NOTE DATED SEPT 9, 2026:

We at Words Worth greatly appreciate your interest in partnering with us to sell your book.

At this time, we have developed a backlog of titles and will not be taking any more consignment titles for the remainder of 2026. When we begin again in January, we will be giving priority to authors who have not had their books printed/published by Amazon. If you need reasons why, please see Danny Caine’s How to Resist Amazon and Why.

First things first, we would like to congratulate you! Only about 3% of people who start writing a book actually complete it. We commend you for having the discipline and energy necessary to frame and finish your writing project. Completing a book is an incredible feat and you deserve to be proud. We appreciate how much work you’ve put into getting to the final printed copy—after all, we’ve made books our life’s work! 

Thank you for your interest in consigning your book with Words Worth Books. As an independent bookstore, we are proud to support local authors. 

You’re not quite finished though. Now you need to sell it! And that is the hard part. And if you’re on this page, you’re hoping we can be a part of that.

A hard truth: if you don’t promote the heck out of your book it’s dead on the shelf; we will need to know what your marketing plan is before we accept the consignment.

That out of the way, we need to cover a few bases.

The Basics

  • Due to limited space, our consignment program is only available to local authors, living within the Waterloo Region.

  • If approved, the initial order will be 3 to 5 copies and the consignment period is for 3 months. If those copies sell, we may contact you to bring in more copies and if your book continues to sell well, we may agree to extend the consignment agreement.

  • Author/consignee will receive industry standard of 60% of the retail price for any books sold. Words Worth Books will retain 40%. For example if your book sells for $10.00, your take is $6.00 and we take $4.00. Be careful to not over-price your book!

  • Don’t leave multiple copies of your book with us to “take a look at.” We’d hate to misplace it! Furthermore, we need a proper invoice and signed consignment agreement if they are to go on display.

  • Have a marketing plan and be a shameless self-promoter! Be certain that your media release indicates that books are available at Words Worth Books in Waterloo. Remember that your book is competing with thousands of other titles in the store that have had the advantage of editorial, design, and marketing support to boost sales.

  • Words Worth Books will pay for books sold at the end of the consignment term. Any unsold books will be held for pick-up for 30 days. After that, any unclaimed books will be donated. Words Worth Books is not responsible for any damaged/stolen books.

  • If you are interested in having us host an event, we require first that you be accepted into our consignment program and that we are seeing a sustained interest and level of sales before scheduling an event.

  • We accept consignments year round, except for during our busiest months of Nov/Dec.

A note about Generative AI

In the past year, it has become important that companies take a stance on GenAI. As this is becoming an ongoing issue in the book world, and a destructive one, we must be clear.

Absolutely no AI-generated or AI-assisted books will be accepted on consignment at Words Worth Books. Sending us AI-generated work, or work we later discover was created through the use of GenAI (either in the writing or illustrations, if applicable) will result in future submissions being automatically rejected.

Words Worth Books loves the written word too much to accept works made or assisted using technology built on the theft (and in some cases destruction) of human made books.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter.

The Process

If you agree with the consignment terms above, please drop off 1 finished copy of your book to our front desk along with this form. This will give us the opportunity to review your submission for professional publishing standards and sales potential. We often have heavy volumes of submissions so please allow up to 3 weeks. We will be contacting you via email.

If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at hello[at]wordsworthbooks.com.