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New Self-Publisher’s FAQ
Learning the Business of
Self-Publishing
What you need to know to get your book sold
How do I decide on a book price?
•Should my book price
be even-numbered or end in $_.95?
What’s all this about trade discounts?
•Where does
my discount go?
What are Distributors and
Wholesalers?
•What are
Distributors?
•How do I get a Distributor?
•What are Wholesalers?
Who are Ingram and Baker &
Taylor?
•What is Ingram?
•What is B&T?
•How do I register a new title with
B&T?
Why do I have to take returns?
•What if I tell
Wholesalers I won't take returns?
•What do I do about "hurt" books?
How do I
handle accounting for my books?
•What
Is an Invoice?
•What
is a Purchase Order?
•Setting
Up a New Wholesale Customer
•Terms
•Collections
You should read some books on the book industry:
• The
Self Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter (Considered by many the
bible of self-publishing)
• The
Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Tom and Marilyn Ross
• The
Publishing Game: Get Published in 30 Days by Fern Reiss
• Unlocking
the Secrets of Publishing by Sylvia Hemmerly
• Publishing
for Profit: Successful Bottom-Line Management for Book Publishers
by Thomas Woll
Pricing is always a difficult matter. There are some rules of thumb out there that you should increase the price of your book by a factor of 8 times the amount it cost to print it. This allows for industry discounts (see explanation) and a comfortable margin (the difference between what it costs and what you make. Also called profit). However, realistically, one can’t always get that much of a margin—especially if you print POD/digitally. That much of a mark-up would make the book too expensive, thus you would lose sales.
For a very careful analysis of how to do this on a spreadsheet, go to the Gropen Associates' website and click on "Reference Desk."
Go to your local bookstore and look at the books in your category. How much are they charging?
If you can undercut the "going rate" for your topic, it’s possible to attract more buyers to your product. What you’ll usually find is that the big publishing houses have already priced their books for a budget-conscious market. Your difficulty will be matching this. In some rare cases, books priced higher than the others in its category have sold well—but this is in specific niche markets like business, legal and medical tomes.
Barnes & Noble and Border’s Books are becoming very price conscious. They like to see paperbacks under $16., hardbacks under $25. This is not always possible, and they often break this rule if the title is a strong seller.
Gropen Associates offers help setting book prices.
can assist you in making this decision!Should I state the price as an even-numbered dollar amount or slightly less? (For example: $16.95 or $17.)?
Consumers are conditioned to thinking that a $__.95 price point is less than rounding up to the next higher even number. If you ask people, they know there’s hardly any difference between $16.95 and $17, but they "feel" better not having paid the higher number. If you are not selling books to the trade (at the back of the room (BOTR) after speeches, at craft fairs or as part of a fund raiser), an even numbered price is fine. To the trade, it’s wiser to stay with the herd and price your book $ .95.
can assist you in making this decision!Why do I have to discount my book?
The quick answer is you DON'T have to. But you won’t be able to get the book into a bookstore unless it’s specially ordered by a customer. And most customers don’t want to wait to make a purchase.
In all cases where a product is produced (manufactured goods, clothing,
etc.), wholesale prices are usually ½ or less (sometimes way less).
The actual ROI (Return on Investment) the producer (in this case,
you) gets is usually fairly small.
Please see the short article on the importance of
discounts and returns.
For a further discussion of why manufactured goods are discounted, see this article.
Back to Top
Where does my discount go?
Distributors and wholesalers take large discounts off the retail price. See the explanation below for why they do this. Wholesalers usually take 55%. Distributors often take 25-35% on top of that.
Booksellers & Libraries generally get 40% off the cover price on quantities up to 10. You can give better or not-as-deep discounts. But be even-handed.
Please see the short article on the importance of discounts and returns.
Amazon (see further discussion) is the only retail outlet we know of that demands—and gets—a 55% discount in their Advantage program.
Bulk Sales to Consumers can be as much or as little as you decide upon. Just decide upon a scale (1-5: 10% off, etc).
Bulk Sales to Corporations are usually very substantial, from 60-75%. Sometimes the corporation requires mention on the cover or a whole new cover. This is possible if you do a new print run, but should cost them something over and above the cover price. The nice thing about these sales is that they are non-returnable.
Distributors
and Wholesalers
Please see this article about
Distributors
and
Wholesalers
Distributors take your book and get it into wholesalers and bookstores. They generally have catalogs and some sales force to let the world know that your book exists. They almost always demand an exclusive contract—meaning you can’t sign up with other distributors or wholesalers. They usually take 60-68% of retail price (this includes wholesaler fees (see explanation)), depending on the deal you work out with them. All can and will return unsold books (See the discussion).
Note: they do not market (see explanation) your book. Marketing is your business. If you don't tell the world about your book, all the distributors in the world stocking your book won't matter—you'll get them all back.
