Don't Overuse This Word and Get Blacklisted

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Words have incredible power to influence and affect our life and work in the publishing community. There is a common word which authors will often use but in this article I want to give specific examples and discourage you from overusing this word and having the retailers blacklist your book.

Years ago when I was on the faculty of the San Francisco Writers Conference, I spoke with a bookseller and learned not to use this word in my conversation. I showed this retailer the first edition of Book Proposals That Sell and in my pitch I told him the book had over 100 Five Star Amazon reviews. Instantly he frowned and told me that he didn’t care about Amazon reviews. Yes the single word not to overuse is Amazon.

Instead of touting that you have an Amazon bestseller, you can say your book was a bestseller in _____ category. Instead of saying you have 56 Amazon reviews, you can promote your book has 56 Five Star reviews (or whatever number of Five Star reviews you have received). It is a slight revision but a significant one.

Amazon is a large player in the book retail market but many bookstore people believe Amazon has destroyed their business. The book market has made dramatic shifts and Amazon has been a factor in those changes. For example, at Morgan James Publishing, Amazon accounts for about 24% of our overall business. When I meet an author who has only published on Amazon, I tell them they are missing 76% of how Morgan James can distribute and sell their book. Our books are in 98% of the bookstores in North America including the brick and mortar bookstores. Recently I was looking for a book cover image on one of our novels and the first place I located it was at Target.com. Morgan James sells our books at Target along with over 180 other online retailers.

Give Your Readers Options

When you set up your website and the page to sell your book, what link or links do you include? I was looking at the books from a long-time author friend. He writes a new blog each week and sends it like clockwork. I admire and respect this type of consistent action from any author. Today I checked his book sales page. Each book had a single button that said, “Click Here to Buy on Amazon.” He used a publishing company to create his book and I didn’t recognize the name of his publisher. Yet he was giving his readers one option to buy the book: Amazon. As I’ve been saying in this article, it’s the one word you don’t want to overuse. 

Instead of sending your readers to a single place like Amazon, I encourage you to give them options like Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, their local independent bookstore or getting it directly from you (even encouraging readers they can get a signed copy from you). It’s how I set up my sales pages and here’s a couple of examples for some of my books. The sales page for Book Proposals That Sell is here. The sales page for 10 Publishing Myths is here. The sales page for Billy Graham, A Biography of America’s Greatest Evangelist is here. The reader is going to buy the book where they normally purchase books. As an author, you want to give them options and don’t just send them to a single place. 

A Little Known Bookselling Fact

While on the surface, the community of booksellers looks large with thousands of bookstores from chains like Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores. Most of the sales people for these chains have been in the book business for many years. As a part of their work, they cultivate and maintain relationships with owners, authors, editors and many other people in the industry. These sales people know each other and have developed friendships. On one level they are competitors but on another level they are colleagues. These colleagues speak together and share information. When an author is only focused on sending readers to Amazon, these sales people notice and can blacklist your book from the brick-and-mortar bookstores. According to my recent conversation with David Hancock, the founder of Morgan James Publishing, such a blacklist practice is happening.

Sometimes You Can’t Avoid the Word

In 2019, Morgan James Publishing released Steve Anderson’s book, The Bezos Letters: 14 Principles to Grow Your Business like Amazon. Even before the release date, this book garnered a great deal of attention. The Morgan James foreign rights person sold the book into multiple languages including the highest advance received in this area for a book in the 21-year history of the company. The Bezos Letters has hundreds of Five-Star reviews and a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller. It’s unusual for a book to achieve this level of success which translates into many book sales. 

Yet this book could not avoid using the word Amazon. According to David Hancock, “The brick-and-mortar bookstores blacklisted The Bezos Letters from the release in 2019 until this year. Now in 2024, the brick-and-mortar bookstores began to order and sell this title.”  The success and continued sales of this title eventually removed it from the blacklist. At the end of the day, retailers want to stock and sell books which will move off their shelves and into the hands of buyers. The steady and continued sales of The Bezos Letters eventually won over the retailers who want to serve their customers and sell books.

