Not all self publishers give thought as to how they will market their book once the final product is in their hands. There are many ways to market a book, which usually involves the publisher doing the leg work. However, not all publishers see themselves as marketers, so one way to sidestep the sales process is for them to find a distributor.
Vanity Press Distributors (www.vanitypress.com.au) was originally set up to keep distribution costs for the publisher down. It's aim was to simply be an online bookshop for use by Australian small and self publishers to sell their books.
Today I had a telephone call from a brand new self publisher seeking distribution advice. Naturally, I want her book on my site, where our commission is 25%. However, as her print run was in the thousands, it occurred to me that perhaps I could phyically distribute the book for her, as well as posting it on our website. The topic on which she wrote has a potentially wide appeal, and I was confident that bookshops, even the major high street stores, would be interested.
It took only a couple of phone calls for a reality check.
The Recommended Retail Price (RRP) for her book is $29. The major book chain I called wanted a 45% disount. This is a modest discount as far as bookshops are concerned, being that some stores are asking for up to 60% trade discounts AND MORE.
So let's do the math.
As a self publisher, my client had spent about $10 per book. This included editing costs, the cover design, and the print run. At $29 for a direct sale, she should make $19 per book, if postage charges are paid for by the buyer. This does not include the freeby copies she would give away in her own marketing adventure.
On the Vanity Press Distributors website, the commission would amount to $7.25, leaving the publisher $21.75. Compare this to the bookshop's commission, which would be $13.05, leaving only $15.95 for the publisher - a profit margin of only $5.95 per book.
If I were to physically represent her book to book chains for a further 25% commission, that would leave the publisher a mere $11.96, reducing her profit margin to a tiny $1.96, hardly worth getting out of bed for!
This is the rather tough world of publishing as it exists today.
So, do you find a distributor, or do you D.I.Y?
That is a question only you can answer. However, a combination of means can be used. As there are few online distributors in Australia, Vanity Press Distributors is certainly filling a void in niche publishing, with one of the lowest trade discounts in the industry. This means can be used in combination with others, which have been addressed in previous articles on this site, and which will be addressed in further detail in the future.
Dallas Robertson
Vanity Press Distributors
www.vanitypress.com.au
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