One of the most important things about publishing a book at any level–traditional, hybrid, small press, indie press, or self-publishing–is understanding book distribution.
It’s the sort-of-secret denominator in book publishing that no one really talks about, but defines many aspects of how readers find and buy books. Because it matters most in the final stages of a book launching into the world, it’s often relegated as unimportant until something goes wrong, or a bookstore tells an author they’ll have to sell books on consignment (or even not at all). So, let’s look at the factors that are determined by a book distributor as part of a book’s life.
Book distributors control things like:
whether or not your book is displayed in a bookstore
whether or not you can sell books at an event (and at what percentage point to the bookstore)
what websites will have the book available for sale
whether your book will be on industry galley or ARC (advanced reader copies) sites like Netgalley or Edelweiss
whether your book will be presented at seasonal sales conferences to booksellers, librarians, and other industry professionals
sales representatives’ access to the book to schmooze booksellers, large (often, celebrity) book clubs, and librarians for things like Indie Next Pick and Jenna’s Book Club
whether your book will be available at regional sales conferences like SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Association), PNBA (Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association), MIBA (Midwest Independent Booksellers Association), and others
the speed and delivery at which preorders go out, ARCs go out, and bookstores get copies ahead of events
whether a book can be returned or remaindered (impacting book sales and therefore royalties)
whether a book is printed on demand or stocked (often dependent on sales and publisher)
and sometimes, even how much control you have over metadata (what information Amazon or retailers like Barnes & Noble display about your book to potential readers).
It’s the factor that often doesn’t come up during the giddy glee of signing a book contract, but one that ultimately decides the lifespan of a book.
Now, if you’re publishing with a traditional “Big Four” publisher (Macmillan, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, or Penguin Random House) distribution is taken care of for you. But if you’re publishing anywhere else on the publisher’s spectrum, it’s important to ask your publisher about distribution.
Types of Book Distributors:
There are several distributors in the US, the biggest one being Ingram, alongside others including Baker & Taylor, Independent Publishers Group, University of Chicago Distribution, Consortium, and other smaller press distributors like Asterism. Here is a larger list for reference. Earlier this year in March, Small Press Distribution which cornered the market on distributing hundreds of small and independent publishers abruptly shuttered, leaving publishers and authors in a lurch. While this isn’t a “normal” facet of publishing, it’s one reason why it’s so important to understand the distribution of your book.
The Power of Ingram:
Because Ingram pretty much rules the roost, they have the cornerstone on the distribution market. They are the distributor that bookstores most often order through, or have an account with, and they are the sole distributor populating Bookshop.org. So, if your book is not available through Ingram (which many other distribution companies work with in order to make books available), then it won’t be listed on Bookshop.org, and it may not be available to order through your favorite neighborhood independent bookstore.
So, what should you ask your publisher before you sign a contract, or what is actually important for an author to know about their distribution? I don’t want to send you into the weeds of worry.
Who distributes your books and how often are you in contact with them?
Do they work with all major retailers?
How far in advance do bookstores need to order my book for an event?
What is the percentage offered to bookstores?
Will the book be available through the distributor’s sales catalog or submitted before the seasonal catalog goes live?
Other resources on book distribution:
📚Jane Friedman, “The Value of Book Distribution Is Often Misunderstood by Authors”
QUESTION: Which part of the book publishing logistics makes you the most nervous?
About Cassie:
Cassie Mannes Murray is the founder and director of Pine State Publicity. A former literary agent with an MFA in creative nonfiction, Cassie has worked across publishing including literary magazines, book design, and as a bookseller. You can find more advice & thoughts on her Substack: pinestatepublicity.substack.com, and she is on Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, and Bluesky under @cassmannes.
by Brittany Pinney, Chief Customer Officer for Shimmr
"Every book has its reader—AI is simply making those connections possible at scale."
