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Distribution

Get your book to market! Whether you're selling direct on Amazon, or placing your book in stores, we have strategies for effective distribution.

Distribution Decisions

  • Direct or distributor?
  • Communicating with vendors
  • Sales reporting
  • The global market
 

Reaching an International Audience – Strategies that Work

Penny C. Sansevieri's picture
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue Nov 26, 2019

Although an international audience may seem like a surprising place to focus your book promotion efforts, they represent a growing market segment for many authors. In fact, while North America remains our biggest book market, we have also had good success with international outreach on behalf of the authors we work with.

You’ll find that although connecting with international readers may require some creative thinking, it doesn’t have to take up a lot of your time. With as little as an hour or two a month, you can see some great results.  Better still, you don’t have to spend the time and money getting your book translated, because there is a considerable English language reading market even in countries that primarily speak a different language.

After all, English is one of the most widely spoken languages on the planet, so it makes sense to target this market. And, there are a host of ways you can go about selling more books to these international audiences.

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Reasons Why a Distributor May Turn Down Your Book

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Oct 1, 2019

There are many opportunities for book sales through non-bookstore retailers. These could be airport stores, supermarkets, discount stores, gift shops and many more. The good news is that you sell to them in ways in which you are already familiar: you get a distribution partner and they contact buyers for you. The bad news is that the distributors are inundated with books that they cannot take on and therefore must reject them. Even a good book may be declined if not submitted properly or has missing information.

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To Print or Not to Print… Paperback, Hardcover, eBook?

by Cheryl Russo
Bowker | Tue Jun 5, 2018

You’ve written your book, you have your ISBN and barcode, but who will print your book?

Many Bowker customers ask us…do you print books? Do you know of a printer that I can contact? Since we service all the US, that would be a large list to keep and quite a job to maintain. So, I thought I would list a few things to aid our self-publishers with this process.

Before looking for a printer make a list of your specifications:

What type of book is it?  
Paperback, hardcover, maybe just a spiral bound. Will it have a dust jacket? How many pages are there? How many copies do you want to print? Will this be printed traditionally or digitally? This will get you started, and then you can search for a printer that can accommodate you.

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Put Off Your Procrastination

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Wed Jun 21, 2017

Have you ever thought, “There are so many things to do to market my book, and I’m not sure where to start or when to do them?” If so, you may be so overwhelmed that you don’t do anything. 

You can avoid this analysis paralysis and keep yourself moving productively toward the attainment of your goals. Creating a business plan is the best way to begin. But this can be a daunting task, one easy to put off. That can perpetuate one’s sense of futility and actually encourage procrastination.

Instead, try this simple technique. Make a list of all the things you have to do, organized in categories of similar actions, put a deadline on each, and start doing them one at a time. Use your pub date as the ending point, then work back to the present day. Here is a list of some actions to take – by no means exhaustive -- organized into five phases, and the approximate time it should be started so you reach your pub date, ready to sell. 

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Planning an Audio Book? Consider these 3 Things!

Penny C. Sansevieri's picture
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue May 30, 2017

EBooks are everywhere these days. In fact, they’re so prevalent, it’s often easy to forget the “other” way to read books – by listening to them. Audio book lovers are passionate about their books. When you talk with them, you’ll probably hear that most can’t recall the last time they actually read a book word for word. In fact, some people listen to as many as five audio books each month – this is particularly common in people who spend long periods of time on the road, like over-the-road truck drivers. And you’ll also find that audio book lovers have a wide variety of tastes, listening to anything from world history to self-help and fiction.

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How to Think About Content Differently and Reach New Audiences through eBooks

by Devorah Ashlem
Bowker | Tue Nov 17, 2015

When you write a book, you want to get it into as many hands as possible. Technological innovations make it possible to reach more than just hands by enabling you to produce audible books and accessible, portable content for a variety of mobile devices. More than ever, readers demand a high-quality user experience with content, and, through social networking vehicles, they have more ways to complain or share with others when it doesn’t go so well.

In a 2015 survey covering trends in digital publishing, conducted by Bowker and Data Conversion Laboratory (DCL), 72% of respondents indicated that they currently publish digital content and 79% plan to in the future. Whether you author non-fiction, fiction or technical material, you can leverage opportunities to distribute digital books via your own website, Amazon, Apple, and other ebook distributor sites.

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Preparing Your Books for the Digital Marketplace – Clean Up Your Content and Understand the Tools

by Devorah Ashlem
Bowker | Tue Sep 22, 2015

You’ve done it—you’ve written a book. Chances are that you understand the process for getting the book to readers to enjoy in a print version, but then you’re met with questions such as, “When will this be available for my Kindle, iPad, or smart phone?”

If the world of publishing content for mobile audiences is new to you, you need to consider a few things before starting the process. If you’re self-publishing, you assume all of the cost and effort, and need to know what challenges exist to get your book findable and readable to meet varying audience requests (and sometimes, demands). If you choose to work with a publisher, you need to meet a high standard of quality with the delivery of your book to all formats. Let’s take a look at some of the common considerations you’ll need to make when you transform your books into mobile-ready content.

What kind of book did you write?

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8 Facts about Business That Will Help You Publish Your Book

by Rochelle D. Carter
Bowker | Tue Aug 4, 2015

The SBA defines a small business as an enterprise having fewer than 500 employees. There are almost 28 million small businesses in the US and over 22 million are self-employed with no additional payroll or employees (these are called non-employers).

Did you know that by publishing your book, you are starting a small business as an author? It seems strange to many authors, but the changes in the publishing industry has made it both easier and harder to become a professional author- also called an authorpreneur. When starting a new business, it's important to know the current state of small business affairs and get a little help along the way.

The journey into authorpreneurship can seem daunting, but here are a few facts about starting a business that may help you along the way:

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Sell More Books Overseas: Getting Reviews on International Amazon Sites

Penny C. Sansevieri's picture
by Penny C. Sansevieri
Bowker | Tue May 12, 2015

Getting international sales is always an important part of an author’s campaign but selling overseas can be tricky. The good news is: Amazon is everywhere. The bad news is that most of these author/book pages overseas are blank slates and populating them means either finding reviewers in these countries or finding reviewers who have accounts internationally. For the most part, I’ve only seen Amazon top reviewers have this kind of access. Though technically anyone can review internationally, most don’t.

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Getting Agreement Among Multiple Decision Makers

by Brian Jud
Bowker | Tue Apr 28, 2015

When you sell a few hundred books to a prospective customer, the decision is usually made quickly, by one or two people. You might close the sale with a handshake and purchase order after a few meetings. But the process changes when you propose the sale of tens of thousands of your books to corporate buyers. These decisions are scrutinized at higher levels since the results can make or break careers.

Typically, large-quantity book sales are rarely made on a unilateral basis. In most cases, the decision authority lies with a committee, the members of which have different roles. These people may be from sales, marketing, purchasing, warehousing, legal and Human Resources. You, as the salesperson for your book, must build consensus among these diverse perspectives to close the sale. How can you do this? Here are a few techniques.

Meet varying needs collectively

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Getting Started

Create a Culture of Quality in Your Publishing Company

Thu, November 13

How to Write a Business Plan as Narrative (Part 2 of 2)

Wed, September 10

A Novel Planning Technique for Book Publishers (Part 1 of 2)

Fri, September 05

Do You Have the Write Stuff?

Wed, September 03

Today's Great American Novel (Part 2 of 2)

Wed, August 20

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