Bookstores

There is a chance I may see my book, Cutting Through the Knot (Second Edition), on the shelves of the Kinokuniya Bookstore, the one on Forty-First Street and Sixth Avenue here in New York City.  If I do, however, it will be because the book buyer knows me.  It is in the nature of print-on-demand publishing, that the process is not generally suited for bookstores.

The problem, as I understand it, is that the bookstores can't return unsold copies of these books.  They have to lay out the money up front, and they don't know if they will get it back.  This is a risk the stores don't have to take with conventionally published books, and it is a function of the fact that conventional publishers produce larger numbers of books at one time.  When a main stream publisher delivers books to a bookstore they come with the agreement that the publisher will take back the unsold copies. 

Bookstores will order a copy of a print-on-demand book, if the customer has put up the money in advance.  There may be other exceptions.  I did a reading of the first edition of my novel at a Borders Books in Ithaca and as I was leaving, the manager purchased two additional copies from the supply I had bought.  With the reading and the book on display she was confident she could move that number, that she wouldn't be taking a risk.  The Cornell Campus Store, where I also did a reading, had a number of copies on hand that I did not provide. I can only assume that me being an alumnus and the reading taking place, they decided to spring for it, and take the loss if necessary.  When I approached a Barnes and Noble here in New York City, they made if very clear they could only order a print-on-demand book if it was prepaid.

My book is being produced by an operation called Lulu.  One of their principle attractions is that they do all the set up for free and receive payment only when a book is sold.  It is possible that there are other self-publishing companies that charge more at the initial stages, and do have bookstore distribution.  As I look optimistically ahead, this will come for me when I get taken on by a main stream publisher.

In there mean time, there is the world wide web, just waiting for the writer who has the right key to unlock its untold wealth, the right combination of words, the right Internet postings and hopefully a pretty good book to back them up.  A review copy of my novel will be delivered to the offices of the Cornell Daily Sun in Ithaca today.