Getting into libraries and bookstores
Most self-published authors write this channel off early. What is true is narrower: it has an entry procedure, that procedure has little to do with how good your book is, and almost nobody follows it.
They order from a catalog, not from you
This is the fact that reorganizes everything else.
A bookstore buyer and a library acquisitions librarian both work inside a system they already use — a wholesale catalog, an ordering platform, a purchase-order workflow their accounting department already approved. When they want your book, they type the ISBN into that system and order it the way they order everything else.
If your book is not in that system, the answer is no before anyone reads your email — not because they dislike independent books, but because buying from you personally means a new supplier record, a separate invoice, a check written by hand, and no way to return unsold stock.
So the single most useful thing you can do is boring: distribute your print edition through a channel these buyers already order from. That means printing with a service that feeds the wholesale supply chain rather than only selling on one retailer's own site. It matters more than any pitch you will ever write. See Where to print: KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu and B&N Press for how the printers differ on this.
The two terms that get books rejected
Once you are in the catalog, your listing carries two commercial settings, and they are where most self-published titles fail.
The trade discount. Retailers buy at a discount off the list price, not at the price the reader pays, and there is a conventional level the trade treats as normal. Set yours below it and your book earns the store less than every other book on the shelf. Nobody argues with you about it; they just order something else.
Returnability. Bookstores buy on the understanding that unsold copies can go back. A non-returnable title asks a store to carry all the risk on an unknown author, and that is the single most common reason a store says no. Making a title returnable costs you something real — you can be charged for copies that come back — so it is a genuine decision, not a box to tick. But if you want shelf space rather than special orders, it is usually the decision that unlocks it.
Both settings live in your distribution account, and both can be checked by the buyer in seconds. Find out the conventional levels in your market before you set them.
The metadata is the pitch
They are searching a catalog, not browsing your website. What the catalog holds is what they know about your book: title, subtitle, contributor, ISBN, format, price, publication date, page count, category and description.
If the category is wrong, your book does not appear when the buyer searches their section. If the description is a blurb written for a fan, it tells a librarian nothing about whether the book belongs in their collection.
Metadata: the fields that decide who ever sees your book covers the fields in detail. For this channel, treat the catalog record as the only thing the buyer will ever see.
In the tools. A catalog listing can be checked in seconds, so the book has to hold up at that size: a cover that reads as a thumbnail, a professionally set interior, the barcode area reserved and the spine measured from the real page count. Mockups and the ebook cover come out of the same design. Start a book → · about the tools
What makes a book plausible to them
- A cover and interior that do not announce themselves. Buyers see thousands of books. The tells are well known — see Mistakes that mark a book as self-published.
- An ISBN you own, with your own imprint on the record rather than a retailer's. Do you need your own ISBN? explains why that matters here more than anywhere else.
- A price that is normal for the format. A paperback priced like a textbook stops the conversation. Pricing a self-published book sets out the floor and the ceiling.
- Reviews from somewhere other than your friends. Trade reviews carry the most weight with librarians; ordinary reader reviews at least show the book exists.
- A local connection. For an independent store, "I live four streets away and my book is set here" is a real argument. It is the one advantage you have over a catalog full of national titles.
Approaching a store directly
Do it, and expect to be turned down often.
Send a short, polite email to the person who actually buys — named on the store's website, usually not a general inbox. Attach or link a one-page sheet: cover image, title, ISBN, format, page count, price, discount and returns status, a two-sentence description, one line about you, and where the book can be ordered from. Offer an event: a reading or signing gives the store a reason to stock copies.
Then accept the arithmetic. Most stores will say no or not reply at all, and a few will say yes. It is a numbers channel, and it does not reward pestering.
Libraries work differently
Libraries buy print and ebooks, usually through the ordering platforms their system already runs on, and their decisions go through selectors, budgets and committees rather than a single buyer's taste. Local relevance and reader demand both count — many systems take purchase suggestions from cardholders, and a suggestion from a reader is worth more than a pitch from an author.
Two things are specific to this channel. Large print sells disproportionately well to libraries, and most independent authors never produce an edition — see The large print edition most authors never make. And your ebook has to be available through library systems at all, which an exclusive retail arrangement generally prevents; Going wide, or staying exclusive covers that fork.
Donating a copy to your local branch is a reasonable, friendly thing to do. It is not a strategy, and a donated book is not a sale.
Make yours
Everything here is built into the tools, and they are free to use: name your book, bring your manuscript or your artwork, and work as long as you like. You only pay when you want the files without the preview watermark.
Next: Selling books directly to readers · More: Metadata: the fields that decide who ever sees your book · Where to print: KDP, IngramSpark, Lulu and B&N Press · The large print edition most authors never make