravaganza and Book Distribution for Self Published Authors
So much information, so little time…
I just got back from Author U Extravaganza in Denver. This author educational workshop event takes place the first weekend of May every year. I go to a lot of conventions and workshops each year and this one was, hands down,my favorite.
The presenters did wonderful, thought-provoking presentations on SEO, social media, book marketing, and many other topics that independent authors need. Guy Kawasaki was there for the Keynote and his speech made me a believer! I am now a huge fan. He knows his stuff.
I am not sure how I was included in this rarified list of amazing presenters, but I was asked to do a talk on Book Distribution and improving your book sales. I called the talk. “Are You Ready For the Marketplace?” Maybe because I own a book distribution company? Well.. I had a blast.
There is a video of the talk. (I’m watching it now and cringing a little at my lipstick color choice) But overall, I like what came across. I will be posting snippets from that video over the next week in a series called “Are You Ready”?
Thank you SO much to Judith Briles of www.authoru.org and to all the lovely authors I met. I look forward to seeing you all soon!
New Customer Service Manager
New Shelves Publishing Services is pleased to announce that Tricia Martin has joined NSPS as our Customer Service Manager.
Tricia comes to us from her previous jobs as Project Coordinator and Office Manager in the technology industry.
Tricia’s attention to detail and organizational skills have impressed us greatly. She has already come up with several key ideas to save us time and allow us to be more helpful to our clients.
Nicole Riley will still be handling all of the sales functions for New Shelves (and now she will have a lot more time to do so!) and Amy is always available if you need anything, but we are very excited about Tricia’s new position.
If you need reports, want to order shipments, if you have questions about anything, or need corrections/changes in our databases, please email Tricia at tricia@newshelves.com or feel free to call her at our main number: 518-261-1300.
Your First Day as a Publisher.
The book is done. Congratulations! You have put your whole back into the huge task of writing, editing, polishing and finishing the book that has been your life’s work for ages.
Send the manuscript to the designer and pour yourself a well-deserved glass of ginger-ale.
Done.
Now, welcome to your new job as Publisher. (You may have the nagging feeling that you should have started this job months ago, but better late than never! Let’s get started!)
Now that you are no longer a writer, you can dedicate yourself fulltime as a publisher, marketer, sales rep, publicist and social media specialist. These jobs with all of their various elements and duties will take up the next year or more of your life.
So, how do you get started? What do you do first?
Here is a partial list of essential-do-not-skip job duties that every Publisher has:
1. Choose a Publisher name. Don’t make it anything that connects to your name or the title of the book. The publishing house name/imprint should be independent and professional sounding (example: Democracy Publications). There are many reasons to publish under your own imprint name:
a. Your book will be taken more seriously than if it is listed in all the databases as published by a vanity press or CreateSpace.
b. Bookstores will be much more likely to consider stocking your book if they do not have to purchase it from their biggest competitor, Amazon/CreateSpace.
c. You can control the costs and pricing and save money.
d. Reviewers will give your book a more serious consideration.
2. Sign your publisher name up with Bowker at www.myidentifiers.com. Name, address, phone, email, website (if you have one)
3. Buy set of ISBNs (Don’t buy one. You will need more than one soon and they are inexpensive in groups of 10) from www.myindentifiers.com.
4. Pull all of your book data into the ISBN management section: title, subtitle, price, ISBN, eBook ISBN, eBook price, trim size, page count, word count, category, age group– into book ISBN fields at www.myidentifiers.com (this will start the process of getting your book’s data out to the world and make it easier for the sales to be tracked.) Do not skip this!
5. Find at least 5 books that compete for your same readers and learn why your book is similar to them and why your book is better. You will need this when you are selling your book to stores or doing research or writing a cover letter to a reviewer. These 5 books will help you in numerous ways. Take your time with it and ask for help if needed.
6. Decide if you want to be in bookstores and libraries. (REALLY research what it takes to be in those venues… it is not as easy an answer as you would think) Do the math… how much money will you make per book after printing, distribution and shipping costs?
7. Decide how you are going to print and distribute your book. Should you use a Print on Demand service such as Lightning Source or CreateSpace? (there is nothing wrong with USING CreateSpace, I just recommend not putting their name all over your book.) So… POD or would it be better to print a few thousand copies and sell through a distributor? Look at the numbers, ask your local bookstore, find out everything you can.
8. However you decide to proceed , sign up with the POD company, distribution, or fulfillment company and provide them with your book data.
9. Get endorsements and marketing plan and executable PR program together.
10. Spend as much time in bookstores and online learning everything you can about your market and your book category.
This is by no means a complete list, but these are some ESSENTIAL items that should be completed as soon as you decide to take on the job of publisher.
