Every bookshop in the land

Tags

Daunt Books, G David, Heffers, Nielsen, royalty, self-publishing, selling, Toppings

I can imagine that you think I am just sitting around, gazing out of the window and eating bonbons.  Far from it.  My latest project – apart from “Plank 5”, of course – is to figure out how to get the Sam Plank books into more bookshops.  My ploy thus far has been to woo individual booksellers with silver-tongued emails and then go in person with a delivery of books.  This is (a) time-consuming, and (b) not practical on a country-wide basis, much as I would love (now here’s a retirement project) to visit every independent bookshop in the UK.  And so I have gone the traditional route.

As I understand it, the majority of booksellers – from the small to the large – buy their stock from book distributors.  King among the UK book distributors is Nielsen.  They get their stock, for selling on to the bookshops, direct from publishers.  And, through a combination of dogged determination, charm, begging and a gradual sea-change in the attitudes to indie publishing, I have managed to persuade Nielsen to recognise me as a publisher.  I have a login and everything.  And associated with me as a publisher are the four Sam Plank novels.

In theory, therefore, a book buyer can go into any bookshop in the land and, when they ask for a Sam Plank novel and find the shelves bare (apart from in Heffers and Davids in Cambridge, Toppings in Ely and Daunts in Cheapside, of course), demand that the bookseller order one for them.  Said bookseller then logs into his Nielsen account, looks up Sam Plank and voilà! there he is.  Order is placed, book arrives and reader is satisfied.

What I am a little hazy on is what precisely happens in between.  I know that when Nielsen receives an order for Sam Plank they will forward it to me – his publisher – for fulfilment.  And I know that I am responsible for pronto delivery to the bookshop that has ordered him.  However, I do not know who has to pay for postage; I am assuming that I do.  And, more critically, I do not know what royalty I get from Nielsen-generated orders.  This is uncharacteristically lax of me, I know, as I am usually pretty hot on royalty levels and all that.  But in all honesty the Nielsen website is so (whisper it) unfriendly that I simply couldn’t find definitive answers to my questions, and so I have decided to wing it: I’ll wait for my first statement from them and work it out from that.

Of course, to get a statement I will need to have an order or two.  And so far: zilch.  I am torn between wanting at least one order so that I can see how the system works, and terror that I might get dozens of orders for multiple copies that I am entirely unequipped to fulfil.  After all, in order to supply copies I need to order them from America (we’ve been through this before), and I keep only limited copies in readiness.  As ever, I’ll keep you posted.

“Portraits” goes promotion potty!

Tags

Amazon, blogging, Fatal Forgery, Fitzwilliam Museum, Gold Dust, Jaffareadstoo, Portraits of Pretence, promotion, review, Toppings

This is turning into quite a day.  The lovely Toppings bookshop in Ely has agreed to stock “Portraits of Pretence” and so I planned a delivery run today.  Realising that this gives me the perfect excuse to celebrate (again!) the publication of the book in the very building where I first worked on the Sam Plank series (while I was enrolled on the Gold Dust mentoring programme, when “Fatal Forgery” was a twinkle in my eye, my mentor Jill Dawson and I would meet here for cake), I have booked lunch at the Old Fire Engine House.  But before that I had to cycle out to the Fitzwilliam Museum shop to drop off the three copies that they have agreed to try to sell – that’s two stockists in one day!

As if that wasn’t enough, I wandered over to Amazon this morning (three stockists in one day!) and spotted that I have two five-star reviews for “Portraits”.  With comments like “beautifully researched”, “immense charm” and “assured and entertaining”, my cup runneth over.

And then – and then! – my generous reviewer Jo (she of the delightful book blog Jaffareadstoo) has featured me and a chapter of “Portraits” on her blog today.  So far I have been a very selfish blogger; every post I have done has been written by me, and in essence has been about me.  This will change, as I can’t continue to benefit from all this kindness without reciprocating.  But for today, I am wallowing, wallowing I tell you, in “Portraits” promotion.  And you know what?  It’s made me start to miss Sam, and I know I have two years in which to write “Plank 5” but perhaps I’ll just write a few notes, and read up on the weather in 1828, and do some research on slavery in the Caribbean-but-not-the-places-you-think-of, and…

Seeking storefronts for Sam

Tags

Daunt Books, G David, Hammicks, Hatchards, Heffers, Samuel Plank, Toppings

As regular readers will know, the Sam Plank books appear in the flesh – well, the paper, ink and glue – in three physical bookshops: Heffers and G David in Cambridge, and Toppings in Ely.  (Who knows whether they will appear in the new Amazon store in Seattle!)  They were also stocked in Hammicks Legal Bookshop in Fleet Street until that closed down a few months ago – the closure was nothing to do with Sam, I am assured.  And astonishing though the reach of Amazon is, there is nothing to compare – for authorly satisfaction and browsing availability – to having physical books on a shelf in a bookshop.

