I'm here to make sure you don't repeat the same mistakes I made when I tried to publish my first book.

It all started when a friend urged me to consolidate eight years' worth of letters I had sent to her onto a blog, which quickly gained a large online following, and ultimately resulted in a book of short stories to share with the world. I was initially under the impression that all I had to do was send a strong cover letter with a few sample chapters to several publishers, and one of them would inevitably fall in love with the idea and give me a large sum of money as an advance so I could quit my job to focus on writing the book. This publishing fairytale is perpetuated by TV shows like Sex and the City and Bones, where Dr. Brennan gets a free Mercedes from her publisher, and Carrie Bradshaw's Book Premier is a large soirée with pictures of her book plastered on city buses. But that's not how it really works; publishers only do that in the movies.

Every time I tried writing a cover letter to send to publishers along with my manuscript, I felt like I was trying to convince a complete stranger that my story was worthy of their attention (kind of like selling myself). So I looked into print-on-demand publishing instead, and even though all the websites promise distribution into bookstores, they don't tell you the full story (which I ended up learning the hard way).

I started by self-publishing my first book through Lulu, where the customer service team was friendly, enthusiastic, and extremely supportive. I mailed free copies of the book along with press releases announcing its availability to hundreds of bookstores across the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia (independent shops and Barnes & Noble alike), only to discover that it doesn't matter how much they absolutely loved the book (and they did), they wouldn't stock it if they couldn't order it from Ingram, for example (the world's largest book distributor). It turns out bookstores don't deal with Lulu or KDP, for that matter. 

 

In fact, even if your book is listed with Ingram but isn't marked as returnable or available for retailers to order with their regular discount of up to 55% off the retail price, then most bookstores still wouldn't stock the book on their shelves (and understandably so; it's too big of a risk for them to take).

 

Most self-publishing sites only extend a 10-25% discount to bookstores, and the titles are never returnable (a double no-no). And to add insult to injury, many independent bookstores have a strict policy against dealing with KDP (CreateSpace) because it is owned by Amazon. However, if all you want is for your book to be listed on Amazon (not available in actual bookstores), then none of this matters; go with KDP. I personally love independent bookshops, so I was (am) determined to support them whenever I can.

I republished and resubmitted my title to bookshops (highlighting the fact that it's finally available for them to order from the same warehouse that stocks the rest of their inventory), and that's when their faces lit up; I was finally speaking their language!

The publishing world is in constant flux (RandomHouse already merged with Penguin, for example, and who knows how long it will be before they partner with other publishers as well). And as the battle between independent bookstores and Amazon continues, a positive side effect from all the turmoil is that other publishing options have also evolved. That's why even though my book was later picked up by HarperCollins (which I thought was every author's dream), I actually opted not to publish my second book with them.

 

I enjoy the publishing process very much and have successfully published multiple authors over the years. I am committed to helping you get your story into people's hands, offering the level of transparency that I wanted to see when I was represented by a publisher.

So if you're looking to publish your book but don't know where to start, or you're simply overwhelmed by the work involved, then we're a match made in Booktopia.