independent bookstores
What's the Difference Between a Wholesaler and a Distributor?
July 29, 2010
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by Katie Steigman
Wherever you are in the process of writing or publishing your book, you’ve probably considered at some point how you’re going to get it out to all of your adoring fans. You might ask yourself: Once I’ve published my book, how will readers find and buy it? Wholesalers and distributors are the two main channels for getting your book into retailers like Barnes & Noble, Borders, and indie bookstores, as well as libraries and schools, but determining how these channels differ and which one is best for your book can be confusing.
Let’s start with wholesalers. Wholesalers like Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and Bookazine are the middlemen between you—the author or publisher—and most major book retailers. These retailers generally order books from wholesalers, which act as depots for your book. Retailers do this because it’s easier for them to order from a small number of trusted sources (wholesalers) rather than hundreds of individual authors and publishers (you). Thus, if you’re looking for national distribution to major retail channels, you generally have to be set up with a major wholesaler.
Although you may be listed with a wholesaler, it’s important to note that wholesalers generally do not market, pitch, sell, or push your book to retailers. Your title sits among thousands of other titles waiting for a retail buyer to take interest and order copies, and unless there is a compelling reason for the buyer do so, it’s unlikely that your book will be brought onto bookstore shelves.
This may be sufficient if you are not planning on marketing or publicizing your book. If, however, you are planning on aggressively marketing your book, you will want someone with connections to the national retail buyers to convince them that your title needs to be ordered from the wholesaler and put on bookstore shelves where consumers can see it, and hopefully buy it. That’s where distributors come in.
Distributors serve authors and publishers in two main functions:
1) They set up titles with many wholesalers.
2) They have an active sales force pitching and selling their exclusive line of titles directly to the retail buyers in the hopes of getting as many books as possible on shelves and in front of consumers.
“Why do I need a distributor to set me up with a wholesaler?” you might ask. Many wholesalers have 
an application process and require a minimum number of titles to be eligible. Ingram, for example, requires publishers or authors to have at least 10 titles before they will make their books available for order; if you have fewer than that, you need a distributor to get you set up in Ingram. You may also wonder, “What’s the benefit of having a someone pitch my book directly to the retailers?” As mentioned above, without someone actively and aggressively convincing buyers that your book needs to be on their shelves, in front of consumers, it will probably sit in a warehouse somewhere, never seeing the light of day. Distributors’ sales representatives often hold a certain amount of credibility in the buyers’ eyes as a trusted source of marketable, salable books. Good distributors and their sales reps are just as invested in selling your titles as you are, and their established relationships in the retail channel give you direct access to the desks of decision-makers at major retail chains.
So let’s recap: You want your book in Barnes & Noble, but you know you need to be listed with a wholesaler like Ingram before that can happen. Because you have fewer than 10 titles and are planning a publicity campaign around your book release, you realize you also need a distributor to get you into Ingram and pitch your book directly to Barnes & Noble. Your best course of action would be to hunt down a distributor who services Ingram and has a relationship with Barnes & Noble.
Clear as mud?
Understanding the fundamental differences between book wholesalers and distributors is important, but equally critical is establishing your distribution and sales goals for the book. If you’re not planning on doing any marketing to consumers and just want your book to be made available for your friends and family, a distributor probably isn’t necessary. If you’re planning on hiring a publicist and doing national media, you probably won’t get very far without one. Thinking carefully about your platform and marketing plans will help you determine realistic goals for your book’s distribution.
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Big Bad Bookstore Q&A: Vroman's (Pasadena, CA)
May 6, 2009
by GreenleafBookGroup
Vroman's Bookstore, Southern California's oldest and largest independent bookstore and Publishers Weekly Bookseller of the Year in 2008, is a literary institution. Vroman's webmaster Patrick Brown answered the seven questions in our indie bookstore Q&A, touching on—among other things—how altering the returns system would effect Vroman's buys and how they plan to get in the ebook game. (Image via.)
