You’ve got your ISBN, the info has been sent to Nielsen Bookdata and your shiny, new book is back from the printer. You might think that the writing, editing and printing of your self-published book was a labour of love – but the hard work might just be beginning. Book-selling is a highly competitive industry, with high street bookshops vying for customers’ cash alongside their online counterparts. Arguably, the people losing out the most are the writers themselves. So how can you give your book the best chance of being seen and making it into the hands of the great book-buying public?
First stop, Gardners…
Gardners Books is one of the UK’s biggest book wholesalers, stocking over 410,000 titles. It supplies all the major bookshops such as Waterstone’s, WH Smith, Ottakar’s, John Lewis and Tesco, as well as online store, Amazon.
Gardners supplies self-published titles in two ways – either by keeping them in stock or via Special Orders. For Gardners to consider stocking your book (which is much more convenient for you as a supplier), they will first assess it for its commercial viability. For them to do this, you need to send a copy of the book to Gardners, together with information about the publisher and any additional information (for example, publicity material, confirmed media coverage). The address to send the book to is:
Buyers New Publishers
Buying Office
Gardners Books
1 Whittle Drive
Eastbourne
East Sussex
BN23 6QH
Remember to send an SAE if you want your book back! If your book is not yet published, you can instead send advance information such as a synopsis, extract and any illustrative information you might have. Once they receive your information, Gardners usually only take about two days to make a decision. It’s worth knowing in advance (to avoid the painful shock) that Gardners will probably ask for a 55% discount from you, and possibly more.
Remember, if you’re not successful in actually getting your book into stock, Gardners will still be able to supply your book as a Special Order. Should a bookshop place an order with them, Gardners will contact you, the publisher, and ask you to supply them with a copy. It can end up being quite costly, taking postage and packing into account, which is why getting your book into stock is an excellent head start.
On the high street with Waterstone’s…
Waterstone’s very rarely deals directly with small publishers and acquires these books via Gardners. If you are successful in getting your book into stock at Gardners, you then need to set up a special Waterstone’s Account with them. To do this, contact Pat Sheehan by emailing pat.sheehan@waterstones.co.uk and ask for a Waterstone’s Trading Application Form.
Once your account is set up, Waterstone’s will get in contact to tell you that you may market your books to their branches. This means that you can send individual shops your book information and – if convenient – go to the shops in person to speak to the relevant buyer. However, you will not be able to supply the shop directly – any order the shop makes will still be placed with Gardners.
Going global with Amazon…
Creating your own high-quality website through which to sell your book is by far the most profitable way forward. However, everyone who shops online will be familiar with Amazon.co.uk
– it is a trusted brand, and can be a good way for your book to be made accessible worldwide.
Assuming that you have supplied Nielsen Bookdata with your book’s vital statistics (absolutely essential), the book should automatically appear on Amazon’s site. However, for you to see any benefit you need to apply online to become a vendor. You can join Amazon Advantage as a bookseller, for which they charge an annual members fee (£23.50 for the basic package, at the time of writing). When they receive an order for your book, they contact you by email and you send it to them. It is worth remembering, though, that it is up to you to pay to send the books to Amazon, and you may also have to pay for them to return them to you should they not sell.
Once you are an Advantage member you can enhance your book’s page with additional information, press reviews, author profile etc. However, you should be prepared for the financial downside – Amazon tend to skim off 55%-60% from the sale of a book. Not only that, but the price you give them for your book is not absolutely fixed – the price on the jacket might be £7.99, but it’s not unusual for them to knock the price down, which means that your profits are squeezed even further.
