The publishing industry has never been more accessible. There are more opportunities and avenues for authors to achieve publication and distribution than ever before. There are more books being written than at any other time in history. There are ever-growing diverse and creative methods through which publishers can bring works to market. And there are more books being published every year across the globe.

Print book sales in the United States have shown great consistency over the last 18 years, with peaks in 2008/2009 (recession) and 2020/2021 (COVID-19),^[1] suggesting that when all else goes wrong, people buy and read books.

On top of that, audiobooks have proven to be more than just a fad, posting a tremendous increase in production, sales, and market share every year for the last decade.^[2]

Overall, the global book publishing industry market exceeds $130 billion dollars as of 2023.^[3]

However, accessibility is a double-edged sword. Traditional built-in vetting stages, such as agents and editors, can be bypassed. And books that would in the past have been rejected are able to reach the most popular retail marketplaces with little to no oversight, flooding the market with an overabundance of subpar products. The net result is an increased challenge for publishers and authors to garner exposure, gain a foothold, build a readership, and establish self-sustaining momentum.

Thus, in addition to the retail sales model through traditional brick-and-mortar and online book retailers, publishers and authors should consider how they can position their books for other nontraditional sales revenue models. Here are five models to consider:

1. Bulk Order Sales

A bulk order sale is the bulk purchase or licensing of a book by a single person or organization, directly from the publisher or author, to use at their discretion. Bulk order sales should be nonrefundable and are generally offered at a significant discount. As the quantity of books in a single or licensing access increases, the price decreases.

To effectively perform bulk order sales, an author or publisher should first consider what formats the book can effectively be offered in quantity (i.e., print, e-book, and/or audiobook.) The cost of production and fulfillment should then be determined at quantities of 50 or more. In general, when considering bulk order sales for print versions of the book, quantities of 500 or more will be more cost-effective with an offset print run than via print-on-demand.

Once you have determined your quantity pricing model, the next step is to identify potential bulk order buyers. The easiest way to determine this is to begin by identifying the target readers of the book. The second step is to determine what types of businesses or organizations share a relationship with or want to reach the same target readers. Step three is to establish how the potential bulk order buyer could effectively use your book to connect with the target readers and the benefits of doing so.

As an example, let’s say you’ve published a book on how to generate bulk order sales for your books. Any author that has access to their books at or close to cost is a target reader for this book. This can be self-published authors, authors from small publishing houses, and authors who have worked with a hybrid or author services publisher. As the publisher and/or author of this book, consider what companies share the same target readers as clients or potential clients and how they would benefit from having access to your book at a steep discount. How about hybrid publishers and author services publishers? Either type of company can use your book to build client relations and/or build a list of potential clients. “Sign up with us and receive a free copy of …”, “Subscribe to our newsletter and receive a free digital copy of …” For the right quantity, you can even offer to let the bulk buyer personalize a print run with a “gifted to you by …” message in the front. The bulk buyers can then give the book away at conventions. The book becomes a very inexpensive marketing tool for them that is far more effective than a business card or coffee mug or key chain.

2. Sponsorship Sales

A sponsorship sale is the bulk purchase or licensing of your book by one or more people/groups for the purpose of gifting to a third party. Sponsorship sales are very similar to bulk order sales in the sense that you need to determine a quantity to price structure for your book, ensure effective production and fulfillment models are in place, and identify target readers. In the case of sponsorship sales, the target readers are the recipients or sponsees.

Where it differs from direct bulk order sales is that you will want to identify target sponsees (those who will receive the book) and target sponsors (those who will pay for the book, which are distinct from one another). Additionally, you will need to determine sponsorship package levels.

Looking at the sponsor/sponsee model, you need to ask yourselves several questions. First, who would benefit from receiving the books for free? Second, who would benefit from exposure to the recipients of the free books? Answering who will benefit from exposure to the recipients of the free books and how they will benefit from that exposure will help mold the sponsorship packages and help determine who to pitch as sponsors.

Let’s say you have a great middle grade fantasy book that would make a fun summer read. You can go to the PTA at five local schools and ask them if they want to give it as a gift to the graduating fifth grader on their way to junior high. In total, you have a request for 450 copies. You then approach the local realtors, the local insurance agents, and the local orthodontists who all spend thousands of dollars a year on local junk mail advertisements that mostly get thrown away. The pitch is simple: “For X amount of money, we will let you be the exclusive (enter profession here) sponsor to the graduating fifth graders in the area. Your company name/URL/address will be put on the ‘Gifted to You By’ page, giving you great exposure to 450 local families. You spend thousands on mailers every year that get thrown away. People don’t throw books away.”

This sponsorship model can be used on a local, regional, and national level for books of almost any genre.

Most bulk order sales and sponsorship sales take time to set up. With this in mind, a great consideration to make is fostering relationships with buyer or sponsors that will have an ongoing demand for the book. That makes the time spent fostering the relationship even more valuable.

3. Alternative Retail Sales

Alternative retail sales are sales through retail outlets that are not what we think of as traditional bookstores. Having your book in wholesale distribution or able to be bulk fulfilled is very helpful for these types of opportunities. Alternative retail outlets can be places like REI, Whole Foods, or Sprouts that carry a small, very specific selection of books. It can be outlets that generally do not carry books like toy stores, wine stores, yoga studios, gyms, salons, etc.

Whether the book is a great fit for the existing patrons, expand their product offers, pairs well will other products, or will draw people in, the pitch has to be about why it is a good fit for the outlets.

Great fiction is excellent to pitch to wine stores, especially if you can make a connection to setting or circumstance. Anything related to mind, body, spirit or self-care is a great pitch for yoga studios. Anything related to the outdoors is a great pitch for REI.

What you will often find is that you can pitch places in the alternative on bulk order sales or to simply carry the book as an alternative retail outlet.

4. Affiliate Sales

An affiliate sale is simply when a third party earns a commission (a piece of the book sale) for marketing directly to their audience. If you have published a book of humorous travel essays, you can offer an affiliate sales opportunity to top travel bloggers if they mention the book on their blog and post about it on their social channels. If you’ve published a children’s picture book, you can create affiliate partnerships with mommy bloggers. There are ideal affiliate partners for almost every type of book.

There are a lot of affiliate programs to choose from. Some of the key considerations are ease of use; simple onboarding process for the affiliate; automated payout process; and that the program works with all levels of affiliate partners.

The ideal affiliate partners have a pre-existing built-in audience that consists of your target readers.

5. Gift Box Sales

Odds are you have either sent or received a gift box at some point. The global gift retail market value was $62 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a steady rate of 2% annually.^[4]

Many gift boxes can include books. And those books are determined by the theme of the gift box. In essence, a gift box sale is simply a bulk order sale to a gift box company.

The process is fairly direct. Contact a gift box company. Get a feel for the many themed boxes they offer. Pitch titles book(s) accordingly. New moms get a parenting book or children’s picture book, or a self-care book. Get well soon gift boxes are great for escape fiction.

They say there is a gift box for nearly any occasion, which means there is a gift box for nearly every type of book.

Be Creative

The growth in the publishing industry necessitates that authors and publishers develop new and creative ways to reach their target audience and generate revenue. One or more of these models might be just the right answer for your next title.

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