Some info on book distribution
May. 21st, 2012 04:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfSome nifty things I am learning from bookstores regarding print on demand titles and the relative difficulty in obtaining same:
1. Ingram distribution which owns Lightning Source, one of the biggest POD publishers, is no longer offering the standard full discount (40%) on backlist titles. Not sure how new this is, but I just started hearing about it this year. What this means from my perspective is that while Silver Moon can be ordered in (until such time as it becomes a "backlist" title - end of 2012?) through Ingram, it's not cost-effective for bookstores to carry my other books unless they order them directly from Lethe Press.
2. Baker and Taylor was the other distribution option but apparently they are now randomly picking and choosing which books they feel like carrying because they're doing their own POD and are disinclined to carry books by competitors.
Needless to say, this is putting a squeeze on both small presses, many of which use POD and indie bookstores, many of which were surviving on backlist titles that were no longer available at B&N and the other chains. This is also why you'll see some indies suddenly charging more than cover price for titles from the presses which use POD (I'm less than understanding about that practice when they already have the books in stock or when the publisher in question is local to the store and could supply them with books, both of which I've seen within recent memory).
None of this gives me any idea as to why Amazon.com still has the print edition of Silver Moon listed as "temporarily out of stock" when they are closely linked to Ingram/Lightning Source and the book is available and out on the shelves at Women & Children First Bookstore, Outwords Books, Giovanni's Room, and A Room of One's Own Bookstore, as well as sitting in a largish box in the trunk of my car and on order from IndieBound. If you were kind enough to preorder the book from Amazon and you haven't heard from them, please feel free to contact them and complain that it's available elsewhere since one of the points of preordering is that you'd get the book when it came out, not after everyone else has it. Grumble, growl.
And none of this impacts the ebook editions, now readily available on Kindle, Nook/Smashwords, Bella Distribution, Wizard's Tower Books, and via download from the Lethe Press website. More to come, I suspect.
Now back to prepping for my reading tomorrow night at Outwords Books.
1. Ingram distribution which owns Lightning Source, one of the biggest POD publishers, is no longer offering the standard full discount (40%) on backlist titles. Not sure how new this is, but I just started hearing about it this year. What this means from my perspective is that while Silver Moon can be ordered in (until such time as it becomes a "backlist" title - end of 2012?) through Ingram, it's not cost-effective for bookstores to carry my other books unless they order them directly from Lethe Press.
2. Baker and Taylor was the other distribution option but apparently they are now randomly picking and choosing which books they feel like carrying because they're doing their own POD and are disinclined to carry books by competitors.
Needless to say, this is putting a squeeze on both small presses, many of which use POD and indie bookstores, many of which were surviving on backlist titles that were no longer available at B&N and the other chains. This is also why you'll see some indies suddenly charging more than cover price for titles from the presses which use POD (I'm less than understanding about that practice when they already have the books in stock or when the publisher in question is local to the store and could supply them with books, both of which I've seen within recent memory).
None of this gives me any idea as to why Amazon.com still has the print edition of Silver Moon listed as "temporarily out of stock" when they are closely linked to Ingram/Lightning Source and the book is available and out on the shelves at Women & Children First Bookstore, Outwords Books, Giovanni's Room, and A Room of One's Own Bookstore, as well as sitting in a largish box in the trunk of my car and on order from IndieBound. If you were kind enough to preorder the book from Amazon and you haven't heard from them, please feel free to contact them and complain that it's available elsewhere since one of the points of preordering is that you'd get the book when it came out, not after everyone else has it. Grumble, growl.
And none of this impacts the ebook editions, now readily available on Kindle, Nook/Smashwords, Bella Distribution, Wizard's Tower Books, and via download from the Lethe Press website. More to come, I suspect.
Now back to prepping for my reading tomorrow night at Outwords Books.