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New Self-Publisher’s FAQ
Understanding the Book Distribution
Channels
Self-published authors and small
publishers need to be clear on how they’ll get their books into the
hands of customers. To get the books to your consumers in the
traditional book trade, there is a whole back structure that one needs
to understand. As there has been much confusion on this issue in recent
on-line discussions, I thought I’d pitch in with definitions regarding
distributors and wholesalers, their advantages, disadvantages and some
other thoughts.
Distributors (Disclosure: my
company, Beagle Bay,
Inc.,
is a distributor of non-fiction):
These companies get your book into wholesalers (see below) and
bookstores. Some have a sales staff (reps) who visit bookstores.
There are many different companies out there. Bigger is not necessarily
better. Smaller doesn’t necessarily mean friendlier. And neither
guarantees solvency. Many distributors have folded in the last few
years. One small press acquaintance of mine had two go out from under
her. She had to pay to get her inventory back. Ask questions. Better
still, ask their current clients if they get paid on time.
Try going with a distributor who knows more about your market.
For instance: If you have a travel book, find someone who carries travel
books.
Distributors charge 25-35% of revenue earned. Some figure this
off list price, others off actual revenue (what is earned after
the wholesalers or bookstores take their
discount
(see the explanation). Wholesalers take 55%;
bookstores generally get 40-48% discount.
If your marketing plan is aimed
primarily at the book trade (bookstores and libraries),
you might consider getting your book with a distributor. Start
looking for one before you go to press.
If your marketing plan is
primarily aimed at areas other than the book trade (back of the
room (BOTR) sales after speeches, kitchen stores, etc.), then you should
probably skip distributors and look at vending directly to wholesalers
(see below).
Advantages:
Some of the bigger distributors can get your book into
Barnes & Noble
Bookstores, Borders Books and Music, Costco, etc. But you had better do
a lot of marketing to support that effort, or those books will
all come back (“returns”).
It’s hard to get attention as a one- to two-book press. Distributors
help you leverage your title by being part of a larger organization.
Distributors (or most) get you into
Ingram. Many
bookstores will simply not order a book unless it is listed with
this company. See more below about Ingram.
Distributors can send your book to the
pre-publication review
magazines. This apparently helps. Almost all the titles we’ve sent
to Publisher’s Weekly and the other pre-publication review
magazines have been reviewed by at least one. Being reviewed in one
of these magazines can give a substantial launch to a new book, in terms
of sales to libraries and, sometimes, bookstores. See the
discussion in Getting Noticed in the Wide World)
Books on Amazon—which Amazon
acquires through wholesalers—are listed at the favorable 20-30% off.
Amazon usually doesn’t do that with Advantage products, where
they are dealing directly with the publisher.
Distributors warehouse, pick, pack, ship, accept returns, bill
and send you the check. This leaves you time to market the book... and
plan more titles for your growing company.
A good distributor will work with you. They will help make sure
there are enough books in the system for events (let them know two
months in advance). They can provide feedback when you try different
marketing tactics.
Disadvantages:
Most are exclusive, meaning you have to let them sell your book to the
trade. Some get grumpy about selling off your own website.
They do add to your cost per book.
They do a little marketing—in that you are one (or a few) book in
their line. But you must do the heavy lifting, marketing-wise.
If you have done a digital print run, your cost per book is already too
high to work with a distributor.
This is one more layer between you and your ultimate customer.
Wholesalers:
Ingram,
Baker & Taylor, Quality Books and many other smaller
companies take orders from bookstores and libraries and then order from
a distributor or directly from the publisher. They want a
55% discount.
If you refuse to discount
and/or only let them have a smaller discount
(say 20%), your book will be on “special order only” status and the
wholesalers will not stock it. Booksellers are notoriously nervous about
ordering a book that is listed in Ingram,
Baker & Taylor, etc.,
as special order. For some books and
marketing plans, this isn’t a problem. For a traditional
marketing plan (targeted to the book trade), this is an invitation to
fiscal disaster. See a further discussion about
discounts and returns here.
Getting your book into Baker & Taylor and/or
Ingram will
get you stocked on Amazon, and
probably at the 20% off discount to customers. However, Amazon is
now buying titles in the wholesalers’ databases directly
(contacting publishers themselves), outside of the Advantage
program. It’s not clear if Amazon is discounting new titles acquired
this way.
Ingram is the six thousand pound gorilla of wholesalers. They
don’t accept books from publishers of less than ten titles or whose
income with Ingram is less than $25,000 a year. (This
figure will probably be raised to $30,000 next year.) This makes life
very hard for the new or struggling small press. Most bookstores
won’t bother with a book that isn’t listed in Ingram. It’s not
fair, but it’s the way things are.
Baker & Taylor is more open to small presses and self-publishers. They
have programs through SPAN (Small Publishers of North America) to sign
up. Be aware that unless there is significant ordering,
Baker & Taylor will not
stock your book. They will list it in their database and order when
there is activity. They have the most hair-trigger returns program I
know of (books can often come back two weeks after shipment when you are
a one- to two-book publisher). This is because they are terrified of you
owing them money (returns are charged back to you).
Note: Baker & Taylor underwent a reorganization of their accounts
payable office last year and it has been nothing short of a disaster. If
I tell you we were on a first-name basis with our AP person (Accounts
Payable), you should take that to mean we called frequently—and it wasn’t a friendly chat.
They have since gotten very much better. But I still hear from one- and
two-book publishers that they are still having problems getting invoices
paid in a timely fashion. You might require pre-pay. I don’t
know what this will do to your order status.
Advantages:
You get the orders from the wholesalers and have a good idea
where your book is selling per region.
You lower your cost per book by cutting out the middle-person (distributor).
You know what quality you ship out and what condition the
returns
are in (if the wholesaler says you shipped a case of torn books, you can
straighten them out).
You can ask your buyer to order extra copies because you are doing an
event (caution: don’t over order. Be very conservative, otherwise the
books
just come back (returns) and the buyer won’t believe you next time). Make sure you
do this at least one month in advance.
Disadvantages:
When the orders are just a few books a month, it doesn’t take much time
to deal with billing, shipping, processing returns and all the
other things that go into dealing with wholesalers. But if you
start having strong sales (which, of course, is due to your hard
marketing), you’ll spend more time shipping. At some point you have
to evaluate where you can delegate or out-source some work, so that you
can get crucial tasks done.
You are the one responsible for calling up and finding out where the
heck the check for invoice **** is.
All those books will take up your parking space in the garage. Otherwise
a storage unit is in your future.
And always remember—getting into distributors, wholesalers and
bookstores is not the important part. They
aren’t the end users of your product. If no one comes in to buy
your book, that title will be returned to you.
Self-publishers and small
publishers have to create demand for their book—which means
you have to figure out how to create customers!
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