Moving Forward

It's a new season. "The Shopping Cart Man" is still self-published. I'm not in any major bookstores. How will I move inventory?

I've pinged a dozen or so small bookstores. Two have placed orders for books. Others haven't responded. Two others (the BYU Bookstore, and Hallmark in the mall) have agreed to review the book, and I'm waiting hear back. (I'll have to stop by again...) And, my friends who run a seasonal shop in the mall called and said they're going to do it again and invited me back.

Meanwhile, the biggest sales point in the US - outside of bookstores - seems to be Amazon.com. I studied up on it and applied for, and was approved as, a vendor for them. They also approved the book. So, now I'm trying to get it noticed on their site.

I've learned that simply posting a page there isn't enough. You have to get it into their search engine. Your book has to show up as one of the "customers who bought this, also bought this" results for people browsing the site. The way to do that (short of paying the $10k to get into their top-line marketing program) is to get family and friends to get their family and friends to search for the book, review the book, and even buy the book. The more activity around the book, the more likely it will get noticed by the search engine.

It's an ongoing struggle, but one I'm currently pursuing. I'll add more later...

Why Repeat

I clearly vowed to never self-publish again, and yet, I did. Why?

I continued to write, simply for me, not for money. I enjoy it. I certainly wouldn't MIND some money, but I'm not expecting it. I hope to be able to continue enjoying writing.

The story of "The Shopping Cart Man" came to me strong and hard one day, as I pondered how I could have done a better job in helping a homeless man that I was sure just wanted to "buy beer." Seeing him split a kid's meal with a homeless lady left a searing, indelible imprint on my memory. As I thought of how I could have done better, and the "what if" scenario of how the man could have been helped, the story for "The Shopping Cart Man" came flooding to me.

It took a year to put it into the resulting novel. But, it was an enjoyable year. I embellished the story, enhanced the characters, made the experience more intriguing. "What would it be like if one of the characters was mute?" I pondered. "Why would he be mute? What happened to him?..."

It was enjoyable writing. It was totally original. It was fun expression.

I let family and friends read it. They weren't just kind, they seemed to sincerely enjoy it. Several said it reminded them of the kind of show that would be "on the Hallmark Channel."

Around Christmas season, my new friends who ran a seasonal store in the Mall asked if I wanted to sell my other book there again. They also asked if I had anything more to sell.

Knowing I did NOT want to self-publish, I also knew that I was in no position to get my Christmas book published in time. I was still putting final touches on it...

I weighed the opportunities and risks.

It was a Christmas-themed book (although not solely a Christmas book). Theirs was a Christmas store.

They were willing to let me do a window display, signings at-will, and even a poster.

It was a smallish store, with few other books, so mine wouldn't get lost in the shuffle.

I decided to risk it. I printed 500 copies, which was 10 times what I estimated I'd sell, but was at the best cost per book ratio. Being a Christmas story, I figured that it could be sold again on succeeding Christmases, so that I wouldn't have to recoup all of my printing costs in the first year.

I also decided that I could try selling off the first printing, and then hope that it would get noticed and picked up by an actual publisher. And, if it sold well, perhaps the track record would make it more appealing to a publisher.

I went forward with it. I did several signings. This time, it continued to sell even when I wasn't there doing signings. It sold well enough that I recouped about 80% of my costs. That far exceeded what I had hoped. That means that it's still not a money-maker, but it's also not a money-pit, either. In fact, it indicates that it has potential.

So, in the succeeding months, I did pursue formal publication, but as of now, it is still solely a self-published item. I hope that no one holds that against me...

It is far from easy to break into this business. Clearly, I need an agent....

Self Publishing Means...

As acknowledged previously, I've had some people indicate that they'd be interested in hearing of the triumphs and travails of self-publishing. I'll give a bit of a re-cap here, so I can then move forward with current conditions.

My first point and summary statement is simply this, avoid self-publishing.

If you self-publish, you also self-distribute.

Don't underestimate the time and effort it takes to try to get your book into a bookstore - especially if you don't have connections. Many of the larger bookstores will either NOT consider self-published works, period. Or, they will only accept works from vendors who have a minimum of 10 items to offer.

This isn't to be harsh, it's so they can effectively and efficiently run their business. Large bookstores have multiple vendors who provide them with inventory. Each vendor takes some of their time. They have to set up accounts, communicate with, track inventory, place orders, coordinate the return of product, and so forth. The bookstore needs to account for each vendor, whether they offer 1 or 100 items. It is simply more cost-effective for the bookstore to deal with vendors with whom they have an established relationship, a known track record, and multiple products.

