2025 CAN Excellence in Marketing Awards: First Place in Nonfiction Physical Media
Next in a series of posts featuring the winners of the 2025 Christian Authors Network (CAN) Excellence in Marketing Awards. Allen Taylor won first place in the Nonfiction Physical Media category and describes his activities here.
The 2026 marketing awards will open in November 2025. Be thinking of how you can enter the awards! See the guidelines at: https://christianauthorsnetwork.com/marketing-award/
How I Sold 1,500 Books in Kroger Grocery Stores
(and What It Taught Me About Being an Indie Author)
By Allen Taylor
It’s harder being an independent author today than it was a decade ago. Indie publishing has gone mainstream. Competition is fierce, marketing is expensive, and the pressure—both internal and external—is real.
According to the Alliance of Independent Authors, the median income for book authors in 2022 was $12,749. Most authors still sell fewer than 300 books a year and under 2,000 across their book’s lifetime.
That was my story, too—until 2023, when I discovered a way into Kroger grocery stores to sell my books face-to-face. What started as an experiment turned into a full-blown strategy. Here’s what happened, and what I learned along the way.
How Kroger Changed My Author Business
At first, I underestimated the opportunity, scheduling just one appearance a week—because I wanted to test the waters. But when I realized the potential, I increased appearances to four days a week. I sold 258 books in half a year at Kroger stores across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
In 2024, I went all in.
Over the course of 46 weeks, averaging 26 hours per week, I sold nearly 1,500 books across six titles—including 500 copies of my flagship title I Am Not the King, my Christian testimony. That brought in almost $30,000 in total sales, with more than $18,000 in author income for me.
Along the way, I built my email list to 1,500+ subscribers, and now enjoy consistent 20% to 40% open rates on Substack. For the first time, I crossed into the “above average” tier of indie authors.
But it didn’t happen by accident.
Lessons from the Aisles: Indie Book Marketing in the Wild
There’s more to selling books than just writing them. Being an author is about branding, engagement, and treating book publishing like a business.
Kroger had strict display rules—no wild banners, no giant props—so I had to get creative. I built a clean, professional sign that said: This author is serious. It worked. People took me seriously from the start.
Inventory was another lesson. You can’t sell what you don’t bring. I learned to track stock religiously, order in bulk to lower per-unit cost, and manage cash flow to avoid crunches. One bad week of inventory planning can tank an author’s revenue.
I also tracked every expense. Online sales eat into profits via ads and promos. In-person sales? It’s mileage, marketing collateral, inventory—and time. I needed to know what was working, what wasn’t, and where to find the sweet spot of profitability (revenue minus expenses). Because I live in a rural area and the closest Kroger store to me is 45 miles away, there were times when I “moved into” a location for a week and slept in my campervan just to reduce expenses.
The Power of Location (Yes, It Still Matters)
It’s cliché because it’s true: location is everything.
Early on, I chose stores based on their proximity to me. Big mistake. I learned to research everything: local demographics, store size, traffic patterns, and community culture. Kroger Marketplace locations performed best for me. Bigger stores mean more foot traffic, and more foot traffic means more chances to connect to readers.
Inside the store, the ideal setup spot was the produce section, where the bulk of shoppers head first. If I could negotiate that space, I took it. Otherwise, my fallback was the entrance or near checkout lanes.
The key was engagement. No one comes to a grocery store to buy a book, which means it’s on the author to make them stop, notice, and care. That takes confidence, conversation, and a bit of hustle. I used a standard attention-getter, such as, “Good morning, do you like to read?” Any positive response got a follow-up: “What’s your genre” or “Who’s your favorite author?”
Bottom line: The first step in book sales is baiting the hook.
Final Thought: Authorship Is a Business—It Pays to Treat It Like One
My success at Kroger didn’t happen because I got lucky. It happened because I treated my writing like a business. I showed up, did the research, tracked my numbers, engaged readers, and reinvested in myself.
If you’re an indie author struggling to stand out, stop waiting for readers to find you. Go to them. Sometimes, they’re pushing a cart past the cucumbers.
Allen Taylor, Author
Allen Taylor is the author of I Am Not the King and writes the Ancient Frontiers newsletter at Substack. He writes fiction and nonfiction. Learn more at his author website.