All of these items should be completed before you are done writing the book.
What Are Book Store Buyers LOOKING For?
A client recently asked me. What the %$#@! are book buyers looking for? He went on to say “My book is priced right, well-designed and exactly what older American’s are needing… what more can I do?”
I thought I would share my answer in the hopes that it might answer other questions out there.
If the book is well written, has a topic and message that will appeal to their customers, and is well designed, it has a good shot of getting a test order from a bookstore book buyer.
Keep in mind, there are more books published each year than could fit in 7 totally empty bookstores. (And as you know, bookstores are not empty!) Because of this, the buyers can only take a teeny fraction of what is presented to them. Also, the buyers are judged (read: get to keep their jobs) by how many times their section “turns” a year. The sales rate of their choices is closely monitored. So they will pick books that they feel have the best chance to selling off the shelf several times a year.
That is where demand and platform comes in. If an author has a good platform, is reaching out to thousands, or tens of thousands of readers, is showing sales online (seen in Nielsen Bookscan reports) and has a strong PR plan with potential for a lot of media – the buyer will be far more likely to take the book in.
If the book does NOT have all of those things, then the buyer needs to see some other proof that the well-designed, beautifully-edited, fantastically-written, much-needed book won’t just sit on their shelves. There is a chance that someone will see your title on the spine on a crowded bookshelf and pick it up. If they pick it up, there is a good chance that they might buy it. (If they need or want a book like yours). But a book buyer would much rather sweeten the chances of a “turn” by stocking books that will have browse-friendly qualities AND great press. There are enough books out there that have great demand AND are great books to choose from.
Does your book have everything it needs PLUS good PR? Is your book “All That” AND a bag of chips?
Math Lessons For Small Presses – Part 3
Lesson #3 – DISTRIBUTORS
Bookstores buy books from wholesalers and distributors. The major difference is that a wholesaler is publisher’s customer (wholesalers buy books from a publisher) and a distributor is a publisher’s employee (distributors sell their services to a publisher).
A distributor handles all of the après-production elements of getting a book onto a store’s shelves. Publishers agree to funnel all of their sales, warehousing, shipping, and billing through the distributor. They do this work for a percentage of the billing generated by the sale of the publisher’s books.
Like publishers, distributors sell a book to a wholesaler or bookstore at a discount of the retail price. That discount is usually between 45 and 55 percent.
So, if bookstores get about the same terms and about the same schedule, why do they go to a distributor instead of directly to the publisher? Some bookstores (especially bookstore chains) are not interested in setting up new, small, or regional publishers in their ordering and accounting systems for just a few books. They rightly weigh the benefits of a publisher’s book against the time and trouble necessary to order it, and if the balance does not come out in the book’s favor, they skip it. How do new and small publishers avoid this terrible fate? They sign exclusive agreements with a distributor.
A distributor’s cut varies from 25 to 35 percent of the net billing of each book. Just about every distributor has additional monthly fees, and most require an initial deposit for new clients.
Before you balk, keep in mind that it is very difficult, expensive, and time consuming to handle your own warehousing, purchase shipping materials, and learn how to ship exactly how each store wishes their shipments to arrive … and everyone is different. (It’s a little joke they like to play on publishers. I am convinced that bookstore owners get together every two years to devise slightly altered yet completely incomprehensible trafficking instructions.) Then comes the billing, monthly statements, handling claims for books damaged in transit, taking in returns, and reconciling the amount due with what the bookstore believes is due.
After that, consider the money and time it takes to tell the country’s thousands of buyers about your books. The sales reps working for distributors have long-standing relationships with the book buyers in your hometown, across the country, and in the major chains. You would not be able to start a fledgling relationship on your own with these buyers. What an experienced sales rep can often do with a phone call, you could rarely accomplish with six months and a great deal of research, e-mails, flyers, catalogs, paperwork, and free samples.
Back to the math!
A book priced at retail is $16.95
A distributor sells it to a wholesaler for $7.63 (55% discount)
The distributor will charge the publisher on average $2.15 to handle that order.
Shipping and other fees will cost about $1.30 cents a book (give or take)
The publisher gets $4.18 for the book from the distributor 6 months later when the payment comes in.
After the productions costs of $3.25 are taken into consideration, the end profit is about .93 cents a book.
(AND the distributor does most of the work)
So there you have it. Math by an English Major for Publishers. Let me know if you have any questions!
Math Lessons for Small Presses – Part 2
Lesson #2
WHOLESALERS and how they sell books:
Book wholesalers are companies that buy books from publishers at a deep discount and hold them in their warehouses so that Internet and “brick and mortar” stores can order the books from them. Bookstores like to use wholesalers for a number of reasons: namely speed, convenience, and less financial exposure.
