
The Print Book Trade, and Money - zdw
https://mwl.io/archives/6210
======
graeme
This is an excellent article. I’ve self pubbed for years and knew most of
this, but I did not know about Aerio.

Further, the breakdown of revenue shares across channels is by far the best
I’ve ever seen. Extremely clear, excellent use of graphs + colour.

Sidenote: does anyone know how to deal with a possibly malicious review on
amazon listings? Someone copy pasted the same one star review on each of my
books. I contacted Kdp support, they seemed sympathetic. But when amazon
emailed back they only looked at one review, not the set of them.

~~~
appleflaxen
I think it would be clearer to put the "red" numbers in the "their cut" row.
Why are we giving $2 of retail to "your cut" when you're not getting it in the
first scenario??

Every single figure has the same numbers for every scenario; only the colors
differ. That's a clue that there is something wonky in the choices they made
regarding the visual display of information.

------
ilamont
There are a few other problems working with trad distributors & retailers that
drive publishers batty:

\- Retailers expect to pay a 55% discount off list _and_ return books that
don't sell.
([https://outskirtspress.com/articles_trade.html](https://outskirtspress.com/articles_trade.html))

\- Many retailer won't work with anything that's self-pubbed or POD, although
the latter issue is changing as quality improves.

\- Distributors want to have review copies, art, promo materials, etc. in hand
many months before the official release date (6 is typical) which forces
planning and editorial deadlines to start at least 18 months in advance.

Ingram is a silent giant in the U.S. book publishing industry. TFA mentioned
IngramSpark for self-pubbed authors, but Ingram has other wholesale and
distribution programs aimed at traditional and indie publishers as well as the
iPage book database, which many retailers and libraries use to place orders
and find titles for their customers/patrons. This post outlines their approach
to indies: [https://www.ingramcontent.com/blog/demystifying-book-
distrib...](https://www.ingramcontent.com/blog/demystifying-book-distribution-
for-small-to-mid-sized-publishers)

------
yial
The author of article also has a plethora of books... the cover art of which
are phenomenal.

[https://aerbook.com/store/mwl/](https://aerbook.com/store/mwl/)

------
nanna
As someone who leads the operations of a small magazine publisher, I've found
the publishing world murky to say the least. We're using Ingram Spark but I
had no idea about Ingram Aerio. This opens up so many possibilities.

~~~
nanna
A couple of hours and an excited email to my fellow editors later: turns out
Ingram Aerio only distributes to the USA and Canada. Deal breaker :(

------
jccalhoun
The comma in the title is killing me!

~~~
Finnucane
The first publisher costs to get cut in this scenario are the copyeditor and
proofreader.

This is a rudimentary but still fair description of the basic process of trade
book publishing, and you conceivably could make more money self-publishing,
assuming sales are roughly equal in both cases. They probably won’t be, but
you could still come out ahead. A few folks have done quite well with it, but
you will be doing all the _work_ needed to make that happen.

~~~
agshekeloh
(Disclaimer: I am the author of the linked article.)

NEVER cut your copyeditor and proofreader. NEVER NEVER NEVER.

You still have the responsibility of creating a quality product. You can sell
a few buckets of poo, but that market is very small.

Sustained quality is a prerequisite to a writing career.

~~~
carapace
Seriously.

I was looking at [https://www.ingramspark.com/environmental-
responsibility](https://www.ingramspark.com/environmental-responsibility) and
saw this:

> The purpose of print-on-demand book manufacturing, is to reduce our
> environmental impact.

That misplaced comma is already enough to make me think these folks aren't
serious about books (money _from_ books, sure, but not _books_.)

~~~
Finnucane
It's basically a vanity publisher operation, so they're not giving you much
beyond access to their distribution services.

