Does It Pay to Promote to Indie Bookstores
Is it worth it for me to market to indie bookstores if my publisher is a small indie press and my book is not available through Ingram?
Book Marketing Question: Is it worth it for me to market to indie bookstores if my publisher is a small indie press and my book is not available through Ingram?
John's Answer: It's not worth marketing to indie bookstores if you have no bookstore distribution. And since you say that your book is not available through Ingram, that means you really don't have any bookstore distribution. Ingram is the minimum.
There is one exception to this rule: If you are willing to do bookstore author visits via Zoom, you might promote that activity to bookstores around the country, provided the small indie press is willing to ship directly to bookstores at a healthy bookstore discount. Note: Their minimum bookstore discount should be 40% off retail, but could go as high as 46% if the bookstore is ordering in quantity.
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