Self-publishing sometimes means you need to do a little more digging than if you were published traditionally. Here’s how to find out places where your book is available across the world if you published through IngramSpark.
Reasons why this is helpful:
👉🏾Some customers want to support smaller bookstores
👉🏾Use the information to market your book and encourage sales
👉🏾Find out what big box stores picked up your book (Ex. Walmart, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, Target, etc.)
Aside from Amazon, there are a couple of places where you’ll be able to purchase your books.
Check out the list below:
This is one of the most comprehensive websites that I've found to locate your book. Visit the site, and put your author name, your ISBN, or the title of the book. Each format of the book will be listed separately (hardback versus the paperback). When you click one of your books, it's going to pull up each of the stores where your book is available to purchase online. This isn't necessarily saying that the book is available inside the store if you were to go walk into that store, but you'll get an idea of where you get them purchased online. These stores are also able to order the book to be delivered to the store.
The list is in alphabetical order but since Amazon has the cheapest shipping price and has the “Best Value” tag, it'll usually come up first. Toggle and check the other areas and locations on the list. As you click on each of them, it'll actually take you to the site directly to explore and view it at that store. Additionally, it'll also show you the condition of the book. It’s cool to see where across the world your book is available! Plus, this could be a good way to see what languages you might want to have your book translated into as stores in other countries will populate as well. For example, if you see the store’s located in Spain, this is possibly a good option to get your book translated in Spanish.
Another resource is Walmart. On the search engine, enter your author name and you can see that the book is available just as if someone were to purchase something else from Walmart. When your book is distributed through Ingram Spark or Amazon, the stores do not notify you that they’ve picked up. So, it's up to you to go in and search for it.
One that picks up books pretty often if you have great keywords, descriptions, cover, is Barnes and Noble. You can also add your book directly to Barnes and Noble through their publishing platform. I prefer to just do it through IngramSpark, so that it's one less step. If it's available in a paperback and hardcover format there will be two links just like Walmart.
IndieBound and Bookshop
If you want to find your books in smaller bookstores that are locally owned, one option is IndieBound and the other is Bookshop.
Bookshop
Simply visit the two sites and search for your book. As listed above, the links will show where the book is available to be purchased online, and which stores can order a copy to be shipped to the store. If you want to click on a store, you can also see their location which could help you form a relationship with them locally. Let them know you’re the author and if they are in your area, and consider doing a book signing or some other event. Also consider asking how they decide to stock books in stores.
On the flip side, IndieBound has similar features but there is an additional one worth pointing out. When clicking to purchase the book, one thing I noticed is it might ask you to allow your location. It does that because it's going to give you a few local bookstore options that will either order the book or have your book in stock. For example, if you wanted to purchase it specifically from one of the nearby bookstores, you would just click on it and then purchase it that way. So that is also another way to form a relationship with these smaller bookstores as well to send them some extra business.
Hopefully this information has been helpful. Go do some digging to see who's purchased your book. Comment below: where is your book available?
Comments