10 Ideas for Nontraditional Book Placement

If you have a book in hand or soon will, then you are excited to see it on the shelf of a local bookstore. But with the mega conglomerate bookstores and the tough economy, shelf space at major bookstores is getting harder and harder to come by. But with a little elbow grease and some comfy shoes, you can find a home for your books.

Traditional bookstores are just one place that you can sell your books. Here are some ideas for you to go after. And when you find success with one of these, ask the owner for a referral. Business owners spend time with other business owners. If you present yourself with the confidence of an expert author, then you may be surprised at how many businesses start to contact you for book placements. And here's a tip for you: business owners tend to talk up books to their clients if they had the exciting privilege of meeting the author in person.

One more thing. Non-bookstores won't act like bookstores when it comes to taking on your book. You will be in the drivers seat many times and you can walk the owners through your business arrangement. Many times, your book may be the first book that a business owner tries to sell, so they don't come in with a lot of experience in selling books. How well you work with the business owner can make the difference in them carrying your book or not. It may take different deals to land your book in different businesses so you may need to have a few versions of contracts written to accommodate different deals you make. Here are a couple of arrangements you may work out:

1. Direct Buy: This is easiest for you and the least risky. The business will purchase outright your book at a discounted price and then take the risk to sell them. The only time you will hear from the owner is to sell them more books.

2. Consignment: This is at the other end of the spectrum. Consignment is when you give copies of your book to a business and they will pay you a discounted price if the book sells. You take the risk and you provide the investment, but this arrangement will often make a skeptical business owner decide to give your book a try when he or she may not be inclined to do so otherwise. If your book does well, then they may be willing to make subsequent purchases of your books upfront with a bit of a deeper discount.

Note: generally speaking, the larger the order is, the more willing the business is to make an outright purchase. However, you will need to be ready to deal a deep discount to close a big deal. Know what you can afford to give away to make sure you don't cut so deep that it's a losing proposition for you.

Also, if the business advertises, you may be able to talk them into featuring your book in their ad, especially if you agree to promote it with an in-store event.


Here are some ideas of businesses you may want to approach about carrying your book:

* Gift Shops- The chain shops probably deal with distributors, but you may still find fertile ground here, depending on the subject of your book. And the smaller, independent shops may be easier to strike deals with.

* Gas Stations- These can be great opportunities to sell to people on the road. If your book does well at one store, then you may find that the owners may buy for all his stores. And if you can get in a station that caters to long haul truckers, you may be surprised at how well your book sells.

* Hospital Gift Shops- The hospital is full of patients and family members who often have a lot of time on their hands to read books. Bill yourself as a local author and you may find a great opportunity. And if you can swing it, you may want to offer to donate a portion of the sales to a charity within the hospital.

* Online Specialty Shops- When you come across a business that sells products online, check with the owner to see if they would be willing to list your book. If you watched my video tip on using your search strategies to sell your books, you know that we found a shop that sold wine and beer items that would be perfect to sell our fictitious book on bottle cap collecting. Any online shop that is related to your book in any way is fair game to contact.

* Cross Selling Opportunities- Did you write a murder-mystery that takes place on the golf course? One of our guest authors to this blog, Michael Balkind, did and he successfully placed copies of his books in golf shops. What is your book about? What specialty shops would your book be a natural in, even if they don't currently sell books?

* Televisions Shopping- The Chicken Soup For The Soul's authors cut their teeth on selling their books in the wee hours of the morning on some of these shopping networks. Check out the station's submission guidelines to have your book considered.

* Book Clubs- This is perhaps the most sought after non-traditional opportunity to sell your books. You have to give deep discounts, but you usually get awesome marketing, recognition, and payment in full in return.

* Catalogs- Many catalogs are hungry for hot selling products. If you land a catalog spot and your book does well, you will have a recurring outlet for your book sales.

* Chamber of Commerce Members- Approach the chamber members in your community about selling your books. Chambers are organized to help each other succeed, so they may be fertile ground for you.

* Home Builders/Real Estate Agents- A signed book by a local author is a wonderful housewarming gift for a new homeowner. A basket of fruit rots- your signed book will have a cherished place on the owner's bookshelf for years to come.

The list can literally go on and will only be limited by your imagination. Never ever rule a business out. Would you believe that my action/adventure book, The Samson Effect, has found a home in a print shop and a home improvement store? It has, and I have even refilled orders!

Good luck with finding places to sell your books. You may be surprised at the word of mouth that your book can generate just because you made it visible in a nontraditional place.

Tony Eldridge