Working with an author with one book to offer, who comes in off the street, with whom they have NO track record, whose products are unknown to both them and their customers, and who may not be responsive if product is returned from customers, is a risky situation at best. I can see why bookstores are leery of dealing with authors who serve as their own distributor.

If you self-publish, you must also self-market.

If you thought distribution was difficult, try marketing. Not only are their a myriad of opportunities and avenues to consider and pursue, but they are almost ALL very costly. IF you manage to get your book included in one of the monthly magazines that advertise books, you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 to $2000 for that one-month spot. And, you virtually cannot get into the magazine before you have managed to get into the bookstore or bookstores who sponsor the magazine. Hence, distribution is your first hurdle.

You also have nearly no way of tracking how much of an impact your advertising will make. When "The Title of Liberty" came out, I paid $1000 for putting together and airing a 30-second radio spot that aired around 20 times. (It was actually a good one with a cute closer. It was professionally done, but I had my daughter say, "It's the best book my dad's ever written about Captain Moroni!") I had people tell me they heard the ad and got a chuckle out of it - which meant that I had succeeded at making it memorable, which is crucial, but I had NO IDEA if it actually generated any sales.

I also learned that even if you get your book into large bookstores - which I did - it doesn't mean that any further marketing will take place within the bookstores. The euphoria of seeing my first book on a true, honest-to-goodness bookstore bookshelf was very short-lived. I saw it there, and almost immediately thought, "Hey, there's no flashing light highlighting this book! There are no arrows on the carpet leading people to it! There are no signs on the wall advertising it! How the heck will people know it's here?"

I quickly learned that, especially in the bigger bookstores, if you weren't published by them, you can't market at them. You can't put up posters. You can't set up window displays. You can't do signings. About all you can do is pay hundreds to be in their catalog for a month.

(I even convinced local managers that they would like me to do a signing for them, but they had to follow corporate policy, which meant that the signings had to be arranged through corporate. In contacting corporate, they would say they only work with the "publisher". When I would point out that I WAS the publisher, they would then say that they would have to work with the "distributor". I would get them in touch with my distributor, but nothing ever came of it. I've never managed to hold a signing in a large bookstore.

Note that my first book was an "assisted publication" for which I had a distributor, but I was the publisher, which meant that the distributor got me into large bookstores, but I paid for the printing, marketing, and other headaches... An "assisted publication" is only slightly up a step from "self-published".)

There is one other thing to try. You can find the books on the stores' bookshelves and offer to sign them, and have the staff sticker them. Even better, you can get to know the staff and encourage them to recommend your book when customers ask. I made it a twice-weekly practice to drive to all of the bookstores that carried my book and go in and sign the ones on the shelf and meet the staff. I even wrote to each bookstore manager and thanked them for carrying my book and offered to be at their disposal if there was anything I could do to help it succeed.

I never heard back from a single manager.

I quickly found that the books that were stickered with "autographed copy" were still on the shelf on succeeding visits.

I learned that large bookstores have a lot of staff. I don't think I EVER talked to the same staff members a second time. There was virtually no way for me to gain a repoire with them. Sure, maybe one would recommend the book to someone after I left, but then that person's shift would end and another would come along who hadn't heard of my book.

Self-marketing can be murder. And, it KILLS your motivation to write.

I really did put in quite the effort. I have had some success with my first book. I've sold 2,000 of the 3,000 copies that I printed. I'm told that's respectible. When I've placed ads, I've received payment that covered the ads and then some. However, I don't believe I'll ever recoup the cost of printing the books in the first place. It's great to have a good looking book out there, but it's certainly not a money-maker.

It didn't take long for me to vow I'd never self-publish again.

One highlight is I've let me kids see and hear what it takes to try to follow a dream and make it successful - and to keep trying even when it's a struggle. I want them to learn to be persistent at the things that are important to them. One Christmas season, I managed to get into a small bookstore that let me do signings. (I also noted that the only books that sold were when I was there doing signings.)

I earned a few hundred dollars. When the check came, I took my five kids to the store and let them pick out new bikes. I gave them a budget and they looked over the bikes with wide eyes. Each one picked one they really liked. I told them that the bikes were being paid for with money earned from the book signings. I wanted them to see that if you work hard, sometimes even the little successes can be worthwhile.