Lindsay J. Sedgwick, author of about-to-be-published children’s book Mischievous Magical Maia Malone, with some comprehensive advice on how to make sure your book is seen and bought rather than just published into oblivion . . .
Statistically most self-published books sell less than 100 a year, but I know indie authors who make a good living from it and there are some who hit the bestseller lists on Amazon.
To give my new book Mischievous Magical Maia Malone the best chance to reach the widest audience possible, I needed to make sure it gets distributed and supplied throughout Ireland, the UK and accessible beyond.
There are three main options for printing: Amazon, Ingram Spark and a local printer. Each have their positives and negatives. I wanted to do all three.
Having decided on a publication date – September 17th, I worked backwards. Books would need to be available with suppliers a month before that while the social media and marketing plan had to kick off about two months earlier still.
Your Book File
Before approaching anyone or starting put your book online, I’d advise building your file of all the info you will need, while you work on your final edits and polishes. Believe me, it will save you time and frustration!
- Your ISBN. If you want it to go into libraries and bookshops, you’ll need ISBNS. These are unique numbers that are attached only and always to your book. You can buy them singly (£93) or in groups of 10 (£174) and more from Nielson. If you use a free Amazon ISBN, Irish bookshops and libraries will not stock your book.
- Recommended Retail Price (RRP) in sterling and euro.
- Full title, subtitle if necessary. Author name; contributors’ names, if relevant, illustrator’s name etc.
- A short blurb – 50 words or less.
- A longer blurb – up to 100, 150 words.
- A short bio for you – and your illustrator if you have one.
- A list of categories you think might suit it – think of what people will type in to a search engine. Issues, themes, diversity, tone, genre etc.
- Dimensions in mm for height and width.
- Number of pages.
- Number of illustrations.
- A press release.
- The front cover.
- An author photo.
- A list of reasons why it will appeal to your audience.
Pricing Your Book
Look at books in the same area, and price your book either at that mark or below if you can afford it and in order to drive sales.
Distributors and bookshops will often take between 40% and 50% of your sale price. Some independent bookshops take less, generally around 33%. This affects the price tag you put on your book. Study similar books in your field or for your age group to see what they are selling for.
Most commonly used printing options:
1. KDP/ Amazon: print on demand plus worldwide access
Amazon is still easiest to publish with and it’s a print on demand system, so no financial outlay up front except in the number of ‘author copies’ you order to sell or supply yourself. (Author copies are priced at printing cost plus postage.) You can upload as many drafts as you like, and order proofs of any of them, before you have to commit to publishing.
Proofs are an invaluable step. Seeing your work in book form is a great stage in editing. You read it differently and reading it aloud – an essential stage – helps you to tighten it up or notice aspects that need expansion. Or glitches/ typos you never saw before. With Amazon, however, there is now a banner across the proofs so you can’t see the full cover. I missed a costly glitch on the cover of my last book in May (Sparks – a collaboration of art & storytelling, with Belfast artist Margaret Woods Moore) because of this.
However, I’ve had issues with them for trying to get delivery of a proof which had to come from Germany in the end, with added cost for postage. They have told me I can get author copies from amazon.ie but I can’t confirm that and other writers have told me it’s impossible. Several are looking at getting them sent via addresses in Northern Ireland.
The trickiest part I find with all of the platforms is the way they want you to categorise your book. All I can suggest with Amazon is that you look up books similar to yours, scroll down and see what categories they are placed in. This can help. And you can always go back and revise them later, as often as you like.
It should be noted that libraries and retailers will not order books from Amazon. Either you supply them directly, provide a Irish-based distributor with books or have them for sale via Ingram Sparks. (See below.)
Ingram will put your books on Amazon too, although the percentage you get is less. If you do both, then turn off the Amazon option on Ingram because you’ll make a bigger royalty doing it directly.
2. Ingram Spark – print on demand/ distributor
The advantage here is access: they offer global distribution to retailers and libraries. They are slightly more expensive than Amazon because they take a wholesale discount. The argument for this is that they need to allow retailers to have a margin to resell your books – you can choose the margin between 35-55%.
The paper quality is higher and if you order proofs, they don’t have a banner around them. That makes them easier to use for advanced readers or to show suppliers and bookshops when you’re arranging your launch!
It is a print-on-demand system, so no outlay on stock, and you can also order author copies (printing + postage) direct to yourself or to a customer. They also supply Amazon so if you are using Amazon, you need to disable Ingram’s Amazon distribution option to avoid conflict and keep the higher royalties on Amazon sales.
There is also the issue of customs making small orders expensive. When I ordered proofs, I made the mistake of giving the unit price as the price of the book and got a hefty 20+ euro customs charge from An Post. Since that, there is also the new EU/Gov €3 charge on books coming in from the UK.
