Barnes and Noble a no go, Book signing prep is hardish

Simply, if you sell your book on Amazon directly through Amazon KDP, Amazon’s publishing company, you don’t get to do a book signing at Barnes and Noble. This is because B & N deem Amazon competition, and a direct threat. But, if you publish your book through companies such as Ingram Spark, or Draft2Digital, B & N will be ok with holding a book signing for you. Which is confusing, because these services also publish to Amazon. But they also publish your novel to other large retailers, making your book available or usable in their system. I don’t know how this all works, I feel like I’m drooling at a math equation.

So I’m on a quest to get Rye’s Rite, and my future novels, potentially published through Ingram Spark, so that I can have a wider distribution. However, I have received an email from Ingram this week, saying my novel isn’t approved, but not specifically telling me why. It's all a big hullabaloo, but I’m trying to navigate this crazy self-publishing landscape. And hopefully one day, a traditional publisher will swoop in and adopt me as their child, stuffing me with various amounts of love and care. Besides looking into wider distribution, I have also been preparing for book signings, and festivals.

On May 11th, from 1- 4pm, my friend Erin and I will be having a book signing at Pioneer Book in Provo, Utah. You should all come, I would love to meet you. We have also applied for Orem Fest, but an approval is yet to be seen. I am just now discovering the amount of prep one needs for a book signing. Before you even sell author copies of your book, you should have a banner advertising your novel, and then a paper board introducing you as an author. On top of that, free goodies like bookmarks advertising you, are also essential. It's the classic phrase come to life, you gotta spend money, to make money. And just finding the right print shop for the banner, paperboard, and bookmarks takes a lot of time. Most of this week after everyone is asleep, I’m up making images and orders for all these advertising whatchamacallits. I feel bad not working on my new novel, Ghost Boyd, but I know I need to do everything possible to advertise myself, and my books. And so I will continue on this path, and thankfully most of the prep for the book signing and other events is nearly done. Thank goodness for exit doors. 

Sincerely,

Kurt Jensen