Getting Books into Bookshops – Sometimes there’s a Problem

I met thriller writer Jack Chandler on a Menorca writing retreat a couple of years ago. She has been in touch asking for support for a petition to help self-published authors and small presses. I was happy to sign and, as it is a problem that I bet most readers (and writers) are unaware of, I thought I would mention it in case you too want to add your name

This is the issue:

In the US, readers can go into any indie bookshop and order a self-published book — or a print-on-demand book from a small press — in exactly the same way as they would with a traditionally published book by one of the Big Five. Bookshops can stock these books on the same terms, and with the same relatively low risk, as they do with traditionally published books, without having to organise complicated consignment arrangements with authors — because the books are available from an easy-to-use website, on sale-or-return, at the standard market discount. 

This is not the case in the UK. 

In the UK, the wholesaler with the lion’s share of the market, Gardners, treats print-on-demand books differently. This makes it difficult and risky for bookshops to stock or even order in self-published books. It also means that online shops such as Bookshop.org UK and BookKind, which pull their stock from Gardners, don’t include print-on-demand books. 

As a result, self-published authors, and small, indie presses who use print-on-demand, often end up pointing their potential readers to Amazon, as that is the only place where their physical books are reliably available.

Find out more at Change.org

I was amused to find out Jack writes because “I love it, and because I would get arrested if I did to real people what I do to my characters.” There are worse reasons…

You can find out more Jack and her many books HERE

Picture credit: Annie Spratt on Unsplash