It's up to you to let your distributor know when you have a promotion. Discover the name, phone number (and e-mail) of your buyer in the company. Alert them when you are doing a signing, events, or know about a high visibility piece of publicity coming out. Then they can order more books so they are available for the coming demand.
Many distributors don't wish to deal with small publishers. Attracting a company is often difficult.
Creative Minds Press distributes select non-fiction titles.
Here are some large distributors to try and contact:
Book Clearing House
Client Distribution Services (CDS)
Independent Publisher’s Group (IPG)
Midpoint Trade Books
National Book Network (NBN)
Partner’s Book Distributing
Publisher’s Group West (PGW)
Small Press Distribution
Wholesalers are the "middlemen" of the book world. Getting your book into a wholesaler is, in general, a good thing, in that few booksellers will order directly from a small publisher. Most wholesalers charge some fee to list you in their database. They all require a 55% discount to stock an item. All can and will return unsold books ( See the discussion).
Some small press / self-publishers insist that wholesalers take less (ie: 20%). This guarantees that the book is marked "special order only" and will only be ordered by booksellers who have a customer order.
The 2 biggest wholesalers are Ingram and Baker & Taylor (see explanation), but there are many smaller ones.
Marketing (see explanation) is your business. If you don't tell the world about your book, all the wholesalers in the world stocking your book won't matter—you'll get them all back.
As a distributor, Creative Minds Press handles all wholesale sales.
If you are distributing yourself, it's up to you to let your wholesaler know when you have a promotion. Discover the name, phone number and e-mail of your buyer in the company. Alert them when you are doing a signing, events, or know about a high visibility piece of publicity coming out. Then they can order more books so they are available for the coming demand.
Ingram and
Baker & Taylor
How do I get in to Baker
& Taylor (also called B&T)?
Join SPAN (Small Publishers Association of North America (see explanation)) or PMA (Publisher’s Marketing Association (see explanation)) to get your book in to the Baker & Taylor small press program. B&T will require you to send 3-5 books and sign an agreement to sell books to them at a 55% discount.
You can demand they take a lower discount, but your books will only be special-ordered, not stocked. Contact them by going to this website and click on the pdf for "Establish a Relationship"
As a distributor, Creative Minds Press handles all wholesale sales.
How do I register a new title with Baker and Taylor?
If you are already registered with Baker & Taylor, go to this webpage to put new titles into their database.
As a distributor, Creative Minds Press handles all wholesale sales.
How do I get into Ingram?
If you are a one or two book publisher, Ingram doesn't really want to know about you. That's harsh, considering they are the #1 wholesaler in the Industry and the first question you are likely to hear from a bookseller is "Are you in Ingram?" One way around this is to get in with a distributor who stocks Ingram
You can read about their policies on this webpage
Lightning Source, Inc. or LSI is a digital printer that is owned by Ingram. Under LSI's book distribution program, you can have your book printed to fulfill direct orders Ingram receives from booksellers, libraries and on-line companies (ie: Amazon).
As a distributor, Creative Minds Press handles all wholesale sales.
Returns and other unpleasant facts
Back in the Depression, when bookstores were going under right and left, publishers realized they had to do something radical to keep booksellers in business. They came up with the idea of returns—a system whereby any bookseller may return any book, with little regard for how long the book was kept or what condition it was in. No one told the book business the Depression ended 70 years ago. We still have a system that—not to put too fine a point on it—sucks. Few other industries operate on what amounts to a giant consignment scheme.
What does this mean to me as a publisher?
Any book you send out to a bookstore can come back. They will frequently be damaged (see the explanation on what to do with "hurt" books). If they have passed through a wholesaler, it's hard to tell who damaged it, when. While you may file a complaint for a damaged book, it's rare that one wins that dispute.
What if I tell the wholesalers I won’t take returns?
You can refuse to take any returns. This will force your book into the "special orders" category and the books will not be stocked. Unless you have a very strong Marketing Plan (see explanation) for sales outside of the book trade, this is not recommended.
How can I manage returns?
The best way to manage returns is to have a clear Marketing Plan (see the section). After all, a book isn’t really purchased until it’s bought by the end consumer (not the bookstore). What are you doing to get your customers to go into bookstores and buy that book?
Keep your expectations in line. If you recommend to the buyer at Baker & Taylor that they order 200 books for your signing at the local bookstore, you are part of the problem. You will likely get 150 of those back—at least.
But you need to get used to the fact that you will get returns. That's the nature of the business.
helps distribution customers manage returns.What do I do with "hurt" books?
Returns that are damaged are called hurts. You can sell them on your website, eBay, or the Marketplace part of Amazon. The less damaged ones you can give to your local library or literacy agency.
See my article on using Amazon's Marketplace for these tips and other things Amazon.
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