small press distribution
I guess I'll use this to write a few articles on topics that come up around here. If I weren't addicted to answering questions and telling other folks what to do, I wouldn't be a consultant.
So, how do small presses get their books into bookstores?
The short answer is that they hire someone to do it. The usual suspects are PGW, IPG, NBN, Consortium and Midpoint Trade. Biblio also exists, as a branch of NBN, for presses that aren't doing as much business through the stores. Even Biblio gets the books into Ingram, and that is critical.
The long answer is that they have to create reader demand for the book. Reviews, particularly in the long-leads, like PW, Library Journal, Kirkus, . . . . are very important, but won't create reader demand. They do give bookstores a reason to buy, but bookstores will send those books right back unless someone else takes them to the front register right quickly.
So, the real question is:
How do we get readers to want our book?
First, the author should have written to and for a specific audience. You have to hope that the writer has been thinking hard about the person reading those words.
--What do they want from this book?
--What about the book might give them that benefit, and how can the writer give them more of it?
--What else does this person do, and where can these people be found in large groups?
--Is there anything about those activities or groups that can be used in the book that will make it easier to hook their interest later? Or that will improve the reader's experience of this book?
Believe it or not, all of the above can apply to fiction, too. Go back and look carefully. Fiction readers have needs that the works are filling, but they may not be as obvious or as conscious. The writer might be well-advised to try to understand what will trigger this satisfaction with the book, and put more of it in.
So, now you know that the book will satisfy your audience, who the audience is, and where they are. The author has made the publisher's marketing department a much happier crew. All they have to do is find those groups, and figure out a way to get them to notice the book.
In some groups, the message can be delivered by placing comp copies in the hands of opinion makers.
In others, you have the author write some articles for newsletters and such on ancillary topics. These articles should always have the book in the author info, and should use the book as an example or illustration anywhere it can reasonably fit.
And so on, and so forth. More ideas are in some of the books listed in the reviews section on my web site.
[The site is here.
The Reference Desk (for publishers, mostly) is here.
The Reviews are here.]
Please feel free to comment on the ideas here, or in any of my other entries. The free exchange of ideas and experience helps small publishers survive and helps ensure the vibrant life of the mind that makes us all richer.
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mariongropen) wrote,