What actions will you take?

I’ve written this article to encourage you as an author to take action for your website and sales pages. Will you remove the word Amazon in your social media and promotion efforts? Will you give your readers a wide variety of bookstore options to purchase your book? What actions are you going to take? Let me know in the comments.

 

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Why Social Media Is Important

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

When writers begin to submit to book publishers, they are often surprised with the questions about social media and their specific numbers on various platforms. Isn’t social media a waste of time? I often hear this waste of time push back from writers about social media. In addition, I’ve read other articles from those inside publishing who say social media does not sell books. In this article, I want to give a series of reasons and insights why every writer needs to be on social media yet also control their time on it so it is productive and not wasted.

At first glance, social media looks like a huge time waster for writers. If you use it well, it can yield great connections and even book sales. Like a lot of publishing, the results for you as an author are buried in the details. 

Choose Your Platform

There are dozens of social media platforms. You want to choose the ones where your target audience is active and using. You can't be on every platform and it’s unproductive if you are trying to be on everything. Instead select two or three of these websites. Recently I noticed one of my author friends had dropped off Twitter/ X. When I asked her about it, she confirmed that her audience was not on this website and she had deleted her account and instead was emphasizing some other sites. I could see the wisdom in such a decision.

Complete Your Profile and Plan

After you select the sites, fill out all of the details on the profile such as photo, bio and other fields. Each one is different so look at others on the platform and learn from their actions. 

The next step is creating a consistent plan for posting on the selected platforms. Your posts should be interesting, contain an image (for visibility and to increase readability) and diverse. Have you been on radio or podcasts? Do you save those recordings on your own website? If you control them, they will not disappear. Then use those live recordings over and over to promote your book and yourself. 

Create A System and Use Tools

For years, I’ve posted thousands of times on three social media sites. On average, I post 12-15 times a day. I’ve created a system for myself, a plan and a pattern. As I’ve mentioned in these articles I use a scheduling program called Hootsuite. The other common program is Buffer. My encouragement is to create a system which will work for you to be consistent and regular yet effective. You may decide to post three times a day or five times a week or some other schedule. Whatever number of posts that you select, be consistent and do it over and over. 

Sometimes I do not get a lot of response or engagement. It makes me wonder if anyone is reading my posts--yet I continue in my same pattern of posting. Then out of the blue, someone will reach out to me or respond to a post. Your consistency pays off.

Here’s the key reason you need to share the benefits of your book over and over. It’s been proven in the marketing world that someone needs to hear about your book at least seven or eight times before they purchase your book. The exposure and highlight of the benefits of your book are a part of the promotion process for your book. Here’s another key fact, your publisher may place the book inside a brick and mortar bookstore (which is excellent) but if you don’t encourage or drive a reader to go to the bookstore and buy your book, then eventually the book gets removed from the store and returned to the publisher. 

The average return rate for a traditional publisher is 40%. At Morgan James Publishing, most of our books are running around 15%. Last week I checked on the sales from one of my authors who is pitching a second completed novel and synopsis. Admittedly, it took a lot of this author's writing time and effort to produce a second novel manuscript. His return rate from the bookstores for the first novel was 73%! This author needs to make some radical changes in his actions to sell that first novel. If he doesn’t take action, he is unlikely to get a second book contract to publish with Morgan James. Authors forget each published book is producing a sales track record. The author is the one who drives this track record through their continued promotion to readers.

Emphasize Benefits for Continued Exposure

As you create your plans to promote your book, look at your different resources. Use live radio and podcast recordings along with other resources to emphasize the benefits of your book to your readers. Also create and use different images with your books and social media posts. In these articles, I’ve mentioned using Mock-up Shots for this effort. Follow the link to get lifetime access and use it for your books. Almost every day I use this tool.

