Further Information for Authors

Have you written a book and hope we can stock it?

Congratulations! It is a huge undertaking to write a book and we appreciate that hard work and time commitment.

We are a very small team running a shop that facilitates many different ventures and stocks thousands of new books, so we have to ensure we manage our shop space and our labour carefully.

Please read the following before approaching us to stock your book.

Traditionally Published Authors

If you are published by a traditional mainstream or independent publisher, we will likely already have an account with them and would order directly via our usual channels. Let your agent or editor know about us, and prompt them to reach out directly if you think we have not been made aware of your book.

Independently Published and Self-Published Authors

We source most of our books directly from the publisher or from Gardners so please let us know which distributors stock your books. We rarely accept books direct from the author, and in no circumstances will we stock books published by Ama*on.

If you have self-published via other means, then please review the following before reaching out:

  • Your book needs to have an ISBN number and barcode.

  • Your book should fit with our existing selection and have relevance to our customers.

  • Your book should have been edited to a professional standard.

Pricing and Format

Customers are increasingly cost-sensitive and it is therefore important that your book is priced accordingly. If you peruse the shelves of the shop, you can see the average prices of various book formats, and see which are our bestsellers; do engage the booksellers with questions as well, we are all more than wiling to chat at length about the industry!

As a rough guide:

  • Children’s paperback picture books sell for between £6.99 and £8.99.

  • Adult paperback novels sell for between £8.99 and £10.99.

How to Get in Touch

Please get in touch either via the contact page on the website or email us directly. This gives us time to consider your submission.

Please do not drop into the shop to discuss your book without having been in touch first and do not leave books at the till unless requested. Any books dropped off in this way are left at your own risk and we are under no obligation to stock them or compensate you for them.

Terms

All items will be stocked on a payment on sale basis (sale or return). Due to a lack of space, if your work hasn’t sold after 90 days then we will ask you to collect it. We will still consider future work from you, it may just be that the particular theme of that specific book did not suit our customer-base.

We take a 35% commission on all retail prices which help us to cover our costs: this is negotiable for not-for-profit items and independently produced projects. This rate is standard across the book industry.

We ask you to get in touch with us every few months to see what sales of your work have been made. Once sales figures have been established, we require an invoice and then payments will be made by BACS transfer.

Please remember that we are a very small business and cannot offer terms that match the bigger chains, online retailers or supermarkets.

Your Pitch

If you’ve read the above and are confident that your book is a good fit for us then please include the following in your email:

  • Brief synopsis of the book.

  • Information about you and anyone else involved in the creation of the book (for example the illustrator) including whereabouts you are based.

  • Publisher and distributor information.

  • RRP and proposed terms.

  • Why you believe your book is a good fit for us and our customers.

  • How you have supported us (or another independent bookshop) recently.

Further Reading