Potentially Silly Question

Yes. It's possible. In the past, it hasn't really been too unusual for non-fiction.

Local interest topics happen a lot, and the author being local might be enough in some places.

But it's unlikely, and it almost certainly won't happen through someone stumbling upon it. You'll have to be out there MAKING sales, face to face and dealing with a metric ton of rejection that dwarfs the fairly impersonal kind that accompanies book submissions to publishers.

If you have charasma, moxie, and a solid product, it's not impossible. (I don't think it's anywhere worth the likely effort compared to finding a publisher that could almost certainly do a better job of it.)

What I'm planning to do, is to just print a box of mine, and anonymously and secretly dump it at the national top chain, see what they do. After all, the profit is 100%.

Miss Strawberrii said:

Would it ever be possible for a self-published book to be available at library or even a bookstore?

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It is possible, but only if you work at making it happen and, probably, invest a lot of money in it too.

For shops, you're going to have to contact each one, preferably in person, and ask them to stock your book. You'll need to give them a finished copy; and you'll need to offer favourable terms which usually means a discount of 45% or more off list price, and full returnability.

Note that POD copies do not withstand shelf wear very well, so any returned copies are likely to be unusable.

Libraries often depend on reviews in a handful of specialist publications when looking for new titles to buy in. These publications expect to have review copies in hand three to six months prior to publication. They are very unlikely to order POD books, because they don't stand up to library use.

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:

What I'm planning to do, is to just print a box of mine, and anonymously and secretly dump it at the national top chain, see what they do. After all, the profit is 100%.

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Bad idea.

They won't sell it, because it won't be in their system. Even if someone takes it to the till and asks to buy it, they won't be able to; and they are very unlikely to just give it away, because that creates an expectation that they'll give other books away too.

Books which are left in bookshops like this are usually destroyed.

You'll be costing yourself money, and wasting everyone's time, if you do this.

Old Hack said:

Bad idea.

They won't sell it, because it won't be in their system. Even if someone takes it to the till and asks to buy it, they won't be able to; and they are very unlikely to just give it away, because that creates an expectation that they'll give other books away too.

Books which are left in bookshops like this are usually destroyed.

You'll be costing yourself money, and wasting everyone's time, if you do this.

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I am so bummed out to admit that you're right... I'll just knock out the cashier and put the code into the register


...kidding?

I'm in Colorado and one of the local independent bookstores, The Tattered Cover, has a program specifically for self-published authors to display their works. There's a cost to it and your book has to have text on the spine, but they do make self-published books available. Perhaps a store near you would have a similar program?

Sometimes bookstores will buy self-published books from local authors. I know my indie bookstore does. They only buy a fraction of the books that get pitched to them. Quality over quantity.

NaeimGiladisLegacy said:

I am so bummed out to admit that you're right... I'll just knock out the cashier and put the code into the register ...kidding?

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You could do that, but it won't work. The cashiers don't determine which books are on the system, and which aren't.

meowzbark said:

Sometimes bookstores will buy self-published books from local authors. I know my indie bookstore does. They only buy a fraction of the books that get pitched to them. Quality over quantity.

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Bookshops do stock books by their local self-published authors. But that's not enough to make a significant contribution to sales, as for that one needs the nationwide distribution that trade publishers have.

Miss Strawberrii said:

Hmmmm... Maybe I'll forego I indie-publishing and using my art and writing together. D:

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Do it if you like, but please remember that we ask you to not misuse the term "indie publishing". Self publishing is what you mean. Thanks.

Old Hack said:

Bookshops do stock books by their local self-published authors. But that's not enough to make a significant contribution to sales, as for that one needs the nationwide distribution that trade publishers have.

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No, but it would technically fulfill her dream of finding her book on a shelf in a bookstore.

Old Hack said:

Libraries often depend on reviews in a handful of specialist publications when looking for new titles to buy in. These publications expect to have review copies in hand three to six months prior to publication. They are very unlikely to order POD books, because they don't stand up to library use.

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But what if one donated their own POD books to the library?

Also, with the advent of libraries implementing e-book borrowing via OverDrive and similar apps, would self-published books become a part of a library's collection, I wonder?

Not a librarian, but I'm guessing they have severe shelf space limitations (not an issue with ebooks, of course).

As someone who receives review copies (at a newspaper), I have witnessed what happens when self-published books pour in. In the past few years, our once-ample shelf space has vanished, and we now place most of these books in a Little Free Library outside our offices -- a shelf from which passersby are free to take whatever they choose. The LFL is a godsend, because people actually take the books. (Yes, we do review a few of them. But the vast majority just aren't suitable for us.)