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What’s the hottest genre in your store right now? Any surprise best sellers?
Our best-selling sections are typically kids and young adult, as well as literary fiction and non-fiction. I think the biggest surprise best seller this year has been Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. When I first heard the idea, I thought it sounded fun, but I had no idea how big it would be. For a few weeks, it was almost impossible to keep it on the shelves.
What’s the most successful or creative store event you remember hosting? What do you look for in an author or book when setting up an event?
The most creative event that I’ve been a part of is our summer music and author series, where we pair an author with a local band. The author reads and then the band plays on our outdoor stage. It’s a great, low-key event. Perfect for a Saturday afternoon. I think the best one we did was a pairing of Paula Yoo and the Listing Ship. Paula plays violin, so not only did she read, but she also sat in for a few songs with the band. I’m also very excited for this Young Adult event we have coming up called LAYAPalooza. It’s a huge event, with about twenty YA authors. There’s going to be food and a sort of trivia game show for YA fans. It should be a lot of fun.
When I think about successful author events, they usually are something more than just a reading. That’s not to say that a straight-up reading can’t be a great time, but rather that the events that stand out in my memory are often more than that. In the end, if the author has a captivating personality, the event will work. If the author doesn’t enjoy giving readings or talks, or isn’t happy about something about the event, it’s likely the event will fail. Audiences will usually take their cue from the speakers. I also love events with multiple authors. As a bookseller, it’s a great way to sell more books. People show up to hear one author and frequently end up enjoying both or all of the authors. It introduces readers to new writers, which is why we’re in business.
Do you ever bring self-published books into your store? If so, how often and under what circumstances?
We do bring some self-published books into the store. Obviously these books are in the minority, but it does happen on a pretty regular basis. In terms of what we would carry, well, that depends on a lot of subjects. Books with local subject matter or books that are about Pasadena or Southern California will always get a long look from our buyers, as we’re committed to supporting our local literary community and our customers have tremendous pride in the region. We will seriously consider any book if it is well-written, well-designed, and we think it would interest our customers.
What are the benefits of physical distribution when so much is available cheaply on Amazon and other online retailers? Do you see the recent popularity of ebooks or the economic downturn significantly affecting your store?
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I think I’ll tackle this question in two parts. The benefits of physical distribution are several, I think. For one thing, instant gratification is very important. We carry a huge inventory of books, and if you come to our store, you can get any of them immediately, rather than waiting a week or four days or whatever for a book to come from Amazon. Another important factor is providing an environment to browse. People greatly underestimate how important browsing is for physical purchases, largely, I think, because it’s lacking in the online world. People come to an ecommerce site already knowing what they want to buy (for the most part). This isn’t so in our store, where people frequently come in for one book and end up leaving with a book that caught their eye on the way to the section or waiting in line at the register. The other thing we provide that I think is invaluable is a physical place for literary culture to happen. We have a coffeeshop in our store that’s always full of people writing or talking about books. We host hundreds of events every year, including readings, performances, panel discussions, workshops, etc. I would argue that we’re the single most important part of Pasadena’s literary culture.
The economic downturn has hurt every business in our area, large or small, corporate or independent. We’re no different. We’re seeing fewer sales and when people are shopping with us, they’re spending a little bit less per transaction than they were just a year ago. Obviously, these are difficult times, certainly the most difficult retail year since I’ve been in the business, but Vroman’s has been around since 1894, so I’m confident we’ll make it through. Books are definitely more recession-proof than other forms of entertainment. A paperback book costs $12.95 and provides hours, even days or weeks of entertainment. That’s a pretty great deal, when you think about it.