Book Distribution is not easy!
When a bookstore orders a book from a wholesaler, they will usually get their order in twenty-four hours. Next-day service is the standard from the top wholesalers. The discount a store can usually expect to receive off the retail price of the book from a wholesaler is 40 to 45 percent. What the bookstore loses in profit margin, they often make up in convenience and risk reduction. A book ordered from a wholesaler can be combined and shipped with hundreds of other books.
Some stores hire wholesalers to stock, manage, and handle all aspects of their book departments. There are large “big-box” chains that happily hand their title selection and discount negotiations over to a wholesaler that will manage the entire department for them. The same can sometimes be true for libraries. There are many U.S. library systems dependent upon wholesalers for all their new books. People at the chain or library office work with the wholesalers and oversee the choices, but how closely that is managed depends upon each individual situation.
The difference between a wholesaler and a distributor is this: A distributor works FOR the publisher. A publisher hires them to handle the warehousing, shipping, order processing and sales of their book. A wholesaler does not work for a publisher, they are the publisher’s customer. They buy books from the publisher and resell to THEIR customers.
Most wholesalers have the word “distributor” in their name. This is to identify them as companies that distribute books to bookstores and libraries, but they are not the same sort of distributor that you need when B&N sends you a letter telling you to “get a distributor”.
If you want your book to have a chance at a bookstore chain like Barnes & Noble or BooksAMillion, and if you don’t want to hire a distributor, a wholesaler is your next best bet.
The two biggest book wholesalers for the book industry right now are Ingram and Baker & Taylor. You can find their application processes on their websites. Send your books in with the proper paperwork and try to get your titles into at least one of these wholesaler’s warehouses. Ingram and B&T do not usually take small presses, but B&T will sign up a small publisher if they have enough marketing and sales plans to support the book.
Ingram has recently partnered with IBPA and through them, a small press CAN get listed in Ingram’s system. However, only a very small fraction of those books get ordered and stock at Ingram. Only the books with strong demand get stocked, the rest are just listed and Ingram will order a book from the publisher when a store backorders one. (and the kicker? Most bookstores will not back order.)
Remember, if you get an order, you will be selling your books to the wholesaler at a discount of at least 55 percent. They will usually order only as many as they need to fulfill the demand coming in from their customers … stores and libraries. If they are overstocked or books come back from the stores, they will return those books to you for a full refund. (Having fun yet?)
So, back to the math:
A book priced at retail is $16.95
A publisher sells it to a wholesaler for $7.63 (55% discount)
The wholesaler has paid $7.63 for the book.
They then turn around and sell it to the bookstore for $9.83 (40% discount off of the retail)
The wholesaler pays for the overnight shipping and packing materials. The profit for the wholesaler is $2.20
Many of my clients want to know why they have to give so much of the profit to distributors and wholesalers. The short answer is: they don’t. It is possible to convince your local stores to stock your book on consignment or to sell them directly on Amazon yourself. However, the shipping costs, time spent and number of venues that will not take your book often turn out to cost publishers FAR more than a wholesaler’s cut….
2013 Book Contests and Book Awards – Deadlines and Details
Nicole Riley spent some time this week researching the deadlines and details for the 2013 book contests and book awards. A LOT of these contests and awards do not have the 2013 information up yet, but she put them all in a great spreadsheet for us and I thought it would be nice to share! We will keep updating this spreadsheet throughout the year, so check back now and then for an update!
Please click button to access the New Shelves webpage that has the current book contest deadlines.
She did a great job researching this, but we cannot be held responsible for inaccurate information given by the sites or changed data after she pulled the details. Please use this as a starting place for your own research and verify all information on the sites!
Merry Happy Holidays!
Amy and Nicole
Math Lessons for Small Presses
Lesson #1
PUBLISHERS and how they sell books:
If a publisher wants to get their books into a bookstore or library, they will have to sell their book to a store or a wholesaler at a deep discount. That discount is usually between 40 and 55 percent off of the retail price. It can sometimes be 60 percent or more if the store is part of a chain or a wholesaler that has a central warehouse and has extra costs associated with getting the books to THEIR customers.
The book buyer for the wholesaler or store will contact the publisher, place a purchase order for books, and expect to receive them in five to seven days. They expect to be billed for these books, but will usually require at least ninety days to pay.
If you want to become a publisher, here are a few things you should think about. You have to plan and budget carefully. Small presses usually aren’t paid for three to four months or longer. Plan for not getting paid for 6-7 months.
You will have to pay to ship the books to them. They rarely will pay a small press for shipping. If you want to take a stand, I applaud you! But it will cost you some sales.
