Ottakers May Sell The Laughter File!

[compuclean]

Okay, so it's only a maybe, but I went into Ottaker's bookshop today, and asked if they would sell my book, The Laughter File.

The manager said he would, but they are being taken over by Waterstones, but he will let me know on Wednesday.

The deal is - I give them five books. If they don't sell after three months, they give them back. If they do sell...........

Just thought I'd let you all know!

[Claire B]

Well done you!

Let us know when you are scheduled to do your first book signing and we can all come along and grab our copy!

Claire

[PI Guy]

Well done you!

Let us know when you are scheduled to do your first book signing and we can all come along and grab our copy!

Claire

Yeah and i'll provide the bodyguards to keep you safe from the masses of plebs.:)

[Astaroth]

I have always been surprised at how accomodating stores are for this kind of thing. When I was a student I used to manage a couple of bands and Virgin were always willing to sell the CDs for us (and would call us to "order" more when they had run out)

[butterflysmile]

Tha's great news, let us know what happens!

Emma

[compuclean]

Tha's great news, let us know what happens!

Emma

I will do!

Thanks for the support people!

[billhilton]

You'll find it works even better with local, independent bookshops. The only outlet I've never pulled this on is Borders - they seem to have some sort of weird, fascist stock control system run from the States. But maybe I was just unlucky the with York branch. Most bookshops will do "local author" stuff, purely because they know friends and family will tell all their friends that your book's in there. Local books by local authors are among some of the best sellers in any bookstore.

[compuclean]

Hi Bill,

Yes, I agree totally, but there are no 'local bookshops' locally! So I just hopped into Ottakers on the offchance, and it looks like it might have paid off!

[RedArc]

Well done! The toughest part of self-publishing is the marketing and selling, so it's great that you are pro-active.

Through my company, Red Arc Media, we've just facilitated on the book production side of things for an author. He managed to gain a book signing event at our local Borders and they were very helpful. He sold quite a few copies of his book `Website Essentials' on the day and they also kept some copies in stock too.

I am currently working on my brother's book `Ready for Action' about his life in film production and we're going to approach several book stores to set up some events when it is launched in October.

Book stores are usually always keen to support local authors. Ottakers have had a good reputation for this but whether this will change with the Waterstones take-over, time will tell.

Do let us know how you do. If you can arrange a book signing, rather than just leaving copies to sell, then you may have a better response.

[billhilton]

Ottakers have had a good reputation for this but whether this will change with the Waterstones take-over, time will tell.

Hm - I'm not so sure. My mole at Waterstones is saying that if it goes ahead Waterstones will become more like Ottakars than Ottakars like Waterstones, so we'll have to see.

Compuclean, whereabouts in the northeast are you? I bet I can think of some good places for you to try :-)

[compuclean]

I'm in Sunderland. The only independent bookstore in Sunderland closed last year.

[compuclean]

Just remembered about this thread.

Well, Ottakers got back to me, and they were most willing to take the book. Unfortunately, though, Waterstones wouldn't let them.

So I was pretty gutted about that, but never mind, I'll find somewhere else to sell the book!

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

I live in South Shields :)

If you ever need a Compuclean representitive for the South Shields area let me know :D