Recently, Alan Shelton of Red Hatchet Press, a distribution client of mine, did a post for Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer blog (if you don’t read Joel’s blogs, or follow his monthly ebook cover awards, you are simply missing out on one of the self-publishing world’s greatest information treasures). Alan detailed his path to publishing—and was [...]
Archives of distribution
I recently had a lengthy back and forth with the representative of a major wholesaler who was asserting that we had shorted their company over 50 books. This person, an accounts payable (AP) representative, let me know that they were docking our payment accordingly. Do you know how to resolve this?
Last week, I had lunch with a Barnes & Noble Community Relations Manager (CRM). As usual, she had a lot to say about self-publishers. I’ll just hit the highlights of our talk.
We took a look at what goes into a print bid in Print Bids – Parts I and II. Now let’s look at the information we get back from the printers.
This posts comes from an exchange I had on the SPAN Self-Publishing Discussion List with a new self-publisher who was becoming confused about the difference between Distributors and Wholesalers. But then I saw an opportunity to point out the flaws in the system.
No wholesaler will take a new children’s book without CPSIA certification right now. And that makes sense, since a book being sold now is likely to be sold after December, when it would suddenly need to be CPSIA compliant. The law went into effect August 2009, but no one seems to have gotten serious about it until recently.
Listen in as I talk with Drew Nederpelt of Book Biz Radio about how self-publishers can use POD direct distribution to sell their books.
My article “Toward a New Distribution Paradigm for Startups and Self-Publishers” is available on the IBPA website to members.
An interview with The Book Designer, Joel Friedlander, about my thoughts on book distribution and self-publishing.
I didn’t start out to be a publisher, book packager, book shepherd, editor or distributor. All I wanted was to see my novel in print.