As for ebooks, well, how long do you have? I happen to be intensely interested in ebooks. I’ve read quite a few on my iPhone, and I really enjoy the experience. I’m sort of notoriously bullish on the future of ebooks, and I think the moment for them is happening right now. In two year’s time, I think we’ll see major technological advances, consolidation around a single format (hopefully epub), and huge, huge sales growth of ebooks. They simply make too much sense for too many people NOT to take off. I wouldn’t be surprised to see ebooks take 10% of the book market in two years, and even more in the years after that. I also think we’ll see real advances in enhanced ebooks, ebooks with embedded audio and video, with hyperlinks and interactivity, and even community-authored ebooks. There’s real potential to change how stories are told and consumed . . . but that’s down the road.
The coming ebook boom effects us in several ways. Firstly, we remain committed to providing our customers with the books they want in the formats they want. We carry hardcover, paperback, audio books, and we will have ebooks, too (this summer will see a major rollout on our ecommerce system). It seems logical to me that the entire market for ebooks will exist online, rather than in a brick-and-mortar store. As such, we’re constantly re-evaluating our ecommerce setup, looking for ways to improve experience and profitability online. We hope to be a place to buy ebooks for those among our customers who want them. We also hope to be THE community resource for all technological or curatorial questions regarding ebooks. That means educating ourselves on all the latest technology, helping people find the books they want online, and helping them select the ereader that’s right for them. I really see this as extension of what we already do for our customers with print books.
If you feature staff picks, how are these selected? Does the staff have complete freedom to give face-out placement to any book they like?
We do feature staff picks. Lots of them. In fact, we have a whole wall of them, many pages of our website dedicated to them (sorted both by category and by bookseller), and we’re starting a revolving “Get to know your bookseller” display, featuring picks by a different bookseller each week. With staff picks, booksellers are completely free to choose whatever they like to recommend (provided it’s a book we can easily get). I can’t imagine a store that would do it any other way, to be honest. When we decide to feature a book (meaning put it on the cover of our newsletter, have multiple displays all over the store, etc.), then we will try to give it to as many different kinds of readers as we have on staff. If the overwhelming majority like the book, we will champion it. We’ve done this with David Benioff’s City of Thieves and Any Bitter Thing, by Monica Wood.
If all books were sold on a non-returnable basis, how would this affect your buying? What if all books were printed without a retail price so you could set the price as you saw fit?
Clearly, the current system of returns isn’t working. That being said, I’m not sure I know how to fix it. We would certainly buy fewer books if we couldn’t return any (and I have no idea how we would host events, where often books are left unsold), but I’m not sure how exactly that would play out. My suspicion is that we’d simply buy less unproven books by debut authors. This would be a bad thing. So while I’m in favor of fixing the currently broken cycle of big buys and big returns, I’m not really sure how this would play out.
As for pricing, I don’t see this as being that big of a deal. In fact, if there were no price printed on the book, that might actually hurt us. As it is right now, we’re selling the books for the price the publisher set for them. If there were no perceived price, we’d simply be the guys charging more for the book. Where I think there is room for improvement, however, is with ebook pricing. It doesn’t make any sense that an ebook of something like City of Thieves, which is already out in paperback, still costs $24.95. I would love it if the publishers would lower the price of the ebook so we could compete more fully on that front.
What’s the most embarrassing book in your personal collection?
I try not to read anything I would be embarrassed to own, so this is kind of a tough question for me. For a while, I was reviewing sports books for Publishers Weekly, so I got every nutty book about baseball, basketball, offshore betting, the Duke lacrosse rape scandal, etc. You name it, I reviewed it. A few of those books are pretty embarrassing to own. I’m not going to single anyone out, because I would hate to someday write a book, even a book about, say, offshore gambling, and then have someone say they were embarrassed to own it. Even if it were about offshore gambling.
Vroman's is all over the web: Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and their own excellent blog.
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Big Bad Bookstore Q&A: BookPeople (Austin, TX)
April 13, 2009
by GreenleafBookGroup
This is the first in a series of interviews the Big Bad Book Blog will conduct with independent booksellers across the country. For our inaugural post, we started with local hero BookPeople, the largest independent bookstore in the state. Marketing Director Alison Kothe Nihlean answered our questions.
