Book Sales: Targeting Education Sellers

I'm sharing another of the continuing Q&A a la Ann Landers feature from my #SharingwithWriters newsletter with you again. There is something satisfying about knowing I have helped an individual with a specific problem.  Subscribers are welcome to send their own question so why not subscribe. Send me an e-mail with SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to HoJoNews@aol.com.

Q&A A La Ann Landers

Getting Your Book Into Campus Libraries and More!

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QUESTION

Re university bookstores: I know that Random House had my book in their catalog targeting educational sellers. Is there more than that I can do? How would I 

1. identify them and

 2. approach them?

ANSWER

I'm going to use my husband's experience with his What Foreigners Need to Know About America from A to Z as an example because he was so successful with it. 

He put together a form letter (which he tweaks)depending on who it's going to. He goes online and finds areas on campus that could use his book. That includes 

1. Libraries

 2. International Student Programs 

3. International Student Course Teachers 

4. Campus Bookstore Buyers  

He spends about 30 minutes a day sending the letter to the correct person when possible. Sometimes that's only 1 contact. Some days, when research goes well, it's three or four.  He's had some amazing successes like having his book chosen as gifts/recommendations by the university that hosts the Fulbright Scholars in the US each summer.  There is a cost to it beyond time. He offers a free book to those influencers who show an interest, but these most often don't result in single book sales, either.  The top sale we could trace to his letters (it's sometimes easier for self-published authors to trace sales to a specific effort) was 59 copies. 

One more secret. He keeps at it. 

An alternative for you that isn't as frugal and not as effective because the contact is not personal (but a lot less time-consuming!:

 IBPA (Independent Book Publishers Association) had a catalog that they send out to libraries, a separate one to university libraries and one to reviewers.  I've used that. It can be good...or not. Depending on the title. 

Be aware, that if you find an instructor who recommends your book or uses is at class reading, the bookstore often stocks the book automatically. But not always. It doesn’t hurt to mention that your book was ordered or that Professor X showed an interest in your book in a followup letter to the buyer.  

----- Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The multi award-winning second edition of The Frugal Editor; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

So Why Is Amazon Fooling Around With the Price of My Book?

By now lots of you are familiar with my penchant for Q and As a la Ann Landers. Here is one from a recent issue of my SharingwithWriters newsletter:

 

QUESTION

If I set a price in Amazon, and the book is NOT enrolled in KDP select, how is it that they get to change the price?

How (if at all) does that affect my royalties?

Holly J., writer 

ANSWER
Amazon is huge. Amazon has power! Actually, the real reason they get to change prices any time they want to: Because they are the retailer and setting the retail price is the prerogative of retailers in most cases.

Amazon aims for the lowest price possible which is one of the reasons people buy from stuff from them including books. And that's why we WANT our books on Amazon at the lowest price possible. Make sense? There are lots of other reasons we want our books on Amazon, too. Huge reasons. But that's another day's SharingwithWriters post.

 And, no.  It doesn't affect your royalties.  But here's the thing. Sales are more important than the percentage on any given book. In the retail world of which I was a part of (other than books) for thirty years, it's about quantity of sales rather than large margin per sale. One sale begets recommendations and more sales still (especially with a good book!), so we don't mind discounting to get that. 

 

Of course, there can be limits--and Amazon knows where they are. I don’t see that they’re much interested in loss leaders. Even when books are given away free, there is something in it for them. And most times something in it for the author, too.

 

-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of This Is the Place; Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered; Tracings, a chapbook of poetry; and how to books for writers including the award-winning second edition of, The Frugal Book Promoter: How to get nearly free publicity on your own or by partnering with your publisher; The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success; and Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers . The Great First Impression Book Proposal is her newest booklet for writers. She has three FRUGAL books for retailers including A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques. Some of her other blogs are TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com, a blog where authors can recycle their favorite reviews. She also blogs at all things editing, grammar, formatting and more at The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor .

Q&A: Hate Amazon But Don't Mind Learning to Get Along?

This question came from one of my favorite online egroups, Word_Mage (word_mage-subscribe@yahoogroups.com) listmomed by Billie Williams. One is from a writer who says she loves Amazon and that if she weren't a tree-hugger she'd carve that into the trunk of a big oak. And, of course, she suggests the chapter in the Frugal Book Promoter that talks about the perks Amazon offers.

Then another member was she was really ticked with them because the reviews of her book had gone missing, had even sent them a blistering note. She said she was "as mad a wet hen." So she was glad to see another point of view.

Then another told her to cool it, that sometimes Amazon is just working on stuff and that, like ghosts or fog, they disappear only to reappear in a couple of days. And I commented said that is true. You know how these e-group threads go. (-:

Of course, I still had to chime in with more, a la Ann Landers. So here it is:

Carolyn's Advice:

In the Frugal Book Promoter , I start the chapter with something like "Authors love to hate Amazon and, sometimes, I hate to love them."

The fact is undeniable, though: Amazon can do wonders for writers and that without them -- especially those of us who publish with POD technology (on occasion or exclusively), we are pretty much lost if we intend to do much volume book selling. Collectively, the booksellers certainly aren't going to do it for us.

Therefore we are duty-bound (for the good of our books) to learn Amazon's perks and how to use them effectively. As an example, I am about to take pictures of some of the farm antiques I have from the polygamist grandfather's farm and post them to the This Is the Place page in the photos feature. (This Is the Place is about five generations of hardy Utah women who all married into the Mormon religion and found the hardships inherent in that situation hard to overcome.) It's based on my own genealogy.

So, be mad as a wet kitten, if you want. But keep learning to work within Amazon's system. Let them know where problems exist. Here's how:

 Wait a couple days to see if the problem resolves itself, especially if it involves disappearing features.
 Use their feedback feature to communicate. Do it politely.
 Be persistent if they don't respond.
 When they do they will give you a URL to respond if your question was resolved and another if it wasn't. Use whichever suits the occasion. Know that the one that clues someone (someone apparently higher up on the Amazon totem) that the problem wasn't resolved, gets action quickly but don't use it without good reason.
 Send a thank you.

You want to stay on Amazon's good side. After all, they're just working people like you and me. Approach it that way and you win (and, yes, so do they!)

-----
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author THIS IS THE PLACE; HARKENING: A COLLECTION OF STORIES REMEMBERED; TRACINGS, a chapbook of poetry; and two how to books, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T; and THE FRUGAL EDITOR: PUT YOUR BEST BOOK FORWARD TO AVOID HUMILIATION AND ENSURE SUCCESS.
Her other blogs include TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com and AuthorsCoalition.blogspot.com, a blog that helps writers and publishers turn a ho-hum book fair booth into a sizzler.