How to get your book stocked in bookstores as an indie author

One of the things I hear writers worry about when it comes to indie publishing is that their works won’t be available in bookstores. Worry not! This here is a little guide to help indie authors get their books stocked into real, physical bookstores.

My new book, The Street Poet, independently published and available in numerous bookstores across Melbourne, Australia.

I’ll start by saying that it isn’t easy, but not impossible. There are bookstores out there looking to support independent authors. There are even bookstores that solely support and stock books by indie authors. But that’s a best case scenario sort of thing. While some bookstores are perfectly happy to make a self-published author’s dream of having a book on a bookstore shelf come true, some bookstores — in fact, many bookstores — are not willing to take the risk, unable to go off faith alone that those books will in fact sell.

Photo by Monstera: https://www.pexels.com/photo/faceless-black-man-showing-stop-gesture-with-crossed-hands-7114346/

There could be many reasons why a bookstore would reject your request to stock their book in:

• Bookstores may not offer consignment options for independent authors or publishers, meaning they prefer to order through larger suppliers to make their inventory and accounts management easier (one bookstore I used to work for, which specialised in commercial…