I have not forgotten that some months ago I hinted that I was pursuing a third stockist here in Cambridge – negotiations are still ongoing, as is my fear that naming them might jinx it, but if it happens you will not go untold, I promise you.

And now I am thinking about new representation in London.  The problem is (and not just with London) that the big chains are not interested in self-published authors.  Their concern is two-fold: self-published stuff might be rubbish, and self-published stuff is not supplied via the usual book distribution services.  Both fair points, and too tricky for me to overcome alone, so I don’t worry about the big chains.  But finding places that are not unexpectedly connected with the big chains is tricky – I once approached Hatchards and had a lovely long (and I thought promising) chat with a manager, only to be told at the end that they’re part of Waterstones and do not have much ordering independence.

Several people have suggested Daunt Books, and so this is my latest venture.  I have sent a hello email to their Marylebone shop, with lovely (and I hope tempting) pictures of the book covers, and asking whether I could call in with samples when I am in London the week after next.  If I haven’t heard from them by next week, I’ll try the dreaded telephone call, when you have to fight your way through successive layers of staff to get to the crime buyer, without uttering the call-ending words “my self-published book”…

Sam storms the local press

Tags

Cambridge News, G David, Heffers, Samuel Plank, Toppings, Worm in the Blossom

Just a quick post today – I wasn’t planning to write anything, but then the features editor of our local paper, the Cambridge News, emailed to say that an article I had written for her about “Worm in the Blossom” would be going in the paper tomorrow (Friday 30 October) and was already online.

When I was writing the piece – she asked me to do it, because I am a regular columnist at the paper – I made sure to cover several key points:

• “Worm in the Blossom” is the third in a series – so there are actually three books you can buy
• there will be four more books, so even more ways to spend your money on Sam
• writing is a hard but rewarding process – this author (I tried to imply) does huge amounts of research both at her desk and on foot, and so deserves every penny of the £7.99 she charges per book (and remember, there are three available and four more to come…)
• you can buy all three books now in three local bookshops.

(I also wrote exactly to her specification: the right number of words, with the required photos at the preferred resolution.  But you knew that anyway: always give an editor what she wants.)

I’ll keep an eye on sales, and if I get panicked calls from bookshops tomorrow afternoon, desperate to stock up after stampedes of eager readers have stripped the shelves, I’ll let you know.  And if it makes no difference at all, I’ll let you know.  So hard for the self-published author to predict what will prompt sales, if anything apart from dumb luck.

A Topping evening

Tags

author, Fatal Forgery, launch, Martha Plank, Samuel Plank, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat, Toppings, Worm in the Blossom

I told you a while ago that I had managed to persuade Topping & Co Booksellers in Ely to allow me to have a sort-of-launch event for “Worm in the Blossom” at their shop.  I drove over there on Sunday to (a) check that they hadn’t thought better of it, and (b) deliver some books for the event.  And look what was outside the shop:

Yes, that’s my name up there with some big hitters – although of course the really big draws are put on in the cathedral (seats 1,230… perhaps a little ambitious at this stage in my writing career).  But very exciting to find that I am part of a Literary Festival.

