10 Reasons Self-Publishers Should Avoid Selling to Bookstores

The Business of Self-Publishing

Updated September 5, 2023 Subtitle Getting bookstores to accept your book and give it shelf space is time-consuming, difficult to achieve, and costly Synopsis Getting bookstores to accept your book and give it shelf space is time-consuming, difficult to achieve, and costly for the self-publisher. Here are ten reasons a new self-publisher should AVOID spending valuable time and money trying to get their book into brick-and-mortar bookstores. What You Will Learn 1. You will learn why you should avoid selling your books to bookstores. 2. You will learn why most self-publishers will not make money selling through bookstores. 3. You will learn why bookstores do not want to sell self-published books. Introduction Getting bookstores to accept your book and give it shelf space is time-consuming, difficult to achieve, and costly for the self-publisher. Most bookstores are reluctant to take books from self-publishers. And to make matters worse, as a small independent or self-publisher, you would be at the complete mercy of the bookstores. They set all of the terms, whether you like them or not. But even if you do everything they want and spend lots of time and money to get a bookstore to accept your book and give it some self-space, there is no guarantee they will sell it. Here are ten practical reasons that a new self-publisher should avoid spending valuable time and money trying to get their book into brick-and-mortar bookstores: Reason # 1. Bookstores Only Take Books They Deem Will Sell More than a Few Copies They rarely believe that a self-published book will sell more than a few copies. They know that small publishers do not have the power, connections, budget, or time to execute a large and sophisticated marketing plan. Reason # 2. Bookstores Will Typically Order Less than 10 Copies Even if they accept your book and agree to give it a few inches of shelf space, most bookstores will order less than ten copies at a time. Limited space in the stockroom is one reason. Second, your book will only be given a short time to prove it will sell. If it does not sell, they will remove it from their shelf. Reason # 3. Bookstores Only Accept Books That Are Returnable to the Publisher And they might return all your books to you – and you must pay to get them back. Some big bookstore chains know that small publishers cannot afford to buy back the books. They will then offer to repurchase your books for almost nothing and put your book on their discount table. Reason # 4. Bookstores Expect the Publisher to Pay For Shipping Both Ways High shipping costs are a fact of life for the self-publisher that self-distributes. It is also time-consuming to package your books for shipping, and shipping fees are expensive. Reason # 5. Bookstores Sell Very Few Books Compared to the Online Retailers This reason is especially valid for self-publishers. Big-name, well-established authors and the most prominent publishers are the ones that get the best displays and locations in the bookstore – because they sell a lot of copies. Reason # 6. Bookstores Physically Do Not Have Enough Room to Stock All Titles The small bookstores might stock 5,000 titles. The huge bookstores might stock 140,000 titles. Amazon reserves a few million titles. You will spend lots of time and money trying to get your book into bookstores, most of which simply do not have the physical space to store your book. Reason # 7. Bookstores Will Force You to Take Back All of the Damaged Copies Your book will sit on the bookstore’s shelf, get handled, bent, banged up, etc., and then the bookstore will force you to take it back and expect you to pay for the return shipping. Reason # 8. Bookstores Have a Bias against Self-Published Books for Two Big Reasons a. The reputation of too many vanity presses and self-publishers producing low-quality, un-sellable, and un-marketable books. b.