What's the hottest genre in your store right now? Any surprise best-sellers?
Kid’s books and general fiction are the two best sections in the store right now. The “surprise” bestsellers aren’t really surprises to us, because our bestsellers are things that our staff champions and gets behind. For instance, The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine was a book we sold better than pretty much any store in the country because we loved it so much, and we have a hard time keeping Craig Johnson books in stock because our staff loves this mystery writer. We’re very lucky, being an independent bookstore, that we can pretty much sell and promote what we love.
What’s the most successful or creative store event you remember hosting? What do you look for in an author or book when setting up an event?
Our Harry Potter 7 party! This party was a team event from just about every person at the store, and we were planning it for a good six months. With the staff in costumes; working with other local businesses like REI, Amy’s Ice Creams, the Austin Symphony; creating games such as real wizard dueling; constructing a Diagon Alley set; showcasing wizard rock bands—it was just spectacular. Over 5,000 people were in our parking lot with us as we counted down till midnight. As a true Harry Potter nerd myself, it was just magical.
When I book authors to come to the store, I look at their previous books (if they have them) to see how they were received and how well they sold here at the store. I also look at the subject matter and see if it’s a good fit for Austin and is topical. There are so many variables into bringing authors to BookPeople—definitely not an exact science!
Do you ever bring self-published books into your store? If so, how often and under what circumstances?
We do carry quite a few self-published books here. We have a consignment agreement with those authors that stipulates how long the books will be here, what the selling arrangement is, etc. We always look through the book first to make sure it is of good quality as well.
What are the benefits of physical distribution when so much is available cheaply on Amazon and other online retailers? Do you see the recent popularity of eBooks or the economic downturn significantly affecting your store?
One thing you can’t get on Amazon.com is a recommendation by someone who really loves talking about books. You also can’t see author events, have fun at a puppet show, learn about a new book in a subject you’d never read about before, or perhaps see a long lost friend sitting at the café. Sure, online stores (and big box stores) may sometimes have cheaper deals, but I always look at where my money is going as well. If I buy online, none of my money is staying in Austin, and, frankly, that’s pretty crappy. I’d rather pay regular price for something and support a place I love than get $3 off and send my money to a different state altogether.
As far as eBooks go, I don’t see them as “the death of books” or anything like that. It’s a change in medium, something new and exciting happening in the publishing world, but nothing that will forever change the love people have for holding a solid book in their hands. BookPeople will soon be able to sell eBooks as well, and we’re excited to offer something for our tech savvy customers out there. The times man, they are a’changin’.
If you feature staff picks, how are these selected? Does the staff have complete freedom to give face-out placement to any book they like?
Staff picks are all over our store. We encourage out staff members to write selections for any and every book they are passionate about. Then, about once a week, our inventory managers rotate out the staff selection cards on the floor (we have so many we can’t display them all at once). I’d say at any given time we have over 500 staff selection cards out on the floor.
Since BookPeople is such a large store, we love having such a variety of staff selection cards because they help us in suggesting and finding books for customers. I know little to nothing about the real estate section, for instance, but I’m able to use the staff selection cards there as a guideline when helping someone else in that section.
If all books were sold on a non-returnable basis, how would this affect your buying? What if all books were printed without a retail price so you could set the price as you saw fit?
That would cripple us, as it would most bookstores. We would not be able to host events, because if they didn’t go well due to unforeseen reasons what would we do with 50 copies of a single book? We would be hesitant to order unproven titles, so say goodbye to debut authors, books in any of smaller sections, and there would definitely not be any special ordering (something we do dozens of times every day).
What’s the most embarrassing book in your personal collection?
I own (and love) most of the Baby-sitters Club series. I will never get rid of them. Ever.
Check out BookPeople's website, blog, and awesome "This Is My Favorite Book 2008" catalog [PDF alert], which collects picks from eleven BookPeople booksellers.
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