Bookstores or Readers: What’s Your Independent Publishing Strategy?

If you’re publishing independently, your publishing strategy includes a lot of individual decisions: whether or use KDP or IngramSpark, what wholesale discount to set, whether to set your books as returnable, and so much more.

I speak to a lot of independent authors who are completely overwhelmed by all those little individual decisions. They know enough about self-publishing to understand the aspects they need to consider, but not enough to be able to connect those aspects under a single publishing strategy.

If that’s where you are, this post will simplify your options by unifying them under the publishing strategy that helps you meet your goals.

Topics Covered in “Bookstores or Readers”

Who Is Your Target Buyer?
Publishing Decisions to Make
     KDP vs. IngramSpark
     Wholesale Discount
     Returnability
     ISBN Ownership
The Best Publishing Strategy for Your Goals
     Goal: Selling to Libraries and Booksellers
     Goal: Selling Direct to Readers
Other Publishing Considerations

Who Is Your Target Buyer?

While you were writing your book, you may have had your target reader in mind. But now that it’s finished, you need to think about your target buyer.

What’s the difference? Think about the different ways individual readers find their books.

They might follow a direct link from the author’s website to the Amazon page, or they might go directly to Amazon and search for the author or book title. If they don’t know about the author, they might come across it through browsing Amazon categories or using different terms to search for what they’re looking for.

If they’re not particularly Amazon-minded, they might navigate to Barnes & Noble or Books-a-Million. They might see the book on social media. They might even visit their local Barnes & Noble, independent bookstore, or library. 

The target reader is the same across all scenarios—but your target reader and your actual customer aren’t always the same person. If you want your book sold at a physical bookstore or stocked in the local library, the bookstore or library has to order them first.

Publishing Decisions to Make

There’s more to choosing a good publishing strategy than choosing to distribute with KDP or IngramSpark (or both). There are a number of decisions to make, and many of them are based on whether you want your book to be attractive to individual readers or to bookstores and libraries. Making key decisions designed for one publishing strategy won’t be helpful to you if it isn’t your strategy. It might even be harmful.

Before determining which publishing strategy is right for you, here’s a quick breakdown of some of the key decisions you’ll need to make.

KDP vs. IngramSpark

While there are many other book distribution platforms available, this post will look at the two top platforms: KDP and IngramSpark.

Given that Amazon has such an outsized share of the book market in the US, KDP—Amazon’s self-publishing arm—is the very best place to sell books directly to your readers.

IngramSpark, on the other hand, is the independent, digital equivalent of a book distributor. It doesn’t have its own storefront, though you can create a special link to sell directly to readers. Instead, it sends your book listings out to thousands of booksellers around the world.

Wholesale Discount

Bookstores and libraries will not stock your book if they have to pay its list price; they’d quickly go out of business. Instead, publishers typically offer a wholesale discount to encourage these sales.

Books published to Amazon directly through KDP are sold to individuals, not wholesalers, so no discount is required. These individual Amazon orders are sold at list price (outside of any deals or promotions that may be going on).

But if you’re distributing your book beyond Amazon, you’ll have the option to set a wholesale discount. If you distribute with IngramSpark and you’re based in the US, you are required to select a wholesale discount between 40 and 55%.

Returnability

If you’re selling books directly through KDP, returnability is not a decision you have to make. These books are eligible for Amazon Prime, which offers free shipping and returns to subscribers. 

If you’re distributing your book with IngramSpark, however, you’ll be asked to choose between three return settings:

• No: IngramSpark will not accept returns from booksellers for your title.
• Yes – Deliver: IngramSpark will accept returns from booksellers, and returned books of any condition will be sent to you at your cost. (Not available for UK and AU markets.)
• Yes – Destroy: IngramSpark will accept returns from booksellers, and your books will be destroyed.

Most bookstores won’t order copies they can’t return, so making your book returnable with IngramSpark will at least make bookstore placement possible.  

