Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hiya, everyone!

I just had a local bookstore contact me about stocking a couple of my books, but since I've never done that before I was hoping someone might have some advice to share about how you've done this, so that when I reply to their email I sound like I know what I'm talking about, and right now I don't!

In the email they ask about whether I use a distributor, I don't, so that question was easy to answer! Then they ask about a couple of options but I'm really not sure what works best. They asked about paying to have copies sent directly to them but since I print my books through CreateSpace and live in Australia postage is super expensive and I don't want to put them off, so I was thinking of sending them copies directly from me, but then I'm not sure what an appropriate amount to charge is.

Anyways any help anyone can offer would be gratefully appreciated!

Thanks
Jane

Find out how many copies they want. If they want to distribute quite a number, I'd recommend finding someone to do a big print run for you. If they only want a few, you can setup Createspace to provide to libraries and book stores (select all distribution channels). You won't make all that much per sale, but if they only want a few copies, it's probably the least amount of hassle, and you'll know people will be seeing your book when they visit a shop!

And congratulations!

Jane wrote: "Hiya, everyone!

I just had a local bookstore contact me about stocking a couple of my books, but since I've never done that before I was hoping someone might have some advice to share about how yo..."

Hi Jane,
I've been looking into this myself.

Have you considered listing your books on IngramSpark.
Retailers tend to like books that have a discount online.
With IngramSpark you can set that discount and then retailers can order your book directly from there. No hassle. :)

I have my books in several stores. Initially, I supplied them with my own books that I got at an author discount from my publisher. After my supply ran out, my author discount was reduced because I was not ordering as many. The bookstores then started ordering from Ingram, where they typically get a 40% discount from the list price.