Every author pours their heart into creating stories and insights that deserve to be read. Yet in today's saturated market, with millions of books competing for attention, ensuring a book reaches the readers who would love it most has become increasingly challenging. The traditional approach of genre-based marketing often falls short, missing the deeper connections that make readers fall in love with books.
With increasingly growing numbers of titles being published every day, adding to the hundreds of millions already out there, it can feel impossible for any single book to get noticed.
But there's hope.
The emergence of AI in book marketing is transforming how books find their readers. It's not about replacing human creativity—it's about understanding the deep psychology of what makes readers connect with books. In this article, we'll explore how AI is breaking down traditional marketing barriers, why genre-based targeting is limiting your book's potential, and most importantly, how these new technologies can help your books find their true audience.
Beyond Genre Labels
Think about it: when was the last time you chose a book solely because it was "science fiction" or "historical fiction"? Readers are complex beings with layered interests that transcend simple genre classifications. Your dystopian novel might resonate deeply with environmental activists. Your romance might speak to people wrestling with cultural identity. Your business book might captivate psychology students.
Many books transcend their genre and captivate readers due to their rich, universal themes. Take To Kill a Mockingbird, for instance. While it's categorized as Southern Gothic fiction, its exploration of racism, injustice, and the loss of innocence resonates deeply with readers across cultures and generations. Its enduring popularity stems from its ability to provoke thought and spark conversations about timeless issues.
Similarly, The Song of Ice and Fire may be classified as high fantasy, but its complex characters, political intrigue, and moral dilemmas appeal to fans of thrillers, historical fiction, and family dramas. The Last Days of Night delves into the world of innovation and ambition, raising ethical questions that go beyond the historical context. Even graphic novels like Maus can transcend their format, using a unique visual style to tell deeply personal stories about trauma and family. These examples demonstrate how powerful storytelling, regardless of genre, can connect with readers on a profound level.
The AI Revolution in Book Discovery
This is where AI is revolutionizing how books find their readers. Through advanced analysis of what we call ‘BookDNA’—the themes, emotions, cultural touchpoints, and psychological appeals within your work—AI can now identify and reach readers based on the actual substance of your book, not just its shelf category.
Through our proprietary BookDNA technology, that powers Shimmr’s Automated Advertising, we're uncovering fascinating insights about effective book advertising:
Visual storytelling that captures emotional moments consistently outperforms traditional book marketing approaches. For fiction, this means bringing pivotal scenes to life. For non-fiction, it's about translating complex ideas into visual metaphors that stop readers' mid-scroll. These visuals don't just advertise books—they tell their stories. We find that this type of advertising brings +6x more interest to your book than other digital advertising for books.
The sweet spot for building momentum? Books need around 50 authentic reviews (with a 4.2+ star rating) before advertising can truly amplify their reach. This "social proof" allows you to make the most of advertising spend. At lower levels of reviews, advertising goals should be focused on building awareness of your name and your great works.
Market dynamics matter: The US market, with its large and diverse reader base, allows AI systems to learn and optimize faster, often helping books find their true audience more effectively than in smaller markets. While the US market may be more competitive, its size and variety actually make it easier for your book to find its perfect readers.
Price positioning plays a crucial role: Books priced between £10-20 show the best return on investment for digital advertising, striking the perfect balance between profit margins and readers' willingness to take a chance on a new discovery.
What This Means for Writers
The implications for authors are exciting. AI-powered marketing means:
Your book can reach readers based on its unique essence, not just its genre label
Visual storytelling can bring your narrative to life in ways that resonate with potential readers
Marketing efforts can be continuously optimized based on real reader response
Previously overlooked books can find new life by connecting with their ideal audiences
Your work can find readers across different platforms, with social media platforms like Meta showing particularly strong results for book discovery
The Future of Book Discovery
We're entering an era where every book truly has the potential to find its readers. AI isn't replacing human creativity—it's amplifying it, ensuring that the stories and insights we create as writers can reach the readers who will value them most.
