Announcing Troubador’s Direct Supply to Waterstones

Following several months of work, Troubador is delighted to announce that we are now directly supplying the Waterstones group from our distribution hub in Leicestershire. This direct supply is important for our authors, opening up new opportunities for visibility, supply and accessibility at one of the UK's largest bookshop chains.

We have been working for some months with the Waterstones’ buying and tech teams on test orders and supply procedures, and with the testing phase now complete, we are fully operational in direct supply to the retailer.

A powerhouse in UK book retail

Waterstones is a British book retailer, established in 1982 by Tim Waterstone. Now led by Managing Director James Daunt, they operate 311 shops at the time of writing, mainly in the UK, giving them unrivalled dominance over the UK bookshop trade. As well as selling traditionally published books, Waterstones has recently voiced its commitment to supporting a higher volume of diverse authors and independent publishers and working with Troubador to supply titles direct shows they are serious about opening up to indie authors. 

Empowering Troubador authors with direct supply

Authors are at the centre of everything we do at Troubador, so being able to offer direct access to Waterstones is an important development. For any author who has self-published their book through us and opted for us to represent their title to the trade, our direct supply to Waterstones removes many barriers to the retailer selling our authors’ titles.

The ability to supply our titles directly, rather than solely through a wholesaler as before, means increased discoverability for our authors. While buying decisions still lie with Waterstones' buyers, this collaboration enhances the chances of our self-published authors seeing their books for sale on Waterstones’ shelves.

In addition to books being stocked, Waterstones being able to order from us means that authors who have arranged book signings, events or promotions with Waterstones can get the store to order from us directly, giving us more flexibility and quicker supply times.

Of course, direct supply is not is a guarantee that all Troubador titles will be stocked by Waterstones – buying decisions rest with the retailer, not with Troubador – but it does smooth the path for discoverability, sale and supply considerably.

Helping to grow the self-publishing market

This new development demonstrates a shifting attitude towards self-published books, once marginalised but now gaining more recognition as a viable, and often preferable, way to publish a book. Quality-focused self-publishing companies like Troubador are gaining traction in the wider book retail market too, signalling a broader acceptance within the industry. Troubador's work with Waterstones paves the way for more authors to consider quality self-publishing as a viable route to mainstream retail markets.

If you're interested in learning more about our work with Waterstones, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.