ISBN Ownership

ISBN stands for International Standard Book Number. This is a unique 13-digit number that bookstores, libraries, online retailers, and others use to identify your book. ISBN records contain information about book publishers, formats, editions, and other details.

You will need a different ISBN for every format of your book, including paperback, ebook, hardcover, and/or audiobook.

The Best Publishing Strategy for Your Goals

While some of these decisions can be changed later (like wholesale discount and returnability), others aren’t as easily adjusted (like distribution platform and ISBN). That’s why it’s so important to understand which publishing strategy makes the most sense for your goals.

To simplify your options, these are the publishing options we recommend for authors focused on each type of target buyer.

Goal: Selling to Libraries and Booksellers

Getting your book stocked on physical shelves is an uphill battle, to put it mildly—but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. If you’re committed to selling to bookstores and libraries, these publishing options probably make the most sense for you.

KDP vs. IngramSpark: While distributing your book to Amazon through KDP is great for individual sales, IngramSpark offers more options for making your book appealing to retailers. That’s why we recommend using IngramSpark rather than KDP for your expanded distribution.

Wholesale Discount: Different bookstores will have different requirements, but the most attractive discount for retailers is 55% (the highest available in the US).

Returnability: As you know, bookstores require their books to be returnable. Between the two options, “Yes – Destroy” will cost you the least. You’re still refunding the cost of the book, but at least you’re not paying for shipping on books that may be in too poor a condition to sell anyway.

ISBN: We consider it best practice for independent authors to purchase their own ISBNs, and so does IngramSpark. (IngramSpark does offer free ISBNs, but this can “limit where you can print and distribute your book.”) Plus, owning your ISBN makes you the publisher on record, which means you can use your own imprint.

Goal: Selling Direct to Readers

Because of the difficulty getting physical books into stores, many independent authors choose to focus entirely on online sales. If you’re one of them, these are the options that make the most sense for you.

KDP vs. IngramSpark: KDP is still king in terms of individual sales, but expanded distribution through IngramSpark still makes sense even if you’re not targeting bookstores. (That’s why we believe most authors should use both KDP and IngramSpark.) Because KDP’s distribution is more limited than IngramSpark’s, IngramSpark distribution makes your book available to more non-Amazon customers.

Wholesale Discount: If you distribute your book through IngramSpark, you’ll be required to select a wholesale discount. Since you’re courting individuals, not retailers, you can feel free to set the lowest available discount (40%) so you can make a higher royalty on those sales.

Returnability: Since you’re not trying to entice stores to purchase your book, there’s no reason to make your books returnable. Simply select “No” for this option and move on with your publishing journey. 

ISBN: We strongly recommend all authors own their ISBNs, even if you only plan to sell your book directly to Amazon. Yes, you can technically use a free ISBN from KDP or IngramSpark—but you can’t use it outside of the distribution platform that provided it. , And if your distribution plans change, you can’t just swap out ISBNs on a published book—you’d have to publish a whole new version.

Other Publishing Considerations

These are just a few of the many publishing decisions you’ll make along the way to publishing your book. We’ve gone over decisions that can be combined into one of two distinct publishing strategies, but there are many others that you’ll need to consider individually for yourself.

Luckily, we’ve written extensively about many of these decisions. If you have questions, the resources below may hold the answers:

• “Should I Do a KDP Preorder for My Book?”
• “Unlocking the Power of KDP Keywords and Categories”
• “Do I Really Need to Publish an Ebook?”
• “Do I Have to Copyright My Book?”
• “Copyright Q&A for Independent Authors: Protecting Your Rights”

You’ve worked hard on your book, and you owe it to yourself to take the time to understand your publishing options and how they affect you. If you need help making these decisions, we offer a free, no-pressure author consultation with our lead editor. To learn more about the publishing strategy that aligns with your unique goals, schedule your free consultation by clicking the button below.