If you're seeking an extremely simple and not at all lucrative way to get books into people's hands, find a local LFL -- they exist all over the world. Granted, they're not much different from a box of books you might find at the Salvation Army or whatnot.

atombaby said:

But what if one donated their own POD books to the library?

Also, with the advent of libraries implementing e-book borrowing via OverDrive and similar apps, would self-published books become a part of a library's collection, I wonder?

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Don't know about e-books, but at the library I frequent, donated books usually go straight to the library book-sale table: 50 cents for non-fiction, 25 cents for fiction. (Really popular authors maybe a little more, still topping out at a dollar.)
They don't go into the library's collection unless it's something they can really need or want. ie probably not fiction.

First, these random books probably don't have the necessarily sturdy binding, and then they've got to hunt down all the data they need for the catalog, which I'm betting most self-publishers don't think about.
Add in the time and cost of a circulation bar-code, (or the little slip and pocket in really old-school systems) and the stamping and labeling, and really, shelf space is in short supply; did they want this book in the first place?

If you mean you want to include lots of color illustrations in your book, I believe that increases the printing cost quite a bit. Maybe someone else knows more on that. But it might be a limiting factor and make your idea more suitable for an e-book.

Otherwise, along the lines of the things others have suggested, my local library has a paperback section where people can leave their used paperbacks. So, they are in the library (if this wish is "technical" rather than wanting it to go through the established channels). The books aren't registered in the system, though, and while they're not exactly labeled as giveaways, nobody really cares if they're returned or not. They don't track them. But you could certainly put them in there!

Also, just to mention it, even though it's a bit different than what you have in mind, it's also very fun to watch your sales rise on Amazon! Good luck.

Miss Strawberrii said:

Oops, I've been saying the term "indie" a lot, so that's probably why I typed it that way.

I'm sorry. ;_;

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No problem. It just really helps if people use the right terms: it prevents confusion.

atombaby said:

But what if one donated their own POD books to the library?

Also, with the advent of libraries implementing e-book borrowing via OverDrive and similar apps, would self-published books become a part of a library's collection, I wonder?

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POD books can't really withstand the shelfwear of library life. Trade publishers will sometimes produce special editions in library binding, to sell to the library trade (Robert Hale is a publisher which specialises in this).

Donated books don't usually get shelved. They are mostly given away.

Miss Strawberrii said:

I just want to see my name in a book at a store or library-type place.

Because combing illustrations with my writing (which is USUALLY YA-ish), is not "normal" traditional publishing, I would self. Yet I'm still silly enough to just want to see my name...

I'll feel so proud of myself...

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If your work is good enough (and by that I mean competent, compelling and commercial) then its lack of normality might actually be your big selling point. I wouldn't assume that producing very original work is a point against you.

If it's very original but not very well done, that would be a big point against you.

Are your illustrations particularly large or complex? Because if not, then the thing you describe--using them as chapter headings--isn't that unusual, and really shouldn't be a problem for a publisher IF your book were good enough.

If your drawings are really good then they will consider them.

They don't sound like they're essential to the book, though. So it shouldn't be a deal-breaker.

I donated a copy of my first self-published print book to a local library, and they put it in the surplus book sale shop (i.e. they threw it away). About two years later they set up a local authors section, and I donated a copy of each of my print books to it. Every time I go in to check they are all on the shelf. I don't think they get checked out much, so shelfwear doesn't seem to be a problem.

Miss Strawberrii said:

I thought publishers only liked professional artists? Maybe I read it wrong, though. I hope at least YA could have illustrated chapter headers~

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They like good artists who perform like responsible adults (ie, act professionally). They pay them and then, boom, they are "professional."

The art you have on display is very manga/anime inspired. This is not a style that is used much outside of manga/anime. If this is the only style you're doing at the moment, you'll probably need to expand your skill-set a bit to increase your odds of being able to break into the business.

It's possible though. A friend of mine took his interest in comic book art as a teen to an illustration degree, then freelance book cover work, and now is a university art professor.

My self-published stuff has yet to appear in a bookstore, but it was easy to get my novels placed in my local library. If I'd just made a simple donation, I was afraid I'd find my stuff in the book sale.

Via email, I contacted the library's general staff to find out who did acquistions for their young adult readers. They referred me to the woman in charge and I emailed her, saying I wanted to donate a pair of my books to be cataloged and placed on the shelves. She asked me to bring them by and leave them for her to review.

"Review" ended up being, having her twelve year-old daughter read them. Happily, the daughter enjoyed both stories and, zip-a-dee, they ended up in the New Books section. That was well over a year ago, they've been checked out frequently, and my partner and I even received our first handwritten fan letter from a library reader.

PortableHal, that's pretty neat!

I've heard of some self-published authors getting their books into stores, but they either knew someone or had stellar sales.