Over the past year, I have had long, candid conversations with independent booksellers across the country. Not formal interviews with tape recorders. More like dinners, phone calls, and after-hours drinks at book fairs where people let their guard down. I wanted to understand what small and mid-size publishers like ScrollWorks could do better from the perspective of the people who actually put our books into readers’ hands.

What follows is a distillation of those conversations. I have not attributed quotes to specific individuals because several booksellers asked for anonymity. They work with publishers daily and did not want their honesty to create awkwardness. I have respected that, while trying to preserve the directness of what they told me.

“Stop Sending Us Books We Did Not Ask For”

This came up in almost every conversation. Publishers send unsolicited copies to bookstores constantly, and most of them go into a pile that nobody looks at. One bookseller in the Pacific Northwest told me she receives between ten and twenty unsolicited books a week. “I do not have time to evaluate them,” she said. “They sit in a box in the back until I feel guilty and take them to the library donation bin.”

The issue is not generosity. Booksellers appreciate that publishers want to get books in front of them. The issue is relevance. A literary fiction specialist does not need unsolicited copies of self-help books. A children’s bookstore does not need adult thrillers. The scattershot approach wastes money for the publisher and time for the bookseller.

What booksellers want instead is targeted outreach. A short email describing an upcoming title, why it might be a good fit for their specific store, and an offer to send a copy if they are interested. This takes more effort than bulk mailing, but the conversion rate is dramatically higher. At ScrollWorks, we have moved entirely to this model. When we were preparing to ship ARCs of Echoes of Iron by James Whitfield, our publicist researched each independent bookstore on our list and only sent copies to stores that had a track record of hand-selling literary historical fiction. Every copy we sent was requested.

“Your Metadata Is a Mess”

This surprised me, but it came up repeatedly. Book metadata, the information that flows through distribution systems and appears in bookstore ordering platforms, is frequently incomplete, inaccurate, or late.

One bookseller in the Midwest put it bluntly: “I cannot sell a book I cannot find in the system. If your metadata is wrong, your book does not exist to me.” He described cases where ISBNs were entered incorrectly, publication dates were wrong, or the book’s description was either missing entirely or clearly copied from an early draft that no longer matched the final product.

Another bookseller told me about ordering a book based on its online description, only to receive something quite different. “The description said literary fiction. The book was more genre romance. My customer was confused, I looked unprofessional, and the book got returned.” Metadata errors like this erode trust between booksellers and publishers, and they are entirely preventable.

Good metadata includes accurate descriptions, correct categorization, proper keyword tagging, the right publication date, and up-to-date author bios. It also includes comparison titles, which help booksellers understand the market positioning. We have started treating metadata as an editorial product at ScrollWorks, giving it the same attention and review process we give to cover copy. It has made a noticeable difference in how booksellers respond to our titles.

“We Need More Time With the Book Before Launch”

Several booksellers told me that publishers frequently contact them about a new title only a few weeks before the publication date. By that point, the bookseller has already made their purchasing decisions for the month. Their shelf space is allocated. Their staff picks are planned. Even if the book sounds interesting, it is too late to give it meaningful support.

“I need three to four months,” one bookseller said. “Ideally, I want an ARC four months out so I have time to read it, form an opinion, and plan how to feature it in my store. When a publisher contacts me two weeks before pub date, I can maybe squeeze in an order, but I am not going to hand-sell a book I have not read.”

Hand-selling is the lifeblood of independent bookstores. It is what separates them from online retailers. A bookseller who has read a book and loves it can move dozens of copies by personally recommending it to customers. But that requires lead time. The bookseller needs to read the book, think about which customers would enjoy it, and integrate it into their mental catalog of recommendations. None of that happens in two weeks.

This is something we have taken to heart. When we were preparing the launch of Still Waters by Elena Marsh, we sent ARCs to our priority booksellers a full four months ahead of the pub date. Several of them became passionate advocates for the book, and their recommendations drove a significant percentage of our first-month sales.

“Tell Us Why the Book Matters, Not Just What It Is About”

Booksellers receive pitches constantly, and most of them are interchangeable. “Here is a new literary novel about a family coming to terms with loss.” “Here is a non-fiction book about technology and society.” These descriptions are accurate but meaningless. They describe hundreds of books.

What booksellers want to know is what makes this particular book different. Why should they care about it? What is the author doing that has not been done before, or doing differently than other writers in the same space? What specific readers in their store would respond to it?

A bookseller in New England told me about a pitch that worked: “A publisher wrote to me saying, ‘This novel is going to be compared to The Remains of the Day, but it is set in a modern archive, and the unreliable narrator is a woman who does not realize she is unreliable. If you have customers who like literary mystery with zero violence, this is the book.’” She ordered it immediately. The specificity of the pitch told her everything she needed to know.

Compare that to a generic pitch: “A compelling new literary novel that explores memory and identity.” That describes approximately four thousand books published this year. It gives the bookseller nothing to work with.

We have restructured our bookseller communications around this insight. Every pitch now includes three things: a specific comparison that identifies the book’s neighborhood, a one-sentence description of what makes it distinctive, and a description of the reader who would love it. It requires more thought than a generic blurb, but it gets results.

“Respect Our Shelf Space”

Independent bookstores have limited physical space. Every book on the shelf represents a decision, and every decision has an opportunity cost. When a bookseller gives face-out placement to your title, they are not displaying one other book. When they put it on their staff picks table, they are choosing it over dozens of alternatives.

“Publishers do not always understand how precious shelf space is,” one bookseller told me. “When I commit to carrying a title, I am making a bet. I am betting that this book will sell enough copies to justify the space it occupies. If it does not sell, I am stuck with inventory that I cannot move, and I have lost the opportunity to display something that might have sold better.”

