What are some ways I can put my book into bookstores? Please help!! ?

Question

I recently published my first book. I used a publishing website called www.lulu.com, but they only distribute my book into on-line retailers. How can I get my book into a REAL Barnes & Noble or Borders store? Is there any way I can do this in every single Barnes & Noble? Please help, I'm desperate!

Answer 1

You have a long road ahead of you. I work for one of the large bookselling chain stores and I know it will be difficult for you.

To be accuate, you didn't publish a book, you self-published a book. And self-published books have a bit of a stigma. There are two main problems with getting your books into a real Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore. First of all, many self-publishing companies will not allow stores to return books if they don't sell. Second, buyers for large booksellers have to buy thousands of books each year and they don't have time to read them all. They have to be able to rely on the publishers to ensure that a particular book is written and edited professionally. Only a very tiny percentage of self-published books have undergone an independent editorial review.

To put it bluntly, the burden is on you to show your book doesn't suck. There are some good books on self-publishing that can tell you how to market your book. If enough people start ordering or asking for it, then the book might be stocked in the stores. If you can get enough interest, your book might be picked up by a mainstream publisher. This happens rarely, but it does happen.

Good luck!

Answer 2

To answer your first question:

Barnes and Noble will not carry self-published books under any circumstances. It's hard to even get them to carry books from independent publishing companies. Sales meetings with B&N are set up between their reps and the publisher months in advance; then the publisher has literally 5 or 10 minutes to pitch the titles they think are worthy of distribution. Most publishing reps fly from all over the country just to get that 10 minutes with B&N, to HOPE their book gets picked up. So you see, it's pretty difficult for actual publishers; it's literally impossible for individuals.

To answer your second question: If your book is published by a huge publishing conglomerate (like Random House or HarperCollins), B&N will likely give your book wide distribution. In pretty much every other case, they tend to keep it regional.

I'm sorry I don't have better news. The sad truth is, self-publishing garners little (if any) respect in the publishing and bookselling world. The only way to achieve what you want here is to get an agent and/or an accredited publishing house for your book. This is often a blow to authors who have worked so hard on their books, but unfortunately, I don't see the situation changing any time soon.

Answer 3

Ooooh.  Dude, why did you do this?  POD (Print On Demand) Services aren't even considered self-publishing.  They're less than that.   Most bookstores won't even order a POD book even if a customer asks.  I know Lulu makes big promises, but they're just not true.  Editors and publishing houses do NOT search the internet for the next big writer.  

Lulu's president has gone on record as saying his goal is to have one million authors selling one-hundred books, rather than one-hundred authors selling one-million books.  Lulu is NOT deceptive about their practices like other POD services are (PublishAmerica), but they are POD.  It's 100% up to you to sell your book.  And that without the availability of most bookstores.

If you would have checked out Writersbeware.com, you would have seen the stats from the New York Times.  40% of all POD books are sold directly to the author.  And a best seller is considered 500 copies.  

Dude, I'm sorry man.  Good luck.  

Answer 4

Short answer: you can't. Especially if it's fiction.

You *might* be able to talk your local manager into taking it on consignment (depending on what kind of book it is and where you live), but it's extremely difficult to get a chain store to carry a self-published book--they simply don't fit very well within the existing system for distributing and selling books.

Bookstores order most of their inventory from distributors (such as Ingram), rather than straight from the publisher. That way they can order as many or as few copies as they need, and return unsold books for credit. Self-published books don't work that way--they have to be ordered from the author, which usually takes longer, and it also creates a lot of extra paperwork. Since most self-published books don't sell, or don't sell very well, the extra effort isn't worth it.

Plus, most self-published authors won't take returns, or extend the chains favorable discounts (55% is standard) or longer credit terms (because usually they can't afford to). It usually takes a lot longer to order books from the author than it does from the distributor. And B&N isn't going to replenish their inventory by ordering from Lulu directly, because then they would have to pay cash up front for the books--which they aren't going to do.

Also, there's the matter of promotion. Simply putting a book on a store shelf, amid hundreds of others, isn't enough. You have to have some means of promoting it nationally (and not just your blog or website). Getting self-published books reviewed by newspapers and magazines is next to impossible (unless it's your hometown paper and you live in a small town). Promoting a book is expensive and time-consuming, plus you're competing for attention against thousands of other titles produced by publishing houses that know how to package, market, and promote their books.



Self-publishing can work well for nonfiction that targets a very small niche market--something so weird and obscure most publishers won't touch it, or else local history of a small place. It can also work for nonfiction that you promote and sell as part of your regular line of work (such as a motivational speaker selling books from a table at the back of the hall).  But you have to run it as a full-time business, and even then it can be incredibly difficult to get your book into a distributor's warehouse and/or onto bookstore shelves.  

Answer 5

all new authors have extreme trouble getting anyone to read their work, let alone buy it.

Booksellers like B & N don't deal with individuals, only publishing houses.

Almost every author we see on the shelves, receiving acclaim for their skill, began by submitting their work, time after time, to agents and publishing houses who publish materials like what they have written.  If you have written a psychological thriller, check the publisher of the book you have read that is like yours in some ways.  Write to the author to ask for the name of his/her agent.  Ask if he/she will read a few chapters of your book and give you advice.  Send a few chapters to his/her agent and his/her publisher.   Wait for rejection letters and try another author/agent/publisher.  "lather, rinse, repeat"