Industry Standard Discounts

AugustYellow

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Hi there,

I'm new to the industry and am trying to get my books, published by a small company, into mom and pop, Borders and B&N bookstores.

Before contacting these bookstores, I wanted to ask, what are the industry standard discounts publishers offer to bookstore? Also, what is the standard discount bookstores receive from distributors like Ingram? I want my offered discount to at least match Ingram's.

Thanks!
 

Susan Coffin

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Welcome August Yellow!

When you say small company, do you mean they are published by an independent publisher or they are self published?

I don't know the answer to your question, except to say that most bookstores do not stock self-published books. I see lots of self published books online at Amazon, though.

Have you contacted the different bookstores to ask about their discount standards?
 

AugustYellow

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Hi Susan,

Thank you for your response!
The publishing company isn't a self published or POD. It's just a small publishing company.

I've spoken with a number of bookstore managers and associates, but they are pretty secretive when it comes to their discounts with major distributors.

Ingram receives a 55% discount from the publishing company, so I'm guessing Ingram must keep at least ten percent?

Any additional insight?
 

Jennifer_Laughran

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Every bookstore will have their own deal, depending on how much they buy, if it is returnable, etc. Ingram would probably be 40-45% regular discount - direct from publishers 45-50%

Anything less than 40%, and a bookstore would consider it short-discount and for special order only.

ETA - I am answering the question you asked, which is "what is a bookstores discount from Ingram or publisher"... but JamesARitchie also makes valid points below. Even knowing what a ballpark appropriate discount is won't really help you too much, as there is a huge amount of footwork involved with distribution, and booksellers are highly unlikely to start a whole account with a very small publisher that they are not going to buy from often.

Very likely for a local author they might take the books on consignment, which would probably be 60/40 or 50/50 - but again, every store would have their own way of doing that, and you'd have to go to each store individually and follow up yourself to get paid.
 
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Jamesaritchie

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Unfortunately, price seldom has anything to do with it. Most bookstores are not only full, they have another eighty billion books coming in every few weeks. You really need to talk to each store, and ask whoever makes the decision what their bottom line discount needs are.

Why doesn't the publisher have a distributor? Even tiny publishers usually have a distribution system of some sort in place. If they have, and mom and pop stores aren't taking books from them, odds are they won't want them from you, either. If they haven't, you'll have to deal with each store one at a time, and cost can be far more than benefit.
 

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I agree with Jennifer and James.

Your publisher should be able to tell you the discounts it operates on; and it should be responsible for selling your books into bookshops via its distributor.

I realise that not all publishers have distribution: but they should still know what discounts booksellers expect, and be able to provide those discounts without any trouble.