I received the following inquiry and thought I’d share the question and my answer. If anyone has other ideas for this author, please comment and I’ll be sure to pass your ideas on. Here’s the inquiry I received and my answer is below:

In the section “Inventing Your Strategy” you write that one strategy, as an example, may be finding a distributor of products related to your book (in your piece you write about a boating distributor). I have just published my third book on vegetarian cooking and I am interested in finding a distributor of vegetarian products and related information. What steps should I take to interest a distributor?

My answer:
Health food stores like Wild Oats, spas, clinics, restaurants, new age stores and alternative book stores would be good places to start. Most stores buy from a distributor so you need to find who sells product to these outlets and then approach them. The best way is to ask the local store how they buy books. You can also go to local outlets and see if they will let you do a book signing and/or carry your book without going through the distributor.

I also recommend looking into Wal Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco etc. This is harder, but not a bad idea to submit in the off-chance they are looking for a book like yours.

One of our first members on Authors On The Net has a book on animal communication. She spends time doing book signings in merchantile tack shops and pet stores. She started out in her local community and plans to expand from there. She is published by Hay House, new age spiritual type publisher, but most of the book promotion is her responsibility.

By the way, looking into publishers like Hay House and other speciality publishers is a good idea too. Once you find the publishers that fit your book, you need to go to their website and see how to submit your book inquiry. Not following the publisher’s submission process is a kiss of death so following their procedures is critical.

The two important keys are knowing your target audience and building your platform. The better your platform, the better your chances of getting distribution. Your platform is your credibility and your ability to draw a crowd. This is ultimately what Authors On The Net is trying to teach.

If you would like to arrange a time to speak live, we can go over more of this in detail. We have a kit that helps you build your platform and we can discuss the best way for you to move forward.

Thank you and good luck.

To read the section on inventing your strategy click here. Membership is required, which is free if you are not a member already.