So, You've Written a Book...

Welcome to the November 2025 edition of our Substack column: So, You Wanna Be an Author. Each month, our goal is to help guide the next generation of authors, whether you are starting out with a dream or you’ve written a dozen books. Feel free to join our weekly chat, as we cheer each other on and answer some of your more specific questions. In the meantime, let’s get started with this month’s topic:

How do you get your beloved book baby on a bookstore’s shelf?

That is the goal, right? You’ve done the grueling, painstaking work of putting thoughts to paper and now the world should see the results. But how do you introduce the world to your book? Do you stick to trunk sales and social media? Will the book magically appear in bookstores around the world? Is it time for a vacation to let the next idea sink in and develop? I mean, surely, the hardest part was the writing? Right?

Unfortunately, getting your book “out there” can be even more difficult. Marketing is an ever-evolving world and we will dive into more details, on this subject, in the coming months. We’ll approach it from all sides, authors/bookstores/publishers/etc. For this month, in honor of Small Business Saturday (November 29th!) we are going to help guide you on approaching indie bookstores and try to help you understand why getting your book into a store can seem like an impossible task.

Readers will find this interesting too, especially as they head into the holiday shopping season.