3. Local printer
While print on demand removes a major cost in self-publishing, printing locally means you have stock to supply without worrying about postage, customs duty or delays. You’re also supporting local – which I wanted to do, and it can be a big positive with bookshops – and you have some quality control over the end product.
I opted to use Sprint Books, having met them at a children’s book seminar. The price was slightly more expensive, but it was fantastic to deal with real people and they responded quickly, providing proofs promptly. Printing took circa 5 working days. I kept Ingram and Amazon for PoD and for overseas sales/ reach.
4. Neilson Title Editor – register/ required for UK sales
As you publish your books using your ISBNs, make sure to update your title on Nielsen Title Editor. You will need all the same info plus dimensions, number of pages, number (if any) of illustrations, etc.
What I found tricky here was, again, the categorisation criteria. I started this process knowing what categories the book would sit in. Generally, with all the online platforms, I found it hard to find them, except by going down some threads that seemed slightly counter intuitive… I have no real solution to this except to play around, to think outside the box and hope you find your way. This is one area AI could help with, but that’s an area I’m not going into here.
Once your title is listed on Nielsen, some of the information (qualifiers, for example – place, education, interests) can’t be changed. They respond quickly to emails via the site however and seem happy to add information you didn’t manage to add first time round.
Retailers like Waterstones and Dubray will take data from this site so make sure your blurb works. There is only room for a 350 character blurb/ synopsis, so all the categorisation details count. You can upgrade to an Enhanced Services option to put in reviews, longer blurbs, author bio etc. It’s expensive – £79 per annum for one title, £145 for ten. The advice I got from my main distributor was that it really was necessary, but I couldn’t buy the single title one I wanted because I had seven titles on the site. Another hidden cost!
Irish Distributors
- International Education Service, Leixlip
- Irish Library Suppliers, Rathmines
- O’Mahony’s, Limerick
As well as supplying directly where you can, you need a supplier that libraries and bookshops here will buy from. You can supply the books yourself and they’re supportive once they take you on.
The percentage you get will be lower – they can take up to 50% of the sales price, so make sure you price your book right. Their argument for this is similar to that made by Ingram Sparks.
Get in touch two months before the launch. They will want to have the books on their catalogues as soon as possible, and books in stock up to four weeks before publication so bookshops can order them for the publication date. I was told a problem with a lot of self-published books are already out before they are approached. They like to have a lead in – and to know you have plans for promoting the book, and to their audience.
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Conclusion
The first print run arrived five weeks before publication. It went live on Ingram Sparks a week later, but I was still having problems getting delivery of a proof delivered to Ireland from Amazon.
In my next article, I’ll introduce you to some of the tips, tricks and pitfalls of the marketing process which began in earnest ten weeks before my publication date of September 17th… It’s the reason for the pages and pages of ‘to do’ lists that are populating my desk at the moment, each spawning more lists.
I started this process fifteen months ago, not including the various drafts before that. (The first was written in 2020 during Covid.) But it’s becoming more real with every passing day now, and I can’t wait to see Mischievous Magical Maia Malone out in the world!
(c) Lindsay J. Sedgwick
Web: lindsayjsedgwick.com Insta: @Lindsayjsedgwick
Online bookstore: Janey Mac Bookstore
Author Photograph (c) Barbara Henkes
About Mischievous Magical Maia Malone:
Broomsticks, alligators, gargoyles, and a lighthouse stretching up to touch the sky. When nine-year-old Maia describes her drawings, they come to life with comic and chaotic results – but could losing the family she loves be the price she has to pay?
After finding herself transformed one time too many, Maia’s older sister Neeta snaps and tells Maia she’s adopted. Maia’s world crumbles. Thinking her family would be better without her, she sets off on a daring and dangerous quest armed only with her pencils, her notebook and a faded photo of a woman she resembles.
A rollercoaster ride full of surprises, with themes of identity, adoption, friendship, bullying, and the scary responsibility of a powerful magical gift.
From the author of the Wulfie series and the creator of the ground-breaking animation series, Punky, comes a new action-packed adventure for 7-10-year-olds, illustrated by Abigail Hicks. A rollercoaster full of surprises, it deals with themes of identity, adoption, friendship and bullying, and the power (and cost) of having a magic gift. A heartwarming tale about the true meaning of family, friendship, identity and the power of believing in yourself, richly illustrated by Abigail Hicks.
Mischievous Magical Maia Malone will be available from International Education Services, Gardners, bookshops and online, while you can pre-order signed copies here.
And read more from Lindsay J. Sedgwick on Writing.ie here.
