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DISTRIBUTION TO
THE BOOK TRADE by Dan Poynter
There are four stages in the life of every
book: writing, producing (printing & binding), distributing and promoting.
Each step is a unique challenge and each challenge must be met. Authors write
and promote, publishers produce and distribute and self-publishers do all four.
Now let's look at distribution.
Some self-publishers feel the system
is unfair; they feel their books are being kept from the bookstores. In most
cases, they just do not understand the book trade.
Publisher
Wholesaler Distributor Online Independent Chain Bookstore Bookstore Bookstore
The Book Trade Stores. There are about 15,000 brick &
mortar stores in the U.S. that sell books. Some 8,000 of them are chain and
independent bookstores that sell only books, (plus magazines and coffee). About
3,000 bookstores are a good match for any given book. Bookstores are profiled.
Store buyers know the wants of the customers in their neighborhoods. If you
have a business book, it will be sent to downtown stores. If you have a
parenting book, it will be sold in the malls in the suburbs. If a chain store
buys your book, they will not place it in every store in the chain. They will
place it in those stores with a large percentage of customers who are
interested in the book's subject.
Wholesalers warehouse books
and supply bookstores. The two major wholesalers are Ingram and Baker &
Taylor; there are dozens of smaller ones. Ingram serves more bookstores than
libraries while Baker & Taylor is stronger in library sales. Ingram has
five warehouses across the US; they have a facility within one-day UPS of more
than 90% of the stores.
Distributors appear to be the same as
wholesalers but with one important difference: distributors have sales reps
that visit the stores and get the orders.
“Wholesalers perform a
valuable order-consolidation and distribution service, but they don’t
market individual titles.” —Mark Sexton
Wholesalers only
make your book available if a bookstore orders. Distributors prime the
book-pipeline pump by placing the book in the store.
Buyer Discount
Nets Publisher Retains Nets Distributor 66% ($13.17) Publisher 34% ($6.78)
Wholesaler 55% ($10.97) Publisher 45% ($8.98) Bookstore 40% ($7.98) Publisher
60% ($11.97) Reader 0% ($19.95) Publisher 100% ($19.95) Based on a book's list
price of $19.95
Who is Getting a Piece of the Action? Costs.
Middlemen cost and services cost. The more you want, the more you pay.
Wholesalers have to give the stores 40-45%. Distributors have to sell to the
wholesalers at 50-55% off and stores at 40-45% off.
So how does the
investor/publisher make money? In the increased volume. Printing is a
quantity game: the more you print, the lower the per-unit cost. Focus on the
buying and selling prices not just the 66% you have to give away. Selling to
the book trade will increase your volume.
Most of your sales will
probably be to the non-traditional markets—those outside the book trade.
For example, I sell more parachute books to parachute catalogs/stores, the U.S.
Parachute Association and skydiving schools than I do to bookstores. And, of
course, you will make many retail sales to the ultimate buyer/reader.
Sending 20 cartons of books to a distributor requires the same amount of
paperwork as sending a single book to a bookstore. Accordingly, distributors
are very important to you. In fact, if your dealer price list requires a large
number of books for a discount, it will force more stores to order from
wholesalers and distributors, which may simplify your business.
Why
not just sell to bookstores and keep 60%? Because most bookstores will not buy
directly from you. They would rather write 25 checks at the end of the month
than 25,000. It costs them too much to open and serve a new account. So they
buy from major publishers, distributors and wholesalers.
“A
distributor is a surrogate sales department for a group of independent
publishers.” —Julie Bennett
A distributor serves as
almost a division of your publishing company. They get your book into the
wholesalers such as Ingram and Baker & Taylor, the online stores such as
Amazon.com and B&N.com and into the independent bookstores. They transmit
the bibliographic data and make sure your book is in the systems of each player
in the book trade.
Distributors require an exclusive in the book trade
(only). Store buyers do not like to have a book presented to them more than
once. The exclusive is for bookstores and wholesalers only. You are free to
sell elsewhere and may even have to find another distributor to serve other
industries such as gift stores or sporting goods stores.
If you can
land (the right) distributor, you can forget the wholesalers, chains, online
stores and independents. The distributor will serve them for you. Then you can
concentrate your efforts on the non-traditional markets that are easier to
reach, much more lucrative and a lot more fun.
Distributors
specialize. There are about 85 distributors across North America; some
carry several categories or genres while others sell just one type of book such
as computer, children's or cookbooks. Now the question is how do you find the
right distributor? The secret is to match your book (or line of books) with a
distributor that already offers titles of the same type. They will have a
relationship with stores that have major sections of that type of book and they
may be serving other appropriate stores outside the book trade. See
http://parapub.com/getpage.cfm?file=resource/promote.html
Getting paid. Most distributors operate on consignment inventory and
pay 90 days after they sell the books to the bookstore or wholesaler. You will
not be paid for a long time. While publishers should avoid selling to small
accounts on consignment, there are good arguments for these terms with major
distributors. Book manufacture requires large print runs, so part of your
inventory might just as well sit in another warehouse as your own.
Sending 20 cartons of books to a distributor requires the same amount of
paperwork as sending a single book to a bookstore. Shipping by the carton will
simplify your business.
The five large publishers have sales reps to
get their books into stores. The medium-sized and small publishers have
distributors that have sales reps to get their books into stores. The playing
field is level. With a distributor, you will have the same access to the
bookstores as Simon & Schuster.
Dan Poynter does not want
you to die with a book still inside you. You have the ingredients and he has
your recipe. Dan has written more than 100 books since 1969 including Writing
Nonfiction and The Self- Publishing Manual. For more help on book writing, see
http://ParaPub.com. ©
2003
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