Option 1: Distributing your book yourself

Get in touch with the buyer at the bookstore (or chain bookstore) and convince them to order some of your books -- a cover layout and the back cover blurb, as well as some marketing info on why your book will sell, are necessary. When they're printed, you send out the books to them and wait. If they don't send them back after a few months, then you invoice them for the books you've sent them and try to get them to reorder.

Pros: it's direct and personal, there's no percentage to a distributor. Cons: it's too direct and personal -- many people don't want to sell their own stuff; there's some serious time and money consuming administrative details in contacting and maintaining these accounts; collections are a big hassle. It's the last one that was the deciding factor for me -- a bill from a distributor will get paid before a bill from an individual, because the store needs the distributor's deliveries more. I could see this working for a dedicated person who isn't queasy about bugging people for money and has a print run in the hundreds.

Hamish pipes in: I went from shop to shop. That was a pleasant surprise: the bookstores were encouraging and interested (quite the opposite of the publishers... weird). I started with Book City (501 Bloor Street West, 961-4496) and Pages (256 Queen West, 598-1447). And because my book had queer overtones, I also went to This Ain’t the Rosedale Library (483 Church Street, 929-9912) and Glad Day (598 Yonge St., Suite A, 961-4161). They sold them on consignment, meaning that if they sell, I get sixty percent (barely more than cost). If they don’t sell, well I get bubkes.

I’d also approached !ndigo back when I first got the books back from the printer. Luckily, a friend slipped me the e-mail address of the owner, and she was sympathetic. Unfortunately, the machinery under her took four months to follow through on her commitment. What tipped the scales, I believe, was my getting a distributor. The giant chains don’t have the means to set up sales accounts for individual authors. Still, even with a distributor, Chapters did no more than put me in their catalogue. I guess they weren’t willing to risk stocking an independently-produced Canadian book that they’re free to return for a refund. (Oy!) This strange practice is called "returns" and is unique to the publishing industry. So even if your book makes it into stores, it can still come back. Not only that, they tear the cover off (so you might want to make a request about that to your distributor).

Option 2: A small, alternative distro such as Marginal Books

They focus on underground and non-mainstream titles and independent bookstores -- check out http://www.marginalbook.com/distro.htm. If they take you on, your book is written up in their catalog, which they send out to bookstores. Some bookstores receive an in-person visit from Esther, the Marginal rep, who walks them through the catalog. Bookstores order from them, and then Marginal issues a cheque to you. On a $20 book, the bookstore takes $8 and Marginal takes $3.

Pros: they'll take you seriously, even as a self-publisher, and give you a bit of credibility; the books they carry are pretty cool -- you'll be in good company. Cons: While they have a few reps elsewhere (Vancouver, Prairies, Halifax, Newfoundland) they sell mostly to urban bookstores so while your book can potentally go all over the world, it'll probably sell best in Southern Ontario.

Hamish adds: I eventually approached Marginal Distribution to do the bookstore work for me. They liked the book and took it on. That’s been a load off -- though don’t mistake distributors for publicists; they’re just there to make the books available if stores want to order them from their catalogue.

Option 3: Considering a bigger distributor

If you figure you'll be selling more than 1000 copies of your book, you'll want to consider a bigger distributor such as General. The thing is, they don't take on titles that don't have sales representation. And generally, sales agencies won't take you on unless you've published a few books already. Literary Press Group, for instance, represent a big chunk of the non-corporate titles (Companies like HarperCollins have an inhouse distro and rep team.) and I didn't qualify for their services. But Insomniac, a mid-sized indie publisher that does close to 20 books a year, did. I was able to reach an agreement with them to allow me to piggyback on their distribution deal with LPG and General. That way, I appeared in the Insomniac catalogue that the reps took with them out to bookstores. I asked Mike at Insomniac if he'd consider doing it with other publishers, and he said sure -- similarly, I'll bet other established indie presses would at least consider this, too.

Pros: The LPG reps are young and enthusiastic unsleazy salesfolk who have built up relationships with the booksellers; General has quite a bit of leverage in collecting on the books they send out. Cons: General has a lot of incidental charges; you'll have to form an alliance with a like-minded indie press.