Take 100% of Your Responsibility

Some of you reading these words wonder if you have to do it yourself. Couldn’t you hire someone or some organization to handle your social media? There are virtual assistants and social media consultants and companies which you could handle your social media. I’ve met a number of these people through the years yet I’ve chosen to continue to handle it myself. I’ve often written in these articles about the first principle of success: I will take 100% responsibility for my own success. The process takes regular and focused effort but is important to reach your readers and attract publishers to your work. The first step is to get the insight, wisdom and knowledge from others. For example, read my 10 Publishing Myths book and see the special offer at the end of this article. After reading it, you must take action for your own writing life. From my experience knowledge without action doesn’t give any results. 

I hope I’ve helped you understand why social media is important and some action steps to take for your books. What am I missing that you could add? Let me know in the comments.

 

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Publishing Takes A Team

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

 

On the surface, it is often not clear but sucessful publishing takes a team. The work of a writer is a solitary task where you understand your target audience (reader) and craft your words into a manuscript for various publications. As I've mentioned in the pages of these entries, your relationships with others is a critical part of this process.  I understand many writers have chosen to self-publish which is definitely a choice but in this article I want to give several examples of why you need a team.

 

The team can get your book reviewed in respected journals. For many years, I've read the monthly Cox Report from Midwest Book Review. On their site, they have submission guidelines and I've sent a few of my books to them but (like every review outlet), they receive thousands of books and only pick a few to review. Months ago, Morgan James Publishing submitted my Book Proposals That Sell (The Revised Edition) to Midwest Book Review. Getting the book to the right person is a critical part of this process. Jim Cox selected my book to review. As I read the Cox Report, I grateful for the team and that my book was reviewed. You can read the full review here but here's the section that stood out to me: “Critique: Simply stated, if you only have time to read one 'how to' guide to getting published, whether it be traditional publishing or self-publishing, "Book Proposals That Sell: 21 Secrets to Speed Your Success" is that one DIY instructional book. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, it can help the aspiring writer to avoid costly and time consuming mistakes with respect to getting published and having that published book brought to the attention of its intended readership.”

 

To get such a review was a feat of the team effort, but using this review on an on-going effort for the book is also important. I continue to use the review from time to time in my social media feed and other places plus I used some of the words to create a unique image. You can use these tools as well and get lifetime access if you follow this link. I use this tool several times a week so it has become an important part of my regular work.

 

As I've mentioned in these articles, thousands of books are published every day. Many books never appear inside a brick and mortar bookstore and are only sold online. As someone who has been in publishing for years, you want your book in many different places—brick and mortar as well as online. You have to be with the right publisher to get your book inside a bookstore. Several years ago, I was going through the Philadelphia airport and missed my connection. I spent the bulk of that day inside the airport waiting for my next flight. Out of sheer boredom, I went into the airport bookstore to look around and found my Billy Graham biography. Notice this picture from inside the airport bookstore. Over the years, I've seen numerous Morgan James Publishing books inside the bookstore. You have to be working with the right publisher for this placement to happen.

 

Over the last ten years, I've brought numerous authors and books to Morgan James Publishing (follow this link and my contact information is on the bottom of the second page—email and direct phone). If I can help you, don't hesitate to reach out to me. I'm always looking for the right authors and books.

 

I hope through these examples, you understand publishing is a team effort and you need to be with the right team. How have you seen publishing takes a team? Let me know in the comments below.

 

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Check out this article:

Each month I write an original article for the BRMCWC blog. Writer, What Is Your Side Hustle? I hope it gives you some new ideas for your own writing life. 

The Best Place to Buy Used Books

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Physical bookstores are temporarily closed.  The local libraries are closed at the moment. Where do you order your books during this season when we are sheltering inside our homes? 

My local newspaper, The Denver Post, had an article about how to buy used books. While the article made a number of suggestions to readers, it did not use the resource I'm going to give you here.  Some people buy all of their books (and other things) on Amazon. One of my long-term friends in publishing told me he buys all his books on Amazon. Don't get me wrong. I use Amazon but I don't buy all of my books on this site.

