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The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Book Sales

Book Sales

Why Can’t I Find My New Book in My Local Bookstore?

By Steve Laubeon November 4, 2024
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Some might think this question is silly and antiquated since we know that 100% of all books are sold by Amazon and that no one buys physical books any more, and least of all in physical bookstores. Why? Because there aren’t any more bookstores! They have all closed.

But wait. Even if a publisher attributes 50% of their total physical book sales to Amazon, we cannot ignore the other 50%!

But why bother to ask the question? Why should an author care? Aren’t brick-and-mortar stores dead, dying, and doomed?

While there may be fewer stores than before, the institution is far from dead. I’m not trying to debate the future of brick and mortar bookstores. Instead, let’s go back to the original question in the title of this post.

Where Is My Book?

Part of the answer to your question comes from understanding the supply chain (you’ve all heard the term “supply chain” after the Covid disruption). If you have a new book with a major publisher and run into your local store, you may not find the book. That store may have just placed their order last week.

The order may be coming direct from the publisher’s warehouse or from one of dozens of book distributors. The order must be picked and packed at the source. Most publishers and distributors are incredibly efficient; they have to be or they lose revenue.  The speed of delivery depends on the speed of UPS, FedEx Ground, or the post office. And the proximity of the shipping location to the store and the time of year.

Then the books have to be received in the back room by each store and checked against the purchase order and invoice. Then they get put on a cart and wheeled out into the store and shelved, hopefully in the right location. Depending on the efficiency of the back room, this can be done quickly … or not. (I remember my old bookstore days where, at one point, we had two weeks’ worth of incoming shipments, still in their boxes! It was a nightmare of six-foot high stacks.)

Each step in the above process has a human being involved. Not robots. Which means there can be various delays from the time the order is placed to the time it actually shows up on the store shelf.

Therefore, it can take 1-2 weeks before stock shows up in the store.

And THEN, if you walk into the store two minutes after someone else bought the one copy of the book that had been ordered, it won’t be on the shelf. Stores cannot afford to stock multiple copies of every new book. They have to guess which ones are going to have the highest demand and invest their inventory dollars in those books.

The store’s computer will then reorder the book during the next “replenish” cycle, and the process begins again. That “cycle” is different from store to store, based on the sales velocity of a title or a preset time to reorder from a specific publisher. If you don’t see your book? Ask the clerk. Or even special-order it. This can generate sales velocity which feeds a reorder algorithm that creates more orders.

On top of all this, what if your book is preordered by a large chain but only for their top 100 stores? Your local store may not be large enough to warrant the inventory. Don’t be mad at the store or at your publisher. It is a matter of pure economics and the cost of inventory. Don’t send your Aunt Mabel into her local store and expect her to find your book because the above scenario might apply in her case as well.

It may be that you need to talk to the store manager and explain that you are a local author. Often they like to support local talent. If you have a copy of your book with you (or a sales sheet), it can show the great cover and the great publisher you have.

And people think bookselling is simple.

Please remember, if you comment, that this post is not about the viability of physical stores versus online purchasing. It is about the nature of the supply chain and why you may or may not find your book in your local store.

 

 

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Category: Book Business, Book Sales, MarketingTag: Book Business, Book Sales, Bookstores

Bookstore Economics 101

By Steve Laubeon May 3, 2021
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by Steve Laube

Understanding the economics of your local brick-and-mortar bookstore should help you understand the upheaval that is happening in our industry. So put on your math cap and let's take a ride.

This article focuses on the bookstore not the publisher or the writer. I spent over a decade in the Christian bookstore business, and while that was a long time ago the economic principles …

Read moreBookstore Economics 101
Category: Book Business, Book Sales, TrendsTag: Book Sales, Bookstore, Economics

What Are Average Book Sales?

