There’s a little backstory to my first approach to a bookstore, asking them to consider stocking my first indie published book.

Yes, I know we should never start with backstory, but bear with me for a brief recap of the lessons I’ve learned about talking with New Zealand booksellers about stocking your indie published book. Hopefully these aspects of book marketing and distribution can help you if you’re considering indie publishing yourself.

When I finished writing, editing and proofreading my first junior fiction fantasy way back in 2019, I’d spent several years in the company of authors doing very well indie publishing romantic fiction. With a strong sense that taking the indie path was the right one for me at that point, I worked hard to create the best book I could with what I knew at the time along with help from professional designers and illustrators. I published Lily and the Unicorn King on global eBook sites and created the necessary files for print-on-demand paperbacks and even a large print hard cover edition. Hoorah, my book was out in the world.

Now, I thought, perhaps it’s time to see if any New Zealand bookstores and libraries would like to stock it, but how?

I popped into our local Paper Plus with a colour print of the cover and three sample chapters. They were kind and helpful, suggesting I made sure to add an ISBN barcode to the back cover and they’d expect a wholesale discount of 40% of the RRP, then they’d be happy to look at the paperbacks.

Barcode sorted with my designer, I ordered a few POD paperbacks. (I’m sure you enjoyed holding your first book in your hands as much as I did!)

More online searches revealed that standard book industry practice is for each book to have an Advance Information Sheet (AIS), also called a New Title Information (NTI) sheet. Basically an A4 page summary, the AIS shows the title, cover, author, illustrator if relevant, publisher, ISBN, page count, book description, if it’s part of a series, publication date, sales points for book retailers, wholesale pricing and ordering details.

Next, the pricing. Having looked at comp titles, I’d figured out a reasonable RRP for my 230-page paperback but there wasn’t a lot of margin on the books from the initial POD print run. I needed a local printer.

Yes, more research (and more funds) and, a short time later, a happy author with a box of lovely paperbacks from Your Books in Wellington.

I’m going to jump forward to my current situation as a bookseller because, despite the absolute delight of seeing my book for sale at our local bookshop, I felt overwhelmed by the idea of approaching other bookstores who I didn’t know. They have a whole world of books to choose from. Why would they want mine?

In fact, that overwhelm was one of the big reasons why I started the Kiwi Kids’ Bookstore. I figured there would be other authors like me who found it challenging to approach mainstream bookstores. Perhaps they’d prefer to deal with a bookstore owner who was also an indie author.

If you’ve been successful in having your book stocked by a range of booksellers, you’ve probably spotted several aspects of my bookstore approach that would have helped other book buyers make an informed decision about my book.

So, with my bookseller hat on, let’s summarise the elements that I like to see about a new book by an indie author so I can consider stocking it for my bookstore:

• Cover: it must be professional, the best cover you can afford. Don’t let your book down with poor cover design.
• AIS: include those sales points like age of readers (for children’s and teens), any local connections or historical facts relevant to the bookstore’s region, possibly comp titles.
• Author bio: include, briefly, what inspired you to write this book or relevant qualifications, experience and awards.
• Sample pages for picture books.
• Sample chapters for fiction and non-fiction.
• Reviews: include review snippets and links (because you’ll have sent your book out for review as part of your book marketing plan, right? Not like me who did this much too late…)
• Wholesale pricing: mention if GST is applicable.
• Where to order and timeline for delivery: if you’re ordering from overseas, I think you should mention that.
• Shipping costs: mention if in addition to per book price, or free shipping for orders of X number of books.
• Payment terms: authors prefer be paid on invoice; some retailers only pay on consignment for indie books as they sell.
• Media releases or other promotional material: if you’ve got an author Q&A about this book or other material I can use for the bookstore blog, great!
• Social media material: if you have generic social media graphics that make it easy for me to post about your book, share it!
• Ask what else you, as the author, can do to help the bookstore promote your book. I think it’s only polite to add all your stockists to your author website, to mention stockists on your social media from time to time and follow-up with booksellers about more stock, new reviews, etc. (without bombarding them with emails).

One last thing, bookshop owners are busy. They really do have a whole world of books to choose from. Don’t be offended if they take a while to reply or don’t reply at all. Research which booksellers to approach. Bookhub.co.nz is a great resource to see which booksellers sell which books. Keep notes about any responses, keep learning and improving, and all the best!