For writers, this means focusing on what we do best—creating compelling works—while knowing that technology can help bridge the gap between our books and the readers waiting to discover them. It's not about replacing traditional marketing wisdom; it's about enhancing it with tools that can understand and communicate the deeper value of our work.
Making AI Work for Your Book Marketing
Here are some practical steps to leverage these insights:
Think beyond genre when describing your work to determine how broad your audience might be. What are the emotional threads, philosophical questions, or cultural insights that make your book unique? Your book may have bigger opportunities than you thought!
Build your review base thoughtfully—aim for that critical mass of 50+ authentic reviews before scaling up marketing efforts. Consider reaching out to your existing readers and engaging with book communities.
Explore how your book's core themes could be captured visually. What scenes or metaphors might stop a potential reader mid-scroll? Think about the emotional core of your work and how it might translate into engaging visuals. Is this something you want to try?
Don't limit your audience targeting to obvious demographic categories. Your readers might come from unexpected places, united by shared interests or values rather than traditional marketing segments.
Price your book strategically, considering both your readers' expectations and the sweet spot for digital marketing effectiveness.
The publishing landscape is evolving, and AI is becoming a powerful ally for writers who want their work to find its true audience. In a world where hundreds of millions of books compete for attention, these tools are making it possible for each unique voice to reach the readers who need to hear it. The future of book discovery isn't about algorithms replacing human judgment—it's about technology helping great stories find their way to the readers who will treasure them.
What unexpected audiences might your book resonate with beyond its primary genre? Share your thoughts in the comments—we'd love to hear about surprising connections you've discovered between readers and books.
About Britt
Britt is responsible for optimising our customers’ experience with Shimmr, ensuring we answer their needs and evolving our product with features and innovations to benefit their use of our automated advertising. After serving as Vice President of Sales, Strategy & Insights in marketing research, Britt was Chief Revenue Officer, leading sales, marketing, design, content and customer success, and President of the US operations, in an AI-driven brand management business. Affectionately nick-named ‘Fireball’, and lighting up your day, Britt is always focused on listening to what people need from software products and striving to deliver fulfilling solutions. She keeps Shimmr pre-occupied with delivering value and return on investment.
About Shimmr
Shimmr works primarily with Publishers and Author Services businesses. They can work directly with more established authors who meet the below criteria. Otherwise, they will work with your publisher or service rep:
Criteria for starting with Shimmr:
5 title minimum
Monthly subscription with 4-month initial payment
Requirements for books: 50+ reviews and 4.0+ star rating (ensures book is advertising ready)
Authors needing support to get to these requirements can use our Partners Network: https://shimmr.ai/partners
The summer of 2019 was supposed to be one of quiet work. My husband and I had books to make. But then a toilet clogged which led to a plumbing discovery. Ten days later I had a backhoe digging up my street, three rooms with flood cuts and no flooring, a hole jackhammered in the concrete subfloor of my office, and three creative professional workspaces relocated to incredibly inconvenient locations in our house. All because the sewer line between our house and the street needed to be replaced.
Instead of focused work we had six months of massive disruption to our work schedules, living spaces, and lives. (Replacing the sewer line took two weeks, repairing the damage to the house took much longer.) Through all of it I learned a lot about managing to do creative work through disruption. I would get a second and very differently shaped lesson on weathering disruption only a few months later when the shutdowns of the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Through both major disruptions I learned that you can find ways to continue to nurture your creative growth no matter what disruptions come your way.
Disruptions that ambush you
Both my plumbing-disrupted summer and the pandemic were disruptions that sprang on me unaware. Many disruptions do. So if you find yourself suddenly ambushed by a disruption take a moment to assess the following.
Look clearly at what you can’t change
With the pandemic there were so many things outside my control. Services I relied on were shut down or limited. Grocery store shelves were empty of my habitual purchases. The sweep of disease was far beyond my control. It was important for me to recognize that and let go of trying to control everything. Spending hours predicting the future wasted energy.
