Author Submission FAQ

Author Submission Guidelines

If you are an author interested in having Drury Lane Books carry your book, please read the following details before sending us your book information. Please note that we are unable to accommodate unscheduled walk-in visits or telephone inquiries. We get MANY requests and while we do review each one, we may not respond to all, especially during the busy summer season.

DOES DRURY LANE BOOKS ACCEPT UNSOLICITED REVIEW COPIES?

Due to volume, we are no longer accepting unsolicited review copies. If you mailed us a copy before reading this, it will be considered a free review copy. After we review it, we will put it on the shelves to see if it sells, or donate it locally. 

I WROTE A BOOK, WILL YOU CARRY IT?

Not automatically. We are looking for:

  • Author Connectivity: Authors/Illustrators living in the immediate area are in the most demand as far as self-published books go. 
  • Regional Relevance: Authors who are writing about our area, books with a local theme sell well.
  • High Quality: Professionally edited and formatted, free of errors, priced according to type and genre, well-written, and with an attractive cover and quality paper. For children’s books, high quality illustrations are also a must. 
  • Aligns with Our Collection: We carefully curate each section of our store, making space for new popular books and keeping room for our favorites, classics, and books we think are important. We are always looking for diverse voices and unique stories.

This means we have to be picky, so we thank you for your understanding if we decide not to carry your book!

HOW DO I SUBMIT MY BOOK INFORMATION TO DRURY LANE BOOKS? 

If your book fits the above description, submit new book information to: Store@DruryLaneBooks.com

Include the following details in your email:

  1. Where you reside & your contact information
  2. Book title & ISBN
  3. Book distributor 
  4. A writing sample or excerpt
  5. Target Audience
  6. Promotional Plan for Cook County, Minnesota

IF YOU DECIDE TO CARRY A BOOK, HOW SHOULD I SEND YOU COPIES?

If your book has been published through a traditional publisher and we feel we have the appropriate audience for it we will order it through them or one of our regular distributors (Ingram, Itasca, University of Chicago) on standard industry terms (40-50% wholesale discount).  If your book is self-published and not available through our regular distributors, or does not have the standard terms, we may decide to purchase from you directly.  We generally start with 2-5 copies, depending on the genre, and reorder as they sell. At this time we don’t do consignment.  Send people to indie bookstores to buy your book!  Register your book with IndieBound.org so it can be listed on our website and other indie bookstore sites. Whenever you do publicity for your book, list all local outlets. People buying your book from us means we can buy more copies from you.

MAY I HAVE AN AUTHOR EVENT OR BOOK SIGNING AT YOUR STORE?

Drury Lane publishes our AUTHOR TALKS and MEET & GREET event schedule in the spring every year. This schedule is curated by our team. If we have interest in hosting you as an author we will contact you directly.

 

WHAT ARE YOUR TIPS FOR PROMOTING AND SELLING MY BOOK SUCCESSFULLY?

Publishing your book is a big, exciting step. We have some very basic tips for success, engagement and impact:

  1. We strongly encourage all authors to have their book professionally edited. Spelling and grammar are important, but a professional editor should also work with you on flow, pacing, clarity, redundancy, etc. 
  2. Think about hiring a professional graphic designer to do your cover and layout–given a choice the public is much more likely to pick up a book that looks good. Formatting errors disrupt the flow of a story (for fiction) or can cause real confusion about events (for nonfiction). The book title and your name should be printed on the spine.
  3. Buy an ISBN and have a barcode printed on the back cover. It’s difficult to restock your book if we can’t easily track it in our system.
  4. Go with an affordable publishing company so you can price your book reasonably within its genre. Look at other published books in the same genre, trim, and bulk to get an idea of common pricing and price your book accordingly. You don’t necessarily need to print the price on the back cover but be consistent; your book should sell for the same price through every outlet.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SELF-PUBLISHING AND TRADITIONAL PUBLISHING?

IngramSpark, Beaver’s Pond Press, Createspace, and many other companies are used by authors to format, sometimes edit, print, and distribute the book. The author pays for all services when self publishing. Self publishing companies will print any book. This is different from traditional publishing, which generally requires a book agent, and rounds of submission (and rejection)  to publishers, and many edits with an editor. The author doesn't pay for the publishing, but instead receives an advance to write, publicity support, a contract and royalties on sales.Thank you for contacting us about your book. If you are an author interested in having Drury Lane Books carry your book, please read the following details before sending us your book information. Please note that we are unable to accommodate unscheduled walk-in visits or telephone inquiries.