More of this Feature • Old-Skool and New Media • E-books and AvantGo • Conclusions and Zine-Friendly Bookstores

By simple definition, a chapbook is any publication primarily made by hand. They are usually 20 to 40 pages long and are often duplicated through a regular xerox machine and then collated, folded and stapled by the writer herself. A zine, again by simple definition, is roughly the magazine equivalent of a chapbook. The two forms of publication are created the same way, and it's mostly the content that differentiates them.

What can be done with these publications? Most writers use them to sell at live shows, to trade with their other writing friends, and as a cheap way of giving out samples when someone asks. But you'd be surprised how many retail bookstores stock and sell chapbooks and zines on a regular basis. They are often, but not always, centered in large urban centers and usually carry a wide variety of other underground lit publications as well, such as comics, local bands' CDs and Jack Chick pamphlets.

HOW IT WORKS
Always query the bookstore first! The store in question may not carry the type of material you write, or their store may be currently overstocked, or hell, they may be closed altogether. Write them a letter or email, explaining who you are and what kind of publication you're selling. If they ask, or if you're just feeling adventurous, mail them a sample copy. Most US packages consisting of one chapbook and a cover letter in a 6 x 9 envelope cost 55 cents to mail, but check with your local post office to make sure. Also don't forget that any US package weighing over one pound must now first be inspected by a postal carrier before it can be sealed and delivered, because of the threat of letter bombs.

Keep a tab of which stores are carrying your book, how many copies they have, and what date you sent them. 95 percent of these stores work on what's called a “consignment” basis -- in other words, instead of purchasing your books outright they agree instead to carry them for free and send you the profit each time one is sold. The standard consignment ratio in the US is 40/60, meaning that for every $5 book they sell you receive $3 and they keep $2 for their time and effort. (Better and worse ratios are not unheard of, but be wary of any place that asks for more than 50 percent of the gross sales.) It’s not unusual for stores to hold onto the slow profits of your sales and to mail them to you in bulk every three or four months; you’re certainly within your rights, however, to send a short letter once every month or so, checking in on the book and seeing if they need any more copies. These stores are run by people like you and me, so always be patient and polite when corresponding with them.

How does this work out financially? Let’s take a recent example from my own life. My newest chapbook costs approximately one dollar per copy produced at the local copy shop. Envelopes are about a nickel apiece when bought in bulk, and a recent shipment of ten books cost me three dollars in postage, or roughly thirty cents per book. This means that my total cost per book is $1.35, and I’m receiving $3.00 in gross profit from each sale. It’s a gain of over 200 percent, which isn’t bad for a book being xeroxed by hand at two in the morning at Kinko’s.

(Incidentally, this entire process can be duplicated while using a legitimate basement-press distributor, like the excellent Last Gasp in San Francisco. A place like Last Gasp basically takes care of the actual dissemination of the physical book for you: you mail them a bunch of copies at once, and they hold on to them in a big warehouse and mail them out slowly each time a bookstore puts in an order. I am a big fan of such distributors and whole-heartedly recommend them when you have a large amount of product to move, 1,000 copies or more. In the case of chapbooks, however, where sales goals are small and you might only be selling through 10 or 20 stores total, it makes more sense to distribute yourself. Legitimate distributors make their money by keeping yet another 20 percent of your gross sales, meaning that you’re now receiving 40 percent of the cover price, not 60. This is fine when running a larger print job, where the price per book is dramatically lower, but can really add up when you’re going through a relatively expensive process like on-demand xeroxing.)

BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS
The obvious benefit from self-distributing your chapbook is that these stores exist in places where you don’t. In many cases, the indie bookstores can serve as a “personal promoter” of your work, a casual and friendly atmosphere, a place open all day, every day, whose employees are personally recommending your work to their customers because they themselves are fans. Distributing to a wide range of stores can lay an excellent foundation for a future tour, virtually guaranteeing spaces all the way across the U.S. and Canada who will host readings and signings for you, oftentimes also offering in free couches in which to sleep, free meals and free liquor.

(For more on the benefits of underground touring, see the excellent Sofasurfing Handbook by Juliette Torrez, from Manic D Press.)

Don’t discount the amount of money you can make on an endeavor like this. Sale of 500 chapbooks is enough to buy you a new computer. Even 50 sales can often fund an out-of-town weekend vacation. No one is ever going to get rich selling chapbooks, but the possibility of turning a nice little profit is very real. Not to mention the fundamental purpose of distribution: your work is being read and enjoyed all across the country. You suddenly have single-handedly created a national literary reputation for yourself. Enjoy it.

The biggest drawback, of course, is that you’re sharing almost half of your profit with another entity. If you sell your chapbook directly at a performance, you can put five bucks in cash into your pocket. It just doesn't work this way when another venue is selling them for you. Also, be warned that the process of self-distributing is a long, detail-heavy one. The fun, creative process of actually writing the book is now over, and the relative drudgery of administrative work remains. 95 percent of your success as a self-distributor relies on your willingness to lick stamps every single night, address envelopes, maintain a comprehensive and timely database, visit the post office once a week, and research the Web for bookstores and reviewers on a regular basis. No one ever said that publishing was glamorous -- ask anyone who’s ever worked for a small press.

(A small list of zine-friendly bookstores is included at the end of this article. This should be a good start for anyone interested in the process of selling chapbooks. Other good places to check on the web are the American Booksellers Association site, which maintains a free online database of all their members’ stores, and search engines such as Yahoo and Google. You can either scan their existing lists of bookstores or run special searches along the lines of “Austin + alternative + literature + bookstores.” Please be nice to these people when approaching them, or else they’re all going to be mad at me for including their names on this list!)

Jason Pettus

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