And so to last night.  I made some little flash cards for myself, to remind me of the main topics to cover – Toppings had asked me to speak for forty minutes about the novels themselves and the self-publishing process in general, to be followed by twenty minutes of questions.  But in the end I hardly referred to the cards at all – once I’m talking about Sam, it’s hard to stop me.  There was a good turnout:

What you can’t see are about four people sitting behind the photographer (husband, lured along with promises of post-talk pizza), and another half-dozen sitting on the steps to my right.  The man in charge said he was surprised at the large numbers, so that’s promising.  And people were so interested and asked so many questions – it was a sheer delight.  One of the oddest sensations was meeting strangers – as opposed to friends and family who read the books out of love – who had chosen to read the Sam books and came along to tell me that they enjoyed them and to ask really detailed questions about the plots and characters.  It made me feel, possibly for the first time, like a real, commercial author – writing books for sale to the general public.  And as I was leaving, the organiser said that they would like to book me for the launch of “Plank 4”, so I’d better get writing…

Ever onwards (until 1830, that is)

Tags

Amazon, bookshop, research, Samuel Plank, Toppings, Worm in the Blossom

“Worm in the Blossom” is done – it’s on the shelves (real and virtual) and I’m talking about it to everyone who will listen (and a few who start to edge away…).  But Sam is not one to sit idle, and he knows as well as I do that he has four more stories to tell.  I work best to deadlines, and so I have set the next one: 21 October 2016.  You can see it on the countdown clock, which now shows a lovely big fat twelve months.

So what happens now?  My first task today is to set up my “Plank 4” files in Scrivener, my writing program.  This entails copying across my character studies, for easy reference – so that I always know, for instance, how old Sam is, and how many siblings (living and dead) are in the Wilson household- and creating some blank chapter files.  I then ease into the research in a gentle fashion by reading up about the year concerned, which this time round is 1827.  I create a diary of all the key events that might have impacted on Sam and his circle, and for some reason I also enjoy researching the weather – I’d hate Martha to miss a good tornado or stinging fog.  I make notes and notes and notes and notes.  If they are expanding on general topics – such as Regency fashion or the servant structure – they go into my general “Plank research” files.  If they apply specifically to “Plank 4”, I make a new file for them.  For instance, “Worm in the Blossom” generated a lot of information about the law surrounding fratricide that I probably won’t use again, so that’s not in the general “Plank research” files.

And what of this blog?  I imagine that things will go quieter for a while, although I will of course update you on developments like my talk in Toppings, and sales figures for “Worm” (as of this morning, thirteen paperbacks and four Kindle books sold through Amazon – I daren’t go in and check the bookshops just yet…). But do stick with us: Sam, Martha, William and I are going nowhere.  Except maybe France…

Piles of Plank

Tags

cover, CreateSpace, Fatal Forgery, launch, paperback, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat, Toppings, Worm in the Blossom

As regular readers of this blog will know, I self-publish my novels through an American firm called CreateSpace.  And when I order copies, they are printed in America (South Carolina, I understand, which conjures up all sorts of images of decorous Southern ladies sipping mint juleps on lace-fenced verandahs – although it’s almost certainly a cavernous factory in the rough part of town) and then shipped to me.  And, with international postage, volume is the key: buy more, and you pay less per copy for shipping.  So I try to save up my orders and do them all at once.  Which means that this happens:

What you are looking at here is the “spare” desk in my office, now groaning under the weight of one hundred copies of “Worm in the Blossom”, thirty of “Fatal Forgery” and thirty of “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat”.  Aren’t they lovely?

Deciding how many to order was half-calculation, half-wishful thinking.  I had pre-orders for eighteen “Worms” – fifteen for bookshops and three for friends who don’t like using Amazon and can’t get to my local bookshops.  Then there’s my almost-a-launch-event at Toppings in Ely on 26 October – I don’t know how many they will want, but let’s say at least a dozen.  And I have talks booked at my local library and for the Rotary Club next spring.  And of course the bookshops will want re-stocking (that’s the wishful thinking kicking in, right there).  In the meantime, I’m getting hard stares from my husband who now has no desk space for wrapping parcels, doing crosswords, etc.

A sort-of launch event

Tags

bookshop, cover, CreateSpace, proof copy, Samuel Plank, Toppings, Worm in the Blossom

You have all been very patient as I vanished on holiday and trundled around eastern Europe on trains of varying degrees of decrepitude – at one point we were overtaken by a horse and cart, so that says it all really.  But now I am back, and we’re very much in the final straight heading for the publication of “Worm in the Blossom”.  So just what am I doing in this last month?

