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I am hoping someone has a great idea for me to solve this problem. I am the author of the book: Polka-dot Star Flowers. Real Help for Real People. I published through BookSurge. I have spoken to 7 different Walmart managers, who all want to carry the book in their stores. Now the snag. The major book buyer says she would buy the book based on these managers recommendations but the Walmart policy says they cannot buy from POD. They feel they can not keep up with the demand. She said the individual stores can buy it though- I would be a "Local Vendor". The forms do not seem to fit this though- they all seem to deal with food. Any ideas?
Talk about a problem- not that the books WON'T sell, but they might sell TOO FAST, so they refuse to work with POD. I am open to suggestion.
The managers are still trying to work through the red tape, but I thought some of you might have run this gauntlet before. Thanks, Barbara

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I worked at Wal-Mart for 10 years. When I self-published my first book, I had visions of getting it into Wal-Mart of course. My manager said I could do it by becoming a vendor which, at the time, I thought was probably a lot of hassle for just one book. (I was just starting my venture into the published book world and probably could have worked something out had I given it more thought.) My thought for you is: Can you buy books from your publisher at wholesale to stock your Wal-Mart store yourself, re-ordering from BookSurge as needed? That would seem to be a solution maybe. Another problem I had with selling to Wal-Mart was that even at wholesale, my book would cost me more than Wal-Mart would sell it for, so I wouldn't make anything at all. Hope some of this helps or gives you food for thought at least.
I had a similar situation with an online shopping channel. They had a form to complete and part of it required getting input from my publisher as I did not print the books myself. One of the pieces of information they asked was how many books could be supplied on a monthly basis. My publisher responded quickly on how many they could print and supply each month. Check to see if they have such a form and contact your publisher if they would be open to completing it and committing to the quantities they could furnish. This may open the door more easily to solve your problem. The shopping channel did not choose to purchase my book but it was not because of the book but they discontinued selling books as books were not a high seller activity for the program. They indicated it had nothing to do with the quality of my book and left it open to purchase in the future if they again started to sell books.

There is always a way to solve issues if we just look for input from others who may have experienced the same situation. This network has a great array of talent and expertise. I have found that the information available from the members of this network has and is great.

Hope this helps.

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