Category Archives: Distribution

Ever Changing Publishing World by Deatri King-Bey

The publishing world is ever changing, and you need to change with it or be left behind. With so many moving pieces, it can be difficult to focus. The key is to pick one area at a time to follow.

This is a two-part article. Let’s Get Down To Publishing Business delves into the parts of the business that move, but not so much they are hard to keep track of as much such as taxes, earnings and proper planning. I find this stuff boring, but you have to learn about it, so don’t skip it.

Now back to the not so boring part. Let’s look at some of those moving parts of the publishing industry.

BARNES & NOBLE
In the past year, Barnes & Noble has changed quite a bit. To upload your ebook, instead of going to pubit.com you should now use http://www.NookPress.com. I have always liked the sales reports better on Barnes & Noble. You have a breakdown of what you sell each day and the royalty. So if I run a promo campaign on the 4th, 5th and 6th, I can see how many and what titles I sold on the 4th, 5th, and 6th.

The Nook Press platform for uploading the book isn’t much better than it was before. You can actually edit your manuscript in Nook Press, but I haven’t used that feature. I don’t like the idea of keeping my manuscript there. I’ll do it the old fashioned way. Write it on my computer and upload it.

It used to take around three days for my titles to show for sale after uploading. Lately, I’ve been averaging about a day. The Nook Press system is more touchy with the files. Follow their guidelines or the system will not accept your manuscript. When formatting, please note that using a “Page Break” no longer starts chapters on a new page. You must now use “Section Break.” They have also changed the cover dimensions and file size. Read their guidelines. They are ever changing.

Unfortunately, they don’t have any new promo opportunities, their customer service is still poor and the newsletters they send out to customers with recommended reads aren’t the best at introducing readers to books similar to those they’ve purchased in the past. Hopefully, things will improve.

Many authors have given up on Barnes & Noble, but I’m not one of them. I’ll take my little $200-$600 a month from them for now and be happy.

AMAZON

Amazon has so many changes. Where to begin? Where to begin?

Subgenres: There are additional subgenres that you need to pay attention to. For example Interracial Romance and Science Fiction Romance. If your book actually fits into one of the new subgenres, use the Contact option from the KDP site and ask them to add your title to that subgenre. Remember, Amazon only allows you to link your title to two genres, so you’ll only get to choose one genre when you are updating your product page information.

One of my mentees had her title added to the appropriate subgenre and her sells took off. Since she changed in November, she’s gotten around 65 sells. Previous to that she’d only had 20 and her book had been out over a year. She also has not been promoting her book, so this is all from the change in genre.

Kindle Book Formatting: Amazon now wants you to have a Table Of Contents in your ebooks. They’ll let you upload the file without the table of contents, but eventually, you’ll get a nasty gram saying you need to update your book with a table of contents. They also have a “spell check” of sorts now that calls out errors in your book after it’s been uploaded. Don’t rely on it. Hire good editors and proof readers.

Review Removal: In an attempt to decrease phony reviews, Amazon added a new policy for not allowing reviews or “Sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a financial interest in the product or a directly competing product (including reviews by publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product)” –Amazon Policy

Technically, authors could not write reviews for other authors. You also couldn’t have your family and friends writing glowing reviews for you. At first numerous reviews were removed, but Amazon has pretty much backed off this.

Kindle MatchBook: If your eBook is also available in print, through your KDP dashboard, you can link the two, so that when someone purchases the print edition, they can also purchase the eBook version as a discounted price. I’ve done this with my eBooks that are available in print and haven’t seen a measurable increase in print sales. Here’s more information on Kindle MatchBook.

Be careful if the print version of your book was ever released by a different publisher. Ensure Amazon knows which book to link the MatchBook promotion to. Many authors have gotten their rights back, but their old publishers are still selling print copies of their titles.

KDP Reports: The reporting is greatly improved. You no longer have to wait until the 15th of the month to see the previous month’s sells. I like the at a glance look at how many of each title I sold for the month. Granted, you will not have the royalty report for the previous month until the 15th, but if you really wanted to know, you can always look at your previous six weeks report. You can also toggle between locations. For example how well are your titles selling in the UK or Germany? Take your time and go through the reports section. You’ll find lots of goodies.

