I reckon she did everything right. When Ingrid Magnusson Rading felt she’d be getting nowhere with traditional publishers for her new children’s book Den hemlighetsfulla grottan, she decided to self-publish, just as she did with her coffee table book on Haverdal.
That one not only looked totally professional, but sold extremely well. They had to reprint within a week or two, and are now on the fourth edition.
So I knew that Ingrid and her husband would do a decent job with a children’s novel as well. I was shown the ‘prototype’ a few weeks before publication day, and could not find anything wrong with it. I don’t mean this badly, but it looked like every other children’s book. I know there is nothing wrong with self-published books looking a little homemade, but if they blend in, so much the better.
In the weeks leading up to publication day Ingrid also sent press releases out and contacted the local newspapers, several of which interviewed her and published a good spread about Ingrid and her book. She talked to local people who might sell it, like the bookshop in town and the local campsite, and the small local supermarket.
The photo below shows you what it’s like when you have not only sweets by the checkout, but books. Piles and piles of them (and this isn’t the only pile). And people are buying. The Resident IT Consultant went for milk one day, and the customer next to him bought a copy.
That’s how it can work if you do your research on how to, and make sure you chat to the right people.
I asked Ingrid the other day how the sales figures were doing. I believe the only reason they are not already reprinting the book, three weeks in, is that this time they brazened it out and ordered more to begin with.