Last night I watched an author interview on YouTube. It was a podcast and I was fascinated with the author and learned about her new book. As I watched, I wrote down the author and the name of her book. I looked at the book on Amazon, read a few pages inside the book, noticed when the book published, the publisher and the length of the book (number of pages). While I found the information on Amazon, it was not where I purchased the book.

Instead I returned to my favorite book purchase place: BookFinder4U.com  In seconds, this book searches 130 online bookstores, then ranks the book with the lowest price (including the shipping) at the top of the page.  I don't always buy the lowest—but often I do. Many of these low price books are used. I tend to buy a number of used books. 

For my search today, the lowest price location was a site I've frequently used: Abe Books.  Amazon owns Abe Books but from my experience, the books come quickly and are often in excellent shape. Occasionally a hardcover book is missing the jacket or that jacket is torn. For other books, it looks like it has not been read and is in brand new shape. Yes it is a bit of a gamble but I've had good experiences using this online store. Because I've used Abe Books before, my information is already in the site when I log on the site. With only a few clicks, I purchase my book and it is on the way.

BookFinder4U.com is my best place to buy used books. It is not perfect. Sometimes I search for the book and don't find it. Other times I look for a brand new book and it is too expensive (to me). As consumers, we have many choices where we buy books.

Maybe you have another favorite place to purchase books. Let me know in the comments below.

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Do Whatever The Task Takes

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Last month, my latest book, 10 Publishing Myths, released into the bookstores (online plus brick and mortar). Even though I've published many books, every book is exciting and a fresh opportunity. It never grows old to me.  If you have a new book (or even one that has been out a while), one of the most important things you can do to market your book is to get others to review your book. Why?

Thousands of new books are released into the market every day—and there are already many other books already in the market. Your book has to stand out and get attention (whatever it is about) for others to see it and purchase it. Someone has to hear about your book probably eight to a dozen times before they actually decide to purchase it (a well-known sales statistic). In this article, I want to give you some ideas how to get reviews and encourage you to do whatever it takes to get those reviews.

1. Ask others. If you are active in an email group (as I am), tell others about your need for reviews and ask them to help you. I'm in a couple of groups and encouraged people to private message me about reading my new book. A number of people have responded and I've gotten a few reviews from taking this action.

2. As people respond to your request, ask them what they need for the review. Do they prefer an ebook or a print book? If it is a print book do they want it to be signed or not? Sign it to them or to someone else? Everyone is different what they want and will use. For example, one friend did not want the PDF version of my book but wanted the MOBi version. I didn't have this version so had to return to my publisher and ask for it. The process took a few days but eventually I got the MOBi version for this friend. In the process, I saved the MOBi version and will send it to others who need this version. I've already had a second person ask for the MOBi version and because I had it, was able to send it right away.

Other people prefer a print version of the book. To send this version, you need their mailing address and whether they want the book signed or not. Some people do not prefer signed books while others do. As with the ebook, it is a choice and you have to ask to make sure you are giving your readers what they want and need to write the review.

3. Give them some additional help. While I have written many reviews over the years, other people have no idea how to write a review. Sandra Beckwith created this inexpensive yet important tool (follow this link to purchase). If it is a print book, then I print a couple of pages and tuck it into the back of the book when I mail it. If it is an ebook, I send it along withi the ebook. Also I created a promotion page for my book. This page includes links to three spots in particular where I need reviews (Goodreads, Barnes & Noble and Amazon).
Most authors just focus on Amazon (which is a huge player in the book business—but not the only player). My advice is to include all these companies. I give the exact page or link where they can go to write their review. My purpose is to make it easy for them to write and post their review.

Does it work? Not always. People are busy and have good intentions but don't always get the book read and your review written. Or it may be months down the road they will actually do it. I mention this fact because you will need to enlist way more people to do this process than will actually get it done. For example, if you want 25 reviews, you will need to ask and get commitments from at least 50 people. Yes half of them will not do it but the other half will do it and you will get your review. My key point in this article is to do whatever it takes to get the reviews. And—keep asking people to help you. Otherwise they forget that you need their reviews.

