Promoting Your Book Through Bookstores

by Debbie Ridpath Ohi

I asked authors to respond to a letter from a writer who felt that bookstores tended to pay more attention to publicists than individual authors, asking if they agreed, and what their experiences were like working with bookstores for promotion. I also sent out approximately 50 letters to various bookstores, with a two-question multiple choice survey, and an option to be interviewed for my column. Only two bookstores responded: Pat Fowler of Village Square Booksellers in Vermont, and Scott Meyer of Merritt Bookstore in New York.

Here is a summary of the survey results:

Authors had more luck getting cooperation from local and independent bookstores than from the larger chain stores.

Julie H. Ferguson, who writes naval history, says that she has had difficulties trying to work with bigger bookstores in Canada. However, Ferguson says that all the independent bookstores she has worked with have been excellent.

Pat Fowler of Village Square Booksellers says that she has a strong preference for local authors when planning her monthly author events. "We constantly get emails from authors with first novels set outside our region, which we have to ignore. We had an author party for a former local person, but his book wasn't set here- not well attended, nor much in sales," says Fowler. "Authors should promote their books (publishers don't do much for new authors)- but they need to start in their local area first. We will only buy Xlibris and other self-publishing titles if they are by local authors on a local topic. Many local authors stop by to peddle their books to us -- we carry some on consignment."

Before approaching any bookstore about promotion, do your research.

Instead of trying to target all bookstores in general, focus on local stores as well as smaller bookstores appropriate to your topic. From Marian McCain: "I seem to get good co-operation from most bookstores I approach, but mine are niche, non-fiction books and the bookstores I have targeted have been the smaller, specialist ones so my books are not competing for shelf space with blockbuster novels etc.

"Last year I was giving a workshop at a local festival, so a few weeks prior to the festival I visited the bookstore which I knew would be having a stand there, and introduced myself to the manager. There was a copy of my new book on the shelf. The manager told me that although she had put it face-out for a while when it first came in, there wasn't room to keep it that way, as it is such a small store. I asked if she would order extra copies for the festival and whether I could do a book-signing at her stand. She said yes. I gave her some bookmarks to put on the store counter. With her permission, I made some discount vouchers for workshop attendees, to encourage them to buy copies. (I gave her cash for the vouchers afterwards).

"At the festival, I gave my workshop, went to her stand, signed some books and stayed on there another hour, talking up my book to everyone who stopped to look. As a result of the vouchers and my efforts to capture passing trade, my book was the best-selling title at the festival and the bookstore manager was delighted. This year, she e-mailed me to ask if I would do the same things again. We sold fewer books this time, but mine was still in the top five. And when she thanked me for this year's efforts, the manager asked me for more bookmarks and said 'I always keep your book face-out in the store.'"

Kay Day says she always calls first and asks for the manager, explaining why her book will fill a niche in his or her customer base. She tries to be brief, and to the point. "If the manager agrees to meet with me, I show up a few minutes shy of the appointed time and try to meet a few employees. After all, these are key people in the selling of a book." Day always takes a press packet ("in a nice, black portfolio, very neatly put together"), and a copy of her book. "I include in the packet a sample invitation (to the signing) I will send to organizations, businesses and individuals in that area. I also offer to bring the books if it is more convenient. Sometimes, the manager will take me up on that if he or she isn't stocking my book." After the event, she always sends a hand-written note of thanks.

Don't expect bookstores to want to promote you based solely on the fact that you have published a book. Most respondents seemed to concur that the author needs to be willing to put in some effort into establishing the initial contact, rather than just waltzing into a bookstore and expecting instant attention.

Marian McCain does careful research to select stores that most fit to her material. She also investigates what kind of promotion they normally do, and who is in charge of organizing this promotion. Then she makes contact with that person by e-mail or telephone, faxing them vital info about the book, and following up with another call.

Stephen D. Rogers sent letters to bookstores introducing himself and his book. He enclosed newspaper clippings, reviews, and photographs of himself and the book cover.

Be flexible, cooperative, and pleasant.

"Show flexibility regarding dates and times, and send copy for their newsletters and ads," says Marian McCain, who also takes the time to discuss the book with the store manager if he or she was not able to sit in on her talk, so that they will be able to recommend it to future customers.

Scott Meyer of Merritt Bookstore in New York has helped promote many authors in his store, both big names (Al Roker, Annie Leibowitz, Sandra Boynton, Mary Tyler Moore) as well as as the lesser known. He tells a story of a local author who wanted to do an event at his bookstore, but was in a wheelchair and said that she couldn't do the signing because his store did not have a ramp. Meyer paid $800 to have a ramp built. Shortly after Meyer printed and sent out publicity promoting the event, the author wanted to move the event a month earlier. On the day of the event, Meyer discovered that the author had already been selling her books at other venues in the area. At least one person showed up already having purchased the book from the author elsewhere. Meyer had spent $80 on refreshments for the event.

"It was probably our worst signing ever," says Meyer, who says that he changed the way he plans book signings after the incident.

Bookstore owner Pat Fowler says that she is less likely to be interested in carrying an author's book if the author's Web site only refers to Amazon for buying their book, and not their local bookstore.

Recognize that some bookstores may expect the author to do most of or all the work.

"It's not so much that I found the bookstore owners ignored my promotional efforts, they just don't seem to have much enthusiasm for organizing, scheduling or publicizing book signings or author events," says Peggy Tibbetts. "My books Rumors of War and Carly's Ghost came out within weeks of one another. I contacted several bookstores in the valley. What I found was that bookstore owners wanted me to do all the work of organizing and publicizing the event, which I found somewhat startling. Two bookstore owners asked me to organize a group author event and they would 'consider' it, if I could get some 'names.' I've done a lot of volunteer work through the years and I know what kind of time is involved in organizing events like this, so I never pursued it because I felt my time was better spent pursuing other, less labor intensive forms of publicity and promotion."

