Books in book shops

 

Love of bookshops

I guess most people reading this blog will love bookshops. I can’t walk past one and hate walking out of one without a purchase. I’m not too keen on some of their practices- especially amongst the larger chains and as a publisher I find indies very bad at paying up on time.

The joy of the ISBN

Generally, if a book has an ISBN any bookshop in the world should be able to order it.   The ISBN registration can tell the bookseller where they can find the book – it tells them who is the distributor and which wholesalers can source it.

 

However, although Amazon KDP paperbacks and hardbacks have ISBNs they are generally not available in book shops except in the USA. Authors and publishers can get involved but this means processing orders manually.

 

Lightning Source versus Amazon KDP

One of the reasons that we like using Lightning Source for paperbacks is because for £8.40 a year we are hooked up to the Ingram’s distribution service and our books are available worldwide.

 

For a few titles e.g. The Best of CafeLit series and the CafeLit serials we publish via Amazon KDP. We can’t get these into bookshops.

 

One advantage of Amazon KDP is that we avoid all the export problems. Amazon deals with that for us and all paperback books are sold via the readers’ local Amazon.

 

These are in any case the type of books that are less likely to sell in bookshops.

 

An interesting case study

A writing friend was dumped by her publisher. Said publisher only ever sold via Amazon KDP, Kindle and paperbacks. Her books never went into shops. She has carried on and self-published. Now she won’t go back to a traditional publisher unless they give her an advance that at least matches what she has earned this year from her book – which was even more than she was getting via her publisher.

 

But the bookshop remains tantalising

We all dream of seeing our books on the shelves in bookshops. I felt very fortunate that in the first week of my work at the University of Salford, five of my books were in the window of the Waterstone’s on Deansgate in Manchester. However, it didn’t make a lot of difference to sales.

 

The print on demand effect

Yes, we use print on demand and we’re proud of it. It does hold up delivery just a little bit. Having said that The Hive gets our book out really quickly which rather suggests that the hold-up isn’t actually print on demand itself but the administrative system of some retailers.               

Doll Face by Dianne Stadhams

 

How we came to publish this one

Author Dianne Stadhams is a regular contributor to our annual anthologies and we encourage people we have published to submit more of their work to us. We were delighted to find that Doll Face fits in really well with what our visions for The Red Telephone.     

 

The title

The reason for this title soon becomes evident as the reader gets into the story.

 

Some notes about the process

We went through the normal three stages of editing with this, followed by three proof-reads. Dianne was on our Red Telephone mentorship scheme and we worked on this book with her before it went through the normal editorial process. However, this meant that there was slightly less to do when we came to editing.   

 

The cover

Dianne designed the cover herself though we had to make a few technical tweaks.  

Some notes about style

The style is spot on for the older young adult. It’s not always an easy read, There are several different voices in the story but that of the protagonist and her doll shine out clearly.  

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Who we think the reader is

This is suitable for the adults and older young adults. Fourteen-year-old Tilly Henderson-Smythe is articulate with attitude, and was born with Mosaic Down's Syndrome. But she's not sleeping. Her parents and school are worried. She is sent for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) assessment after being taken hostage on holiday by a local group disgruntled over land rights and tourism development. With a secret passion for dodgy websites, and an appetite for just retribution, Tilly's view of complex issues goes viral.

What else

This book will make you think. It is a demanding read.  

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the book, or download it if you have a plan, and give us a review. Just click here to be taken to our online bookshop. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free review copy.       

 

 

 

See in our online bookshop

The Fortune Teller of Philippi

 

How we came to publish this one

This is one of our Red Telephone books. Author Jenny Robertson is already in our author network. We have published her before and she has been in our community of writers for quite a while.   

 

The title

This so aptly identifies the story. This is a total no-brainer.  

 

Some notes about the process

We went through the normal three stages of editing with this, followed by three proof-reads. This was a very smooth process; Jenny is a total professional.

 

The cover

It took a little while to find the right concept. It may have been reasonably easy to get one designed with the figure of a young girl on it as the protagonist is female. However, we shy away from having representations of characters in our fiction. We are a little unusual in this. We prefer that the reader decides what people look like. We do have “every person” figures on some of our books.    

 

Some notes about style

The style is spot on for the young adult / teen reader. It is quite pragmatic and uses plain English.  

Who we think the reader is

This is suitable for the younger end of YA. There is romance but no overt sexual scenes. There is a strong Christian message here. This includes miracles and some supernatural evil both of which raise the stakes a little.

 

What else

Jenny is well established in her world and has been quite influential with the marketing.  

 

Review copies

It’s always great if you can buy the book, or download it if you have a plan, and give us a review. Just click here to be taken to our online bookshop. If you would like to review and you are strapped for cash, just get in touch for a free review copy.      

  

Some Thoughts on the Legal Deposit Libraries

It is a legal requirement that we deposit one copy of every book we publish with the British Library. The other five Legal Deposit Libraries may then request copies.  This is usually done by the agent for the Legal Deposit Libraries who requests them on behalf of all five libraries. We deposit the one to the British Library as matter of course, within a few days of the book’s release. We wait for the request from the Legal Deposit libraries as they are always at least six months behind in their processing and if we deposit before they ask they have a tendency to lose books.

At the beginning of the pandemic it as impossible to deliver to the British Library and we had several books returned. So we put our practice on hold. They have now requested the books we didn’t send; we have now sent them and so we are up to date. This week I received a receipt for a book we deposited eight months ago.

A visit to one of the Legal Deposit Libraries will shock you. You will see stock-piled books.  Will anyone actually ever access those copies?

We’re in queue for being allowed to submit electronically.  This will save us money and will save the planet paper and transport costs.

However, there is one thing to consider. Maybe it’s important to still have hard copies even if they are stock-piled in a way that makes it difficult to access them. At least you can always read a hard copy. If we have digital copies only we may run out of the technology to read them. Remember what happened with the BBC Doomsday Project. In one of my own works a far future civilisation cannot access a recording on audio cassette.     

And here's  funny thing,  The British Library chased  a book we had already deposited. I sent them proof, they replied that they were behind with their cataloguing. Why chases if it's their own fault?