Before approaching any bookshop we recommend all authors to read the fantastic guide produced by The Society of Authors for independent writers that is full of tips and hints on how best to get your book into a high street bookshop. It can be read and downloaded in the link below.

The Society of Authors Guide – Tips from High Street Booksellers

We are experienced booksellers who have a great understanding of what sells well in our shops. If we do not decide to stock your book, please do not take it as a personal rejection. Over ten thousand books are published every month in the UK and our shops have limited shelf space to accommodate titles. We make decisions based on what we believe is best for the shop and our customers.

The below is guidance for self-published and independent authors. If you are local and are published through a mainstream publisher with UK distribution, then please feel free to contact us or have your publisher rep contact us so that we can order directly from the distributors.

We define self-publishing as the publication of a book or text the author themselves has financed at their own cost (even if the author has sourced external funding to help), without the involvement of an established or mainstream publisher. This includes authors who access print companies offering complete book publishing services.

We also include hybrid self-publishing where authors are not required to pay upfront costs but collaborate with a publisher to share the cost of publishing as a book sells. This normally comes in the form of print-on-demand offered by companies such as Lulu or Amazon owned self-publishing services such as Amazon Publishing, Createspace or Independently published.

We consider nonfiction books on topics of local interest by authors who live closely to one of our shops. This can include:

• History
• Natural History
• Travel Guides
• Railway & Motoring
• Historical Biographies

• Children’s Picture Books
• Poetry
• Self-help
• Autobiography/memoir
• Fiction

Quality – The product quality is very important, especially in a competing market where larger publishers are increasingly producing higher calibre books. Customers do judge books by the cover, the paper quality, and the page layout.

Price – In our experience the most commonly overlooked aspect of self-publishing is the cost. Personal costs/profits and bookshop percentages will need to be added to the retail price of the book. If this makes the retail price of the book significantly higher than those around it, then customers will not purchase the book.

SOR – We take local books on a Sale or Return basis, meaning that we request an invoice once the books have sold. We generally take a couple of books to begin with to see how they sell. If we see a demand, we will stock in larger quantities. The Society of Authors document gives an example invoice for those who have not produced one before.

Marketing – It is our experience that books sell better when an author helps with the marketing, this could come in the form of word-of-mouth, social media, or an article in local newspapers.

If you believe you have a book that fits our criteria then please email us at iloveit@rossiterbooks.co.uk. Due to the high volume of emails we receive across all the shops, it is not always possible to respond to everyone. If we are interested in the book we will contact you back.

Please do not visit one of our shops and try to leave a copy of your book for the owners or managers to look at. Our staff have been instructed not to accept unsolicited books over the counter.