Hybrid author Jamie McGuire recently announced on her blog that one of her self-published books would be stocked in select Walmart stores—and fans responded with an enormous collective squeal on her official Facebook page.
The title in question is McGuire’s Beautiful Redemption, the second book in her Maddox Brothers series. Copies are printed and provided through CreateSpace—so it’s the first example we’ve seen of Walmart physically stocking, on store shelves, a self-published, print-on-demand title.
McGuire’s earlier work, published by Simon & Schuster, was carried in Walmart stores, so one can reasonably assume she’s a known quantity and there’s a strong case for sales. However, if orders are being placed through CreateSpace, Walmart isn’t taking much of a risk—and neither is McGuire. Side note: It’s not clear if this deal was brokered directly with Walmart or Anderson Merchandisers, which supplies Walmart with books. Walmart’s site states plainly, “Walmart does not pursue self-published books.”
Here’s the thing to understand about big-box stores, discount stores, and warehouse clubs: They focus on bestsellers or books that will appeal to the highest percentage of their customer base. And, in ordinary scenarios, the Walmarts of the world order in large quantities and return in large quantities. When we asked F+W vice president and community leader Phil Sexton, who has more than two decades of experience in book publishing and sales, he said, “If a book does extremely well, it probably justifies the big hit down the road, but the cost really needs to be factored in … or you could end up with thousands of copies on your dock with nowhere to put them.”
So, in a standard deal with a retailer like Walmart, authors or publishers need to carefully think through whether they can afford the risk. But in the McGuire deal, there is no such risk.
Back-of-the-napkin math: The paperback is 266 pages with a retail price of $14.99. The print-on-demand unit cost through CreateSpace is $4.04 (based on their own calculator). If the paperback is sold through CreateSpace’s Expanded Distribution plan with standard royalty, McGuire receives $1.95 per copy. (If the paperback is sold through Amazon, McGuire gets $4.95 per copy.) Certainly, it’s possible that, for this Walmart arrangement, a special deal was cut and/or CreateSpace did a short digital run. But one can safely assume we’re not talking about a standard Walmart order, which would require an initial order in the ballpark of 15,000 copies.
Bottom line: McGuire is calling this the beginning of a new era, and maybe it is for her—but it doesn’t appear to be particularly groundbreaking for self-published authors. Walmart is stocking copies of a New York Times bestselling author who’s already proven with their audience. The interesting twist is that either Anderson Merchandisers and/or Walmart is apparently willing to work with CreateSpace.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
