Bookselling Infrastructure for Authors

Every author wants their book to be a success

In the previous sessions, we explored some of the highly recommended strategies to distinguish your book from over 5,000 other books published every day. These are all decisions every author needs to make regarding how to build on their book’s success.
It will pay off for you as an author to put in the time to build a strong foundation first because from there, you can use a variety of tactics to increase book sales. Although a strategy may seem dull, building the right infrastructure from the beginning can have a huge impact.

How are you handling visibility and marketing?

Keep on increasing your visibility and reach a larger audience by investing the time in laying a solid foundation and putting these strategies into practice, which will ultimately boost the success of their book.

Today we will look at Bookselling Infrastructure for Authors

(i) Understand your break even point

To understand your break even point, you need to calculate the total costs of producing your book and compare it to the revenue generated from sales. This will help you determine how many units you need to sell in order to cover your costs and start making a profit.

How much did it cost you to publish your book? These costs include reviews, editing, proofreading, cover design, layout design, ISBN, copyright, printing, book launch etc. If you for instance, spent Kes 100,000 to publish and print your book and Kes 50,000 to do a launch, then your total cost will be Kes 150,000.

Assuming you are selling the book for Kes 1,000 and from pricing calculator (handled in a different session) your author’s margin is Kes 300 – it means you need to sell 500 copies of your book to break even and start realising any monetary profits.

It is important to note that for Christian Authors, the profitability of your book:

(a) Is foundationally not just monetary but the fulfillment of the assignment God gave you – which sometimes has nothing to do with direct monetary gains.

(b) Is foundationally about the impact you cause in the lives of the people assigned to you.

Sometimes the readers attached to us may not have the financial means to benefit us, if that’s your case, ask the Lord to reveal to you who the customer (‘payer’) of your book is to benefit the user (reader). This can come in the form of grants, donations, partnerships etc. God has a strategy for each one of us.

(ii) Set Up a Simple POS

It’s important for you to keep simple records that will not require your full time attention or a degree in accounting.

(a) Banking Infrastructure

You can decide that you will set aside a different bank account or mobile wallet account to track the sales you make from your book. This way, at the end of the year or your accounting period, you can review and determine how much money came through the sale of your books.

Most banks will allow an additional account (+1 number) to your existing bank account. Use this as the simplest form of you tracking your book sales.

(b) Mobile Wallet Infrastructure

In Kenya, you can set up Mpesa Till Number or Pay bill in a few simple steps. I recommend Kopokopo as they allow you to also transact safely online. You can also set up Pochi La Biashara directly with Safaricom Mpesa.

For those in Kenya, you can check out kopokopo and for those out of Kenya, check an equivalent service provision in your country.

Disclaimer: This is not an advert for Kopokopo and we receive no commissions for any sign ups. It is a recommendation based on our usage of the platform for over a decade.

(c) Simple Online Accounting Softwares

Accounting software is a way for businesses to track income and expenses, send invoices, track sales and create reports. Some accounting software can also help track much more than just one item.

I recommend Wave available globally (but now no longer available in Africa). However, it’s replacement Zoho One is a good place to start. You will be able to professionally set up and run your book and programs.

Disclaimer: This is not an advert for Wave or Zoho One and we receive no commissions for any sign ups. It is a recommendation based on our usage of the WAVE platform for over a decade.

(d) The Good, Old Manual Record Keeping
If you cannot keep up with the online record-keeping recommendations, you can on the minimum use manual receipt books – either generic ones from the supermarket or stationery stores or custom print for your book. At the end of the day, you want to be able to track how your book is doing so you can make decisions to advance it. Without data, you cannot decide accurately.

Even if you give the book out for free, you still need to keep records of your book give aways and track how the book is doing.

(iii) Have a Revolving Fund
A healthy cash flow is what allows any business to grow, and the rate of cash flow is just as crucial as its overall existence. For authors, a consistent cash flow guarantees that you can pay for re-printing runs and make investments in expansion possibilities as and when they happen. Without enough money coming in, an author might find it difficult to pay its printing bills that might lead to lost sales.

I recommend that authors set aside a different account to collect sales of their books. An author should draw out only what we refer to as Authors Margin and retain the printing cost in the account to allow for re-print.

Example: If a Church came across your book and decided to use 200 of them for their upcoming event in a week’s time, do you have the funds ready to make the print-run and deliver?

While this is a discipline that’s hard to master, it is the most ideal for authors to enable continuity of their books.

We shall continue with this conversation in the next article.