Local Author Submissions
KD's Books is proud to support local writers and contribute to a thriving local writing community. Due to the volume of requests we receive from writers wishing to sell in our store, as well as limited shelf space, we cannot carry every title submitted to us. Special consideration will be given to authors living in the KC metro area.
To be considered, you must submit your request here: https://forms.gle/qcDjQNydMmDKvrFq8. Once received, we will evaluate whether we can carry it, and, if interested, my reach out to you to request a review copy of the book to better determine its fit for our store and customers. We will evaluate your book for: fit in the store, literary quality, shelf appeal, and readiness to market and promote. We are not always able, or required, to provide feedback on our decision. The most common reasons we don’t carry books are:
- Not available through Ingram and/or not available at a standard discount (Bookselling has a tiny profit margin to begin with; we can't afford to accept less than 40% off retail discounts.)
- Author name/title not listed on the spine
- Design and/or production standards don’t match our expectations for stock
- Book doesn’t match curatorial need
Self-Publishing
"Well --- I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does...Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this company that went...bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. Its name was...All right --- Amazon." Shudder. "Don' make me say it again."
We understand the important role Evil A and its affiliates play in the independent author marketplace. That being said, we have taken a stand against The-Site-Which-Shall-Not-Be-Named and we don’t spend any money with That Company. This includes Kindle Direct Publishing. While we have many, many, oh-so-many issues with the way You-Know-Who does things, our refusal to spend money there is born out of the fact that, if it were up to You-Know-Who, we’d be dead. No business, especially a small business, should be asked to write checks to their biggest competitor. If you are looking to self-publish, we suggest looking at Ingram Spark instead, and allowing standard wholesale pricing to support independent bookstores.
Book Promotions
We ask that, if we carry your book, you promote your book using links to KD's Books' website or even Bookshop.org or Indiebound. It's very discouraging when we agree to support someone’s book, and then we see that author encouraging their followers to go buy their book on The-Site-That-Must-Not-Be-Named. If your followers want to join the dark side, believe us, they will have no problem finding it without your help. Help them find alternatives instead. Built in to our agreement to support you should be your agreement to support us and other indie bookstores.