Book Distribution for Dummies
I feel like I’ve been taking this course for the past few weeks. Distribution covers everything that happens after your book enters the physical realm. When you publish with a traditional house, a lot of these decisions are made for you, and you’re (usually) not financially on the hook for them.
But when you’re self-publishing? Whole different ballgame. Because you’re paying up front for everything related to your book, every decision has financial implications.
First, you have to decide how many books you want to print.
You need to print enough books to make the unit cost palatable, but not so many that you won’t be able to sell them. This involves a lot of math and a lot of soul searching to decide how just how much of a bet you want to make on yourself.
Next, you have to decide how you’re gonna store the books.
If you’re doing 100% direct distribution, you’d better have room in your house for a lot of books. If not, you have to pay a monthly fee for your books to be stored in a climate-controlled warehouse until they’re sold.
Then, you have to pay for your books to be shipped to you and/or your storage location.
According to the estimates my team has given me, it’ll cost at least 40 cents per book to ship pallets from the printer to a warehouse. And it’ll cost 70 cents per book, minimum, to ship books directly to my home unless I can find a friend with a loading dock that can accept a 53-foot trailer.
Editor’s Note: After the original newsletter version of this note was sent, I did, in fact, find a loading dock! Endless thanks to Julia Capallo (A Marvelous Spark Creative Studio) and Emily Shanahan (Fairway Packaging).
Finally, you have to decide how and where your books will be sold.
Selling books directly obviously gets the most revenue. But you’re also the one packing/lugging boxes, printing labels, paying table fees, and/or pounding the pavement to sell your book to local bookstores and libraries.
That’s a lot of work.
Selling through any third-party reduces your workload, but it also significantly reduces your revenue per book (and that’s before you account for taxes). For example:
If you buy my book through Amazon, I’ll make an average 57% profit per book sold.
If you buy my book through the warehouse, I’ll make an average 65% profit per book sold.
If I were to do full trade distribution (which means you could buy it at a Barnes & Noble or online through Bookshop.org) my book would be easier to find, but I’d make even less per book in profit.
Is your head spinning yet? I’ve been dizzy for a solid two weeks.
In the next few days, I’ve gotta choose: Should I go big and bet that I can sell a couple thousand copies of this book in the next three years? Or should I play it safe, print a smaller amount, and hope I can at least come close to breaking even?
Editor’s Note: I ended up splitting the difference: Not getting the minimum, but staying with a number that felt feasible. Here’s hoping it was the right decision!