How to get your book onto shelves

Being an author is getting your book into the hands of readers. There is nothing quite like the feeling of seeing your book on the shelves for the first or even 100th time. As the primary buyer for our bookstore (Salida Books aka “The Book Haven,”) I can tell you that there really is one thing that will greatly improve the odds of getting your book on the shelves at your local indie bookstore.

When meeting with potential booksellers you should have a plan for how you will pitch your book already in mind. And the first rule of knowing what to say is keeping it simple.

Booksellers want to know what will you do to market your book and make it known to readers. This is the most important thing to consider while making your pitch; I don’t need to know much about what happens in our book, sorry. A brief one-line synopsis and hook will do, but what I really want to know is what you as the writer will do to sell it. You are the sole expert on the book you just wrote and

Some things I do want to know about are your:

-Facebook groups and pages associated with you or your book

-author website or landing page

-ad campaigns you plan or have already begun

-radio interviews or other appearances where you can mention purchase options

-plans for speaking and presentations about the book

-social media handles about the book or author

-blogs and new content opportunities

-do you already have a following

-do you have a podcast

-do you have an email subscriber list

Tell me everything you are doing to drive interest, and therefore sales, of your book.

The books that I feature in my social media are ones that are being talked about so what are you doing as an author to get your book talked about.

This alone will go farther than anything else toward landing your self-published book on bookstore shelves.

Try an online course that teaches the basics of building your author brand here