How To Get Your Book Stocked By Retailers – One Of The Biggest Hurdles Of Self Publishing
One of the biggest challenges with self-publishing a book is getting it into stores. For most authors, seeing their book gracing the shelves of a bookshop for the first time is one of the biggest thrills of getting your book published, but when you have self-published your book it isn’t usually a straightforward process. I am still working hard at getting my book, Corrupted stocked by more shops in the UK and have encountered a few hurdles along the way. I hope this post helps anyone who is about to go about introducing their book to retailers and it will hopefully give you ideas of how you can achieve your goal.
Step One: Get Your Book Stocked By A Wholesaler
If you are serious about getting your book stocked by book shops one of the first steps towards achieving that is to get it stocked by a wholesaler. In the UK there are several to choose from, but I opted for Gardners. They will keep a stock of your book and distribute it to any shops for you, including Amazon. Prepare yourself though as it might take a while to get paid from distributors, but if you want to be taken seriously then this is an important step. Gardners stock Waterstones, WHSmiths and many other retailers.
Step Two: Research The Buyers
The next step is to find out the names of the buyers for each of the companies you want to approach. You want to find out who is in charge of buying from your genre and get their contact details. Prepare an email introducing your book, remember to add information about your wholesaler, target market, any publicity you have had, book signings, anything that will support your application to be stocked by them. Attach your book cover image, a press release and email it to them. Follow up your email with phone calls, it may take a while to get through to the person you need to reach as they are very busy and in meetings quite a lot, but don’t give up. When you do finally get them on the phone, remember that first impressions count and treat your conversation as a sales call. Be succinct and explain why your book will sell, as quickly as you can. Hopefully they will ask you to send them a copy of the book.
Step Three: Be Patient
There is a fine line between being persistent and being annoying! Give the buyers the opportunity to evaluate the book but make sure you follow up when you can to get feedback and find out their decision. They are busy people so they will not appreciate being pestered but they will have so much to do you don’t want them to forget you either. Be polite, friendly and keep your fingers crossed. I found when I have approached buyers often they will automatically ask you who your publisher is, if you are self-published then make sure you tell them about the 4000 downloads you have had on Kindle in the last few months, and everything you are doing to promote your book. Showing you are pro-active is very important.
Step Four: Don’t Give Up
It is very frustrating that quite often there is one person working for a company who is the gate-keeper and has the power to make or break your books success. If your book has been accepted by the head buyer then congratulations, this is just the beginning, once you’re in with one major retailer it will start to become a lot easier for you to get into more. If however you’re book is rejected then don’t lose faith, gather sales from book signings, events and with your e-book and through Amazon. Approach shops individually and offer to do a signing to support your books sales. I have so far managed to get my book into about 10 WHSmith stores and 5 Waterstones, as well as many indie bookshops. Continue to build relationships with the managers and aim to re-approach the buyers with all of this added information to support you. Keep trying and eventually you will see your book in many more stores and maybe one day really soon, it will be in the charts! Good luck and I hope this helps you!
P.S, in case you wondered Corrupted isn’t number one in the UK book charts yet, I took a photo of it in the number one spot to motivate me. It is the screen saver on my phone at the moment and it inspires me every time I look at it!
