Wholeselling Books to a Large Retailer

There is an article by Pat Volchok titled "The Big Little Bookstore" in the November, 2008 issue of Costco Connection. It offers rare insights into the people and process involved with purchasing books for the Costco stores which are one of the top five book sellers in the U.S. Following is a brief summary of the points of particular interest to self publishers.

1. A four person team decide which books will be sold in the stores.
2. Two hundred titles are selected at a time.
3. The buyers are interested in creating local and then national interest in a title.
4. Selection of titles is guided by the demographics of Costco members, i.e. they are considered upscale, informed, and opinion makers.
5. Books are purchased from independent authors, small publishers, and publishing houses.
6. Titles carried on the website are more numerous than in the store. The website has its own buyer.
7. Guidelines for submitting a title for consideration can be obtained at (866) 678-9390 or online at books@costco.com/

Mata Oritz Pottery: Art and Life and I Can't See But I Can Imagine

There are two new websites located in the Important Links and Local Authors section of the blog. The first is the newly released self published title, Mata Ortiz Pottery: Art and Life, by Ron Goebel. The title is found on his website http://mataortizpottery.com/.

The second is a children's book titled, I Can't See but I Can Imagine, by Patricia Wilson. Her book website is at http://icantseebubticanimagine.com/. While visiting her site, be sure to check out the music that accompanies the book. Pat also has a related blog at http://icantseebuticanimagine.blogspot.com/. The blog offers lots of tips and advice for self publishers.

More on Print on Demand

The buzz about print on demand (POD) seem to become louder every day. When POD is incorporated into publisher services ( an often-seen occurrence), it can become very confusing. Some clarity can be found at http://www.writersweekly.com, hosted by Angela Hoy .

Angela appears to work very hard to tell it like it is. She is currently involved in a running commentary with Bowkers, the U.S. representative for ISBN, regarding what an ISBN is about. Her previous discussion regarding Amazon and their POD activities gained considerable attention on the net.

Take a look at her site and particularly the comparison of POD/publisher service companies.

Do it Yourself Book Club

There is a new service that provides the means of creating your own book club. Called Booksprouts, it makes available a free platform were it is possible to set up the club, invite people to join, have them buy the book, read it, and then discuss it.

The interesting element for self publishers is that you can select your own book and form a reading group around it. Imagine the response if you posted the book club info on the wall of all your Facebook friends!

For this to work on Booksprouts, your book needs to be available through the usual Internet outlets (Amazon, Abe Books, etc.). So, you make the usual amount on the sale through the outlet and the Booksprouts people make their money as a reseller (usually an 8% commission paid by the outlet). Pretty neat!

Give them a visit at Booksprouts

Book Club Outlets

Book clubs are another outlet for your book. They usually pay royalties of 4% of the cover price if sold at $1 a piece. If sold at the regular book club price, the royalty can be 8% of the cover price. There are many national clubs, most of which specialize in a genre. A Google search can help in making a choice on who to approach about your book and here are a few to get you started.

Book of the Month Club
Children's Book of the Month Club
Conservative Book Club
History Book Club
Progressive Book Club

5 Points of Book Promotion

Here is a nice, concise list of points that the major book publishers use when creating and then working a marketing plan. The points are in their order of importance.

1. Prominent Bookstore Placement. This usually means at/near the front door and/or along the most frequently-traveled isles. Major publishers pay to occupy the spaces.
2. Author Tours. A mainstay of authors everywhere, a tour could include a reading, book signing, short seminar, etc. Contact groups/book stores in a geographic area and schedule the event before hitting the road. Your audience wants to see and hear what you have to say (and the groups/book stores appreciate the attention).
3. Online Marketing. This continues to be a largely unexplored outlet that all publishers are rushing into. Take your book online through your own website or blog. To guarantee more viewers, use an established online retailer such as Amazon.com.
4. Appeals to Book Clubs. Whether a national book club or a local one, be sure to let them know that you and your book are available. Read from an existing book, tell of your plans for the next title, offer to help aspiring writers, etc.
5. Community Reading Organization. Local entities such as a public library system, will often hold programs promoting reading. Contact as many as you can and offer your services and book, maybe even help set up such a program for them.

Marketing Your Book

Free Book Excerpts is another means of gaining more exposure for your self-published book. An easy-to-use, two step process will get an excerpt from your book before Internet-savy readers. Give them a visit here.

Amazon and Print on Demand

Looks like the Print on Demand (POD) option for self-publishers has become more complicated. Amazon is telling self-publishers, among others, that if they want Amazon to carry their title, they must use their POD, Book Surge. However, if the self-publisher uses another POD service, they can still sell through Amazon but must use the Advantage program (with all its associated fees and commissions). Check out the discussion at Computerworld and gain more insight at Writers Weekly.

Book Stores and Book Sales

There has been a great deal of conflicting information in the news lately about book stores and book sales. It appears that a number of long-time book stores are closing--particularly in the East. Meanwhile here in Central Oregon, a couple of new independent book stores have opened. Hurray for them!

Similarly, the news about book sales has been mixed. Some retail chains and publishers are reporting huge losses, often associated with write-downs, while others report a greater-than-expected sales volume and overall profit.

One thing is apparent: many (most) of the big publishing houses are copying the sales strategies used by the self publisher. Good for us!!!

Marketing Your Book

The Indie Book Awards are back! If you have a title with a copyright date of 2007 or 2008, enter it in the contest. There will be cash prizes and lots of exposure; hence, the idea of marketing your book. Find all the details here.

