A Book’s Visibility Defined

Introduction

As part of our value addition for the Award Program nominations, we offer ecommerce platform for nominees’ books. In as much as only 10 authors will be listed as awardees, we want to ensure every person submitting benefits from belonging in the Authors Program. Giving all authors visibility is at the core of why we are here.

We believe that our ecommerce exposure will provide a valuable opportunity for nominees to showcase their work and reach a wider audience. By promoting all of the nominees’ books, we hope to encourage a culture of support and collaboration within the publishing community, and help deserving authors gain recognition for their hard work and talent.

The visibility of a book is the extent to which it is known and recognised by its intended audience. The book has to be available on different platforms so that your readers can easily access it. It is important for African Christian authors and publishers to consider strategies to increase a book’s visibility in order to reach a wider audience and achieve success in the competitive publishing/book industry.

Step 1: Setting Up the Access

The foundational step for visibility is setting up your book in as many ecommerce platforms as possible. This cannot be overstated. This not only increases the visibility of the book, but also provides convenience for potential readers who may prefer to purchase from a specific platform of preference. The platforms include e-commerce, traditional bookshops, Church resource centres, retailers, resellers, supermarkets etc.

Do it yourself or explore the alternative

You can set up directly or appoint CLC Kenya/ACABA to represent you in these platforms, which will save you time and effort in managing multiple accounts. Our desire is to offer authors support to ensure their book projects continue in consideration that authors have their full time jobs, businesses, ministries or vocations that demand their attention. By partnering with CLC Kenya/ACABA, you can focus on your other responsibilities while we handle the visibility of your book on various platforms. Our team of experts will work tirelessly to ensure that your book is accessible by its intended audience and achieves the success it deserves.

You still have to do the marketing to drive traffic to the different platforms (topic for another day).

Exploring the alternative

CLC Kenya/ACABA provides the following platforms for its authors:

kenyaclc.org
africanauthors.net
Jumia Kenya (+upcoming Jumia Uganda)
Nuria Bookshop
Amazon Kindle (+upcoming paperback)
African Book Hub
All African Bookshop by
The Writers Guild of Kenya
Carmella Bookshop
+Upcoming Books For My Soul
+Exploring & upcoming AfricanBooks.com
+Others as we enter into new partnerships from time to time

Benefits to You, the Author and Your Book(s)?

1. Setting up in different ecommerce platforms gives your book visibility and can lead to increased book sales and revenue for you.
2. Having a super-host helps you to focus on your vocation as we handle logistics for your book project.
3. You do not have to handle multiple accounts and sign contracts with different platforms – which can be time consuming.
4. Selling alongside fellow African Christian authors contributes to building a force and movement that advocates for readership of local books as opposed to imported books.
5. Additionally, increased exposure can lead to opportunities for speaking engagements or book signings.

Disadvantage to You, the Author and Your Book(s)?
As is with all products with middle men in the distribution channel, there are lower profits for the author and less control over the distribution process. By appointing CLC Kenya/ACABA to be your super host and you get representation in all the above mentioned ecommerce platforms, there is a 40% off the RRP.

The question then becomes: Why 40% to CLC Kenya/ACABA? We extend 20-35% to other booksellers/ecommerce platforms and retains 5-20% for administrative fees. This caters for the team that set ups your book, monitors sales in these platforms, sends reports and consolidates your account so you get all the information in one place.

Step Two: What are the Fees Charged by the Platforms?

Different platforms have varying fees and commission rates, in the CLC Kenya/ACABA form, we have listed for you what we pay out to the different platforms and we retain as administrative fee. We do this for (i) transparency and (ii) if you, the author, wishes to set up directly with these platforms.

With a standard 40% fee by CLC Kenya/ACABA, accounting and reporting become easy as you know what to expect for any sale, without the need for explanations.

Example: If your book is at RRP Kes 1,000 you would receive Kes 600 from CLC Kenya for every sale made. So, if you sell on Jumia Kenya, where the fee is 25% directly, you will be charged 40%. This caters for all the logistics, including receiving the order, processing it, printing the paperwork, packaging and delivering to Jumia to deliver to the customer.

Step Three: When Do You Get Paid?

Once you sign the Distribution & Visibility Form (https://africanauthors.net/authors-books-distribution-visibility/), you will have appointed CLC Kenya/ACABA to be your super-host. You will be asked to send 10 copies of your books to CLC Kenya/ACABA. The books are on consignment stock i.e. sale on return so you get paid once the books are sold.

CLC Kenya/ACABA team shall reconcile the payments from all the platforms and bookshops, and receive the payments on your behalf. You can access the reports and request for withdrawals at your discretion any time in the month or year. At the end of every year, if you have not made a withdrawal yet, we will do for you and make the payment for that year.

Step Four: You Are Interested, How Do You Proceed?

(i) Your book has to be already published and in print format (If you have not printed, through CLC Kenya or other printers, you can access Print On Demand (POD) services. Find out more about POD and the cost calculator at https://kenyaclc.org/print-on-demand-a4-calculator/

(ii) You have to be an ACABA nominee in any year – the current or previous years.

(iii) If you have not professionally set the price for your book, watch out for the training on this in the course of the Authors Program.

(iv) Fill in the Distribution & Visibility form (https://africanauthors.net/authors-books-distribution-visibility/) and you deliver 10 copies to ACABA/CLC Kenya. The agreement will be effected immediately by setting up on the areas you have ticked yes. The team will send you all the links from the different platforms for you to share with your networks and drive traffic towards sales.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

SELLING & MARKETING QUERIES

How Do I Know How My Books Are Selling?

