Why Can’t I Find Axtara at My Bookstore? The Answer to This Common Question! Plus Other News · 7:32pm September 27th
Hey readers! Max here with another dollop of Friday news. But also with an answer to a question I keep getting asked, which you’ve probably already gathered from the title of the post.
See, I get this question a lot. In fact, recently when someone learned what I did, they looked at me and said ‘Well, that book sounds like a lot of fun, why doesn’t Deseret Book carry it?’ (that being a local book store chain)
To which I replied, having long since tired of this question, with “You know what, I don’t know. Let me use my CEO position as owner of Deseret Book to call them directly and ask.”
Now, I don’t own Deseret Book. I have no affiliation with them. My response was clearly sarcastic. Which this individual gathered, but then gave me a ‘Well you don’t have to be all sarcastic about it.’
To which I countered “Don’t I?” and then pointed out that I had no control over what book a store stocked on its shelves, but that they, the customer did.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled that people enjoy Axtara and Shadow of an Empire and my other books enough to want them to be on store shelves. But the fact is I don’t have any control over that. Unless I’ve got millions of dollars to hand over to bookstores to purchase shelf space—which I do not possess—the only way for one of my books to get on a bookshelf somewhere is by one of the three following methods:
- The book sells so many copies that it becomes a sensation, and the store stocks it because “everyone is.”
- The owner of the bookstore reads the book, likes it, and believes others will purchase it from them.
- Customers ask the bookstore to stock it.
I highlight that last one because in essence every person who has asked me “Well why doesn’t _____ stock it?” is asking the wrong guy. That comment should be directed toward the staff at the bookstore, who control such things. That is who they need to ask to get results.
I will point out with no small amount of sarcastic amusement that at least one of these people in recent memory, when I’ve pointed that out to them, has stated that they wouldn’t want to bother the bookseller … But this means that they consider such a question a bother, yet still made the conscious decision to bother me about it, which only raises further questions.
But the truth of the matter is, nowhere in that list above is an option that says “I tell the bookstore to stock the book” (which comment I get surprisingly frequently, as if bookstores react to the arrival of an author like a visit from the royal family).
I don’t have that power. The only authors that do are already so famous the bookstore has their works anyway.
You know who does have that power though? The customer. The ones that the bookstore wants to please, because that’s the crowd that purchases books.
Want to see Axtara or Shadow of an Empire at your local bookstore? Go ask them to stock it! That’s it. Don’t ask me to exert my “will” across several states to somehow shove my book onto shelves of your local shop. Believe me, if I was the one making that decision, don’t you think it would be there already? It’s not as if I’m simply waiting for someone from upstate to say “Wow, I’d really like that book to be in my local shop!” at which point I call the seller and say “They said the magic words! You can stock it now!”
It doesn’t work like that. The magic words have to be said to invite the book in, but I’m not the vampire.
Okay, maybe that was stretching things too far. Point is, I’m thrilled that so many of you have reached out through various means to ask me why my books aren’t in your local bookshop, but you’re asking the wrong guy. Don’t ask me, I’ve done my part! Your local shop can order as many copies as they’d like. But you need to tell them that. The customer. The one influencing demand.
If I contact a bookseller, it’s like a door-to-door salesman showing up and asking “Hey, wanna see a vacuum?” If a reader contacts a bookstore, it’s someone walking into a shop and saying “I need a vacuum, do you have this model?”
Again, love the energy. It’s just directed at the wrong person. I can’t do squat, but you can.
And with that, let’s move on to other news.
I am a great Author! Worship me! Who dares not stock my books? I shall smite thee with my mighty pen!