Authors who are traditionally published have an advantage in that the publisher already has connections with book distributors to get books into stores.

Self-published authors, however, will wonder whether it is worthwhile to partner with a book distributor. While there are costs involved that can bite into your take home income from book sales by reducing your profit per book, ultimately the result can be more books sold.

As self-published authors, we often hear that the advantage is we get to keep all the profit, rather than just a small percentage, such as a royalty of 5-10% with a traditional publisher. But what does “keep all the profit” really mean?

Let’s say you paid $7.00 to print your book and have it shipped to you, and you’re going to sell it for $20.00 plus your state’s sales tax. Had that book been traditionally published and you got a 10% royalty, you’d have made $2.00 a copy (remember you didn’t have any printing costs).

If you sell your self-published book directly to a customer, you get to keep all $20.00, a profit of $13.00 per book.

By contrast, if you sell through a bookstore, gift shop, or other outlet, you have to give the bookstore a percentage, typically 40%, although it can vary by store. At 40%, that means you receive back $12.00. That’s still a $5 profit and nearly a double return on your investment.

A book distributor is going to want a bigger percentage because it will resell your book to a bookstore that will want 40%. Typically, book distributors want somewhere around 55%, giving them a 15% profit. That means you would receive $9.00 for your book, leaving you with only a profit of $2.00 (10% like your royalty might have been).

On top of that, the distributor will order books from you that you have to pay to ship, and if the books do not sell, the books will be returned to you—frequently with bent or worn covers that make it difficult for you to resell them independently. In other words, you could end up with books that aren’t sellable and no money from your efforts.

So why work with a book distributor?

Because a book distributor can get your book into multiple stores across the country. An author can only do so much on his or her own. You can easily deliver books in person to stores in your area, maybe even in your state, but the costs of gas, postage, and your time quickly make it impractical to try to market your book directly to stores outside of your area. Bookstores in the neighboring state are not likely even to know about your book if you don’t tell them, and even nearby bookstores may not be able to, or may not want to, work with you as an individual.

Certain corporate bookstores such as Barnes & Noble require that all their stores order only through a book distributor rather than dealing with individual authors. Other stores may just prefer to order only from a distributor because it’s easier to pay one vendor than keep track of invoices for fifty individual authors. If you want your book in a major bookstore chain, you’ll need a distributor.

Will book distributors market your book to these stores? No, they won’t individually talk to each store about your book, but they regularly produce catalogs that will have your book listed. These catalogs go to thousands of bookstores across the country, and while your book is competing with the hundreds of other books in the catalog, or at least the few dozen in the same category as yours, your book is more likely to be seen by more decision makers in more bookstores than you could have done on your own.

Furthermore, bookstores are often leery of self-published authors because they think self-published authors may not know industry basics such as the need for an ISBN number. A book distributor will not promote a book that doesn’t meet industry standards so being in a distributor catalog lets bookstores know your book looks “professional.”

Your book is still one of hundreds in the catalog, but sometimes distributors have special catalogs, such as a regional catalog that will market your book to its target regional audience. You can also take out ads in the catalogs. Ads can cost anywhere from about $50 to a few hundred dollars, but if you get enough orders, the ad will pay for itself.

If you’re still unsure whether you should work with a book distributor, give it a try. Contracts are generally only for a year or two and most distributors will be willing to negotiate the contract somewhat.

The major distributors to choose from are Partners, Ingram, and Baker & Taylor, but smaller distributors exist that handle only specific regions or specialize in distributing specific types of books. Do a little research online and talk to your local bookstores to find out which distributors they use and what they would recommend.

Hopefully, your book will soon be in many more stores.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Your book is published, the boxes have been delivered and it looks great! Now what? Well if you are a self-published author, you’ve got a lot of work ahead of you. It’s up to you to market and sell your book. While you may have some supporters who go to bat for you by in large it’s up to you to get out there and slog, slog, slog.

New to the book industry I had no idea what I was in for. Yes I had done some research but like most people I talk to now, they wonder what I could possibly be doing to fill my day.

The book I published is called the Personal Healthcare Journal. While not your typical novel it is still in book format, so it is still classified as a book. Markets for this product are extremely broad and so I have many avenues to pursue.

