• Publishing Tips Newsletter
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  Discounts and Returns and Pricing...Oh My!

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  Need help deciding how best to publish your book? You can email Walt@FiveRainbows.com or call him toll-free at 866-341-3705 to discuss your project. Initial consultations (email or phone) are always f*r*e*e.

  You can sort them out by using the f*r*e*e How-to-Publish Quiz at FiveRainbows.com. You may be surprised by the answer!

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  NOTICE – DISTRIBUTION CHANGE: I want to let everyone know that this newsletter is being cut back to every other week distribution, rather than weekly. I just don’t have time to keep up with a weekly newsletter. I’d rather produce a newsletter I can be proud of every other week than one I have to toss together quickly on a weekly basis.

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  Walt's Notes

  If you want to get the attention of a publisher or editor, learn at least the basics of query letters. I get queries all the time, and few pay any attention to our published guidelines. Now, if you can’t follow simple directions, why do you think I’d want to risk time and resources trying to work with you on a book?

  Last week, I received a query in the mail from a gentleman who had clearly never read even one book or article on the subject of how to craft a query. Nor had he bothered with our guidelines.

  All he said in the very short query letter was, “Would you like to publish [book title]?” (I’m holding back that title to protect the guilty.) No indication of what kind of book or what it’s genre might be or even who might want to read it. Two pages from the book were included. After reading them, I still don’t know what the book is about or why anyone would want to read it. I’m not even sure if it’s fiction or nonfiction.

  And he didn’t even include the standard SASE. I almost always send a personal note back on queries but won’t waste my time, supplies, and postage to provide a response to someone so clueless and inconsiderate.

  Moral: If you’re going to play the game, learn the rules. And only break them if you’re 100% certain you can convince the umpires to cut you some slack.

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  Discounts and Returns and Pricing...Oh, My!

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  The following is an excerpt from a lesson in our Self-Publishing Success Program, delivered in 20 weekly installments direct to your inbox via email for only $149.

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  One of my major complaints about the whole book industry is the concept of substantial discounts tied to unlimited return privileges. What that means, for publishers, is the bookstore business is a consignment business regardless of what it might look like on the surface.

  You see, booksellers want to get at least a 40% discount off list price (no matter how few books they buy), pay in maybe 90 days (if you're lucky), and then return anything that hasn't sold even a year or more later and no matter what condition it's in. Think about the likely condition of a book that's been thumbed umpteen times while sitting on a bookstore shelf for a year.

  This system, by all accounts, appears to have started during the Great Depression of the 1930s by publishers hoping to keep bookstores (just about their only retail outlet back then) from going belly-up. The system is so entrenched that nobody, not even the big publishers, wants to fight to change it. People who study such things claim that, industry-wide, returns average 25-30% or book sales.

  You might think that, although the big chain bookstores might be reluctant to stock your independent or self-published book, surely those independent bookstores would want to forge a symbiotic relationship with their counterparts in the publishing industry. Sounds reasonable, but they prefer one-way traffic on that street. Small booksellers see nothing incongruous about insisting that equally small publishers buy into the established system...or forget about having their books stocked regularly in those stores.

  On top of which the independent bookstores usually refuse to buy books directly from small publishers because of the excessive paperwork and bookkeeping. They’d rather deal with one or two book distributors or wholesalers for all their purchases. Many times, they are willing to accept an up-front consignment arrangement with independent publishers, even though that puts the publisher in the same situation regarding paperwork and bookkeeping that those independent bookstores claim is so onerous. And yet, they still expect that 40% discount.

  Discounts don’t start and end with bookstores, however. Since most won’t buy directly from small publishers, the only way to – maybe – get your books into their stores is through one of the major distributors. Who will insist on buying your books at a 55%-65% discount (they then make 15-25%, since they pass along 40% to the bookstores).

  So, take the retail price for your book and subtract 55% (let’s say you found a generous distributor). You get 45%, right? Not bad. Of course, you have to subtract your per-book printing costs, per-book inbound shipping costs, probably outbound per-book shipping costs to the distributor, and any amortized overhead (fees associated with printer set up, editing, typesetting, cover design, etc.). Now, what do you have left? You didn’t expect to actually be able to pay yourself for your time, did you?

