WHERE DO AUTHORS PREFER YOU TO BUY THEIR BOOKS?

Someone asked me the other day, “When I buy your book, which is best for you – buy from yourself or a shop or what?”

This was a very kind question but also a very interesting one. It raises a load of issues and neatly gets right under the skin of the situation for authors.

First, I am very, very grateful to anyone who buys a copy of my book from anywhere, as long as they buy it new. (If you buy it secondhand, including the outlets on Amazon Marketplace, I gain nothing directly. The only possible gain is if you love the book and recommend it to loads of other people who then buy it new. I accept that this can happen, but a secondhand sale is not one that I can feel terribly excited about. If you don't want to pay the new price, I'd love you to borrow from a library.)

Other than that, here are the relative merits (to me) of each method in which you might buy Write to be Published. Or any other book.

Buying a signed copy direct from me. There’s no doubt that this is the way in which I earn more money. I buy the book at discount, so I make more than my small royalty. But I have to allow time to process, address and post the order, the commission that paypal takes and the fact that I under-charge for postage & packing. I’m hugely flattered and delighted that someone would actually pay more for a signed copy and would want to support me. So, this is a lovely thing to do. Thank you! (Click the Buy the Book link at the top of this page, if you wish to do that.) NB thanks to Brian Clegg for pointing out that a downside is that these sales are invisible and don't appear in sales figures, which can have disadvantages to the author. 

Buying from a small independent bookshop. This is often heralded as an ethical option, because we tend to like the idea of supporting small or independent businesses, especially bookshops. These shops can rarely afford to give a discount, because their profit margins and the discounts they can squeeze from publishers are usually lower. (Which makes my income a little bit higher than if the book is discounted.) If you’re in Edinburgh, then you have The Edinburgh Bookshop, kindly hosting my launch. You will sometimes find signed copies there if I’ve been past recently. (Edited to add - and any other indie shop that has asked me to pop in! Thanks Helena at England's Lane Books! I'll be there on June 2nd if I possibly can.)

Buying from one of the larger chains – such as Waterstone’s and Blackwell's. (Although Blackwell’s is independent, we count it as a chain now.) We need strong, successful chains, big and small. Waterstone’s, for example, easily the largest in the UK, remains of extreme importance to authors and to readers and is not having an easy time. (Today there is news that it has been sold - good news, because now we hope for stability and strength.) One of the reasons that Waterstone’s is important is that it is so visible and our books must be visible. If I’ve written a great book, all the networking and promotion in the world won’t help if the book is not seen by people. That’s why publishers and authors try so hard to get their books into Waterstone’s and large shops and chains. I am lucky that Waterstone’s and Blackwell’s have decided that Write to be Published is a book they would like to stock – but if people then don’t buy it from them, they’ll stop stocking it. So, buying a copy from them also benefits me.

Buying from Foyles. I mention this separately because of their great support in giving me time and space for a large event on 2nd June. If you are coming to the event, I do hope you will buy from Foyles, so that they feel that the event was worthwhile. And they have several of my other books at a good reduction.

Buying from the publisher's website

(Thanks for reminding me, Mary!) This is good for authors because it helps our publishers like us. And there'll be no discount so royalties will be higher. I don't think the sales figures appear on Bookscan, but what the hell, Snowbooks and I are happy.

Buying at a high discount from anywhere

When books are sold at a discount, the author’s income is lower. But I don’t mind because books are discounted only when a bookshop thinks they are going to be good sellers. So, it’s a compliment and I appreciate the faith shown by those shops. For example, Foyles currently have the book at the lowest price I’ve seen. But I won’t care that my unit income from it is reduced because I really want any shop that decides to stock to sell it in good numbers.

Buying from Book Depository

If you live outside the UK this is your best (pretty much only!) choice and a very good one for you, because they do free delivery worldwide. There's a good discount for you and I'm happy that people from overseas have this option to buy my book.

Buying from Amazon

Although this is probably my least* favourite option, I will not turn my nose up at an Amazon sale and please don’t even think of apologising, as some people do! Honestly, any sale that contributes to my sales figures is a help. (Please be aware that if you click the “other sellers” or “used and new” buttons, you get through to Marketplace, where many of the outlets are not contributing to our royalties at all.) Brian adds, "One advantage of an Amazon sale is that it knocks up your Amazon ranking, and if you get far enough up you may get extra sales from exposure." Very true.

*Oh dear, how could I have forgotten the supermarkets??

Yes, I did actually forget, so thanks to Michael Malone for raising it in a comment. Well, far be it for me to discourage anyone from selling books but I have very little else positive to say about supermarket books. Besides, you are most unlikely to find WTBP there, as they focus on highly commercial titles. Authors of novels who find their books there are torn between gritting teeth against the minuscule royalty and being happy to think of lots of sales.

Buying the ebook – eg for Kindle

As with Amazon.  My royalty on an ebook sale is higher, though, so perhaps if you’re going to buy from Amazon at all the ebook is the way that helps me most. But the complicated layout of the text probably means the formatting won’t transfer perfectly and you might wish you’d bought the paper one. (I haven't seen the ebook yet and I'm not particularly looking forward to it as I know there will be formatting issues...)

See, I really don’t mind how or where you buy my book - I am grateful for every single sale! I don't want to recommend one shop over another because I’m very, very grateful to them for their support. I am extremely lucky that so many of them seem to think this book is going to do well - for me and for them. Let's hope they are right!