Need Help With Publishing?

Now that the Publishing Gems book is complete (I've passed it to our production department for interior layout and galley cover design), I've been able to focus more on the true Outskirts Press publishing guide, entitled Adventured in Publishing, An Interactive Guide to Publishing Your Book. Don't have a date on that, yet. Publishing Gems will have an official publishing date in April to allow enough time for reviews to be posted and published, but a sneak peek of the published book will be available at the CIPA college in March. I haven't decided whether to charge or give it away yet. I visualize the cover, and will be able to post the .jpg of it here, soon.

Both the Publishing Gems book and the Adventures in Publishing Interactive Guide are designed to help the self-publishing writer choose the right path when publishing his or her book. Here's a sample from the former:

ELEVEN TIPS FOR ENHANCING YOUR DISTRIBUTION

1) The higher the retail margin, the greater the distribution

It should come as no surprise that the amount of distribution your book enjoys rests largely upon its retail margin. There is an acceptable range, but generally, the book retailer is looking for an industry standard of 37% or higher.

2) Distributors want to make money, too

While your book's margin is but a piece of your pie, it is the entire cake for distributors and retailers, who together must split the take. The greater the margin, the larger the cake, and the larger the piece for the distributor and retailer to share. Hence, the greater incentive they have to distribute your book, sell your book, market your book, etc.

3) The optimal trade discount is 50-55%

Most distributors expect to see between a 50-55% trade discount, which enables them to take a respectable piece and offer the book to the retailer at 40% off retail. For example, the Amazon Advantage program mandates a 55% margin because many self-published authors deal with the online retailer directly.

4) Lower your margins by publishing with an established online publisher

It’s not hard to see that once you factor in man-hours of facilitation, postage costs for shipping the books to Amazon, and a 55% margin, selling books through Amazon’s “Advantage” program is to their advantage, not yours. This mathematical fact alone is one reason many self-publishers are turning to alternate publishing companies.

5) Leverage a publishing company’s relationship with Ingram

Because of their relationships with Ingram and other distributors, print-on-demand and custom publishers can list an author’s book on Amazon.com for a mere 20%. Doing so means the author no longer has to worry about inventory, shipping, and invoicing issues. These advantages, not to mention the substantially lower margin, are reasons enough to investigate custom publishing options.

6) Understand the relationship between margin and price

For self-publishing writers, the proper retail margin depends upon each author's intentions, and can vary from author to author just as readily as from book to book. In most cases, the higher the retail margin, the higher the cover price, so authors interested in maintaining the lowest cover price possible will often opt for a lower retail margin. Self-publishing through a custom publishers provides the writer with this flexibility.

7) Set your margin according to your distribution goals


Conversely, those authors who long for the best distribution possible will elect a higher retail margin, even though their cover price will increase accordingly. Non-fiction or niche-markets are less affected by higher retail prices and benefit from the improved distribution resulting from offering the highest possible margin.

8) Know when to say when on discounting

For those custom publishing companies that allow the author to set their own trade discount (and there aren’t many – Outskirts Press is one), margins are capped at 55%. Even though the ultimate difference between retail margin and trade discount is the result of a proprietary negotiation between the distributor and retailer, 55% typically results in everybody being satisfied. Anything higher becomes superfluous.

9) Don’t underestimate a low retail price

Websites like www.froogle.com allow readers to price-shop before buying, so sometimes a lower retail price takes care of the distribution (or at least exposure) all by itself. A reasonable cover price is also one of the criteria most chain book buyers look for when deciding whether to stock a book on their shelves.

10) Don’t overestimate a high margin

While it’s true that most book retailers will most likely refuse to order, sell, or even stock a book unless it meets a minimum retail margin, a book’s margin is only one of the criteria they look for. (See Five Criteria for Getting Shelf Space, page ______).

11) Understand industry standards

As we learned with the movie, Spiderman, "with great power comes great responsibility." Self-publishing authors who have the power to set their own margins need to understand the standards expected in the industry. Industry standards for retail margins are difficult to define because, ultimately, it comes down to negotiation between all parties involved. Publishers have the power to negotiate with distributors, who have the power to negotiate with wholesalers, who have the power to negotiate with retailers, who have the ability to modify the retail price to anything they want.

The minimum "industry standard" retail margin is 37%, but it's safest simply to round to 40%. A 40% retail margin is the best compromise between optimal distribution and reasonable retail price. And as stated earlier, in order to ensure a 40% retail margin by the time the negotiation ends between the bookstore and the distributor, an initial trade margin of 50%-55% is recommended.