Selling books from the trunk of your car

Jan 17 2010

I’ve always had a crazy dream of self-publishing a book, filling the trunk of my car with as many cases of my books that will fit, and drive around the country selling them to anyone and everyone. I’d hit as many craft fairs and county fairs as I could. Heck, I’d even set up shop in parking lots.

The logistics of a dream like this would be a nightmare – not to mention bankrolling the drive around the country. It’d be hard to break even. But the thought is still nice because it embodies the independent spirit that many of us have pulsating through our veins.

You don’t need to sell books from the trunk of your car to get people to buy. Last August, I wrote a post about a man who walks his neighborhood streets selling his self-published book by hand Author sells self-published book one copy at a time. For those who are too shy to do that, you set up your book with a POD publisher, get your website/blog going and use the internet as a virtual street to hawk your wares.

Ebooks are making the process of selling even easier for indie authors. Publish your ebook on sites like Smashwords or Feedbooks and readers can download your book in any number of formats. Or you can offer your ebook as a download on your own website. The big advantage ebooks have over POD books (for example) is the ‘instant gratification’ factor. No waiting for shipping and delivery. Your new book is ready to read within seconds.

Digital content delivery is becoming the new car trunk. The out-of-pocket costs to the author are minimal and with ebooks rapidly rising in popularity, it’s a gold rush out there. You probably won’t make the bestseller list with these distribution methods, but I doubt the goal of any indie author is to be on the bestseller list (at least, that’s not my goal).

By the way, if anyone out there really is selling self-published books from the trunk of your car, leave a comment or contact me, I’d love to hear from you.

What other unique and creative methods are you using to get your book into the hands of readers?

2 Responses

I have seen a lot recently about ebooks for Kindle’s and the like. Personally I think it removes the fun out of reading, but seems to be a massively growing market and if you are writing a book you would want to have an ebook version as well.
Tom | Build That List´s last blog ..RSS Subscribers VS Email List | Which Is Better?

Tom | Build That List 1/17/2010 2:45 pm
Hi Brad, Christopher Paolini of Eragon fame sold his books this way – well, his parents drove the car but they sold from the trunk. As did, Stephen Covey I think (that may be the wrong self-help guru though!)

Also, did you see anyone can now publish on the Amazon Kindle so self-published authors have another sales outlet.
Brilliant! It is an expanding world (and if you sold out of your car, we Aussies wouldn’t get to buy it!)

Thanks, Joanna
Joanna Penn´s last blog ..Boost Creativity: Let Your Mind Lie Fallow

Joanna Penn 1/18/2010 4:43 am