Book Distributors
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How To Do Your Own eBook Distribution – UPDATED
Kindle, Kobo, iBooks, Nook, Sony, Blio…. UPDATED FOR MARCH 2014
Here are some questions that keep authors up nights:
1. What is the best way to get my ebook up on all the major platforms?
2. How do I get set up?
3. What files do I use?
4. Do I use Smashwords? BookBaby?
5. Do I need to pay someone a cut or a fee to do my ebook distribution?
AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!
Here are the answers:
1. The best way to get your ebook out up on all major platforms is to spend an hour setting up accounts with Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Googlebooks and iTunes. The rest can wait. Seriously. Kindle alone is over 90% of ebook sales; so with Nook, Kobo, Googlebooks and iTunes included? You are ALL SET.
2. How do I get set up? EASY! Here are the links you need to set up your own accounts:
KINDLE
http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
NOOK
http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/
KOBO
http://secure.kobobooks.com/auth/Kobo/login
iBOOKS
http://itunesconnect.apple.com/ (make sure you have a MAC for this one… they do not let PC’s upload files)
GOOGLEBOOKS
http://books.google.com/partner/add-books-form
3. The files you will need are .epub and .prc. Most ebook platforms use .epub, but Kindle needs a .prc (or .mobi) file to look really good.
If you don’t know anyone who can turn your word document or pdf into a .epub or .prc file, email me at info@newshelves.com and I will get you hooked up. DO NOT pay more than $1 a page for this service. Too many authors are paying WAY too much!
4. You CAN use Bookbaby and Smashwords to do your book. They are both great companies, but they take a cut of your sales and very often the look of your ebook is not as professional or as top line as it should be. If you don’t mind giving up a percentage of your sales, they are a good option.
5. For about an hour of your time as an investment, however, you can EASILY set up your own accounts.
(At this point, I want to remind you all of something we here at New Shelves OFFER EBOOK DISTRIBUTION. We do it every day. I am telling you, you DO NOT NEED US to do your eBook distribution…. You can do it yourselves and save yourself the 50 cents a unit we charge or the hefty percentage that our competition charges. You can do it.)
6. As for the AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH portion of the process? Here is a eBook account set up worksheet that will allow you to pull all of the information you need into one place before you start and that way you can move easily through the set up process on each platform.
Call me if you need any help.
Do You Have a Book Distributor? Are You Sure?
I had so much fun talking with the authors and indy publishers at AuthorU earlier this month. Here is a snippet that explains in detail the difference between Wholesalers, Distributors and Fulfillment Houses.
Too often I get calls from authors/small press owners who tell me that they “have a distributor”… then they mention Ingram or Baker & Taylor. CLOSE! But no…. check out this 2 minute video to see why:
Book Distribution vs. Book Wholesalers
New Customer Service Manager
New Shelves Publishing Services is pleased to announce that Tricia Martin has joined NSPS as our Customer Service Manager.
Tricia comes to us from her previous jobs as Project Coordinator and Office Manager in the technology industry.
Tricia’s attention to detail and organizational skills have impressed us greatly. She has already come up with several key ideas to save us time and allow us to be more helpful to our clients.
Nicole Riley will still be handling all of the sales functions for New Shelves (and now she will have a lot more time to do so!) and Amy is always available if you need anything, but we are very excited about Tricia’s new position.
If you need reports, want to order shipments, if you have questions about anything, or need corrections/changes in our databases, please email Tricia at tricia@newshelves.com or feel free to call her at our main number: 518-261-1300.
Math Lessons For Small Presses – Part 3
Lesson #3 – DISTRIBUTORS
Bookstores buy books from wholesalers and distributors. The major difference is that a wholesaler is publisher’s customer (wholesalers buy books from a publisher) and a distributor is a publisher’s employee (distributors sell their services to a publisher).
A distributor handles all of the après-production elements of getting a book onto a store’s shelves. Publishers agree to funnel all of their sales, warehousing, shipping, and billing through the distributor. They do this work for a percentage of the billing generated by the sale of the publisher’s books.
Like publishers, distributors sell a book to a wholesaler or bookstore at a discount of the retail price. That discount is usually between 45 and 55 percent.
