I ran into a wall when I went to my local Barnes and Noble and asked if they could carry some copies of my novel Painted Black on their shelves. When the manager looked it up in the database, she said they couldn’t because it is Print On Demand and they aren’t able to return unsold POD books. I had no response to that so left a promo packet with her anyway and went home, dejected.
However, my publisher made it clear later that the manager did not know what she was talking about, and sent me a link to the article below. If you use Lightning Source as your POD publishers, don’t let them blow you off with that excuse. Read this whole article and go in well armed.
Nowadays, there’s an odd belief circulating that self publishing a book
as print on demand will keep it out of bookstores. Actually, the
opposite is true.The Stigma of POD (Print on Demand, Lightning Source, Barnes & Noble, Borders).
My Publishing Journey 