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Some Thoughts on the Dream of Getting Your Indie-Published Book into Bookstores
It can be a daunting task
As writers, one of the things we want most is to someday see our books on the shelves of actual, real-life, brick-and-mortar bookstores. Unfortunately, unless you land a traditional publishing contract with a major publisher, the chances of this happening are quite limited. I hate to start off on such a down note, but it’s best to know the reality going in.
There are several reasons why this is true for authors who have published their books independently (I’ve said before that I hate the term “self-published”), but the biggest reason can be summed up in one word: Amazon. The vast majority of indie-published books are published through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program; it’s by far the easiest and most cost-effective publishing platform available today. If you use their free ISBN, your book shows as “Published by Amazon,” but even if you purchase an ISBN and form your own imprint, orders still go through Amazon.
Why is this a problem? Because independent bookstores hate Amazon with a burning passion. They also hate Barnes & Noble (at least before their recent changes), Wal-Mart, Target, and every other big-box or discount store that has tried to put them out of business for the past 30 years, but not with the…