Take action today. Make a list of the people and steps you are going to take.

Am I missing an action idea you can take? Or maybe you have other feedback. Let me know in the comments below.

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Unfinished Business

My work in publishing is like an unfinished puzzle.

I’ve worked at three publishers as an acquisitions editor. For the last six years, I've been acquiring books at Morgan James Publishing.  There is one key lesson that I’ve learned: You are never caught up—yes never. Unfinished business is a part of the work.

There is always more email to answer and more phone calls to make and more to be done. While I am never caught up, I continue to work on the priorities. For example, an author yesterday sent me an email objecting to some things about the Morgan James publishing program and essentially told me that she was going to pass on our contract offer. I wrote a detailed response, answering each of her concerns (that she mentioned) and offering a revised and improved contract. She appreciated the effort and is looking at it  again. Will it work to convince her to sign with Morgan James? That decision has not  been rendered but I hope so. At least I’m doing my part to persist and not give up.

Each author has to decide what they are going to do. Some authors make quick decisions while others look at many different publishers and options before they return to Morgan James and decide fo sign. The path to publication varies for each author. From my years in publishing, I understand our publishing model at Morgan James is different and part of my responsibility is to highlight those differences so the author understands the value. After they understand, they can choose to go elsewhere but I’ve served them with the information. We work hard at answering authors questions and helping them in any way that we can. From my experience no publisher does enough for their  authors but we certainly do more than many publishers.

The best publishing isn’t done alone. Yes more than a million books were self-published last year. The best publishing is a team effort—getting the best title and cover design and shape of the book then selling that book to the bookstores as a team. We show the covers to our sales people and get their feedback. The team is always able to make better decisions than an individual from  my experience.

As an editor, I have books in many different stages of the process. Some authors have signed with the publishing  house and their books are in production. Other authors have not signed but are considering signing. Other authors have just submitted their materials and I’m pitching or championing their manuscript to my colleagues to see if I can get them a book contract. While I am respected and build the best possible case with my colleagues, I don’t always succeed. Some of my pitches are rejected and do not receive contracts. The process is all part of that consensus-building process that I was telling you about.

Other times I get push back from my colleagues asking about the author’s connections and marketing plans. I attempt to gather as much of those connections and marketing plans in my pitch to my colleagues but sometimes my words are not enough and need more from the author. This week I went back to an author and asked for more details. They are working on those details and as soon as I have them I will share them with my colleagues. The back and forth is all part of the process.

As I tell every author, the publisher is investing a large amount of money in the creation, production and marketing of the book. If the author is not engaged in this process and selling books to their connections, then no one succeeds. The publisher and the author lose money in the process.

Book selling has several key components in my view:

1. The book has to have great contents and read well.

2. The book cover design and interior have to look high quality and inviting.

3. The book has to be properly distributed so readers can purchase the book. For example, Morgan James not only gets the book on Amazon but also on 1800 other online distributors. They not only sell the book online but also in brick and mortar bookstores.

4. Yet a forgotten key element is the author drives the readers to the bookstore to purchase the book. If the author doesn’t drive readers to the bookstore, then the books are returned to the publisher—and no one sells books.

As an editor, there is always more to be done—more to promote and more to pitch. Yet also as an author, I can always be doing more too. The work is never finished and it’s one of the elements that people like me who work in publishing have to keep in mind. We get up every day and do our best to complete the work and move things  forward in this process. 

Because we are imperfect humans, the process is imperfect. Occasionally we hear from our readers about the impact of our books and our work and how they have changed people’s lives. Far too often we never hear about the impact of our books and our writing. That’s where the faith element is publishing enters the picture. We do the best we can each day and leave the rest in God’s hands.

Do you have unfinished business as a writer? How are you handling it? Tell us in the comments below.

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Some Insights About Book Buying Habits

Take a minute and consider where you you bought your last few books. Was it in a brick and mortar bookstore? Did you buy them at an event or from an online retailer like Amazon? Was the book new or used?


