Being a micro-publisher has its own caveats and hurdles, one of them being the ability to integrate your titles and business into the distribution stream, which is far more complex than one would expect. I’m not sure I fully understand the system as yet. Here’s what I’ve discovered so far.

You need to get your titles listed with Ingram in order for your book data to be picked up by most online book retailers, and even then that’s not a guarantee those online book retailers will pick up the information. A huge and notable exception to that rule is Indigo/Chapters. Of course, Indigo is an exception to just about every rule, I’ve discovered. To gain Indigo’s recognition you have to establish a vendor account. That’s not a simple process either, and it would seem more micro-publishers are turned down than accepted. I consider it fortunate indeed that this week Five Rivers Chapmanry was finally approved and set-up at a vendor with Indigo, which means I manually input our titles into Indigo’s data system.

However, once you have your bibliographic data appearing with online book retailers, it is not a guarantee of sales, or of physical stores stocking your books. That’s another whole step in the distribution chain, what’s known as a retailer distributor, over a wholesale distributor like Ingram.

You can choose to be your own retail distributor, as I have, thereby keeping that piece of the profit pie for yourself. It also means a lot of work, and another whole stigma to overcome. Five Rivers, by becoming a recognized vendor with Indigo, has established a direct retail distribution link. My bid to do that with Barnes & Noble, however, met with immediate and cursory rejection. Interesting in light of the fact a colleague of mine, Marvin Ross of Bridgeross Communications, met with the exact opposite result. Curious and curiouser.

Great, you’re thinking: vendor status = books in stores. Not quite.

Vendor status means your books will now be considered by buyers. There’s no guarantee. In my case, stronger sales figures are required before Indigo will consider stocking Five Rivers’ books. It does mean, however, that when arranging speaking and signing engagements for my authors that Indigo stores can now order books directly from Five Rivers. No more consignment stock. The down side of that is any unsold books are returned within 30 days. And instead of receiving payment within 30 days, as you would for consignment stock, you’re paid in 90 days.

So why go to these lengths? Establishment of credibility and endurance. If you’re in the publishing game, you have to take the long view, something a great many legacy houses have forgotten in their desperation to make a quick profit, and one of the reasons micro-publishers are now very much on the rise and realizing success.

The jewel, this week, in all this negotiation and bureaucracy is that Deb Salisbury’s book, Elephant’s Breath & London Smoke, is now available online not only through Amazon, Amazon.ca, Barnes & Noble, W.H. Smith, Ereadable, BooksOnBoard and eChapterOne, but Indigo. All of Five Rivers other books, How to Write a Non-fiction Book in 60 Days, And the Angels Sang, and Shadow Song are also available through these retailers, as well as directly from Five Rivers.