Distribution through Baker & Taylor.

Distribution is the key if you want bookstores to order your books to have on hand to do booksignings or to simply put them on the shelf but the kind of distribution required only works for large publishers as they were they only kind of publishers around for a VERY, VERY, LONG time.

Here's an example of how ridiculous it all is. My first publisher got set up with distribution through Baker & Taylor. My new publisher has republished the same book, EXACTLY the same book through Lightning Source, a POD publisher. When I called Barnes & Noble to verify that Baker & Taylor was the distributor, they said yes and could therefore order the book for me to have at a book signing should I want to do one. When I told her to check on Never Ceese, ISBN 9780976994749 from Black Bed Sheet Books the B&N rep IMMEDIATELY said, "oh, that's through Lighting Source. That's a POD. We won't order those for a signing." That's interesting because it basically the same book!

Now back to Baker & Taylor. Hey, if I qualify as a publisher why don't I see how much they charge for distribution. Got the pdf yesterday. IF I qualify, it's $125.00 one time fee. Wow! Really. Oh, wait! They get to choose the package. There are two other packages one is a $350 one time fee and the other a $450 one time fee. The difference in price is they provide you with a little advertising. The catch as I see it, I'll bet NO ONE qualifies for the $125 package.

But lets say they do. Seems a small price to pay to be able to go into a chain bookstore and say, "hey order my book," and they do it. Okay. Here's what the publisher as to swear in blood that they'll do. Offer book sellers 55% off retail. Check. Pay inbound freight to Baker & Taylor. Check. Make books returnable . . . . make books returnable . . . hmmm . . . okay I asked about this. You do have to make books returnable BUT you don't have to pay for the books to be returned from the store (according to the person I talked to) UNLESS the book is damaged. Yep. I asked what constitutes damage and it was VERY elusive. Anything from a bent page to a scratched cover. Okay so if the book comes back "damaged" you have to pay the postage to have it returned. Okay still not a bad deal if Baker & Taylor are honest (sure they are.)

So unlike with POD publishers you will get a book back, maybe damaged, maybe not. POD publishers never return the book the bookstores return and never tell you for sure what happens to them. Well, most say they destroy them but since they themselves never get the books back because they don't want to pay postage, I'm sure this probably never happens. Most likely the "destroyed" books are resold to second hand sellers. And yes, that's my opinion.

So aside from losing money on postage and possibly paying money for "damaged" books to be returned there's the 90 payment deal MEANING that if a bookstore purchases your books then returns them before they have to pay for them, which they can do and doo-doo all day long, you'll be out the money until they pay in 90 days.

So all in all, distribution through Baker & Taylor sucks for a small publisher. And you don't even get to pick the package if you qualify. Baker & Taylor chooses for you. That's what they told me. Yeah, right? Like they know what's best for me or any small publisher. Good grief!