I sincerely hope that at the moment you are reading this you are not living through a pandemic, but even in more standard life circumstances there are lots of aspects of your creative life and career that are forever outside your control. Big corporations will make changes that affect how your book sells. Governments may apply taxes or barriers that you did not anticipate. People you expected to help you instead ghost you.
None of this is in your control.
If you can’t control it, you have to adapt for it. That adaptation is easier when you recognize that you’re coping with things that you can’t control.
Look clearly at what you can change
My plumbing disaster had a lot more pieces that I could control. I could choose how to proceed with repairs. I could spend my time on doing the repairs or I could spend money having someone else do them. I could choose flooring. I could choose whether it was more disruptive to displace the kitchen table and turn that into a workspace or if it was better to retain family gathering space and work in a closet. I frequently did not like the choices that were available to me, and sometimes having to choose felt like an extra burden, but being able to choose did give me some power over the flow of my life.
So when you’re faced with disruption, identify the choices you have and use them wisely. Small choices have a cumulative effect especially if the disruption happens over an extended period of time.
Disruptions you can prepare for
Some of the disruptions in our lives we can plan for in advance. Folded into that crazy summer of disaster clean up, my daughter got engaged and we planned her wedding. It was a wonderful event, but it definitely added to the sense of disruption in our lives. Our house got more crowded as her new husband more-or-less moved in, then shifted again when they both moved out. The reality of those changes naturally turned out a bit differently than we pictured, but we were able to consciously decide the shape of many things as we prepared for her to move.
When you see a disruption coming, take some time to evaluate the impact of the coming disruption on your creative goals. How will you get creative work done while planning a wedding or a move or whatever else may come your way. You can choose whether to carve out a daily space for your creative work or whether to let your creative work rest while you cope with the disruption.
Preserve your creative space
The most valuable thing about your creative work or project is you. If you break by pushing too hard or caring too much, or mis-match your expectations to reality, then you’ve broken all of your future projects until you find time to heal. This is important to remember when facing disruption. It may not be a period of significant creative production. The early pandemic certainly wasn’t for me and many creative people I know. Sometimes the most important creative work you can do is to self-protect in the middle of disruption. Grant yourself a quiet retreat into some measure of comfort so that when the disruption calms, you have energy for what comes next.
Disruptions you choose
Sometimes we choose disruption. We make choices that are going to disrupt our lives, our creative processes and the lives of others. Make sure the disruptions you choose support your priorities and goals. Going back to school to get a masters degree is a huge disruption, but it is worth it if it fulfills a dream or opens a life path that you want.
Be aware of what your chosen disruption may break for other people. We are all entwined in relationships and communities and disruption often creates strain. I certainly wish that when big bookselling corporations make changes they would consider the impact on the small author. (They don’t, sadly). When people want to disrupt the way things are in the world, they often speak of breaking the old system and replacing it. Yet the disruptions with the most power to change the world are not based in destruction, but in growth. If you want to change the world, nurture growth in yourself, in your creative work, in your small business, in your friends.
Disruption is often not the creative person’s friend, but it does not have to prevent you from writing the things you want to write.
What disruptions have you faced / are you facing in your life right now? What are you doing to protect your creativity?
About Sandra
Sandra Tayler is a writer, editor, and publisher with credits in over thirty different titles. She is a consistently successful crowdfunder, and has spent the last thirty years managing a household alongside several small businesses. Her book, STRUCTURING LIFE TO SUPPORT CREATIVITY, is a non-fiction book meant to help creative people make more space in the life they have for the creative work they want to do. Sandra lives in Orem with her husband, three cats, a minion, a cryptid, and a family of very demanding scrub jays who insist that Sandra's only real job is to put peanuts on the deck rail. You can find Sandra online at sandratayler.com
