I was reading a post by another fellow author who was upset about a local “big-chain” bookstore that was not willing to host local authors for book signings. Without much of an excuse, except they don’t do that, we are all left to wonder, why? Is it because we are not important enough yet? Is it because we aren’t making enough sales yet? Yes – to both.
We are currently nobodies. We are trying to push a book, WE believe in, but they haven’t read. Not that they would read it. They expect the sales to tell them if it is a good book or not. If you haven’t gotten thousands of sales, they have their answer.
But how do you get thousands of sales?
Well, you market it. You publicize it. You push it every chance you can get. And if you are lucky enough to have gotten the sales, there is another catch… but it took you two years to do it. You need to have a million sales in 3 months – at least the traditional publishing houses expect that or they drop you (for the most part).
So how do you do it? Well you could be a famous actor/actress, musician or public figure that everyone already knows. Your name connected to anything you do no matter how good it is, will get the sales. Or you could be an already established author that already claims a household name and every book you write is a best seller, whether it deserves it or not.
Between you and me; I’ve read a few books by “best sellers” and thought, really? They published that? And it’s a best seller? Why?
Because they already ARE someone.
Now, I do have to add that many successful authors worked hard. A traditional publishing house took a chance on them. They are living the dream and have worked hard for it and I am very happy for them…
However, primarily, and what I am focusing on today, is the fact that once you have that name – it is so much easier.
So there is the catch – you have to be someone to make the sales and you have to make the sales to become someone.
Oh if only I were born into the world of stars. If only I were some important actress BEFORE I decided to write. Then the news organizations would be clamoring to talk to me and put me on the air where I could banter for 3 minutes about absolutely nothing and then say, “Oh yeah, there’s this book I wrote…” and everyone in the nation goes out and buys it.
But alas, I am not royalty, to quote a popular song, so I will make my own roads to travel down and take the no’s with a grain of salt and continue; because that is what we do.
We persist until we prevail, no matter how long it takes.
To all self-published authors who truly believe in their books and are continuing to push – keep up the good work. WE WILL MAKE IT! No matter how long it takes.
I think one reason big chain stores won’t buy or schedule book signings for little known authors is that they do not want to buy books on which they cannot guarantee sales and are nonreturnable. Book stores hate to keep inventory for long periods and don’t want to buy what they cannot sell in a short time.
I definitely agree with this although there is a little more to it. If your book is done properly you have a buy back program, so whatever inventory they can’t sell, they can sell back to you and not lose any money, just a little time and shelf space. There is also the option that you could setup a table and wait to see if anyone approaches you for a book. You could bring all of your own inventory, give the store a portion of the proceeds and if the signing goes well, you could discuss shelf space with them after. They aren’t out anything except about 4 feet of floor space for your table for a day. You are out an entire day but the exposure is enormous. Mom and pop stores are great about this but they are being pushed out of business by the big chains. Then the big chains won’t assist the small author so where does that leave us? Wondering how to make it big when we don’t have a big name to go with our book.