0If you’re traditionally published, please always feel free to drop us an email and let us know that you’d got a new book out – make sure you include the ISBN, the name of the publisher and a short paragraph about the book – you really don’t need to write an essay, a paragraph is great! Our email address is info@kenilworthbooks.co.uk
If you’re self-published, or with a very small press, and your book isn’t easily available through traditional routes, we’re still happy to take a look, but please do have a look first at this useful guide from our Trade Association. Getting your Book into a High Street Bookshop. It will tell you how you can best approach us, how to help promote your book and generally support your own work.
For self-published authors, here are some general pointers:
- Make an arrangement to come by and show us your book; please don’t just turn up – we may well have to turn you away and ask you to come back another time. The shop is often very busy, and we very often have work experience students with us, so we rarely have time to stop serving – so making an arrangement means that you will get more of our time. Email us on info@kenilworthbooks.co.uk. Please don’t drop us a note on social media – we’ll only ask you to email us anyway!
- Know how much your book retails for. We won’t suggest a price for your book for you – you need to do this – take a look at other books in a similar genre and format, and ensure that your cover price is comparable.
- What is your trade discount? Do the finances and decide how much you’re willing to sell your book to a bookshop for. With local self-published books, we’re always willing to take a lower than traditional trade discount to support local authors, but we don’t know how much you paid to have it printed, or what return you need to make on it. So you need to work that out before you present the book to us.
- Do your research. Is your book right for our shop? We don’t have the space to accept everything, and many books are better promoted through other routes, for example if it is a non-fiction book about niche research. So take a look around our shop and others and think about where it would fit among what we have.