  The bottom line is that you have two choices: play the discounts/returns game or forget bookstores and concentrate on other avenues for sales. Visit our website for books and articles that discuss how to sell everywhere outside of those bookstores. As many experts have insisted for years, bookstores actually are a lousy place to sell books, anyway.

  We have experimented with various retail prices, discounts, and return policies over the past few years. We recently decided to concentrate our efforts on outlets other than bookstores. As a result, we have recently changed our policy to 20% wholesale discount with no returns. We will be gradually shifting our emphasis to push the maximum number of sales to Amazon.com. As the auto manufacturers say, your mileage may vary, so you may have to do your own experimenting until you find the optimum policy for your books.

  Why not just up your retail price to cover all those discounts? Unfortunately, your realistic selling price has very little to do with your production costs. The market will determine how much people are willing to pay for your book. So, you have to do a lot of research (online and off) to find out what other similar books in similar formats and page counts actually sell for. If the only way you can make a profit is to set a retail price well above the market price, you’re going to have to develop a very good story as to why your book is worth the extra money. What benefits does your book provide the customer that all those others don’t?

  Remember, benefits sell products, features don’t. Your potential reader wants to know, “What’s in it for me?”

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  Do you have a question or comment on the above or something else related to publishing, writing or book design and marketing? Email me at Walt@FiveRainbows.com and I may include it, with my answer, in an upcoming newsletter.

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  >>View From the Publishing Trenches blog – Latest Posts

  Selling Books to Libraries
  Selling books to libraries can be an excellent sales outlet, but I always cringe at having to provide wholesale discounts for one- or two- book orders. Why should a library get a larger discount than an end customer who buys a book or two directly from us?
  Read more...

  Are Free Articles Online Worth Posting?
  Early this year, I succumbed to all the hype and unrelenting recommendations from the experts. I submitted a batch of articles to EzineArticles.com -- where anyone can republish them on their website free if they included the whole thing and the author bio and links. Great viral marketing idea, right? Not in my book.
  Read more...

  Customer Service Ain’t Difficult
  I've blogged about customer service previously, but last week I encountered three examples of poor customer service. Why do so many companies insist on making this so difficult? There is no excuse for it. Period.
  Read more...

  How Much Social Media is Too Much?
  Facebook. MySpace. LinkedIn. Plaxo. Twitter. And those just scratch the surface of today's social media frenzy. They all seem to promise a wider audience, more interaction, business opportunities, forged connections, etc. But there are still only 24 hours in a day. Where do we draw the line?
  Read more...

  Digital Novels or Digital Trash?
  I've been mulling over a story on Variety's website for a month now. I'm still not quite sure what I think about it. Seems Anthony Zuiker recently signed a deal with Dutton for a series of new books tied directly to online video content.
  Read more...

  XML Publishing Workflow
  I think my brain is beginning to rebel. Too many new ideas dumped in at one time. Been researching switching our entire publishing workflow to an XML-based one. Potential gains are tremendous. Just having some problems wrapping my brain around how best to implement it.
  Read more...

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  Looking for solutions to your publishing dilemma? You can get a no-obligation quote for any of our many publishing solutions on our Five Rainbows Services website. You can find a wide range of solutions for editing, book design and typesetting, cover design, indexing, mentoring, PCIP data, news releases, ghostwriting, and Kindle formatting with easy online forms to request a price quote. If you don't see exactly what you need, just use any of the contact options at the top of every page.

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  If you’ve missed some newsletters or only recently signed up, you can read the back issues of the Publishing Tips newsletter in the online archives.

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  Be sure to visit our Slipdown Mountain Publications website to see our wide range of fiction and nonfiction books. You can also find our books at Amazon.com with many available in the new Kindle e-book format. And don’t forget our downloadable PDF e-books.

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  October 2nd, 2008 at 5:25 pm

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