Distribution with Barnes and Noble

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Permalink Reply by A marketing maven on February 3, 2011 at 6:03pm

River Landing Press -

 

Something doesn't add up in your statements above, so there must be something about your arrangement that either you or I dont' understand.

 

I looked on your website and you seem to have several books in both print and ebook formats. You "Master of the Universe" lists a different publisher than RLP, so I'm not sure if that is an imprint of yours, or whether that may be the source of your issues.  Here is the way the distribution world normally works, then you tell me what is different about your arrangement, OK?

 

Once you assign an ISBN to any of your books in Bowker (bowkerlink.com), that information that you register (ISBN, price, distribution options, pub date, binding, etc.) populates all the industry databases - BN, Amazon, BAM, etc. It lists the book, the publisher, the price, and so forth - all the stuff you entered there. If information is missing, it is because you didn't fill it in on Bowker.

 

All the databases will list your list price. As the publisher, YOU always set the list price (or the retail price). Every retailer including BN, Amazon, etc. can set whatever selling price they desire. You never have any control over that.

 

Now, to distribution. If you have a distributor (Midpoint, SPU, IPG, Bookmasters, etc.) or a wholesaler (Ingram or B&T) you negotiate your selling terms to them (or in reality, you accept most of the terms they supply and have little control over it). That tells you what price you sell to those suppliers for and under what terms.  Once you sell to them, you again have no control over what price they sell to the retailers for.  But your "list" price is your list price, that doesn't change.

 

So, once the books leave your hands, you will know exactly what price you will be paid - no exceptions - through the trade.  They cannot change your list price or the price at which you contracted tobuy you book for from your press. 

 

If you don't have a distributor or wholesaler, but are supplying Amazon directly through their Advantage program, then again, you set the price you sell to them, but not what price they sell for. But again, they do not change your list price or the price they pay to you. I'm not sure what your arrangement is that you think these things to be not true. Even if you are selling through the Amazon Marketplace (you may do this in addition to selling directly to Amazon), you set the sales price and Amazon tells you upfront how much they will pay you upon sale, then you fulfill the sale.

 

The only way any of these prices will change is if YOU change the list price at Bowker or if YOU change the terms of the sale to one of the suppliers.

 

So, now, explain to me your situation in more detail and I'll try to help you sort it all out. I help people get distribution all the time, and know the business pretty well, so something is weird in your situation.

 

Carol White

Carol White Marketing

www.carolwhitemarketing.com

888 522 8747

 

Permalink Reply by River Landing Press on February 4, 2011 at 10:20am

Carol, thank you for responding.  I just spent some time talking to Create Space, which is where my books are being put into the Ingram database.  They told me I misunderstood the Amazon situation.  Amazon may cut the price, but I will still get the same amount, not a percentage of the price at which it is sold. Yes, both publisher names are me; it's just a name change in process. 

 

So that brings us back to the original question of Barnes and Noble.  I'm using Create Space for print books and Smashwords for ebooks, and Kindle Distributing platform independently.  Create Space offers a service which puts you into the Ingram channel, at no extra charge. Smashwords also puts you into the online databases for retailers.

 

Of course, I've only started doing this in the last few weeks, and there are many opportunities to get confused about what is going on.   

 

Here is my confusion for the day.  With Print On Demand, your books are available or they are not available.  So when Barnes and Noble put my listing up, they seemed to have picked up the data which at the time was listed in Bowker as the publication date.  I was trying to prepare this "marketing launch" strategy, which all the books and advisors are telling me to do.  So I picked a publication date in March, even though my "bound books date" was January.  I'm thinking I get some copies to send out for people to review, and they will post to my Amazon page and elsewhere with their reviews, and then people can see reviews when the "official" publication date arrives.  Meanwhile, I'm trying to follow all the advice about making my platform and my campaign and all the other LaLa I'm reading and trying to figure out.  The Create Space literature says it takes six to eight weeks to show up on Barnes and Noble, so I'm thinking I have time to get this lined up.

 

Then all of a sudden, there it is  on Barnes and Noble with a BIG discount.  And it says:  Pre-order.  Available on the date I put in Bowker.   I don't understand the relationship between what I write in Bowker and the information given to customers of Ingram.  I also don't understand what that page that says discounts are on the Bowker page.  I didn't fill it out. 

 

Completely freaked me out. 

 

My next adventure is to try to figure out how to make limited time discounts to offer to targeted audiences.   It's hard to write a marketing plan when I can't compete with the discounts of my own book on Barnes and Noble.  I also don't like the impression it gives, when a book is so heavily discounted before it's even launched. 

 

Thank you for responding, Carol, and I hope that by posting on here, other new self-publishers will feel less shy about posting their own attempts at figuring things out.

 

Alice

 

 

Permalink Reply by Theresa M. Moore on February 4, 2011 at 12:23pm

I don't deal with distributors or wholesalers, and I deal with both Amazon and Barnes & Noble directly. I don't deal with Bowker, either, but allow my printer CreateSpace to assign an ISBN, so whatever metadata is put into the form is composed by me, and never altered unless I do it. When I set a list price on Amazon, it remains the same. If the sales price is changed, a strike mark is put through the list price and the sales price is displayed in red. Remember that the list price is not the same as the sales price. The sales price is whatever the retailer chooses to charge.  The price cutting is a competitve battle between Amazon and Barnes & Noble, over which only they have any control. As a supplier, you don't.

 

Recently, I have seen some undercutting but only if I set my prices higher on my own site. This is why I am careful to set my prices equally on my own site to those I set on both retailers. The royalty you receive from both is the same no matter what sales price they may set. Generally, if you transact with the retailer directly you have no control over what sales price the retailer sets as long as they continue to pay you the list price royalty. They cannot change that. If there is a change in royalties owed you for a sales price change, then there is something seriously wrong with their computation and I suggest you go to your agency or the retailer directly for answers.