Nov 22 2008
Selling your Vanity Press Novel
So how do you sell your self-published novel? The answer is, you sell it by loading the books into your car, or pounding the pavements, hawking your books around local bookstores, markets, friends and family. Of course you can also market your book on the internet, including Amazon, but then you’re going to have to mail the book to the person who buys it.
Now, there’s no denying that a hard-copy book still sells better than an electronic one.
But unfortunately for you, having real solid books to sell puts you at a disadvantage. If you have to send your books anywhere, it’s going to cost postage or courier fees, which you’ll have to cover in your selling price. And you have to ask, if someone has to choose between buying your book, sight unseen, at a higher cost than a similar book at a local store – which one are they going to buy?
Even your local bookstores can be reluctant to stock your book – shelf space is at a premium so they’d rather stock tried and tested best sellers. If they do agree to take some, it will be on consignment: you won’t get paid until they sell, and eventually you’ll have to take back the ones that don’t.
It should come as no surprise that there are a lot of writers out there with a garage full of books (which cost hundreds to produce) and no buyers.
That’s one reason why POD (print-on-demand) and e-publishers have been a Godsend for self-publishing authors
