A lonely author, sitting at a signing table
Why it's critical for me to do in-store signings
Last week, an author friend of mine commented on my IG posting and it made me feel good about my choices.
“The grind don’t stop.”
That line, coming from poet Jamie Louise Madigan, stirred something in me. Jamie, who was on my podcast in Season 3, knows all about the grind. From the day she published her book of poetry, Lipstick Stains and Coffee Cups, she was on a mission to get it into as many hands as possible. Since 2023, Jaime has done books signings, markets large and small, and says yes to every opportunity that comes her way. I hate to say it because I hate the word, but Jamie has hustle. She is my model for the grind.
But I don’t have a choice, really. I need to do multiple book signings at Indigo stores because I have to sell through the stock. Unlike the independent bookstores, where my books are on consignment, Indigo orders stock from IngramSpark, a huge international distributor. In order for larger bookstore chains to be open to ordering my books, they have to be returnable. If the books don’t sell, Indigo wants to return them. No big deal, right?
Except for an indie author like me, returns can be crushing. I learned this lesson with Spent, my retail memoir. Let me show you the math.
This first image shows the orders Chapters/Indigo placed for Spent in 2022.
They bought 57 copies at a wholesale price of $6.75. My compensation–the Net Pub Comp–was $134.52, or $2.36 per book.
Now let me show you the returns.
Chapters/Indigo returned 44 copies in 2024. The terms with IngramSpark require me to cover the refund issued to the bookstore–the wholesale price they paid of $6.75. Do you see the problem? I make $2.36 per book sold to the chain, but I have to cover the $6.75 per book refund. It costs me $4.39 per book returned. I had to pay that $290.25 YTD net to IngramSpark. To add insult to injury, that bill was in USD.
So you see, I’m better served to keep booking signings until the stock is gone, instead of bearing the cost of a return. Even considering all the hours I spend manning my table, talking to anyone who will listen, and doing my best to get those books moving, it’s worth my time. I’m a social person anyhow, so engaging with strangers doesn’t feel like work.
Two hundred copies of Katya Noskov’s Last Shot have to be moved through the cash registers at Indigo stores throughout Calgary. I’ll be revisiting stores over and over until either the stock sells through, or I can negotiate a discount to buy the remaining books from the store myself.
The grind don’t stop, indeed.
xo Dana
PS: I’m working on expanding my audience, so I’ve recently set up an Etsy shop and an Ko-fi page for my digital assets. E-books, guides, and prompt journals can now be purchased on those sites.
What I’m reading
I have more than a few regrets over not accepting a copy of The God of the Woods when Penguin Random House offered it to me in the fall of 2023. As the host of a podcast, I frequently received emails from publishers of all sizes with their upcoming releases, all offering me copies of anything I wanted. The premise of The God of the Woods didn’t really grab me: two siblings from a wealthy family disappear from their Adirondack property, the first in 1961, the second in 1975. Family secrets, town history, maybe or maybe not some supernatural elements. When the book was released in July of 2024, it kind of exploded. It was everywhere on my socials. Fine, I’ll read it, I thought. I put a library hold on it in October and waited six months to get a copy. I will say this, it is an intriguing story and it’s well written. I’m about a third of the way through and things are getting more interesting with every page I turn.