As a long-term reader, I often purchase books. Last weekend I was at the third Writers on the Rock Conference and heard Allen Arnold speak.  For years, Arnold worked as an editor and publisher at Thomas Nelson Publishers and now he is working with best-selling author John Eldredge.  At the end of his keynote, Arnold mentioned his book, The Story of WITH which he sold for the discounted $10. I was interested to learn  Arnold self-published his book and I was glad to get an autographed copy and look forward to reading it.

This week I was talking with another long-term friend who is in publishing and he mentioned how he buys his books online from Amazon which offers choices whether to get a new book or a used version. We were talking about book buying habits because of the publishing news about Family Christian Bookstores closing 240 stores and over 3,000 employees losing their jobs. 

Several years ago, Family Christian Bookstores went into bankruptcy and had emerged from that situation. Publishers were the principal vendors who took a hit when Family Christian Bookstores went into bankruptcy.  One of the domino or related actions from this bankruptcy was the sale of Gospel Light. This family-owned publisher had a long-term history in the market and was sold to two different publishers.  Family Christian Bookstores owed Gospel Light $143,000. This debt was too large for Gospel Light to absorb and forced them into bankruptcy. The numbers of brick and mortar bookstores nationwide have been declining. Literary agent Steve Laube wrote more details about the closing of Family Christian in this article.

About four years ago when I lived in Arizona, a couple in my local church took part of their life savings and opened a Christian bookstore. It had several challenges from the beginning. While my friends had good motives, they did not come from a book or publishing background.  I knew way more about books, authors and the publishing business than they did. While eager to learn, they had a lot of ground to cover from a business perspective. Also the store was located in a shopping center and two doors from a well-known Hallmark store.  I often would drop by the nearby bookstore and talk with them and purchase things (if I needed them). Ultimately these friends closed their bookstore right about when I moved from Arizona. As I watched this store, it was an upfront and close lesson about some of the challenges of the brick and mortar retail business—and in particular in the Christian market.

A little off my topic but related: last week I went to Target to buy some blank audio cassette tapes for a new project. They didn't have any of them and were selling only one brand of tape recorder. Then I went to Office Depot who didn't have tapes in their store but said I could order them from their website online with free shipping. I ordered the tapes—only to have the online store cancel my order later in the day because the product wasn't available.[I don't know why I received a cancellation message because today the tapes showed up so I probably double ordered]. I attempted to buy this product at a brick and mortar store yet had to order it online from Amazon.

The book buying habits of consumers continue to change. Most of us have a smartphone in our pocket so wee can compare prices even standing in an actual store to see if we can get it less online. As I've written in these pages, the self-publishing world of books continues to increase (to the tune of over 5,000 new books every day—traditional and self-publishing combined). It's why every author has to continue to work on increasing their own audience (platform). Get my Platform Building Ideas for Every Author free ebook and use these ideas in your own writing.

In the comments below, let me know where you buy books. Book buying is a complex issue with no simple answers. All any author can do is offer your product in multiple formats (print, ebook, audio) and as many different venues as possible (online and brick and mortar). Our world is full of choices so you have to offer the consumer the broadest possible choices for your books.

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Where Do You Buy Books?

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/h/coupons-deals

Whenever I ask other writers where they buy their books, I receive a variety of answers but often it is Amazon. This online retailer has been around a long-time and makes it easy to purchase their books since all of your information is often stored in their system.

Amazon is not the only place to purchase books. I encourage you to support your local physical bookstore but also consider Barnes & Noble. If you check out my website for my Billy Graham biography, you will notice I have a number of different ways you can purchase my book. You can get it directly from me (and signed) or you can get it from your favorite independent bookstore or from Barnes & Noble or Amazon. Readers love to have different purchase options instead of sending them to one place.

In fact, if you take action today, you can get my Billy Graham book at Barnes & Noble and save 20%. Here's how:

1. Use this link to go to the book on Barnes & Noble.com

2. When you check out, use this coupon code: BNSUNNY20 and it will immediately take off 20% of the price. In fact, you can purchase other books or items from Barnes and Noble and save 20% on other purchases. To get this discount, you will have to move quickly since the coupon will expire after June 2nd.

