How much is too much? Working with multiple vendors for Amazon

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Bradley Flora on November 22, 2011 at 1:24am

Hi Stephanie!

 

In regard to "are we hindering sales  by having so many "feeds" into Amazon",

Externally speaking, no. I do not know of any factors or penalties that may arise from having multiple distribution vectors into Amazon.com.

 

Internally speaking, however, you may be hindering productivity due to the management of so many channels.

 

This can effect your sales by diverting resources that could potentially be used to pursue other opportunities. 

 

Streamlined management of your own internal logistics may be the best reason to consolidate your vendor options, as consolidation  will allow the cost of managing your sales channels to be reduced.

 

This could save on money and/or stress by simplifying the administration of those channels.

 

How you go about streamlining that operation, where you make the cuts, depends on a number of factors.

 

You may already have some formed ideas in those regards at this point, but it led me to a few questions that I would like to share with you.

 

I'll just throw these out there rapid fire and  please feel free to only answer the questions that you are comfortable discussing publicly.

 

Do you own the rights to all the books that you are currently looking to distribute?

 

Are all your books printed on demand?

 

Do you currently use both Lightning Source and Create Space to help produce your titles? Or just Lightning Source?

 

How are you marketing your books? 

 

Does L.S. fulfill your website orders?

 

 

These questions can help determine which channels are most relevant to be cut, and which ones are ripe for additional utilization.

 

Bradley Flora

SPANnet.org

Permalink Reply by Stephanie Monasky on November 22, 2011 at 8:02am

Hi Bradley--thanks so much for your response!

 

It's true that we (or rather me) are feeling the strain of using using so many channels and I would like to consolidate. I have answered your questions below and I'd appreciate any advice you might have!

 

Do you own the rights to all the books that you are currently looking to distribute? Yes

 

Are all your books printed on demand? Yes

 

Do you currently use both Lightning Source and Create Space to help produce your titles? Or just Lightning Source? LS for hardcovers, CreateSpace for paperbacks (although we initially did paperbacks with LS so there's a bit of an overlap now)

 

How are you marketing your books? Outreach through author's networks/universities. Promotion on targeted list servs, newsletters and highlighting through vendors. We also have some book signings/events that we promote on an individual basis. Review copies are sent out to all major academic journals.

 

Does L.S. fulfill your website orders? Yes.

 

 

 

Permalink Reply by Bradley Flora on November 22, 2011 at 7:05pm

Stephanie,

 

Thanks for answering those questions. I'm going to get back to you with a longer response soon.

 

In conjunction with my last reply, I also forwarded this post to someone I know at Createspace and here is his response,

 

"I would suggest that she reach out to CreateSpace member services so they can walk her through all of the various distribution options CreateSpace offers and how they intersect with other distribution platforms."

 

Have you reached out to CreateSpace member services at all? 

 

They may have some interesting thoughts in regard to your paperback distribution.

 

That's all I got for this moment, I'll be back soon with a further elaboration on my thoughts in regard to your previous answers.

 

Thanks again for your reply.

 

Bradley Flora

SPANnet.org

 

 

Permalink Reply by Steve Becker on December 2, 2011 at 8:35am

Hi Stephanie,

 I use to be head sales and marketing for a mid size trade press and I wondered the same thing about whether I hurt my sales  by using different vendors using the same market place but actually saw an increase in my current sales on Amazon as well as sales added through the new vendors using Amazon.  As with anything and as Bradley points out it all has to weigh out but it did for us.

Best,

Steve Becker

Permalink Reply by Theresa M. Moore on February 21, 2012 at 3:01pm

Reading throught this forum I've realized that Ingram also feeds into Amazon so my question is this: Are we hindering our sales by having so many "feeds" into Amazon?

Yes. Duplication always hinders sales, so why are you doing it?

Would it be better to consolidate to one vendor? Yes. Use Ingram to do the distribution and LSI to do print on demand. For a small publisher they are ideal. All bookstores and even Amazon must deal with them in order to get clean copies of the books. For a really small publisher (a few authors) and self-publishers, CreateSpace has an excellent distribution program and has even lowered its rates.

As for pricing, you take the cost to print and the cost to ship, add them together and then double it. That should be your list price. All vendors taking copies of your book then have the standard wholesale discount and they can discount the list price to whatever they are comfortable with. The other issue is that if you are publishing hardback they will always be pricier. If you can get away with paperbacks go for it, because that can halve your list price significantly. Hardbacks can be published to benefit collectors but most students and scholars will appreciate the paperbacks better because they are less costly, and that is what we are aiming for.