Grimlock ♥ Ultra Magnus

I'm cranky today, and I've been thinking about this question.   So I'm going to answer the question I keep hearing.   Why won't bookstores carry self-published authors?   I've seen some say, 'hey, we're nice/cool/whatever people, too!'   That may be true.   Some of you are wonderful people, and I'd love to see your stuff on the shelves.   

I won't, though, at least not in the near future.   Why not?   It call comes down to money.   Look, Barnes and Noble wasn't planning on carrying OJ Simpson's Book, not because they didn't like OJ, not because he was black, but because of the controversy, they were afraid of turning off customers and losing money.   That simple.   

So, what do you have to know?   Bookstores get credit for sending books back to booksellers.   That's right - if the book is on the shelf for two years and doesn't sell, they can send it back and get credit.   In fact, they do this quite often because they don't have enough shelf-space to keep everything on the shelf.   This leads to a couple different issues, but the most important one is that you'd have to be willing to take the physical books back and give the bookstore money.   At least at Barnes and Noble.   So, are you prepared to take back 500 plus copies of your physical book?   And that's if you're lucky enough to convince someone at Barnes and Noble to put one copy in every single store they have. 

Also, you do realize you wouldn't get, say, fifteen dollars for a fifteen dollar book, right?   Expect to get forty or fifty percent of that, again, assuming you can convince someone you'll sell.   Now, the other thing I hear is, 'if you put us on display on your table...'   Nope. Not without paying for that space.   That is prime space and publishers pay to get their books there.   The only exception is best sellers.   So you would have to pay quite a bit to get them to buy at least four copies of each book and put them on display.   There's a reason popular books and authors make it up there, and others?   Not so much.   

I'm just saying... there's a lot of behind the scenes stuff going on, all of it involving business and money.   And I'd bet you'd need a lawyer before signing off on all that, too, because you can bet before purchasing that many copies of your books, Barnes and Noble will want to recoup at least some of its money if no books sell. 

Look, all I know is that given that some of you say that you don't have the money for editors, I doubt you all have the money to sink into getting into bookstores.   It's a lot of work, and there's much more involved than someone just sitting down and ordering books.   Sales are tracked, and I'm sure publisher history is involved.   Space is prioritized.   I don't know a tenth of what goes on in the back.   But if I don't, I'm pretty sure a lot of you guys don't realize how complex getting a book on a shelf actually is.   Or how soon it can get called back if it doesn't sell.   Popular authors get sent back all the time because buyers overestimate how much their newest book will sell.  

I'm sorry.   I really am.   This isn't the answer you wanted to hear, I know that.   And 'it's not you,' doesn't help in this case.    But unless you potentially want five hundred copies of your book sitting in your garage, please realize that getting the books on the shelf may be an impossibility.     Sometimes a business decision isn't a reflection of you, or your ability - sometimes it's just a matter of what sells.