Why Every Author Should Build Strong Bonds With Their Local Bookshops

The question that the Troubador marketing department always gets asked by our authors is ‘what is the best way of getting copies of my book into bookshops?’ It is a very difficult question to answer as there are so many possible reasons why a bookshop might or might not choose to stock copies of a title. These range from its subject matter, when it is being published, the size of the bookshop, and a whole list of other variables.

In this article, I have focused on why local bookshops offer authors unexpected opportunities to gain visibility and why they should be a key part of any author's sales and marketing strategy when self-publishing their books.

Start local

While larger, well-known bookshops like Waterstones, Foyles and Blackwells are often gravitated towards by authors (all of which we distribute to directly), it is with local bookshops that an author will have the best chance of getting copies of their book stocked. An author will have friends, family and contacts who will likely live near to them and so a bookshop will know that there is a much higher chance of selling copies of it if the author also lives close by. 

Also depending on what kind of marketing you are doing there may well be some local publicity for the title which will improve its sales possibilities. For all these reasons, a local bookshop is always the first place we suggest an author tries to persuade to stock copies of their book. And that is why it is so very important to have the best possible relationship with your local booksellers.

Start building a relationship early

While an author will likely be raring to go with the promotion of their book, we typically do not recommend approaching them until they have a finished copy of the book printed and ready to show them. One of the biggest concerns of any bookshop is what the quality of the finished book will be like, how well it has been designed and what the printing is like, and all of these concerns can instantly be addressed by having a finished copy of it with you when you approach the bookshop. 

For your local bookshop, though, it is going to be the exact opposite we would recommend. The earlier you can establish a relationship with them, the better it will be when you do want to talk to them about your new work. It is pretty obvious that if you go into your local bookshop with your new novel and say “I have lived around the corner from you all my life, although you have never met me before, and now I would like you to stock my book,” you might get a worse reaction than if they already know you as customer who has bought your books from them for years. In the latter case, they will know that you have always supported them in their business and been a good customer for them. 

With a good relationship already established, they are going to be far more approachable about your new title, and hopefully much more agreeable to trying copies of it on their shelves. If nothing else, they are not going to want to lose the good customer you have always been.

It is therefore a really good idea to start establishing a great relationship with your local bookshop as early as possible. Talk to the people working in the bookshop whenever you go in to buy a book. Let them know you are a local author, and you are buying any books you need for research from them.

Show an interest in their business

All bookshop owners love talking about books and, more specifically, their bookshop. So, talk to them about the bookshop and ask them how their business is going. Every author should be interested in bookshops being as successful as possible. They are fundamental to our industry but are facing many challenges on the high street and of course from the power of Amazon and other online retailers. Being interested in their business will surely be of help when you are then talking to them about your book. 

You want to get on their radar any way you can, so they know who you are and what you do. If your book is going to be on a local subject, or one where you think there will be a local audience for it, talk to them about it as part of your research for it. That way you are preparing them for when it is finished, but you may well also learn things from them which might help you with the actual writing of the book. They may well be able to recommend other titles which will help you in your research and could also point out to you other books which are already on a similar subject. 

This is not just the case for local subjects, though. Booksellers are often pretty knowledgeable about a wide range of different subjects and the titles on them. Bookshops and the people who work in them can be a great aid to any author and it would be foolish not to tap into that knowledge and interest wherever possible. Having a great relationship with your local bookshop will always help if you do want to talk to them about this.

Plan events and create a buzz

We always recommend that authors should try and set up some bookshop events to promote their books if their goal is to sell as many copies as possible. Readers love to meet the author behind a book, and these kinds of events are more popular than ever. Again, with your local bookshops, it is always a good idea to see exactly what kinds of events they do as these are the ones they will consider the most successful for their customers. 

It is also a great idea to try and attend some of these events yourself. By doing so, you can then learn about the types and size of audience that come to them and you can also see how other authors talk about their books or do readings and the kinds of questions they are being asked. Doing events can be one of the more daunting things an author can undertake to promote their book, so it is a good idea to get as much experience of what these are like before you do one yourself. Your local bookshop will probably have a long experience of doing these kinds of events so will be able to steer authors towards the ones that work best for their audience and can provide invaluable help and advice on them.

Ensure the relationship is long-lasting

This is good advice, not just for new authors who are starting out on their first books, but it also should be an aim for authors to try and keep in touch with their local bookshops as their writing career develops and they are on to their second and third books. When I ran bookshops (now quite a long time ago!) we were always really pleased when authors who we had first met when they were first starting their careers kept in touch as time went on. Some went on to become very successful, and it was always a great pleasure that they remembered how it had been earlier when they were not so well known.

Many very famous authors still insist on going back to their old local bookshops when they are doing tours of their new titles, even when commercially it could be argued it is making little sense. However, they remember how those bookshops had helped them when they were starting out and now want to return the favour. Sadly, not all authors will become quite so well known, but it is still a good idea to maintain contact with your local bookseller whenever possible. 

We have quite a few authors who have now published several books with us and go back to their local bookshop each time to do a launch or book event with them. They may not now be a famous author, but their events are still successful, the bookshop is happy to host them, and the relationship between author and bookseller has now continued and improved over a considerable length of time.

Prioritise your local bookshops

So, for many reasons, it is a really good idea to make friends with your local bookshop whenever and wherever you can. And do not just limit yourself to one if you have several local bookshops. Books and bookselling has always been a very sociable profession, whereas writing can sometimes seem quite a lonely one. 

Having a great bookshop nearby can be just what is required if it has been a particularly tough writing time. There are, though, also very practical reasons why having the best possible relationship with your local bookshop will always be a great help to any author looking forward to getting their book into print. 

So, if you have not done so already, go and visit your local bookshop, maybe buy a book from them and start up a dialogue about books, bookselling and writing. Don’t immediately start talking about your new book, but rather maybe keep that for another day.