My book launch was held at an independent bookstore called McNally Robinson. They do a fantastic job of helping local authors get their books into consumer’s hands. They helped me organize an event complete with sound, chairs, coffee and tea. Leading up to the event they also had my book showcased on a table and pillar at the front of the store making it very visible. I invited scores of people but still only 20 or so people came – mostly family. I sold some books and was buoyed by the kind words from those in attendance.

A week prior to the book launch I was busy sending emails to news reporters hoping to score some really great media coverage. I managed to get three written pieces including the whole front page of a complete section in our largest paper and a spot on TV; this definitely helped sales.

So how do you get your book into a bookstore? Definitely getting media attention helps. In fact three bookstores called to ask me for copies to stock in their stores. In Canada all bookstores sell self-published books on consignment. What I have learned though is that when there is great media attention they drop their consignment rate from 45% to 40%. I still have to push a little when I pick up a new store on the consignment rate but it does seem somewhat negotiable.

Back to identifying markets for your book. Having a background in marketing communications I learned that often there is more than one place you can go to sell your product – you may need to think outside the box. In my case the new markets that quickly emerged were hospital gift shops, healthcare product stores and even pharmacies. These stores are similar to bookstores in that unless you have a distributor it’s up to you to visit each store individually and sell your wares. The great thing about these markets is they actually tend to purchase your product outright so you don’t have to wait for the books to sell as on consignment.

It’s a tough world out there – but if you’re assertive or tenacious you can do it! It also helps to offer to do a book signing because it draws business into the bookstore and at the end of the day no matter how amazing your book is it all comes down to money.

Betsy Hiebert is the author of Personal Healthcare Journal. You can learn more at http://www.mycarenecessities.com/.

1. Don’t be afraid to negotiate the different discounts. Wholesalers and distributors can be flexible on their terms. They don’t WANT to be, but if they want your product line, they will make a few concessions here and there. The exception is Ingram. It is either their way or the highway. However with IPG, Midpoint, and others if you speak up you might not leave as much money on the table as those who don’t.

2. Keep after your distributor to find “new” ways to sell your product. The sales staff of most distributors are hard working, but are lacking in much imagination. This is because they have a zillion books to hawk and it is hard to have good ideas on how to hawk all of them. Fax or e-mail your distributor contact every two weeks with an idea that their sales staff can take to the field.

3. You still must be your own best salesperson. This is doubly true if you only have a wholesaler. Remember, wholesalers don’t do squat to move your product. That’s your job. If you have a distributor, they have lots of publishers that they rep and are not going to give you as much effort as they originally promised or as you might want.

4. If your distributor (or potential distributor) has suggestions about what to price your book at, sit up and take notice. Most often they are close to the mark. If you produce a little 4×4 book on inspirational sayings and you want to sell it for $13.95 but are told by a distributor to price it at $8.95 do what they say. These people have a good track record on how to price books. Not always-but most often.

5. Don’t be afraid to question the reports you get. Many distributors have terrible computer systems and poor data entry accuracy. Make sure you reconcile the number of books you have sent against those that have sold against those still in inventory. If they don’t “tick and tie” (and sometimes they won’t) speak up and get an adjustment. You should have a good back-office software product yourself to keep track of sales and inventory both at your location and at your distributor/wholesaler(s). I can think of a really good one that only costs $14.95 a month and does it all. 

6. Don’t screw your distributor. If a store places an order with you, do the right thing and send it on to the distributor. If they hear that you filled it yourself they will be pissed and the last thing you need is a pissed off distributor.

7. If Ingram orders a quantity of books over 20, only send them 75% of what they order. This will save you the shipping cost when Ingram returns the overstock (which they will re-order a week or two later.)

8. When you get one or two books returned by Ingram, call your rep and tell them how upset you are. If it happens again, and you are a PMA member, contact the PMA and demand that they look into it.

9. If you expect some big publicity event to generate orders, call your wholesaler and distributor and let them know that they should order some more product. They will, and they will be glad you told them.

10. If Ingram is your only wholesaler AND you depend on the retail channel for 80% or more of your business, never, never, never piss them off. If they drop your account, you are out of business.

The real secret of this business is to find a way to by-pass the middle channel and sell direct. Get a web site. Make Amazon and B&N.com your best friends. That is where your future is. It is not with Ingram, IPG, or with brick/mortar stores.

Copyright Alan N. Canton. If you are in the publishing business, you must see JAYA123, the newest and most affordable back-office web-based system available. You can find it on http://www.jaya123.com/.