You will receive an author’s sales dashboard on the ACABA website where you can login and view the progress of your book sales. The dashboard will provide you with real-time updates on the number of copies sold, revenue generated, and other important metrics to help you track the success of your book. There will be an email prompt of sales made every month, if you do not receive any prompt, it means there was no sale for that month.

Additionally, you can also reach out to ACABA's authors support team in your individual group for any questions or concerns regarding your book sales.

Do You Market My Books for Me?

Yes, we continually market your book through the structured marketing strategies in place for CLC Kenya/ACABA. However, the larger burden to market the book remains with you. From our experience, the book does not work if the author is not working because readers buy the author before they buy the book.

If you are struggling with a marketing strategy and would like us to hold you accountable, please look out for marketing tips in ACABA year one and a comprehensive Authors Training & Empowerment program in ACABA year two. Your book project’s success is the fulfilment of our mission and mandate:

"To honour God by making Christian literature & resources available & accessible to all nations, so that people may come to faith and maturity in our Lord Jesus Christ."

Do the Individual Reports Include Details of Customers

No. The reports include the details of the stores where your book is selling, quantities sold, total sales, and total due to the author.

Sharing customer data is not in the pipleline. We are following the examples of Jumia and Amazon. They do not include the data of the customers who have purchased from their sites. This means that even us, we do get the name of the purchaser for packaging purposes. But no contacts.

Nuria shares most details of the purchaser but we do not share that further.

Part of data protection policies of late, is to not disclose data to third parties.

PAYMENT QUERIES

When Do I Get Paid?

I See the Convenience and Why We Pay Service Fee of 40%. Is This Inclusive of VAT?

Yes. We are working to have ACABA VAT exempt towards reducing the final price.
We are in progress. You can keep our plans in prayers so we can better advance African Christian authorship.

Can I Use My Payment to Settle Other Services by CLC Kenya/ACABA?

Yes.

The process is the same. You make a withdrawal but with a note for it to be utilised to settle an invoice of your choice.

SET-UP QUERIES

What If I Don't Want CLC Kenya/ACABA to represent me in all platforms?

The form has option to tick yes or no and we will be bound to that. The only non-optional platforms are CLC Kenya and ACABA as these two are the Authors Program hosts.

You can tick as many or as few options/platforms without any penalties to you. The goal is for you to be hosted by as many platfroms as possible to increase the possibilities of your book reaching as many readers.

What if I Have Set Up in These Platforms, Can CLC Kenya/ACABA Set Up Also?

Yes. Many ecommerce platforms allow multi-vending, which means that multiple sellers can use the same platform to sell similar products. CLC Kenya/ACABA can set up on these platforms alongside other sellers, giving your book even more exposure to potential readers.

It's always a good idea to explore all available options and utilise as many platforms as possible to increase your book's visibility and reach, as well as provide readers with more options for purchasing your book. We have taken precaution to follow the terms and conditions of each platform to avoid any penalties or account suspensions.

Do the Authors Have Visibility Too?

Yes.

Firstly, with CLC Kenya/ACABA, you have your individual web page where we put all information concerning you as an author and your book(s). It is the same web page that your family, friends, fans and readers leave you a review/comment for you to get encouragement, feedback and testimonials that you can use when we start to learn about email marketing as a bookselling strategy (remember to send out the link to as many people as you can).

Secondly, many platforms are now offering a section to know the author. For example, Amazon has the Authors Central. Exerpt from Amazon: Joining Amazon Author Central lets you take control of your Author Profile on Amazon, Audible, and in Kindle books. Claim your Author Page to get started and start connecting with readers. This allows you to share your biography, photos, blog posts, and videos with your readers and keep them updated on your latest releases and events.

Is an Author able to Post or Input Data in the Platform eg Make Offers and Change Prices?

No. Not directly.

The concept of having CLC Kenya/ACABA as a super-host is so that you do not have the burden to do such tasks. You can still work with the team assigned to you if you want to make offers and change prices.

From time to time, we will also do joint marketing efforts, for instance, do a promotion for the entire CLC Kenya/ACABA store in a specified platform and have all the authors represented participate. in it. This will not only increase visibility for the store but also help in cross-selling books across different genres and authors.

Additionally, collaborating with other stores within the CLC Kenya/ACABA network can also be explored to expand our reach and customer base.

Won't Multi-vending Confuse Buyers from the e-commerce Platforms?

No. A customer buys a product directly via a link. That link is set up and tied to a specific vendor.
When the sale comes through, only the link-owner will be notified to supply the product.
The report then goes to that vendors seller dashboard and payment is made to that vendor.

There are several website plugins ie Dokan Multi Vendor, Woo-Commerce Multi Vendor etc that have powerful capabilities. And offcourse, the more advanced platforms like Jumia and Amazon, have their own sophisticated plugins to serve the same purpose.

A good example would be, Omo Detergent being sold by several supermatkets, estate shops, roadside kiosks.

On searching for Purpose Driven Book by Rick Warren on Jumia Kenya, you get 31 products from different vendors. CLC Kenya is just one of the 31 vendors. If you buy from a CLC set up link, the sale will be CLC's.
Our burden is to make sure that our link is well marketed for this book.
This can include social media marketing, email marketing, boosting the link on Jumia or offering a better price or promo offer.

Amazon: "Other sellers on Amazon" shows options to purchase the same product that is sold by multiple sellers. Other sellers may offer a different price, other shipping options, etc. If you sell a private label product, it's important to always keep an eye out for other sellers attempting to sell it.