Sell Your Book Without Bookstores
In the last four weeks, one of my clients sold over 10,000 books, without ever hassling with bookstores. Here’s how your book can generate this kind of quantity sales this quickly:
Background
It all started when Stuart Ballan attended my Publishing Game Workshop. According to a Harvard Business School report, 84% of books in large US bookstores sell 2 copies or fewer each year; only 2% sell 10 or more copies in a year. In addition to these dismal statistics, Stuart was stymied by another complication: He lives in Israel, rather than the US, so marketing books in the US was sure to be more complicated for him. So Stuart decided, with my encouragement, to temporarily ignore US bookstores for his children’s book, “Who Invented Vegetables?”
Put the books into a non-bookstore venue
Stuart was intrigued by my anecdotes of selling my Publishing Game books into Boston-area coffeeshops and movie theatres. Non-bookstore venues have several key advantages: They pay better (60% and up, instead of 45%), they pay upon receipt (rather than 60-90 days later), and they don’t return books. Most importantly, however, there is no competition—because unlike a bookstore with hundreds of thousands of titles, coffeeshops, movie theatres, and other non-traditional venues generally don’t sell books. Once the decision was made to ignore bookstores, the question became, where would Stuart’s vegetable book sell in quantity?
Focus on the meta-customer
Rather than trying to sell to millions of end-customers, Stuart decided to focus on those who had the most to gain by selling the subject of his book: Vegetable exporters and retailers. The largest retailers of vegetables, he realized, are the major supermarket chains. And the chains are much easier to focus on than the thousands of individual vegetable stands.
Give them a reason to buy now
Not only did Stuart want the chains to consider stocking the book in their grocery stores, he wanted to give the chains an impetus to buy the book immediately. Since the Jewish holiday of Shavuot is associated with vegetables, he presented it to the chains as a timely item, that would sell best if in the stores in the last few weeks of May, just before the holiday.
The results
Stuart approached the largest supermarket chain in Israel. Within a week, his book was available in over 150 supermarkets across the country. Not content to rest on his laurels, Stuart then approached the major vegetable growers and exporters, and offered the books as a holiday gift item for children of employees and clients. For orders over a certain quantity, he would even put logos and personalized messages on the inside cover.
Results? Over 10,000 copies sold in a matter of weeks. Proportional to population size, that would be the equivalent of over 500,000 book sales in the US.
And because of the tremendous sales records, Stuart was then able to approach a US supermarket chain with his idea—so in a few months, you’re likely to see Stuart’s vegetable book in your local grocery store.
So think quantity sales, think outside the box venues, and think creative.
If you’d like to explore how your book could generate quantity sales outside of bookstores, call Fern for a one-on-one consultation: http://www.PublishingGame.com/consulting.htm Fern Reiss, CEO of PublishingGame.com/Expertizing.com, is the author of The Publishing Game: Bestseller in 30 Days (book promotion), The Publishing Game: Find an Agent in 30 Days (traditional publishing), and The Publishing Game: Publish a Book in 30 Days (self-publishing). You can sign up for her email list on publishing and book promotion at http://www.PublishingGame.com/signup.htm
Last 5 posts by Fern Reiss
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June 19th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
we have a book in spanish and we want to know if you can sell it in your bookstore.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
I’ve sold over 75,000 copies of my “Owner to Owner: Guide to WorldMark Ownership” in the past five years — and not one through a bookstore.
Sell 10,000 copies to a bookstore chain and six months later you’re liable to get back 9,997 unsold books.
Instead, identify and sell to a targeted audience. In my case, it’s 250,000 timeshare owners and the associated infrastructure (sales, upgrades, gift shops, as well as on eBay).
Another very lucrative market is school and public libraries, school teachers and other educators; big market few returns.
Another of my books IS marketed to bookstores, but it’s still a target market. The book, a photo book called “Whidbey: My Eye” is available at bookstores on Whidbey Island, and is a favorite of tourists wanting to take home an inexpensive souvenir. This book would not sell didly squat in a bookstore, for example, in Texas. So I don’t market to bookstores in general, but only local ones (along with museum gift shops, souvenir shops, etc.). I’ve also had some success offering this book as a fund raiser for churches and schools.
As Fern says, think outside the box – sell more books, avoid returns, and smile all the way to the bank.
June 20th, 2007 at 6:23 am
Hi,
Please advise how can I sell 10,000 children’s books every month.
Is that possible?
Regards,
Maria
June 21st, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Enjoyed your article and appreciate the stats.
Here’s what I want to know about:
1) Who’s the best point of contact for these venues and are there any best practices for reaching them?
2) Should one expect to pay to have his books placed in these non-book store venues?
Many thanks for sharing your insight.
Sonya
June 21st, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Your article was very rewarding. Thank you. I belong to the SCBWI. I write and illustrate bilingual children’s books (English/Spanish) and would love to get them published in South Florida Public School System. I have never been published.
Zoa
June 29th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Wow, what a very interesting article.
I live in New York City, what better place to sell a kids book about New York. That is just what I did, I self published my own New York children’s book,
Ned Visits New York.
The book came out the end of November and as of June I have sold over 2500 books and I am still going strong.
95% of the books I have sold have been on my own, directly to cusotmers. As long as people keep having babies and New York is still around, my book can continue to sell as long as I want it to sell.
Maybe one day I will catch up with Stuart Ballan and Rick Lawler and sell over 10,000 books!!
Kip Cosson
http://www.KipKids.com
July 5th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Can you please let me know how i can get my books in supermarkets. It’s a novel on polygamy marriages and female genital mutilation. The book would be ready in a month.
Thanks.
July 5th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Can you please let me know how i can get my books in supermarkets. It’s a novel on polygamy marriages and female genital mutilation. The book would be ready in a month.
Thanks.
July 13th, 2007 at 2:46 am
first of all i would like to congratulate you for selling your books successfully, very impressive. i just have one basic question/request. how do you write a proposal letter or what do you usually submit to book shops in order for them to agree in selling your books?
July 19th, 2007 at 9:06 am
E-books are another great way to go. I have found the owner of IdeaMarketers.com. She does a lot to help self-publishers. Her name is Marnie. You can contact her on IdeaMarketers.com