I guess too many authors have been releasing “low content” books in recent years. No doubt pushed by author educators who have taught that these books sell a dime a dozen and therefore a quick, easy way to make money as an author. That may have been true in the past, but it appears to be no longer.
Some Print-On-Demand publishers will not publish low-content books period, such as Draft2Digital. Others will publish them, but will not send them out for Global Distribution to online bookstore catalogues, such as Barnes & Noble and Lulu. Many of these printers rely on Ingram Micro/Ingram Spark for their distribution to these catalogues, and apparently they will not push low-content books anymore.
Lulu just gave me this notification this morning:
Content Review Failed for Global Distribution
Dear Customer
The following project(s) do not meet our partners’ Global Distribution Content Requirements. Below, please find the project information and rejection reason.
Details:
My Foraging Notebook
Rejection Reason:
Low Content
This means if you want your low-content book to make you money, you need a wide reach online as you will only be able to list it on certain printer websites (ie: B&N and Lulu and maybe others I haven’t tried) and your own website. If you have a wordpress website with woocommerce installed, Lulu lets you integrate with your website’s store and you can pick and choose which books will be listed there. So I’ve done that with My Foraging Notebook over on my coaching website.
In the absence of automated Global Distribution, getting low-content books into bookstore catalogues or directories involves a fair bit of manual effort. I’ve also learned over the years that directories come and go like the wind. Some stay active and others close with no notice to authors who listed their books with them. At the very least, My Foraging Notebook, and other books I bring over to Lulu that are low-content, will be capable of being shipped to Canadian buyers.
I’ve also learned that ISBN Canada is now enforcing the requirement to send Collections Canada (an archive and research service) a physical copy of each book you obtained an ISBN for. This wasn’t being enforced in the past. Not sure I want to feed into that, but we’ll see.