This has implications for how publishers handle returns, co-op programs, and reorder processes. Several booksellers mentioned that the returns process is too slow and too cumbersome. “If a book is not moving after six weeks, I need to return it and replace it with something else,” one said. “When the returns process takes two months, I am holding dead inventory for that entire time.”

Another bookseller raised the issue of overprinting. “When a publisher prints too many copies and pushes them into stores, the bookseller bears the cost of slow sales. I would rather a publisher tell me honestly that a book will appeal to a niche audience and let me order accordingly, than overhype it and leave me with thirty unsold copies.”

At ScrollWorks, we try to be honest with booksellers about our expectations for each title. When we published The Cartographer’s Dilemma by David Okonkwo, we told booksellers upfront that it was a non-fiction title with a specific audience: readers interested in maps, geography, and how knowledge systems shape our understanding of the world. We did not try to position it as a mass-market bestseller. The booksellers who ordered it did so with clear expectations, and sell-through was strong because the right stores were carrying it for the right customers.

“Author Events Should Sell Books, Not Just Draw Crowds”

Author events are a staple of the publisher-bookseller relationship, and booksellers had a lot to say about how they work (and do not work).

The consensus was that events need to be designed around sales, not just attendance. “I have had events with a hundred people where we sold ten books,” one bookseller said. “And I have had events with twenty people where we sold forty books. The difference is not crowd size. It is whether the audience came to buy a book or just to see an author speak.”

What makes a sales-driven event? According to the booksellers I spoke with, a few things matter. The author needs to be engaging and personable. The event should include a book-signing component, because people who get their book signed are less likely to return it. Pre-event promotion should emphasize the book, not just the author’s celebrity or credentials. And the bookseller should have enough copies on hand to meet demand, which requires the publisher to communicate realistic attendance estimates.

Several booksellers also mentioned that publishers sometimes schedule events at stores without checking whether the store wants to host one. “An event requires staff time, setup, cleanup, and promotion,” one said. “If a publisher just tells me an author is available next Tuesday, that is not enough lead time and it is not enough collaboration. The best events are planned together, months in advance, with both sides invested in making it work.”

One bookseller shared a positive example that stuck with me. A publisher called her three months before a book’s release and said, “We have a debut novelist who grew up in your city. She has local connections and we think an event at your store could be special. Can we plan this together?” They did, and the event sold out. “That is how it should work,” she said. “Partnership, not instruction.”

“Digital Is Not the Enemy, but Stop Pretending It Does Not Exist”

This one came with some heat. Independent booksellers live in a world where Amazon is their primary competitor, and they are tired of publishers acting like the digital marketplace does not exist, or worse, like it is someone else’s problem.

“When a publisher prices an ebook at the same price as the hardcover, it hurts us,” one bookseller said. “Because the customer sees the ebook price, assumes the physical book is overpriced, and buys neither. Or they buy the ebook and never walk into my store.” The pricing relationship between formats affects bookseller viability, and booksellers feel that publishers do not always consider this when setting prices.

Multiple booksellers also mentioned that publisher websites often link to Amazon for purchasing. “If a publisher’s own website sends customers to Amazon, what message does that send about their commitment to independent bookstores?” one asked. Several said they appreciated publishers who include Bookshop.org links or indie bookstore finders on their websites alongside (or instead of) Amazon links.

At ScrollWorks, this feedback has made us rethink our online presence. When we link to Bitcoin for Absolute Beginners or any other title, we try to provide multiple purchasing options. We want our readers to have choices, and we want independent booksellers to know that we value their role in the ecosystem.

“Small Publishers Are Our Best Partners, If They Show Up”

This was the most encouraging thing I heard. Multiple booksellers said that their best publishing relationships are with small and mid-size houses, not the Big Five. The reason is personal attention.

“When I call a big publisher’s sales rep, I am one of two hundred accounts,” one bookseller said. “When I call a small publisher, I talk to someone who knows my store and my customers. That personal relationship is enormously valuable. It helps me sell books because I trust the publisher’s recommendations.”

But several booksellers added a caveat: small publishers need to be reliable. Missed ship dates, incorrect invoices, and unresponsive customer service erode the trust that personal relationships build. “I love working with small presses,” one bookseller said, “but I need them to be professional. Answer my emails. Ship on time. Send me accurate invoices. These are basic things, and they matter more than any fancy marketing campaign.”

Another bookseller put it more bluntly: “The small publishers who show up consistently are the ones I champion. I will hand-sell their books every day. The ones who are unreliable, no matter how good their books are, get moved to the back of the shelf.”

What We Are Doing With This Feedback

These conversations have changed how we operate at ScrollWorks. We have overhauled our metadata process. We have moved to opt-in ARC distribution. We are giving booksellers more lead time with our titles. We are writing better, more specific pitches. We are being honest about each book’s audience and market positioning.

None of this is complicated. Most of it comes down to respect: respecting booksellers’ time, their expertise, and their role in connecting readers with books. Independent bookstores are where literary culture lives at the local level. They are the places where a bookseller can put The Last Archive into the hands of a reader who will love it, or recommend Still Waters to someone going through a difficult time, or suggest The Cartographer’s Dilemma to a curious mind looking for something different.

Those interactions are irreplaceable. No algorithm can do what a good bookseller does. And as publishers, our job is to make their work easier, not harder. I am grateful to every bookseller who spoke honestly with me, and I am committed to acting on what they said. The publishing industry only works if every link in the chain, from author to editor to publisher to bookseller to reader, is strong. Strengthening the publisher-bookseller link is work worth doing.

Published by the ScrollWorks Media editorial team.