KDP Payday: There is no longer a minimum royalty payout. So if you sell one copy of your .99 title in February, you’ll receive your royalty check for that .99 sell at the end of April.

Release Date: Numerous authors found out that the release date on their product page had been updated to a current date without their knowledge. What happened? A few months ago, Amazon changed the programming in the background. Before this change, if you didn’t select a publishing date when you uploaded your title, it used the date that the file was uploaded and that was the end. You could go in and change your product information and have no issues. After the change, if you have not selected a publication date, the system can automatically update your publication date.

Yep. You can end up having a publishing date YEARS after review dates if this happens. Have no fear. Just go into the KDP dashboard then to the titled product page information and update the release date to the proper date. On the KDP dashboard, it will list the original release date.

GOODREADS
Amazon purchased Goodreads. Many were worried that would be the end of Goodreads, but the site is still thriving. One of the biggest changes on Goodreads is now authors can “own” their profile. It’s a way of keeping information up to date on your titles. Read more about the Goodreads Author Program

One thing I really like about Goodreads is the quotes. Readers can post quotes from books they’ve read. I’ve found this is a great conversation starter. Soooo, be sure to encourage your readers to showcase their favorite quotes from your titles. Here are a few from one of my titles.

Goodreads quotes: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/25520642-the-only-option

FACEBOOK
I know you don’t want to hear this, but your opt-in mailing list is your most powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal (outside of releasing outstanding books). Building a high quality opt-in list is time consuming, but worth it. What does this have to do with Facebook? Well, those of you who follow my teachings have heard me say several times that your social media friends and likes are not YOURS. They belong to the social media site.

I think Facebook, Twitter and such are great for promotion, but don’t only rely on them. Keep growing your opt-in mailing list. So let’s look at what has happened over at Facebook since this time last year.

Actually, we need to go back a little over a year when Facebook began warning users not to promote on their personal pages. They encouraged users to create fan pages, which were for business and had just as far of a reach of a personal page AND the added bonus of your being allowed more than 5,000 followers.

So people started following the rules and creating Fan pages. In came a Facebook business model change. They decided to start charging you for you to post to more than 10% of your list of your fan pages. In came another change on your personal pages. Your statuses are no longer posted to all of your “friends” newsfeeds. They are only posted to “friends” who you have interacted with recently.

So now authors who only relied on Facebook are having difficulty reaching their followers unless they are willing to pay. How much does it cost? Here’s an article that breaks it down nicely: Facebook I Want My Friends Back

Expensive, huh? Soooo, get to working on your opt-in mailing list. Again, social media is great. Use it, but don’t put all your eggs into a basket you don’t even own. You do not control what business model those social media sites will follow. You do control your mailing list though.

Before I change the subject form Facebook, I came across an interesting article about why you should Like Your Own Facebook Post.

TWITTER

Twitter now allows you to post images! I love that feature, but still don’t get Twitter. Every year I try some new marketing technique. Last year was the year of Twitter for me. I actively participated. I set up my Hootsuite tool to repost blog post and promos. I retweeted and was retweeted. I gained followers and followed…. All that good stuff. I usually send people from social media over to my website so I can see where my promo traffic is coming from and guess what? I barely saw anything from Twitter. For me, it wasn’t worth my time. I still go on Twitter from time to time, but it’s just not my thing. If it works for you, GO FOR IT!

YOUR TURN
Okay, there are more changes. What have you noticed has changed over the last year? Enlighten us.

Deatri King-Bey

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Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for?Become A Successful Author is used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble

Book Distribution—The Necessary Evil

Having your book professionally edited isn’t the only necessary evil you must deal with in your journey to becoming a successful author. Don’t forget your book’s distribution. This article will focus on print distribution.

