[Credit for this idea goes to my husband, who thought this metaphor up under the influence of gout medication. ‘Nuf said.]
What do books and bathtubs have to do with each other? Well, nothing, ordinarily, unless you’re like me and can think of nothing nicer than a book, a tub full of bubbles and some nice wine.
But that’s not where we’re going today. We’re going to use a bathtub as a metaphor for the book distribution channels. Thusly:
Say you’re a small press or a self-publisher. If you connect your timing right with your marketing, you build buzz (word of mouth, articles, social media, ads, reviews) to coincide with the release of your book. Because you’ve planned this carefully, you’ve “filled the tub” – that is, you’ve stocked up the wholesalers with enough books to fulfill anticipated demand.
Now, for many small presses and self-publishers, despite your best efforts, you may launch your book while the bathtub is only half-full – it’s not your fault, but the wholesalers aren’t stocking up on your book because they don’t have a history for you/your publishing company, and so they tend to under-stock, meaning you will lose sales because the books won’t be available at all times. But because you keep pushing your marketing and pushing demand, wholesalers eventually catch up, filling the tub high enough to meet demand.
By keeping up your marketing and never wavering, you keep the tub filled. In our tub metaphor, this is equal to the addition of more hot water as you decide to stay in longer. Won’t the tub over-flow? Nope, because there are returns – the equivalent of opening the tub stopper just a bit to allow some of the cold water to drain.
Now, what normally happens in the lifecycle of a book is that, as demand lowers, the stock levels in the wholesalers lower – that’s akin to water naturally draining from the bathtub. Even if the seal on your drain is perfect, the water will evaporate. In the book world, what that means is that you run through the stock in the warehouses, and that which isn’t sold will be returned.
Here’s the problem – and I see it all the time with self-publishers and small press – inattentention and inexperience make them stop marketing. Maybe things are going OK, so they don’t think they have to market after the initial roll-out. Or they have another project going and turn all their energy to that. Or something at home prevents them from moving ahead with efforts to keep the book in the public’s eye. Whatever it is, at some point, they realize, “Hey! My book’s not selling!” then try and market, and that’s when the bathtub thing really gets in the way.
When you let your marketing lapse, the wholesalers will let the bathtub drain. There might be a couple of books in the system – like a few puddles at the deeper end of the tub – but, for all practical purposes, there aren’t any books in the system. When the self-publisher or small press tries to renew marketing efforts, what will happen is that there won’t be any books in the system. The tub is dry. All your marketing efforts go to waste because there is no supply to meet the demand.
Yes, you can ask your distributor – or the buyer if you have direct distribution – to restock your book. But the wholesaler will look at previous demand and only order a small amount. That’s just good business. You aren’t proving to them that you will drive enough demand to make it worth their while to have a bunch of books in stock that they will have to return.
And this is where I hear people tell me the book distribution system is not fair to small press/self-publishers.
Sorry. I don’t buy it. If you let book marketing lapse for 6 months and think you are going to start with at least a half-full tub (enough books in the system to meet sudden demand), you need to reconsider. A renewed marketing plan must account for having to re-ramp up stock before doing something radical that will push a whole lot of buyers into bookstores and Amazon… where they will be told the book is out of stock.
Planning is important in the book business – and is the single biggest failing of small press and self-publishers. No matter if you are creating a marketing plan for a new book, or renewing a marketing plan for an old book, you need to plan out time to get stock into distribution. While some of you might be the type to leap into the tub without water in it already, most of us find it an unpleasant (and down-right chilly) experience. Take the time to manage the level and temperature of your bathwater/book distribution and you’ll have a much more satisfying selling/bathing experience!
The chief difference between big publishers and small/self-publishers: big publishers can stuff the book distribution channels full of books (force the tub to be filled) without any real basis for that activity. In truth, they often fill the tub to overflowing (massive returns) without having proved that there is any need for the book in the first place.
Small press and self-publishers need to do things the old fashioned – and I would argue, the smarter - way. Instead of thinking about how you can get your books into bookstores and wholesalers, the small press person has to think, “How do I get customers to buy the book – and where will they buy it?”
While the wholesalers control how high the tub gets filled, it’s the customers who turn the spigot on. DEMAND is the key – not supply. Focus on your customers, and supply will take care of itself (once you have a way for the tub to get filled).
