Self-Publishing Successes

Self-Publishing Successes

Josie Leavitt

Publishers Weekly ShelfTalker

This past holiday season two of our bestsellers were self-published books. This was a HUGE surprise to me when I ran the numbers at the end of the year. I have had time now to ponder the reason for this and have several reasons that this happened.

- The books were actually good. I don’t mean to sound snide or elitist, but so often self-published books are lacking editorial control and consequently, can be tough to read. Both books were edited well and professionally produced. There was no hint of a Kinko’s copy job with a spiral binding. These looked like real books. One was a hardcover, The Quest for 29 by Remo Pizzagalli, about hunting, which is not a subject we even stock, but it looked gorgeous. Full color photos throughout made it all the more enticing as a gift book. The other book, Vermont Wild by Megan Price, was a handsome paperback.

- Both authors were relentless at getting excellent press about their books. They didn’t just get press once, they got it repeatedly. They were on radio shows, local public access TV and they were reviewed and mentioned in articles in seemingly every paper in the state. And with every mention in the press, our store was listed as one of the main purveyors of the book.  This drove business to the store in an amazing way. Literally, streams of customers, most new to the store, came in looking for these two books at the holidays.

- The authors were good about checking in about stock levels. Normally, self-published authors can get a little overly aggressive about checking stock, but with these two books at the holidays, it was enormously helpful. Also, they both seemed to have endless supplies of books in their cars, so I could say I needed 20 more, and by the end day I got 20.

- Both authors were very meticulous about record-keeping. This just makes my job easier. We try to keep up with receiving self-published books when they come, but so often the consignment issue precludes entering books into the inventory, so having another set of good records was vital. I know how many I’ve sold by the negative numbers listed for that book at the end of the day. Basically, I receive backwards and the authors do it the right way, so it works out.

- We started paying up front for Vermont Wild because Megan is great, very local, and she got a loan to rush a second printing of the book for the balance of the holiday season. Her responsiveness to our needs was like magic. Usually within an hour or two we’d be restocked, and that deserves to be rewarded.

- It’s interesting because these two authors couldn’t be more different. Remo is a retired businessman who is very well regarded in town. He wrote the book knowing little about the book business; Megan is more savvy about the book business and more concerned about how to help us sell her book more profitably. Remo’s book is too expensive and we all know that, but it fills a void and he’s donating a portion of the proceeds to a hunting charity. To his credit, Remo has learned on the fly and has worked very hard to get us a better discount and terms for his book. This has been very helpful, as 10 copies (our standing order, it seems) gets expensive to pay out every time.

- We have sacrificed a bit of a discount to carry both of these books. We only do this because both authors are as local you can get, they are driving a ton of business into the store, and really, good business boils down to being a good neighbor.

- Lastly, the books continue to sell after the holidays. Both authors say that they can personalize books at our store, so we see a seemingly endless line of book sales. And, after 15 years in business, it’s very nice to have some self-published books holding their own with New York Times bestsellers.