I’ve been running my own small publishing label for about two and a half years. My biggest sales opportunity is the twice-yearly “Bungaku Flea Market Tokyo,” with several other small sales events. This summer, however, was a perfect pitfall.

Aside from sales events, sales channels for self-published works like zines are online stores and bookstores. While these are similar to regular publications, self-published works are typically sold “directly” without the involvement of specialized intermediaries known as distributors. Unlike the consignment sales required for commercial publishing via distributors, in which the bookstore often purchases the book outright, the format of the book also differs.

What this means is that the books have no covers or obi.

Commercially published books have covers (also known as jackets) to prevent damage during distribution and to give the product a more appealing appearance. And like the POPs displayed in stores, obi (a long, narrow strip of paper wrapped around the outside of a book cover) is attached to properly communicate the product’s appeal at the time of sale. In other words, it is a sales promotion tool that accompanies the book.
Zines and self-published works, which are intended to be sold at book fairs, often have simple designs and no covers or obi. This is partly due to budgetary constraints, but also because book fairs allow the creators themselves to deliver their sales pitches verbally (and because this communication is enjoyable in itself), covers and obi are not necessarily necessary.

Incidentally, this summer has been a time when I have had very few opportunities to sell books online. I have yet to come up with a new title for the Tokyo Literature Flea Market in the fall, so I have no choice but to sell my existing books online bit by bit, but perhaps because of the summer slump, there hasn’t been much movement in the books market.
So, as an experiment, I decided to try making obi for books I had already produced. When I worked at a publishing company, I mostly edited magazines, so this was my first experience making obi, and choosing the paper and designing them was a fresh and enjoyable experience.
As mentioned above, zines don’t need covers to protect them from damage. However, I also felt the need for obi, which briefly summarizes the book’s contents and selling points, at book fairs. I sometimes thought it would be more effective to let customers choose a book quietly and carefully, rather than having to give a sales pitch and explain things to them myself. Above all, it’s difficult to keep talking for long periods of time. I finally realized that the obi could do that instead.
When a book is purchased by a bookstore, it leaves the author’s hands completely, so some kind of promotional tool is still necessary. Initially, I didn’t see much need for obi, as I thought of book fairs as the main focus and bookstore distribution as secondary, but thinking about it objectively, it would be better to have one. It might even be a good idea to make extra obi for books that have already been shipped and have them wrapped in stores. I’m thinking about this as I wait for the obi, which will soon be completed, to arrive.

※Translating Japanese articles into English with AI