How To Get Your Children’s Book Into A Bookstore

“How  do I get my physical children’s book into a bookstore?” is a question I get asked quite often. So in this blog post, I’ll describe how to go about getting your paperback into a brick and mortar store.

In order to get your children’s book into a bookstore, you will have to select the Extended Distribution Channels within Createspace.

GOING LOCAL

In order to get our book into a bookstore, the best method is to focus on local bookstores first.

Why concentrate on the local market first? you might ask.

You have more of a chance of being interviewed by media and getting press releases placed in newspapers on a local level, which in turn can be used as leverage when approaching a local book store.

Getting into local bookstores is easier than national stores, like Barnes and Nobles, mainly because independent stores don’t have a big chain to answer to.

Usually, there aren’t too many local authors, making it even more appealing to local bookstores to support and feature a local author.

Establishing a local presence could help you getting picked up regionally, then nationally. Because of your presence in these local book stores, you’ll accumulate book sales statistics, something that is really important once you want to pitch your book to a national chain.

If you can prove that your book sells well, your chances of getting picked up to sell your book are dramatically increased.

However, most small bookstores are struggling. They won’t be able to afford to take a chance on an unknown author or unknown book, because there simply isn’t a guaranteed market for your book.

So what can you do?

To make this completely risk-free for the seller, you could offer your book on consignment, meaning if it doesn’t sell, you’ll take it back. Essentially, the book store doesn’t have to pay anything, and takes a percentage if it does sell the book.

When contacting an indie bookstore, take along a folder of proof:

1. Cutting from press releases that where put in the newspapers
2. Any local connections you may have
3. Awards from Amazon (e.g., screenshot of bestselling banner)

It’d also be a great idea to provide statistics:

1. Number of blog followers/ Facebook followers
2. Number of reviews on Amazon and/or Goodreads
3. Number of books sold already

GOOD OL’ ROYALTIES

When working with a bookstore like this, you’ll have to arrange a royalty split. The average deal with bookstores is 40% to the store, 60% to the author.

Be prepared to negotiate. For example, you could offer a more favorable deal for the first 5-10 copies.

It’s a good idea to check what price they would pay from a wholesaler and proceed accordingly.

Once your book is available in the bookstore, it’s a good idea to get the word out in order to help your own sales. You can get as creative as you’d like to be with this:

• Facebook posts and ads
• Tweets
• Take a photo of the store and your book on the shelves
• Blog about your book being available in local book store and sync to your Goodreads and Author Central accounts
• Send press releases to local newspaper, magazines, radio, & TV stations.

Press releases may seem a bit old school now, but they can be quite effective. Just announcing that your newly released book is available in a particular local store won’t be enough, though. Consider writing a number of different press releases, because you can bring out different stories to focus on. It’s not a major story that a new book has been released. It is a major story, however, if you have written this book because you’ve been through or have survived something. Or perhaps there’s something in your book that is a story in itself, and that’s the thing others might be interested in.

SECRET SHOPPING, ANYONE?

Have you ever heard of secret shopping? Businesses do it all the time. In order to apply that to you, you’ll want to send a secret shopper in to the store to buy a copy of your book. Remember that you’ll get 60% of the cost back (according to you royalty split outlined above).

Approaching a local business first can be very beneficial to both sides. Plus, when supporting the sales of your book within these local stores, you’re helping to create relationships of mutual marketing in this store.

Once your book is starting to sell locally, you’ll then have some proof and statistics to us when approaching other stores. You’ll be able to use these numbers when you approach other stores.

You will want to keep good records, like an excel spreadsheet with dates and numbers.

Products related to books sell very well, so consider commissioning promotional materials, such as bookmarks, stickers, and table displays.

Be sure to offer to do a signing at the local store, give a talk, and join in any other promotional events they have planned.

GOING REGIONAL

When approaching regional stores, do so via phone first, and ask for the buyer of your genre. You can then mail them a free copy of your book, your bio, some statistics, and proof of sales in other stores.

If they agree to carry your book, you can request a royalty-split deal or ask if they would consider ordering your book from the wholesaler.

Just like with the local store, consider sending secret shoppers.

CONCLUSION

As you can see, it is possible to get your book into a bookstore, but it is going to require some work, patience, and persistence. And if a book does well in a store, they might be tempted to carry one of your other books, if you should have written more than one.

Happy Creating!