Bookstores: To Be or Not to Be (In)?

When you self publish, you should be prepared for certain questions.  One common one is, "Are you in any bookstores?"  Your answer should be, "Yes."

I admit I originally got us into a few bookstores because I thought it would be kool.  I knew Phoenix Books, our neighborhood independent bookstore, had a section for local authors.  Why not us?  Phoenix said yes.  Full of Power & Success, I went on to two other independent bookstores in nearby neighborhoods: Dog Eared Books on Valencia and Alley Cat Books in the Mission.  Great names and fun places to spend your money.

I didn't think of chains but other people did.   "Why aren't you in Books Inc. (local chain)?"  I said to myself: Get real, Ricky.  Ginger Snaps is a self-published book we did on blurb.com.  No chain is gonna take it.  But I buy books from Books Inc. so next time I went I noticed that the Castro Books Inc. had my friend Vince Meis's self published books, Eddie's Desert Rose and Tio Jorge.  It's like Gingers: Once you notice us, we're everywhere.

How important are bookstores though?  Well, we are asked more often "Is it in bookstores?" than "Can I buy it on Amazon?" so that seems like a hopeful sign for brick and mortar.  However, don't expect to sit back and let bookstores sell your book onto the NY Times bestseller list.  My own experience is: if you self publish you better self sell.  If you can get into bookstores, great! but it's just one way to sell your book.  Doesn't it make sense to use every way?

What are they?  Online sales outlets are essential.  We're tied to blurb.com but you should definitely get your book on amazon.com and Barnes & Noble online.  Take your book on the road at readings, especially beyond your friend network.  Do an ebook edition; it aint that hard.  Authors I meet who are making a living at writing say they make more money off ebooks than print.  Sell your book on your website or blog.  Ask your author friends to sell it on theirs.  Also, people like free content.  Seth Harwood is the Master of Free Podcasts, followed by a paperback edition.  Take a look at his site.

Happy selling!

(If you think of other ways to sell books I haven't mentioned here, please let me know.  We all can learn from one another.)

Check out our Ginger stuff!

   Ginger Snaps: the Book http://blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3577527
   Ginger & Gingerphile tshirts http://gingergingerphiletee.logosoftwear.com

Setting Up Shop

Merchandising is not a dirty word.  It means selling stuff and, if you're going to publish a book, you might as well try to make money on it.  You can sell more books if you bundle related products with it.

I didn't think of this for our book until I went to a book signing for a Guide for the Modern Bear a field guide to Gay hairy men.  If you're a Gay man, you know from bears; they are the thing right now.  (I'm hoping we Gingers will be the next thing.)  At their event they had books and tshirts for sale.  I bought both.  The tshirt has a drawing from their book: a muscle bear in Jockey briefs.  Got me two date offers.

So I suggested to David we have tshirts.  He brought up the fact that our Ginger market was limited (only 2% of the human species).  What about the other 98%?  I came up with--tah dah!--the gingerphile tee.  So if you like gingers or are one, we got you covered--literally.

I went to Cafe Press, an online design and sales site I'd used before, and designed our tshirts.  They have a store option but I didn't set one up immediately.  When you self publish, you dance as fast as you can, i.e., there are more good ideas than you have time and energy to pursue.  I designed and ordered the tshirts, dude.  Give me a break.  However, recently Logosportswear, which is the actual source of our tshirts sent me an email mentioning setting up a store with them.  I thought: why not?  Maybe I'd been drinking.

Set up was pretty easy though and now we gots a Ginger & Gingerphile Store online.  The good thing about this is that tshirts are cheaper so people who aren't sure they want to buy a $25 full color book are more open to buying a $15 tshirt.  (Those are event prices: we pass along our discount.)  And then they say what the hell and buy the book too.  We wear the shirts at events so they have to stare at them for an hour.  That might lead to sales.  Also, the shirts are RED, which is a motivating color.  Ask any bull.

It doesn't have to be tshirts.  The Modern Bear boys have dog tags and other products.  David is going to sell prints and cards of the book photos.  Someone said we should do a calendar since we have 13 images, one for the front and one for each month.  A little late to get going on it now but a good idea for 2014 maybe.

For now, check out the Ginger stuff we do have:
   Ginger Snaps: the Book http://blurb.com/bookstore/detail/3577527
   Ginger & Gingerphile tshirts http://gingergingerphiletee.logosoftwear.com