You’ve written what you know will be a best seller and done all of the other production legwork, and now you’re holding a copy of your finished print book in your hand. Yes, there are still billions of dollars in sales per year for print titles and you want your chunk of it. But how do you get your title to the point of sell? Oh no, you skipped an important step–distribution. In order to talk distribution, we need to talk printing also.

Print On Demand (POD) Printing

POD Printing is used for small print runs. Publishers have been using this technology for over a decade for Advance Review Copies and when they want to do small print runs. Using this method is more expensive per book than using offset printing (which is used for large print runs), but you don’t have to pay the storage and insurance fees you do for large print runs or risk having large amounts of books, that you’ve paid for, taking up space (space is money) if they don’t sell.

Self-Distribution

Many printing companies offer POD Printing services. Create Space and Lightning Source are two popular ones, but there are also companies that do offset printing (large print runs) such as Bang Printing that offer POD Printing. In self-distribution, you’d have the company print however many books and send them to you to sell from your home, website, storefront and so on. You’d make contact with book sellers for your book’s inclusion in their catalogues. You’d submit your book to wholesalers such as Baker and Taylor and Ingram (at least six months before your book’s release). You’d do it all. If you go this route, be careful of signing consignment agreements with book sellers. In consignment agreements, the author sends the seller an agreed number of books. The book seller then sells the books and is supposed to give the author his/her agreed upon royalty for those sells, and the books that don’t sell are supposed to be returned to the author. Unfortunately, numerous authors have been ripped off by signing consignment agreements. Many do not receive their pay or return of their books. Be sure to speak with other authors who have had their titles with the seller and do your research before you sign anything and/or ship your books.

POD Distribution/Publishing

With POD Distribution, you work with a POD company such as Create Space or Lightning Source for the printing and distribution of your title. The company utilizes POD printing combined with its distribution channels to have your title listed in book sellers’ catalogues (for example Baker & Taylor, Ingram, Barnes & Noble). When a customer orders your title online or from the physical store, a copy of your book is printed and shipped to the customer or seller, depending on the arrangement between the POD company and the seller. Once the sell is complete, you will receive a royalty on that sell.

Many authors (and some publishing houses) use POD distribution/publishing because of the low upfront cost, but there is a major downside that you must understand. Numerous book sellers will not carry your title in their establishment because if the copies do not sell, the book seller can not return them (which is common practice in the industry for unsold books). It does not matter that your title is listed in Baker and Taylor or Ingram, they still will not be returnable when working through most POD distributors/publishing.

Some POD publishers, such as Lightning Source, have an arrangement with the wholesalers such as Baker & Taylor to allow returns. The author, of course, pays the POD company additional fees for this. The great thing about this is more stores will be willing to stock your title on their shelves. The downside is, outside of being listed in catalogs and websites, there is little to no additional marketing from the POD publisher and distributor. It’s up to the author to make those connections.

Traditional Distributor

A distributor stores your print run, markets your titles to the booksellers (chains) and works to ensure your title will be on as many store shelves as possible. This is the main type of distribution traditional publishers use and is very costly, which is why many self-published authors do not go this route.

Having a marketing team promote your books to major book sellers and your title being returnable is HUGE. Granted, you’ll still need to market your title to get readers to the bookstore (online and physical) to buy your title, but at least it will be on the shelves.

Not all traditional distributors are created equal. Some of the smaller ones do not market your book to book sellers. If they aren’t going to market your book to the major chains and book sellers, I suggest you go a different route.

Final Words

It’s important that you know your options where distribution is concerned so you can make informed choices. The publishing industry is ever changing and so are the roles of distributors. Do your research and know what you are getting into.

Deatri King-Bey

If you found this post helpful, please use the share buttons to spread the word about it.

Don’t have a copy of Become A Successful Author? What are you waiting for? Become A Successful Author will be used in the “How To Write That Novel” course at Chicago State because it covers everything from branding to writing to editing to formatting and uploading electronic and print books to marketing and so much more. Your time is money. Look at all the time, thus money, you’ll save by ending your search for answers: Purchase Become A Successful Author for only $4.99 (eBook) or $9.99 (print) from: Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble