Bookstores have a long history of ordering too many books and then returning them for a credit, often damaged and at the expense of the publisher or self-published author. At other times, the books are simply destroyed (or sold to a big salvage bookstore), again, at the expense of the publisher or self-published author. It is my strong opinion that bookstores, like other … [Read more...]
Stop Book Returns
Industry statistics reveal that book returns can be 30% or more of sales. If you reduce or eliminate returns then you could increase your net sales and revenue by that same amount and your profits by even more. But, you say, you have no control over returns since Ingram and the bookstores return them at will without selling them. On the contrary, there are many things that … [Read more...]
Self-Publishing Lessons
Writing a book was the last thing that I thought I would ever do, until a thoughtless, throwaway comment from a friend changed me, and I felt the urgent need to write about it. “You must be relieved,” she said just after I had arrived home from dropping my teenage son, who has autism, at a special residential school many miles from our home in California. But I … [Read more...]