Not to date.
Convincing a bookstore to order your books is simple enough for those who have an ISBN but why should we have to convince them of anything when larger houses don't have to? Their defense, "well, we like to make sure the author has an audience so their books will sell."
What? Of course they don't have an audience. How can they have an audience? Please save me from this ignorance. Not even the Independent Bookstores I've dealt with move far past this mode of operation.
And don't count on your local bookstores either. I had two relatively successful signings with my local B&N, meaning they allowed me to come in, set-up and sign, before the last disaster. I've yet to be paid for that event and received zero advertising from them. Not even the special sign in the door a couple of days before the event was to happen. We're coming up on a year now and it wasn't just me they didn't pay. I brought another author along with me and they've not been paid either. True, it's not a large amount of money they owe me but truth be told, it could be and it wouldn't matter.
How professional is that!
And to make matters more ridiculous. That same B&N still orders the hard copy of Never Ceese to sell instead of my POD published version even though they can get both and even though I've explained that I make no money of the hard copy. And of course that really doesn't matter much either because they stick the one or two copies in a hole somewhere so you'd have to ask where it is in spite of the category of YA Series or vampire or werewolf and in spite of the fact that I'm a local author whose first book was short-listed for a Bram Stoker award and second novel is long-listed for a 2010 British Fantasy Award. I'd say to them thanks for all the help but they're not singling me out. That's pretty much the way any author who isn't published by a large house is treated--every day--all day long.
Ahhh, ain't live grand!
And if that is how they treat YOU, with the multiple awards and good signings, what hope is there for us worms who don't have such things to our credit?
ReplyDeleteDon't answer that. And people ask why I switched to fanfiction. At least I know up front that there is no hope of selling anything, so I can quit trying to sell and just write. More fun. More readers. But of course, I can't eat or pay rent.