In my last post I mentioned that my next novel will be published in January 2014 instead of September 2013, but I didn’t say why. The reason has to do with the requirements of my publisher’s book reps. So what’s a book rep, anyway?

Book reps are people/companies that sell a publisher’s new listings to book shops in specific areas. Ward Wood’s new reps will be focusing primarily on the UK, Ireland and France. Here’s how they do it:

    * They have established relationships with both the large book chains and the smaller independent shops and use those relationships to promote the books and convince the shops to stock them. The reps will also approach shops which already know about and stock Ward Wood books, even if they don’t know the reps themselves.

    * The chief tool for this is the AI — Author’s Information Sheet. The AI sheet is very important and gives the cover, the distributor and wholesaler details and other key details about the book. It also gives the blurb, reviewer quotes, and biographical details. Anything that can make a book relevant to a particular book shop in a particular location is also given to the rep as a ‘lead’.

    *  The rep will also send out a sheet for each author explaining if she/he is willing to do book store events, and what sort of events those might be. I know that for me, those events can take on all sorts of different forms. Some can be simply being present to chat and sign. Others can be full-fledged power point presentations about the books and, if appropriate, the Cambodian work that I do. 

    * It’s also good to note that a publisher can only get a book rep if they are linked with a well-known distributor such as Central Books.  They then can ask their distributor to hook them up with a repping sevice. There needs to be a good relationship in place between the distributor and the reps in order to make it all work.

    As it is, Ward Wood has always done all of this themselves, and they will continue to be a strong participant in this part of the process. But having this sort of help will increase the distribution while also allowing Ward Wood to concentrate on other aspects of the business. After all, there are only so many hours in a day and so much that one or two people can do themselves. 

     Now, to get all this repping done of course takes time…6 to 7 months lead time is needed to prepare all the materials for every book, and books are batched together to be repped at the same time on a specific schedule. So, Out of the Ruins will be in the shops in January instead of September. It’s hard to wait, but worth it to know that my new baby is likely to be appearing in even more shops than ever before. And for my Cambodian novels, the addition of France is a big plus. That is a market I have been eager to get into. After all, the relationship between Cambodia and France is a long and still powerful one. But I won’t go into that now. That is the stuff that the yet-to-be-written third novel of the trilogy is made of.

    And now for my request to you. I am compiling a list of independent bookshops throughout the UK, Ireland and France which I think might be interested in stocking  Out of the Ruins, either because of the subject matter, setting, or because of connections I already have among readers like you. If you have a local bookshop that I could add to the list, could you please let me know in the comments below, giving their name and location or website? And who knows, I might even be heading your way then, to read and talk and share a glass of wine or two.