So, if bookstores get about the same terms and about the same schedule, why do they go to a distributor instead of directly to the publisher? Some bookstores (especially bookstore chains) are not interested in setting up new, small, or regional publishers in their ordering and accounting systems for just a few books. They rightly weigh the benefits of a publisher’s book against the time and trouble necessary to order it, and if the balance does not come out in the book’s favor, they skip it. How do new and small publishers avoid this terrible fate? They sign exclusive agreements with a distributor.
A distributor’s cut varies from 25 to 35 percent of the net billing of each book. Just about every distributor has additional monthly fees, and most require an initial deposit for new clients.
Before you balk, keep in mind that it is very difficult, expensive, and time consuming to handle your own warehousing, purchase shipping materials, and learn how to ship exactly how each store wishes their shipments to arrive … and everyone is different. (It’s a little joke they like to play on publishers. I am convinced that bookstore owners get together every two years to devise slightly altered yet completely incomprehensible trafficking instructions.) Then comes the billing, monthly statements, handling claims for books damaged in transit, taking in returns, and reconciling the amount due with what the bookstore believes is due.
After that, consider the money and time it takes to tell the country’s thousands of buyers about your books. The sales reps working for distributors have long-standing relationships with the book buyers in your hometown, across the country, and in the major chains. You would not be able to start a fledgling relationship on your own with these buyers. What an experienced sales rep can often do with a phone call, you could rarely accomplish with six months and a great deal of research, e-mails, flyers, catalogs, paperwork, and free samples.
Back to the math!
A book priced at retail is $16.95
A distributor sells it to a wholesaler for $7.63 (55% discount)
The distributor will charge the publisher on average $2.15 to handle that order.
Shipping and other fees will cost about $1.30 cents a book (give or take)
The publisher gets $4.18 for the book from the distributor 6 months later when the payment comes in.
After the productions costs of $3.25 are taken into consideration, the end profit is about .93 cents a book.
(AND the distributor does most of the work)
So there you have it. Math by an English Major for Publishers. Let me know if you have any questions!
Math Lessons for Small Presses – Part 2
Lesson #2
WHOLESALERS and how they sell books:
Book wholesalers are companies that buy books from publishers at a deep discount and hold them in their warehouses so that Internet and “brick and mortar” stores can order the books from them. Bookstores like to use wholesalers for a number of reasons: namely speed, convenience, and less financial exposure.
Book Distribution is not easy!
When a bookstore orders a book from a wholesaler, they will usually get their order in twenty-four hours. Next-day service is the standard from the top wholesalers. The discount a store can usually expect to receive off the retail price of the book from a wholesaler is 40 to 45 percent. What the bookstore loses in profit margin, they often make up in convenience and risk reduction. A book ordered from a wholesaler can be combined and shipped with hundreds of other books.
Some stores hire wholesalers to stock, manage, and handle all aspects of their book departments. There are large “big-box” chains that happily hand their title selection and discount negotiations over to a wholesaler that will manage the entire department for them. The same can sometimes be true for libraries. There are many U.S. library systems dependent upon wholesalers for all their new books. People at the chain or library office work with the wholesalers and oversee the choices, but how closely that is managed depends upon each individual situation.
The difference between a wholesaler and a distributor is this: A distributor works FOR the publisher. A publisher hires them to handle the warehousing, shipping, order processing and sales of their book. A wholesaler does not work for a publisher, they are the publisher’s customer. They buy books from the publisher and resell to THEIR customers.
Most wholesalers have the word “distributor” in their name. This is to identify them as companies that distribute books to bookstores and libraries, but they are not the same sort of distributor that you need when B&N sends you a letter telling you to “get a distributor”.
If you want your book to have a chance at a bookstore chain like Barnes & Noble or BooksAMillion, and if you don’t want to hire a distributor, a wholesaler is your next best bet.
The two biggest book wholesalers for the book industry right now are Ingram and Baker & Taylor. You can find their application processes on their websites. Send your books in with the proper paperwork and try to get your titles into at least one of these wholesaler’s warehouses. Ingram and B&T do not usually take small presses, but B&T will sign up a small publisher if they have enough marketing and sales plans to support the book.
Ingram has recently partnered with IBPA and through them, a small press CAN get listed in Ingram’s system. However, only a very small fraction of those books get ordered and stock at Ingram. Only the books with strong demand get stocked, the rest are just listed and Ingram will order a book from the publisher when a store backorders one. (and the kicker? Most bookstores will not back order.)