Now, are you ready for the big hit? Publishers may not even see the money they think they are owed because the books are bought on a returnable basis. Fully returnable. One hundred percent. (Or as we used to say when we were kids: backsies!) After a publisher has shipped a book to a store, the bookstore has the right to ship it right back for any reason.
So, a book priced at retail is $16.95
A publisher sells it to a wholesaler for $7.63 (55% discount)
The publisher then waits sometimes 6 months for the $7.63 or for the book to be returned.
If the book’s printing and design/editorial costs are in line with what they should be, each book should have cost the publisher approximately $ 3.25 per unit to produce.
The shipping and distribution costs of GETTING a $16.95 book to the wholesaler is usually around $3.50 a book. (this factors in calls to stores and wholesalers, sample copies or flyers sent to buyers, shipping of books, materials, returns… it assumes that you are doing everything yourself.
That leaves the publisher .88 cents a unit in profit.
Where does all the rest of the money go? Why does a wholesaler take so much? That leads us to next week’s Lesson #2
What Does an Author Website Need?
— By Amy the Meanie —
There are a few different ways that you can handle your website plan. If you are an author with a great deal of expertise, create a website that will last beyond just the publication of your book. Create a website that has your entire brand under it. In that website that handles everything, you can then have a series of pages and subpages for your books.
For example. Karen Kang has created a company called Branding Pays. http://brandingpays.com/
On the webpage is a sub page for the book: http://brandingpays.com/book/
On THAT page is another level of subpages with details and content to educate and entice the reader to buy her book:
- EARLY PRAISE
- CONTENTS
- AUTHOR
- EVENTS
- WEBINARS/COACHING
Here is another example of an author who has a great brand and consulting business and uses his website to draw attention to all he offers. The book page is important and easy to see, but only used as a part of what he is offering.
What I like about this site is that when he has a new book come out, he highlights it right away on the top of the main page. But when other projects take precedence, he highlights those instead. He has a terrific drop down menu for all of his books and each page is clear, persuasive and very visual.
http://eosworldwide.com/traction/eos-traction-book/
He also cross-sells his other seminar and consulting services on each page. Subtle, not pushy, but effective.
There are a number of good reasons to create a website that highlights the book only. I have a client in a very regulated industry who will not allow him to cross-sell any services. His industry constraints make it necessary to separate the book from his business completely. He has done a terrific job on his website:
http://dollarsanduncommonsense.com/index.html
This is a wonderful example of a simple site that hits all the basics:
- A page that lists the media hits and tells the media how to get in touch with him
- An author bio
- A button/page that allows media and buyers to download samples.
- A good contact page.
- His front page shows him on TV as an expert and gives the browser a good idea of what his book and message is about.
- Several locations where folks can “Buy the book”
This is an extremely simple website that has all the “must haves”.
But what are the other possible elements an author/book site should include? Here is a list.
- Home page with a brief, short, just-a –few-sentences about why someone should buy the book. Not a description of the book, but a promise of what reading the book will deliver.
- “Buy the book” buttons on every page that link to all the major places from where you want them to buy your book. (indie bound, Amazon, B&N.com Books-A-Million.com) Don’t just use Amazon, be fair to everyone.
- About the Author. Author bio, short form and long form. Author photo and a link to allow media to download a high res version of the author photo. For non-fiction authors, credentials, CV, list of awards…. Etc.
- An Event page with press releases, event photos, calendar of events, contact information for those wishing to host an event.
- It is nice to start and maintain a list of reviews and endorsements right from the beginning. What are people saying about your book? Put it on the webpage!
- Your blog (even if it is a duplication of another blog address)
- Your Table of Contents and a sample chapter
- If you have a media page (and you most likely should), make sure you make thing easy for the poor reporter. Headshot, bio, press releases, sample chapters, front cover, full cover spread, and contact information should be very easy to find. Make sure everything is high resolution.
- If you want to make a page that shows where you have been, put a few on the front page too to impress browsers. Use the logos from the stations you have been on and newspapers/blogs you have appeared in.
- Link to EVERYTHING you can on line (most TV and radio shows now have online links. Find your clip and link it). If you write an article for another blogger or for a news outlet. Link it!
- Links to other authors/books/sites you find helpful. Links help search engines find you
- Have at least three levels of pages. Main, Secondary and Tertiary. SEO works better with three levels of pages and make sure you link all three levels on each page. (Third level links to an article on the second level. Second level always links to the main page and a tertiary page as well.)
This is by no means a complete list, I am sure there are things other authors have done that are extremely cool, but this is the list of what has proven to be helpful and effective for many of my clients.
D5 Creation