Well, I suppose I should be honest and say that I have here, in my sweaty little paw, my very own first copy of “Worm”.  I always order a proof copy to check for paper quality, cover colour and so on, and I am very pleased.  The reason for ordering so far ahead is that, as with much of self-publishing, you have to count backwards.  I am publishing officially on 16 October, which means that on that day I want to deliver copies to the bookshops that so kindly take Plank onto their shelves.  In order to have those copies in time, I need to order them from CreateSpace (the publishing people), which means having them delivered from America.  Postage is killingly expensive, so I try to avoid the top-rate speedy delivery and go instead for a slower – cheaper – service, which means ordering further ahead of time.  So although “Worm” is to all intents and purposes now finished, it’s not yet “published”.  In order to buy my own copies, I have to publish – but then I sneakily do not make it available through any sales channels, so no-one else can find it.  And in this final month, I also get cracking on the e-book versions – basically a rather painstaking formatting exercise – so that they too can be launched as close as possible to that 16 October date.

And the sort-of launch party?  Well, Toppings – a wonderful independent bookshop in Ely, with a fabulous programme of events – is giving me a whirl on 26 October, which is pretty close and I think counts as a launch event.  Click here to see details – but be warned that my face is VERY large!

A Topping evening for Sam

Tags

beta reader, bookshop, Ely, Samuel Plank, Toppings, Worm in the Blossom

I know, I know: I’ve been very quiet.  But the truth is that I’m not doing anything Plank-ish until I hear back from my beta reader.  I have had a couple of thoughts about “Worm in the Blossom” but I have simply noted them on a scrap of paper and put them in the drawer with my hidden-away Macbook.  It would go against the principles of version control if I were to start making changes now; I’m just having to be disciplined and Zen and patient.

But I do have a bit of news for you: Sam, Martha and I are going to Ely, to speak at Toppings.  For those of you unfortunate enough not to live within reach of this marvellous independent bookshop, just take a look at the pictures on their website.  It is the most marvellous, enveloping sort of place – three floors of books and nooks, and they don’t mind at all if you plonk yourself down and start reading.  In fact, they encourage it, by coming round to offer drinks.  They also have an enviable programme of author events, and on 26 October 2015 I am joining the roster.  (I’m in very elevated company: they’re hosting Brian Blessed the week before and Mary Beard a month later.)  They have asked for a talk that is half about the books and half about self-publishing, which suits me perfectly, and I’m very excited.  Of course, it will also serve as something of a launch event for “Worm in the Blossom” – I’ve not had a launch event before, and Martha has already declared that she needs a new hat for it.

Helping Sam to storm the bookshops – or not

Tags

bookshop, CreateSpace, Fatal Forgery, G David, ISBN, The Man in the Canary Waistcoat, Toppings

As you may know, I had a Major Triumph last week when Toppings in Ely, a fabulous independent bookshop with perhaps the best views from its windows, agreed to stock “Fatal Forgery” and “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat”.  Buoyed with enthusiasm, I decided to think a bit more about real bookshops as well as online ones.  One of my real bookshops is G David in Cambridge, and as we were chatting they suggested that I could try to get my books listed on Hive, which – bit confusing this – is a website that lists books in local bookshops.  You can buy them online, and then collect them from the bookshops.  An interesting hybrid approach.  But Hive also stocks books on their own account, and – as they are obviously imaginative people – I contacted them and explained my plight.  Is there any way, I asked, that my CreateSpace self-published books could be listed on Hive, with me personally fulfilling any orders that come in (and passing on a commission to Hive, of course).

And back came this reply, which I am sharing with those of you who have also been bitten by the self-publishing bug, as it is the clearest explanation I have read of the current situation for self-published authors here in the UK (or, at least, not in the US): “CreateSpace is a publisher that is based in the US that has not yet set up a UK based distributor.  This means that we are unable to consider any title published by CreateSpace because we are simply unable to source CreateSpace titles at this time.  Currently there’s only two ways that we can purchase CreateSpace titles:

1. You buy copies from them, list yourself on Nielsen as the distributor and then our orders would come directly to you.
2. You reprint using a new ISBN, list yourself on Nielsen as the distributor and then our orders would come directly to you.”

Neither of those options appeals to me at the moment (the first would definitely knock out any profit I could make, what with postage from the US and then postage on to buyers, while the second would cause confusion with two ISBNs per title), but it is certainly useful to have a clearer understanding of the distribution (or non-distribution) of self-published titles in the UK at the moment.  What we need, of course, is a CreateSpace UK – which has been promised for years.