Remember, if you get an order, you will be selling your books to the wholesaler at a discount of at least 55 percent. They will usually order only as many as they need to fulfill the demand coming in from their customers … stores and libraries. If they are overstocked or books come back from the stores, they will return those books to you for a full refund. (Having fun yet?)
So, back to the math:
A book priced at retail is $16.95
A publisher sells it to a wholesaler for $7.63 (55% discount)
The wholesaler has paid $7.63 for the book.
They then turn around and sell it to the bookstore for $9.83 (40% discount off of the retail)
The wholesaler pays for the overnight shipping and packing materials. The profit for the wholesaler is $2.20
Many of my clients want to know why they have to give so much of the profit to distributors and wholesalers. The short answer is: they don’t. It is possible to convince your local stores to stock your book on consignment or to sell them directly on Amazon yourself. However, the shipping costs, time spent and number of venues that will not take your book often turn out to cost publishers FAR more than a wholesaler’s cut….
Math Lessons for Small Presses
Lesson #1
PUBLISHERS and how they sell books:
If a publisher wants to get their books into a bookstore or library, they will have to sell their book to a store or a wholesaler at a deep discount. That discount is usually between 40 and 55 percent off of the retail price. It can sometimes be 60 percent or more if the store is part of a chain or a wholesaler that has a central warehouse and has extra costs associated with getting the books to THEIR customers.
The book buyer for the wholesaler or store will contact the publisher, place a purchase order for books, and expect to receive them in five to seven days. They expect to be billed for these books, but will usually require at least ninety days to pay.
If you want to become a publisher, here are a few things you should think about. You have to plan and budget carefully. Small presses usually aren’t paid for three to four months or longer. Plan for not getting paid for 6-7 months.
You will have to pay to ship the books to them. They rarely will pay a small press for shipping. If you want to take a stand, I applaud you! But it will cost you some sales.
Now, are you ready for the big hit? Publishers may not even see the money they think they are owed because the books are bought on a returnable basis. Fully returnable. One hundred percent. (Or as we used to say when we were kids: backsies!) After a publisher has shipped a book to a store, the bookstore has the right to ship it right back for any reason.
So, a book priced at retail is $16.95
A publisher sells it to a wholesaler for $7.63 (55% discount)
The publisher then waits sometimes 6 months for the $7.63 or for the book to be returned.
If the book’s printing and design/editorial costs are in line with what they should be, each book should have cost the publisher approximately $ 3.25 per unit to produce.
The shipping and distribution costs of GETTING a $16.95 book to the wholesaler is usually around $3.50 a book. (this factors in calls to stores and wholesalers, sample copies or flyers sent to buyers, shipping of books, materials, returns… it assumes that you are doing everything yourself.
That leaves the publisher .88 cents a unit in profit.
Where does all the rest of the money go? Why does a wholesaler take so much? That leads us to next week’s Lesson #2
Distributors vs. Wholesalers
What is the difference between WHOLESALERS and DISTRIBUTORS?
A Distributor will sell and promote your books to the bookstores and libraries. They will have reps contact the stores and wholesalers who are most likely to want your book and pitch them the merits of your title.
A wholesaler has a warehouse and is a passive company that will purchase books from you, and then resell the books. They do not pitch your books, they wait and handle incoming orders only.
A distributor also has a warehouse. But they are not passive. They will store, pick, ship, invoice and collect on your behalf as well as handle customer service and most likely offer sales and marketing services as well. They are not your customer, they work for you. You give them money in exchange for the services they do for you.
A wholesaler is your customer. They buy books from you. Some of the bigger ones are called Ingram, Baker & Taylor, Bookazine, Brodart, New Leaf and Quality.
Ingram and Baker & Taylor are two of the largest book wholesalers in North America and they have warehouses all over the US. These warehouse hold book and when a retailer (bookstore or library) asks for a book, Ingram or B&T will send it to them. Both Ingram and Baker & Taylor offer distribution services as well, but only to a certain group of publishers and even though they have the word DISTRIBUTION in their names, they are most likely not distributing your books.
When a bookstore asks who your distributor is, you should be using names like NBN, IPG, New Shelves Distribution, Atlas Books or Book Hub. Ingram and B&T are not your distributor, but the bookstores will be happy to know that your book is available at those wholesalers.
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