As I spread the Indie message around, I often find myself in a bit of a pickle. Do I wholeheartedly support the Indie spirit? Yes! So that includes “Indie authors”, right? Ah! Here is where the toes dip into the brine.

As a store that has positioned itself as a “community living room”, we work (tirelessly, I assure you) to be of the people, for the people. What better way to do that than to support those in the community that are striving to join the world of literary legitimacy: the local, self-published author?

As a private citizen, I can understand the desire to see one’s work in print. As a celebrant of the small, the personal, in art and in life, I say “Go! Spread your wings! Sing out your message!” As the Event Coordinator for an Indie store, I have to balance my individual, soft-hearted impulses with the cold hard fact that, if we don’t make enough money to keep the doors open, we can’t spread any message, or support any spirit, at all.

I struggle to explain these realities to the many self-published authors I hear from each month. For a book from a ‘traditional’ publishing house bought directly or from a wholesaler, we receive a 35-42% margin. For an independent bookstore, on a good month, this represents about what we require to break even.

A self-published author purchases their book from the self-publisher at a price that is typically what a similar book, ‘traditionally’ published, would retail for. That means, in order to make a profit on that book, they then need to sell it to the store at a price that would be above average retail, and then, to make a profit, the store would have to sell it at an even higher price. A $10 dollar paperback mystery is then available to the end-customer for about $18. If the store were to purchase directly from the self-publisher, the end price would be even higher.

When I discourage people from self-publishing, it is not snobbery, it is simple survival.

What often happens, when we host a self-published author for a reading, is that they end up selling the book to the store at their cost (making no profit at all), and the store then needs to decide if we will sell it at a lower margin (and then not make enough to cover our own costs…the publicity and marketing for the event the staffing, the overhead…), or price it at a typical margin, and not sell it at all.

So, we do not see a profit from these events, but just hope that we get what it takes for us to not see a loss. In contrast, the self-publishing businesses make a profit on every book that they sell to the author.

Despite this, the self-published author sees the publisher as their friend, as they have facilitated the process that allows the author to see their work, in print, in their hands. The store is often seen, if not as an enemy, as unsupportive of the self-published, “Indie” author.

So, what do you think? Are we keepin’ it real as an Indie? If you’re a bookseller, how do YOU walk this tightrope? What happens when “One Love” meets the electric bill? Will art and commerce ever make easy bedfellows? (Okay, I know I skirted the discussion of the quality of many self-published works, but we’ll leave that for another day.)

Beth