Hello, I wonder if anyone can guide me... I am a cookery book writer. I have in the past published several cookery books but mainly in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. I have recently move to UK and would like to bring this books into the market here. I can get the books shipped into UK, no problems but where do I start from there??? is there an agent I can contact to have them sold in bookshops or places like whsmith etc. Can anyone help???Also, does anyone know how much commision do the vendors take? Many thanks. Amy

Hi, Amy

As far as selling the books is concerned, there's nothing to stop you getting the books listed on Amazon, which is very easy. As far as actual bookshops are concerned there is the option of do-it-yourself, driving round with a car-boot-full of books trying to get to see the few bookshop managers who still do their own buying. But the chains - W H Smith, Tesco, even book specialists like Waterstone's and Borders - buy almost everything centrally, and I've no idea if their head office would see you or not. The book market is ferociously competitive in the UK, and heavily weighted against small publishers, which is effectively what you're trying to be. I would suggest that if you want to try to sell nationally beyond Amazon and perhaps your own website, you need a distributor. They hold stocks of the book, provide sales representation and do the distribution.

The Society of Authors has a wealth of information about being your own publisher, and ought to be able to help:

http://www.societyofauthors.net/index.php4

One last thought: the cookery book market is ferociously competitive here, and I don't know - it's a very specialised area of publishing - how specifically tailored books need to be to the UK market, in terms of weights, measures, ingredients and so on. You might want to consider instead the possibility of trying to get your work published here in UK editions by a UK publisher. If you want to do that, the Society of Authors is probably best placed to advise you about how to approach publishers with a proposal like that.

Emma

Hi, Amy, I love cookery books, and believe there are a few bookshops in the UK devoted to them - try Googling it.

Firstly, do your books have ISBN numbers? You'll need them if you want to sell copies through the bookshops, place them in libraries, and/or sell on Amazon. They can be obtained through nielsen bookdata http://www.nielsenbookdata.co.uk/ who will then list the books in their 'new publications' catalogue.

Bookshops expect a 40% discount on retail price, and it will be up to you to do the legwork to persuade the independent bookshops to stock them. As for the major chains, you may be able to persuade your local branches to stock them if you offer to do a booksigning and arrange publicity with the local papers and the local radio. Unfortunately bookshops will usually only stock a couple of copies so it is rarely a cost effective option.

Far more cost effective to sell them yourself at farmers markets, food, and craft fairs, and keep the 40%. Try making contacts with organic fresh food suppliers - especially the ones who sell door to door or via farm shops, to see if they will add your book to their catalogue for a cut of the royalties.

Good luck,

NaomiM

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One more detail. If someone orders your book through a bookshop quoting the ISBN number, the request will be passed to the wholesaler, Bertrams Books Ltd., who will contact your publisher (ie. the person or company in who's name the ISBN number is registered). Assuming that is you, you will need to negotiate a discount with Bertrams - around 20-30%. The bookshop will add a 'finders fee' to the retail price, since they have not negotiated a discount with you. Amazon add £1.99.

One final thought, if your cookery books plugs a gap in the UK market, you might consider sending copies around the publishers to see if any are interested.

I agree it would be worth approiaching agents/ publishers to see if there's any interest. There are a couple of publishers that specialise in cookbooks, and agents as well.

You're extremely unlikely to be able to get it into WHSMith's yourself though, they're notoriously difficult to deal with, and want high discounts.

What Emma says about distributors is absolutely right, but the major ones will only look at you if you have a high enough turnover, so probably not a good option at this stage.

Good luck!

Jess is right that the big distributors won't be interested, but there are smaller ones who are set up to deal with small publishers.

Another place to look for advice might be the Independent Publishers Guild, which has some members who are very small indeed:

http://www.ipg.uk.com/

Under 'getting published' there's tons of info about everything from ISBNs to lists of distributors.

Emma

Are there distributors who handle individuals/v. small publishers Emma?

Also it's not clear whether your books are self-published babysofea, which might make a difference.

Jess, this is the IPG's list. I notice some of them are IPG members offering distribution services to other indie publishers, which is a clever way of subsidising what they need themselves, I guess, and I would imagine they would be quite welcoming to the smaller bretheren:

http://www.ipg.uk.com/cgi-bin/scribe?showinfo=pp022

The IPG seem to be going from strength to strength - is Long Barn a member?

Emma

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Cor, the IPG site is good - I haven't looked at it for a while, and there's an awful lot more on it, real nuts-and-bolts stuff about publishing and self-publishing.

Thanks, I couldn't find that on the site [dimwit]

We're not, but I think we should look into it.

Many moons ago, when I was publishing, my boss was very active with them, but I think they've got much bigger and bouncier since then, with the backlash against the big corporate publishers and booksellers. One of the charms is there's such a range of members, of hugely varying sizes and with all sorts of weird expertises, all mucking in together. They also do things like group promotions and collective stands at the book fairs, and so on, so you can have a home at Frankfurt without the prohibitive costs.

Emma

Yes, that is good, but it's still very expensive to go to the fairs, even with them. Hmm. Will investigate potential benefits for us.

Yes, I know, Frankfurt costs a fortune however you do it.

Emma