By Steve Laubeon June 24, 2019
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A writer asked me, “What does the average book sell? An industry veteran at a writers conference recently said 5,000. What??? I know it all depends …. but … nowhere near 5,000, right?” My simple answer? It’s complicated. It depends. Average is a difficult thing to define. Each publishing company defines success differently. If a novel sells 5,000 copies at one publisher, …

Read moreWhat Are Average Book Sales?
Category: Book Business, Book Sales, Get Published, Money, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Book Business, Book Sales, Get Published, Trends

Same Message, Different Reader

By Dan Balowon August 7, 2018
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When a published book is successful (sells well), the publisher and author begin pondering how to be successful again with the next book. Often times, the solution to the repeat-success puzzle in non-fiction is having a similar message but aimed at a different audience. You’ve seen it happen many times, whether you realized it was intentional or not. Examples of branded book lines which have been …

Read moreSame Message, Different Reader
Category: Book Business, Creativity, The Writing LifeTag: Book Business, Book Sales, Career, Creativity, Nonfiction, The Writing Life

Make Much Ado of Your New Book

By Bob Hostetleron April 18, 2018
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(5 Ways to Plan a Success-Guaranteed Book Launch Event) I am no marketing genius, and though I’ve written fifty books, I still have much to learn about author and book publicity. But I nonetheless had a great time launching my book, The Bard and the Bible: A Shakespeare Devotional, a book of daily reflections drawn from a quote from Shakespeare and a verse from the King James Version of the Bible …

Read moreMake Much Ado of Your New Book
Category: Book Sales, Career, Marketing, Platform, The Writing LifeTag: Book Launch, Book Sales, Marketing, Platform

Three Significant Announcements Regarding E-books and Audiobooks

By Steve Laubeon January 29, 2018
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Last week there were three significant announcements from Apple, Google, and Walmart of interest to all authors. First the three bits of news and then a few observations. Apple Apple announced that their iBooks app is being renamed to simply Books. Accompanying it will be a complete redesign of the reading app, their store, and the addition of an audiobook tab to make it easier for users to access …

Read moreThree Significant Announcements Regarding E-books and Audiobooks
Category: Book Business, Book Sales, E-Books, Economics, News You Can Use, The Publishing Life, TrendsTag: Audio Books, Book Sales, ebooks, Technology

How Do You Count Lifetime Book Sales?

By Steve Laubeon January 22, 2018
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A key element in a book proposal is your sales history. Of course, you can ignore this if you’ve never published a book before. But if you have published, either with a traditional publisher or independently, your sales history must be included in your next book proposal. Here is an example: Sales History: The Bestest Book Ever (XYZ Publishers, 1996) – 12,449 sold The Other Bestest Book I Wrote …

Read moreHow Do You Count Lifetime Book Sales?
Category: Book Proposals, Book Sales, Get Published, MarketingTag: book proposals, Book Sales, Independent Publishing, Traditional Publishing

It’s All About You — Sometimes

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon January 18, 2018
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When I visit the bookstore or library, I seldom fail to see at least one novel where the entire back cover consists of an author photo. That’s it. No endorsements, no story blurb, no author bio. Just a picture of the author. And usually the front cover doesn’t offer many clues, either. Maybe a vague illustration, along with the title and author’s name. To my mind, this means this author has built …

Read moreIt’s All About You — Sometimes
Category: Branding, MarketingTag: Book Sales, Branding, Marketing

Retail is Dead! Or is it?

By Steve Laubeon November 6, 2017
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You’ve read the news. This calendar year bankruptcies or total closures were announced by Toys R Us, Gymboree, Bebe, American Apparel, Guess, Rue 21, The Limited, Gander Mountain, Vitamin World, and Family Christian Stores. Sears and Kmart announced last Friday that they were closing another 63 stores in January, on top of the 358 they closed already this year. And the watchful vultures are …

Read moreRetail is Dead! Or is it?
Category: Book Business, Book Sales, Economics, Publishing History, Publishing News, TrendsTag: Book Business, Book Sales, Publishing News

Be Published? or Be Read?

By Bob Hostetleron October 18, 2017
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Is your goal “being published” or “being read?” What pieces of writing and publishing advice do professional agents and editors wish would go away…forever? I asked that question of some of my friends in the industry (yes, I have friends, and most are much smarter than me). The last two weeks I have posted (here and here) some of their responses. But I’ve saved one more for last. One savvy, …

Read moreBe Published? or Be Read?
Category: Book Business, Book Sales, Career, Marketing, Platform, The Writing LifeTag: Book Business, Book Sales, Get Published, Marketing
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