Bookshops are vital for selling books. To see your book on a shelf in a shop, to sit inside one while a queue forms out the door to have you sign their copy, more than balances out the sigh when you see your small royalties payment.
If every independent bookshop in the UK sold just one copy of your and ordered another in their monthly Gardners box, the numbers would suddenly look very much more favourable. And even the big chains, such as Waterstones, will order your book on request from a prepaying customer on the MVB teleordering service. (MVB = Making Books Visible – probably better not to ask…).
Your local bookseller is your friend. Marketing your book so increase shop sales is therefore a benefit to both of you. So much emphasis is put on selling through social media and spreading the word globally that many hybrid publishers forget that a local campaign centred around the bookshop near you is a keystone in your becoming a well known author.
Top tips for a successful Bookshop Based Campaign
- Reach out to local press and radio for reviews for your book. Give away free copies to presenters and journalists accompanied by a story they can use. Local settings are good especially of you can supply a photograph of the place. Human interest links always go down well. Keep an eye on issues currently affecting the community and try to weave a story that makes an article about your book essential reading that week. And always include the name and contact details of the bookshop kindly putting a ‘local author’ display in their window. And these local reviews by literary journalists in small publications will give your book a lot more credibility than paid ones.
- Always email the bookshop to tell them about your book before it is published. Make an appointment to take them a free copy and discuss a book signing event (not always possible in a small shop). Be prepared to take along some author copies to put behind the counter for them to sell at full retail price and split the profit between you. Offer to either take any remaining copies away or leave them there on the same terms. Do not expect them to buy them outright. Play fair with them and they will play fair with you.
- If the bookshop has links with local schools, and many of them do, they will now be happy to help arrange an author visit to the classroom. Many schools welcome these events so there are usually no difficulties, as long as your book is suitable for the age group. Parents wishing their child to have a signed copy order books through the school who order through the bookshop. You sign in advance from a list of names provided by the school and hand them out at the end of your talk or workshop. The shop has made sales and your name is becoming known. Win win situation once again.
- Many small bookshops run their own newsletter to tell people about upcoming books. If you are figured on this, there is your book appearing in a place other than social media. It is a well know advertising mantra that if a person sees a product in three different places they will be more inclined to buy it. Think school visit, newsletter and window display, local press and / or radio. Have you made three? ~and there is still the social media aspect out there to underpin the lot.
Tweedlecoate recognises the high value of bookshops within any author/book marketing campaign:
- We send Advance Information out to sellers up and down the UK.
- We design our covers so that even the spine tells the reader to pick the book from the shelf.
- We ensure all our books are easily available from the wholesalers.
- We give a reasonable trade discount which strikes a balance between author royalties and bookshop profit margins as we consider both of equal importance. A book is useless without a reader, is worth keeping in mind here.
- We provide the author with posters and design files for marketing materials at events.
- We advise on press releases to maximise exposure opportunities.
- And we use our considerable social media marketing expertise to spread the word globally.