One way to deal with this is to have a store policy that says: "We do not stock books that cannot be ordered from either a distributor or a publisher with whom we already do business." This policy keeps you from having to open an account with anyone in order to carry one item. This policy will make it easy to say no, as most of these types of books will not fit in these categories.

Another policy might be: "We do not carry products on consignment." This will deal with the person who tries to overcome the obstacle created by the previous one. Both of these policies make good business sense on their own, while giving you a good way to say no to these types of requests.

If an author does meet the requirements in the first policy, then we tell them to leave a copy of the book and we will review it for content to see if it fits our needs.

George Thomsen
Manager, Harvest Bookstore
Harvest Christian Fellowship
Riverside, Calif.

In regards to self-published authors, I absolutely would never say "no" to this type of request unless it fell outside of our beliefs or was harmful in some way.

I have special sections for "local" artists and authors. I do a better ratio with them, as I only take their work on consignment, so I get to fill a bit of my shelves with "free" product and generate free word-of-mouth advertising as I ask them to not sell direct to people in the area, but refer them to the store to purchase their product. And wouldn't you know it? They shop in your store, too, as they want to support the venue their work is selling from.

We have had tremendous success working with local people. They come in and I have very clear guidelines of what I am willing to do, where and how their products will be displayed. I express those with great enthusiasm; they know right away I am on their side and hope for their success. Our customers love that we have had a guitar player crammed in a corner on a Saturday afternoon or a painter painting wonderful pictures of soaring eagles before their eyes.

It has never been my experience that a consignment author/artist has made unreasonable demands. The only disappointment has been when they have not had any sales. Yes, there have been a few books that have not sold, but it was no harm to the store, not like I have had with books from established publishers and authors, which sit and collect dust waiting their return.

Brad Torgerson
Owner, Fellowship Bookcentre
Winnipeg, Manitoba