Tips for getting your book into the bookstores, Tip 1
Have a book people want to read!
That should go without saying. Yet it is one of the publishing rules most often "violated." It doesn’t matter that you’ve written the elusive, great American novel or that the world needs to know what you are telling it. That and a buck-fifty will get you a small cup at the coffee bar in the bookstore.
That is not likely to impress bookstores. They exist to sell book (and cd’s, writing tools, greeting cards, coffee drinks, pastries, etc.–but that’s for a later blog entry). They need to know people will be interested in what you have to say. Just because the subject is important to you doesn’t mean it is important to anyone else. Just because everyone should read your book doesn’t mean they will. Books that are too narrow or too broad in subject, too regional in focus, or too personal in scope have limited appeal to the broader population that bookstores try to serve.
Make sure your book has a market. Is it timely? Does it fill a need or answer a question people are asking? Would people be likely to pick your book up without any prompting from you? How wide is your market? How narrow? Be realistic. Everyone in the world has two ears, but that doesn’t make everyone a potential buyer of a book on cleaning ears. Your home town might be a fascinating place, but "fascinating" by itself is not enough to grab the attention of someone on the other side of the continent. And why should anyone believe that a novel by an unknown writer is more entertaining than the best seller right next to it?
Are a lot of similar books on the shelves? That certainly indicates the presence of a market. But it also means you may be such a small fish that bookstores won’t want to be bothered. Can you find no other books on the subject? That might indicate that you’ve found an unmined niche. On the other hand, there may be a reason why no other books exist. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask a few bookstores for their frank opinions about books like yours.
Investigate these issues carefully. Books can be risky. It may be painful to realize that you don’t have a marketable book. But this is the same scrutiny a bookstore will give your book, and it’s better to know before you invest a year or so of time and thousands of dollars of resources in a book that can’t get into the bookstore. At the same time, it will be exciting if you can give honest, favorable answers to each of the questions, too!
That should go without saying. Yet it is one of the publishing rules most often "violated." It doesn’t matter that you’ve written the elusive, great American novel or that the world needs to know what you are telling it. That and a buck-fifty will get you a small cup at the coffee bar in the bookstore.
That is not likely to impress bookstores. They exist to sell book (and cd’s, writing tools, greeting cards, coffee drinks, pastries, etc.–but that’s for a later blog entry). They need to know people will be interested in what you have to say. Just because the subject is important to you doesn’t mean it is important to anyone else. Just because everyone should read your book doesn’t mean they will. Books that are too narrow or too broad in subject, too regional in focus, or too personal in scope have limited appeal to the broader population that bookstores try to serve.
Make sure your book has a market. Is it timely? Does it fill a need or answer a question people are asking? Would people be likely to pick your book up without any prompting from you? How wide is your market? How narrow? Be realistic. Everyone in the world has two ears, but that doesn’t make everyone a potential buyer of a book on cleaning ears. Your home town might be a fascinating place, but "fascinating" by itself is not enough to grab the attention of someone on the other side of the continent. And why should anyone believe that a novel by an unknown writer is more entertaining than the best seller right next to it?
Are a lot of similar books on the shelves? That certainly indicates the presence of a market. But it also means you may be such a small fish that bookstores won’t want to be bothered. Can you find no other books on the subject? That might indicate that you’ve found an unmined niche. On the other hand, there may be a reason why no other books exist. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask a few bookstores for their frank opinions about books like yours.
Investigate these issues carefully. Books can be risky. It may be painful to realize that you don’t have a marketable book. But this is the same scrutiny a bookstore will give your book, and it’s better to know before you invest a year or so of time and thousands of dollars of resources in a book that can’t get into the bookstore. At the same time, it will be exciting if you can give honest, favorable answers to each of the questions, too!
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