Book marketing Archives - Sonia Marsh

For unknown indie authors like myself, getting your book into Costco might seem impossible, but let me share my own experience, and motivate you to try this yourself.

As I tell my indie author friends, everything starts with building

a relationship

What do I mean?

Well, if you shop at your local Costco, ask to speak to the manager. Introduce yourself, and say that you’re a local author and would like to know how to do a book signing at his/her store.

One Saturday while shopping, I noticed an author selling his books. I asked him how he got into Costco and he mentioned his publisher arranged everything for him. He had a traditional publisher, and wasn’t an indie publisher like myself.

I lucked out when Jeff, the manager, walked up to the author, and I took the opportunity to remind him that I also wanted to do a book signing. Fortunately, Jeff loves to read and support authors. I asked him for his e-mail, and he told me I had to call the headquarters in Issaquah, WA, and follow their instructions.

I called them and listened to their instructions about where to send my book, together with my press kit and it specifically said, that they do not want books published by Author House, X-Libris, I-Universe, or CreateSpace as the publisher. You can use CreateSpace for printing, but not as your publisher on record.

Fortunately, I have my own publishing company, “Gutsy Publications” which allows me to offer Costco the same discount bookstores expect from publishers. I offered them a 55% discount.

After waiting several weeks, I heard back from Costco’s, California based wholesaler, which supplies print books on local and regional topics to Costco warehouses nationwide.

I followed their guidelines, and my son helped me with PhotoShop to design two 20″x30″ posters, which Costco printed. I had to pay for them though.

Jeff was kind enough to allow me to place the posters at the front of Costco for a week before my signing, to alert shoppers.

I did all the local advertising and social media to get people to show up, and ended up selling 32 books in total.

On the day of my Costco book signing, several writer friends arrived to support me and some wanted to know how I did it.

DarleneQuinnSoniaCharlaSpence — Darlene Quinn, Sonia, Charla Spence

Sonia far

I wish you all the best, and FYI, if you need help, please e-mail me your specific question and write (Free Question Consultation) in the Subject line and e-mail me at: sonia@soniamarsh.com.

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Do you need help with:

Pre-publication (Blogging, Branding and Building your platform)
Publication (How to publish your book. Pros and cons of publishing options)
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Check out my “Gutsy Coaching” options HERE.

My first post was about traditional publishing. This post will outline what Jared Kuritz, Co-President of Strategies, presented on March 21st, 2009 at the Southern California Writers’ Association about a new trend in publishing: Cooperative publishing. Since traditional publishers have a 96-97% failure rate, Jared mentioned the need for publishers to increase the effort invested in each writer, and decrease the number of books they publish.

Many traditional publishers and distributors are now opening coops. Basically cooperative publishing is where both the author and the publisher share the costs and the profits. Mid-size publishers can’t carry the same risks as large publishers so many are now offering quality cooperative publishing.

The benefits of cooperative publishing are numerous. The publisher shares in the costs of production but this gives the author more flexibility in publishing and production decisions. The publisher is responsible for all publishing duties as well as participating in PR activities. The biggest advantage is the sales profit to the author which can range from 30-50%. The author also gets free books for PR and a huge discount for BOR (back of room) sales.

The main disadvantage of cooperative publishing is that the author shares in the production costs.
In general, the author pays for the design of the book, and the cooperative publisher pays for the printing, editing and distribution.

So if the book cover is $20, after the bookstore and distributor get their share, the author can expect to net between $1.80-$5.70 depending on whether the cooperative publisher has a 50/50 split or a 70/30 split with the author.

Jared Kuritz mentions that PR and Marketing are crucial whether you use a traditional publisher, a cooperative publisher or you self-publish. Jared also warns writers to be careful who they pick as a cooperative publisher. Chose a reputable publisher and ask if they also offer cooperative publishing.

Since this is a long post, and if you haven’t already done so, please share with us, your book synopsis in 25 words. I shall post it with a link to your blog at the end of this 3 part series on publishing.

Next post, I shall talk about Self-publishing, vanity publishing and Print on demand (POD.)