Are You Managing Your On-Hand Book Supply?
Merry Christmas!
Since it IS Tuesday, I am honoring the commitment I made to myself back in 2013 that said, “Every Tuesday I post an article and send out my email newsletter.” (Because it’s important to me to keep that commitment TO MYSELF.
And since it IS Christmas Day, I’m bringing you one of my favorite—and timeless—articles!
As an independently published author, MOST of your book sales will come from the mega-online retailer of Amazon. Let’s face it, nobody can compete with Amazon’s sheer VOLUME of users!
And that’s a good thing! It’s fantastic to sell where the eyeballs are!
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a number of your books on hand at all times. The question is:
How many should you keep on hand?
Years ago, I got invited to present at an Outdoors Expo – fitting because that’s what most of my books are written about, outdoor recreation. They were expecting 2,000 people a day for a two-day event.
I figured I’d be safe with 25 copies of each of my books …
And I’ll be you’re thinking I’m going to say, “I was sold out within the first three hours! I wish I’d ordered more!”
Um … yeah … not so much. Unfortunately, the event only had about a eight hundred people walk through the gates during the two days. And with a $10 per PERSON gate fee … Not a lot of folks were interested in buying anything from ANY of the vendors.
Here’s the moral of the story though: I wasn’t READY for this event! I didn’t have ANY books on hand which meant not only did I have to order them (outlay of cash – no problem!) but I had to have them rushed shipped! I paid nearly as much in shipping as I did for the books!
BIG PROBLEM!