Information for Authors

We get many, many requests to carry books from both self-published and traditionally published authors. Here’s a run-down of commonly requested info. Please send us an email at prettygoodbookstore@gmail.com if you have additional questions or would like to send us information about your book (the info to send us is noted below here).

I wrote a book, will you carry it?

First of all, congratulations! Writing a book is difficult. We try to support as many authors as we can.  That said, we simply don’t have room to carry every book we’d like.  With so many self-publishing resources available these days we get dozens of emails each week from authors interested in having us carry their books.  Those authors living in or with strong ties to the immediate area are in the most demand and are more likely to be a good fit here.  It also depends on genre.  Some genres simply aren’t in as much demand here as they are elsewhere, we have to take this into consideration.

If your book has been published through a traditional publisher and we feel we have the appropriate audience for it we will order it through them or one of our regular distributors on standard industry terms.  If your book is self-published or not available through our regular distributors, or is only available on a non-returnable basis or without the standard terms, we may decide to purchase from you directly.  If we decide your book is a good fit for our store we generally start with 1-2 copies, depending on genre, and reorder as they sell. Self-published books that remain unsold after six months will be returned to the author.

Books must be professionally bound with the title printed on the spine (people won’t notice your book if they can’t see the title when it’s on the shelf). The better your cover the better your chances of selling a book. We use the standard 60/40 split as far as payment goes–you, the author, will get 60% of the retail price if you provide your book directly to us. 40% goes to us. Pricing must be consistent within the genre.  If you choose to leave or mail a copy of your book without consulting with one of the owners first it will be considered a free review copy.

Book info should be sent by email, please include your locale in the subject line. We are unable to accommodate walk-in visits without an appointment or telephone inquiries as when our doors are open we’re focused on helping customers, pricing and shelving books, and other day to day activities which keep the doors open.  When emailing us information about your book please include your name and where you live, your email address, the book title, publication date, the ISBN, a link to a website with info about your book (not Amazon or Barnes & Noble, please), what your local target audience will be here in LaGrange, Georgia, and how you plan to promote your book here at Pretty Good Books and in LaGrange.  Send the info to prettygoodbookstore@gmail.com or use the form below.  Please note that since we receive so many requests we can’t personally reply to all inquiries, but we will take a look at the info you send to see if it’s a good fit for our store.

Do you have any tips for making my book successful in a bookstore?

To end up with the best product you can, a book to be proud of and one people want to read, we have some very basic tips:

  1. We strongly encourage all authors to have their book professionally edited. A potential reader flipping through your book will likely walk away if there are obvious spelling errors (particularly on the cover).

  2. Think about hiring a professional graphic designer to do your cover and layout–given a choice the public is much more likely to pick up a book that looks good. Formatting errors disrupt the flow of a story (for fiction) or can cause real confusion about events (for nonfiction). As mentioned above, the book title and preferably your name should be printed on the spine.

  3. Buy an ISBN and have a barcode printed on the back cover. It’s difficult to restock your book if we can’t easily track it in our system.

  4. Go with an affordable publishing company so you can price your book reasonably within its genre. Look at other published books in the same genre, trim, and bulk to get an idea of common pricing and price your book accordingly. You don’t necessarily need to print the price on the cover but be consistent; your book should sell for the same price through every outlet.

  5. Send people to us to buy your book!  Send friends and family to us, and list us on your website as an outlet for your book with a link to our store’s website.  Whenever you do publicity for your book list us as an outlet. People need to know we carry your book.  We can’t buy copies from you unless people are buying them from us.  If you’re sending people to online retailers we will not be able to carry your book.

  6. How are you going to promote your book? Having your book published is a big, exciting step, but it’s only the first step in getting your book into the hands of readers.  You need to market your book; how are planning to do that?

  7. Here is a link to a wonderful article called “How to Talk to a Bookseller: A 10-Step Guide for Authors” written by Melissa Lion who was a bookseller and the events coordinator at DIESEL, a bookstore in Oakland, California before leaving to write full time.  http://www.bookweb.org/news/how-talk-bookseller-10-step-guide-authors

  8. Tor published a great article by Lish McBride about what you, as an author, can do to make your events more successful.  http://www.tor.com/2017/01/30/the-authors-guide-to-no-show-events/?utm_source=exacttarget&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_term=tordotcom-tordotcomnewsletter&utm_content=na-readblog-blogpost&utm_campaign=9780805098631

Can I have a signing at your store?

We would love to host an event promoting your book at the store. Please fill out this form to begin the process of scheduling an author event. Once you formally schedule a date with us we are more than happy to promote it through our social media channels and in the store itself. The more you promote your own event the more successful it will be!

If you haven’t yet done so, we recommend you get in touch with your local regional writing groups and look into networking with your fellow authors, they can be a wonderful resource and likely have leads on events which may be a good fit for you. 

Let us know if you have any questions.