Valuable advice on self-publising in ALCS News

Let me draw your attention to a very well-rounded article by Caroline Sanderson in the current ALCS News.

I'm not here to give advice about self-publishing (though I could, having done it moderately successfully myself). What I want to do is flag up this bit, because it raises some points I'd like to emphasise for all writers:

"At the Society of Authors day, an alarming number of self-published authors who had visited local bookshops expecting to have their wares welcomed with open arms, expressed shock that discounts of 40 to 50% were routinely required. Well, welcome to the world of traditional publishing. Bookshops have to make money too, and often they don’t. They might take a punt on a new self-published author, and do a supportive favour to a local writer, but it's the author who should be obliged, not the bookseller. I was astonished by the number of authors who felt that the fact that they had published a book gave them an automatic right of entry onto the shelves of any bookshop."

Here are the points that occur from that paragraph:

1. Bookshops only contain a tiny percentage of the books available. They have to choose the ones they think they can sell. Competition between books is huge.
2. Space in a bookshop costs. Things have to sell, otherwise they are taking space (and therefore potential income) from the shop. If the shop knows it can sell a pile of Harry Potter books easily but a pile of Nicola Morgan books with greater difficulty, it would be wise (though arguably short-termist)  to stock HP. Sadly.
3. Luckily, most booksellers are book-lovers, and they want a good variety, so they may choose to stock NM, but they must believe in the book. It's the job of my publisher to convince them.
4. Yes, discounts are minimum 40%. Usually 40-60%. Discounts to Amazon may be 80%. Discounts to book clubs such as the Book People will be at least that. (And, by the way, our royalty is on the revenue received, not the cover price...)
5. Most books don't make a profit, for the above reasons.
6. Every publishing contract is a guess. Publishers want to get it right and they take many risks along the way. If they didn't, we wouldn't stand a chance unless we wrote only relatively safe commercial sellers. 

If writers understood the bookselling business better, they might be less bitter when the rejections come. They might be more realistic. They might make a greater effort to give their books a must-read quality. And they might stop thinking the world owes them a living. We have to fight for our living, but we have to do it with knowledge and understanding, not naïveté. Same whether we are aiming to self-publish or to be published.

That's why I once wrote a post recommending that all writers should self-publish. (But please read that before reacting to the statement, as that title is misleading!)

Eyes wide open, dear writers. Eyes wide open.