Sell Your Book by the Chapter

Sell you book by the chapter? Might be a good idea--particularly if you have an ebook or book website.

Random House Publishing just announced that they will give it a try. The cost of a chapter will be $2.99. The price seems a bit high but it is a place to start. Let me know your experiences with it.

A Good Experience with Lulu

R.L. Coffield, a former member of the Self Publish and Sell Your Book class, is in the process of publishing another book. This one deals with cooking recipes that can be accomplished in the galley of a small sail boat. There has been lots of favorable comments about the soon-to-be-released title.

R.L. has used various elements of several different self publishing services for her titles and reports that Lulu.com is by far the best. She found them to be extraordinarily helpful, produces a quality product, and is reasonably priced--both for single and multiple copies. When you are ready to talk to a publishing service, visit them first at Lulu.com.

Powell's Books and selling your book

Scott Timberg of the Los Angeles Times writes today about Powell's Books in Portland and the issues it faces as Michael Powell retires. An interesting piece, it has at least two elements of note for the self publishing author who sells their own books. The first is the overwhelming presence of Amazon and warehouse clubs in terms of book sales. The second is the continuing potential of downloadable books.

It seems to me that the self publisher needs to: 1) plan on selling through Amazon and 2) plan on having a downloadable version of the book. Both have importance when determining the retail price of the book. Read it all here.

Amazon Book Sales

Amazon just released their book sales figures, truly amazing. They were up 41% and the dollar amount was in the billions.

Also given were the sales figures for the latest Harry Potter--reported as 2.5 million copies.

In addition, there was an announcement about Amazon's blog.

Read all about it here.

Publisher Service News

From today's Publishers Lunch:

POD Publishers MergeThe parent company of self-publisher Author House announced the acquisition of iUniverse yesterday, on undisclosed terms, with the two units maintaining their separate identities under a broader banner of Author Solutions. Author House ceo Bryan Smith tells the WSJ, "This is about creating better options for our customers by combining a wide sweep of services. Cost-cutting isn't the driver, although there will be savings because of economies of scale. The driver here is the opportunity for growth."

In the press release, iUniverse ceo Susan Driscoll says, "We have always been focused on providing authors with the publishing expertise required for professional results. Now, through Author Solutions, we have a terrific opportunity to provide all authors--both self-published and traditionally published--with the broadest range of services to help them achieve their individual goals for success."Author Solutions comprises the two pod self-publishers, plus the "more traditional entity" called Rooftop Publishing and a soon-to-be-announced Lulu.com competitor called Wordclay, providing what Driscoll calls a "family of brands that service a wide range of different authors with different goals."iUniverse intends to stay on its established track of trying to offer "a self-publishing experience that rivals what [authors] would get from a traditional publisher...with advice and expertise to guide them to make the right decisions."

The company had leveraged its minority ownership by Barnes & Noble, and Driscoll indicates that "we're continuing with the relationship." She adds, "We'll certainly have meetings after the deal closes with the BN team to figure out how everybody can benefit from this."

Promoting Your Book

Promote you late 2006-2007 book by submitting its title to USA Book News. Not only will it will gain some publicity, it will be in the running for an award. The entry deadline is August 31, 2007!
Complete details can be found at http://www.usabooknews.com/bestbooksawards2007.html%20

More Harry Potter

I don't know why, but I could not resist one more post about the Harry Potter book as found on Publishers Lunch:

"Big Surprise: Record HP Pre-Orders at AmazonAmazon announced sales so far of over 1 million copies in the US, and over 1.6 million copies worldwide, ahead of the "record" 1.5 million pre-orders for the sixth Harry Potter.Adding to their promotional losses, Amazon is now giving "a $5 Amazon.com promotional certificate to use on a future purchase in the month of August" to anyone in the US who pre-orders. They say they have "saved customers more than $23 million on purchases of the book."

Welcome Business Bloggers

Welcome to those who enrolled in the Business Blogging class. It promises to be an interesting journey through the business blogosphere.

The first session will cover business blogs: what they are and their advantages, different types blogs, and how to help people read them. Then, you will construct a blog of your own and place it on the Internet!

The second session will explore customizing, optimizing, and promoting your blog as well as how to generate an additional revenue stream with it.

I look forward to our first session:

May 24, 2007

Thursday

6:00 p.m.

Pioneer Hall 200A

COCC

Harry Potter as of 5/07

In case you missed it, Amazon just indicated that they have received over 1 million Harry Potter pre-orders worldwide to date (accrued in just 95 days), including 620,000 copies in the US and over 250,000 copies the UK. The good news is that Amazon increased its discount on pre-orders to 49 percent off.

Reading Grade Level of Children’s Books, Part II

Part I of this thread began a discussion of the classification and age range of a children’s book. It suggested that the reading grade level might be of more value, mentioning Microsoft Word’s built-in function for determining a document’s readability.


The function produces something called the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level Score. The average length of sentences (number of words in a sentence divided by the number of sentences) and the average number of syllables per word (the number of syllables divided by the number of sentences), determines the score.


The score represents a reading grade level, i.e. a score of 6.0 indicates that a sixth grade student in the U.S. should be able to read the document. This post has a reading grade level score of is 11.6.


Access the function by clicking on Help in your version of Word, typing the word readability in the search field, and following the instructions. Those with Word 2007 need to configure the function and click on the Review tab. Next, click on the Spelling & Grammar icon to see a document’s score.


Part III of this thread looks at determining the reading grade level of a manuscript that is not a Microsoft Word document.