Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

I thought this would be a good place to pose some questions authors might have about anything having to do with self-publishing. Then maybe we can help answer them for each other?

What a great Idea, Elle, I'll think about it, I know I have many questions, and answers.

Thanks for a great post.

I would like to know how I can get by self-published children's books into book stores. I think they have gone to Barnes and Noble, but they will only physically turn up there if someone ordered them. Though they are on their website as paperbacks and eBooks.

I've heard if you publish with Lightening source, you can get them into physical book shops, but I've spent so much time publishing with CreateSpace and already received five-star reviews and I don't want to now go and take them down and learn a whole new way to publish them. I don't have the time for that.

My three children's books are loved by children that have read them, and also the many pensioners I've sold them to. However, I'd love to be able to sell many more, but to do that, they'd have to be in physical book stores. Children's eBooks don't seem to have taken off yet, well at least not like Y/A or adult books, though children's books sell more paperbacks, so here's my question:

Is there any way to get self-published children's books in the Ingram Content Group other than re publishing with Lightening source? :)

If you do the EDC (extended distribution) with CreateSpace, you also end up on Ingrams. That's the good news.

The bad news? Two things...

CreateSpace EDC has a REALLY bad name for not accurately reporting sales made via the outlying networks. Worse, they have no tracking of such sales. So you take your chances there.

No matter how you get into Ingrams or B&T, you can't force brick and mortar stores to carry you. Being available there simply means the stores have the OPTION of bringing the books in, not that they will do so. You have a decent chance of convincing local to you bookstores of stocking a few copies, but most books that come into the chain brick and mortars are ordered by corporate from the conglomerate publishers and large indie companies. Even when a smaller indie jumps through their hoops (and has NY bestseller names in the stable of authors), it's hard to get approved by them to carry books on a larger scale...let alone a self-publishing author whose name is not Dan Brown or Stephen King.

You'll see the same thing with ebook distribution for self-publishing. If you choose iBookstore distribution from ARe/OmniLit, it will go to iBookstore. If you choose full distribution from Smashwords, it will distribute anywhere it doesn't violate content rules (i.e. Amazon Kindle will STILL remove incest content and similar content, if they find it, even if it came in from Smashwords and not on KDP). That's what I consider REAL distribution channels.

By comparison? If you choose to distribute ebooks with LSI, no individual distribution channel they list is guaranteed to pick up the books. A lot of people were very upset to learn this, because they placed ebooks with LSI, hoping to get into Fictionwise, while FW is down to new publishers, and FW isn't picking LSI books up either. Shrug.

Brenna

Thanks Brenna, that was great information. I did do the EDC with CreateSpace. That's terrible if they don't tell us if there are sales made.

I do have one of my books on Ingram so far - Star-Crossed Rascals, and it shows up on on-line book stores all over the world. I enquired with a few from my country and asked if I could send them a physical copy of all my books. So far, two have agreed to check them out if I post them. They're both in my country and State, so I'll see what happens and post back.

I've sold quite a few paperbacks in a coffee shop in the nearest town to me, so I might try a few more of those. Also I sell many in my mother's retirement village. Other self publishers could try that.

Also, I always carry a copy of each book in my bag and sell them to people I chat to. (I chat a lot.) It pays to be a chatterbox sometimes, without being pushy of course. LOL.

Maybe I should send the sequels to a publisher. Then again, maybe not. They take too long and I'm not getting any younger, plus I have readers waiting for the sequels. :)

Brenna, your always so helpful. Thank you. *Hugs* :)

Anytime, Patricia!

Sounds like you're doing really well with Ingrams. It does get them listed online, but the trick, as you note, is getting them into the storefronts.

EDC does report some sales, but there's no checks and balances. If the distribution doesn't report to Amazon, Amazon doesn't report to us and pay us. Hang on for some links...

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
http://blog.bookmarket.com/2010/05/am...

Brenna

Brenna, that made me so mad. Grrrr.

I'm now thinking Lightening Source. But do they do it too?

What's the point in getting our books out to all those booksellers if we never get paid? And to think that I've helped some of them by sending them emails of book covers and illustrations. Crikey, I'll never know if they sell any or not.

No wonder CreateSpace and Amazon don't sell any books, it seems that they don't even print most of them. Other book sellers do and we don't even know what their quality is like. Guess I should have kept submitting to regular publishers. :(

I'll work on getting more sales myself and forget about Amazon or CreateSpace making any money for me. Waste of bloomin time.

Thanks again for the info, Brenna.

Brenna wrote: "Anytime, Patricia!

Sounds like you're doing really well with Ingrams. It does get them listed online, but the trick, as you note, is getting them into the storefronts.

EDC does report some sales..."

Wow! I read those articles. Really made me think. I've self-published my book with CreateSpace, which I think is a good company. But I was always suspicious of the EDC. I was pleased to see my book on various online retailers, but my book was listed in loads of places, at so many different prices. And a lot of the listings said "used." It did seem odd to me that each of those places would report the sale to Amazon. It seems like there's no real control over whether you'd get paid.

So, I just removed my book from the EDC. Maybe it was a foolish move, and I think it will take ages for my book to not be listed in all those places anymore. But I want control. I feel much better knowing that my paperback will only be available from Amazon and the CreateSpace estore, as sales from those are reported quickly and accurately (I think!). It makes me feel better. I really don't have many sales at all, but I want control when I do eventually get sales.

Thanks, Mona

Mona wrote: "Brenna wrote: "Anytime, Patricia!

Sounds like you're doing really well with Ingrams. It does get them listed online, but the trick, as you note, is getting them into the storefronts.

EDC does re..."

Brenna, I know what you mean. I was thinking of doing that too, but haven't yet. It's hard knowing what the best thing to do is. However, I had my website and blog linked to CreateSpace eStore and sold some books, but they didn't push my ranking up. When I checked around, I found that only books bought directly from Amazon help with ranking, so now I've changed my links to direct customers to Amazon. I get less royalty, but at least my books will be more visible.

Good luck with yours, Mona.

Patricia wrote: "Mona wrote: "Brenna wrote: "Anytime, Patricia!

Sounds like you're doing really well with Ingrams. It does get them listed online, but the trick, as you note, is getting them into the storefronts. ..."

This is true, but then again, I think more people would buy from Amazon than the other, so you may be better off that way.

Good luck with your sales!