Karen Mueller Bryson notes, "I have found that bookstores are more likely to respond if authors are willing to give of their time - for example, volunteering to give a lecture or workshop on a topic related to your book or to writing/publishing. Even then, they still may not be willing to stock your book, but they usually let you sell copies in conjunction with your event. Bookstores also respond to customer requests. If readers order your book from a bookstore, the store is more likely to take notice of your title."

Tera Leigh offers the following tips for working with bookstores:

1. Have postcards printed with the cover of your book that indicate the ISBN info, cost, publisher, etc. "I kept space to write that I am either a) in the area, or b) will be in the area on certain dates."
   
   
2. Follow up. "I call within 10 days of sending the postcard. If they don't have the book in stock, I ask if they are interested in having the book sent to them. (My publisher will do this for me.)"
   
   
3. If the bookstore expresses interest in Leigh during a call but does not book her, she sends a detailed press kit with press clippings, book reviews, etc. ("to whet their interest"), and then calls them ten days later. So far, Leigh says she has been booked every time.

"I have found that in many cases the person in charge of events is so busy that if you don't follow up, they won't - even if they are interested," says Leigh. "They simply don't have time and will pick the low-hanging fruit: the authors that do follow up. Also, don't think of it as promoting yourself. Your book is a product -- it is not you. Tell the story behind your book. What led you to write it? That is what interests people and it gets the focus off you and onto the book and why other people may be interested in it."

Do You Need a Publicist?

Response to this question was mixed. Some authors felt that bookstores would indeed pay more attention to a publicist than an individual author, while others felt that an individual author could do fine as long as they did proper research to better target appropriate bookstores. I will be writing a future column on publicists, who they are, what exactly they can do, and how much they charge.

Though he works with both individual authors as well as publicists, Scott Meyer of Merritt Bookstore says he prefers publicists. "There are so many self-published authors and they can be a pain," says Meyer. "I had one that sent me a review copy with a bill for the full price plus sales tax. After putting it in our review pile someone took it home and two years later, he is still billing us and telling people what a terrible store we are."

Judy DiGregorio says that she was impressed by the effectiveness of a publicist hired by a friend who had written a self-help book. "The publicist advertised the book in several newspapers, radio, TV, etc., and did far more than the author would have been able to do."

"I find bookstores to tend ignore individual authors completely," says Chris Thomas, who says that despite being in the media for 12 years, he has only had one bookstore and one news agency take his book. "The most frustrating thing is that authors don't have any capital to market their books - yet the only way they can get that capital is to sell some books."

Tera Leigh points out that just because a publicist is expensive does not necessarily mean they are good. "I hired a publicist recommended to me by the producer of a TV show in my industry. She was very expensive and four months later had nothing to show for her work except for the leads I gave her. If I were to ever hire a publicist again, I'd make sure that that person had a ton of industry contacts in my industry. I made the assumption that because she knew one producer she knew them all. Not true. It was a huge waste of money, even though she charged top dollar because she had just left a big agency to start her own PR firm."

Bob Diefendorf is a self-published author who found a publicist by putting an ad in the local newspaper. Diefendorf said he found a publicist useful even though the person he hired and paid by the hour wasn't very experienced. Diefendorf was just starting out out as an author himself, he says, and mainly needed help with fundamentals. Like Leigh, Diefendorf also found that one of the most important qualifications that a publicist could have was the number of contacts in the business. "I'm finding more and more that creativity and work are important, but having access to media, contacts, and relationships are key for publicists." He offers some tips on finding a good publicist:

• Deciding what you want to accomplish by hiring a publicist will help you figure out what kind of publicist you want. Do you just want someone who can get the attention of booksellers? Do you want coverage by traditional media (print and broadcast)? Are you already a bestseller and you want to find someone who can help you maintain this status?
  
  
• Ask for a list of the books that he or she has promoted.
  
  
• Ask for a list of industry contacts with whom the publicist has ongoing relationships.
  
  
• Will the publicist provide a performance log (list of which media outlets were contacted and the outcome)?
  
  
• Ask other authors for recommendations of good publicists.

"Overall, I think the most important thing is one's mindset," says Marian McCain. "If I believe and keep in mind that co-operation between a bookstore owner and myself is to our mutual advantage and I see us as colleagues working together to make the world a better place through good books, then that positive attitude communicates itself to him or her subliminally and leads to success. If, on the other hand, I were to see bookstore owners as people who would likely reject me and see me and my book as 'rinky-dink' I believe that might well become a self-fulfilling prophecy."

For More Information:

Hiring A Personal Publicist, by Nancy Berland

http://www.romanceauthorspage.com/hiringpublicist.htm

Covers why and how to hire a publicist, how payment works, what to expect and how soon.

An Author Needs a Publicist! by Terry Haycock

http://www.iwpa.org/pen_points/2002/jodeeblanco1202.html

This article from a publicist includes promotion tips for authors and publishers.

Hire The Publicist To Get The Publishing Deal, by R. Scott Penza

http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/may01/penza.htm

Interesting article about the process from the perspective of a promotions agency, pointing out the advantage of hiring a publicist before pitching a manuscript to an agent or publishing house.

What Publicists Do

http://publishingcentral.com/articles/20030119-17-6d53.html

Don't Let Your Book Publicist Disappoint You

http://www.bookpr.com/bookpromotiononpromotion.htm

What Is Your Book Publicist Missing?

http://www.bookpr.com/whatisyourbookpublicistmissing.htm

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