There are many different ways to purchase books and if you are in a rut if buying from one website, I encourage you to explore your options. There are many terrific places to purchase books online or in the bookstore.  

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My Diane Pitts' Interview -- Part 2

Several days ago, I told you about when Diane Huff Pitts interviewed me.  She divided the interview into two parts and here's link to the first portion.

In the second portion, I tackle different questions—some of it is familiar but other topics I've not written about before. Here are the questions:

Writers' Conferences

HC (High Cotton): I was introduced to your writing through the Heroes of the Faith series, and later we met at Blue Ridge Christian Writers Conference. What advice do you give attendees regarding preparation for writers conferences?

Brick and Mortar Bookstores

HC: Are bookstores (brick and mortar) on the way out? What are your views on the industry today?

Why Build a Platform and Social Media Presence?

HC: Everyone wants to write, but few understand the demand for social presence and building platform. Describe your approach.

Your Free Online Resources

HC: You offer free resources like Straight Talk from the Editor. What can writers learn from this resource and others you’ve provided?

Your Long-term Plans

HC: You are known as someone who has a plan. A long term and a daily plan. What will Terry Whalin be doing in five years?

Use this link to go to Diane's blog and read my answers to these questions. I hope you gain a lot of information and insight from reading my answers. 

Why Authors Must Report Their Activities

Recently one of my Morgan James authors contacted me and asked, “Is my book really inside any Barnes and Noble bookstores. It was a good question and I turned to a colleague to find the answer.

I learned this particular book had been available to the brick and mortar bookstores for about six months (often the decision point marker for the retailer to return the book). Yes this book had been placed inside brick and mortar bookstores around the country (a big deal for any author) yet it was starting to be returned.

Surprise Information to Authors

When I speak with authors, they are often surprised to learn every book inside a brick and mortar bookstore is there on consignment. If the book does not sell, the retailer has the right to return the book to the publisher for a full refund. It’s a practice that began during the Great Depression and continues today. Returns cost publishers thousands of dollars each year. 

Hardcover books have a high rate of return (90% some years). It’s why when you go into your local Barnes & Noble there are hardcover books in the entry way which say “Last chance.” It is the last chance for these books to be purchased before they are returned and destroyed.

Everyone loses when a book is returned—the reader who misses the opportunity to purchase the book, the publisher who risked, printed and distributed the book, the author doesn’t make a sale (royalties) and the retailer invests energy to send it back. It’s a terrible business practice which isn’t going to change in the brick and mortar bookstores.

Broad distribution to brick and mortar bookstores is a key benefit of a traditional publisher. These books are not “available” for order but physically sit inside the retailer store so anyone can immediately purchase it.

What Authors Can Do

Every bookstore in the country buys books based on their perception of what the author is doing to promote their book. Are you promoting your book—and not just doing it but doing it in an effective way that gets people talking about your book and buying it? What works for one book is different for what works with another book. It will take experimentation and tracking on your part to see what will work for your book. There is no one path to success for a book. Every author has to take their own responsibility, and then be actively working at telling people about their book and encouraging them to get it at their local retailer.

For example, look at the website for my Billy Graham biography and notice the different buttons for purchase. One of them is for the local independent bookstore. Are you giving people different options to purchase your book? I recommend it.

At Morgan James, we are on the phone with our sales team every week—giving them specific details about what our authors are doing to promote their books. These sales people pass the information on to the bookstores and that is what keeps your book in the stores and not getting returned. If we don’t hear from our authors, we assume they are doing nothing—because most authors are doing nothing to promote their book.

The author who asked me if her books were in the bookstores was actively promoting her book—but she was not telling Morgan James. The communication was not happening between author and publisher.

Are you reporting your marketing activities to your publisher on a regular basis? It might be the difference between sales and returns. Ask your publisher what they need from you then deliver it on a regular basis.