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This post is the follow-up to the previous, which addressed what distributors do now at a time when printed books still dominate book sales, and will describe the role of distributors as the industry transitions to eBooks.
The advent of the eBook changes everything. Distributors are about to be disintermediated (a fancy way of saying put … Read More »
Will there be a need for book distributors in the age of electronic publishing?
This post will cover what distributors do now at a time when printed books still dominate book sales overall. The next post will describe the role of distributors as the industry transitions to eBooks.
For most of the forty years that book distributors … Read More »
In the last post to this blog I pointed out that the Big Six publishers have about 51% of the overall market for print books, and that this percentage was just fine. The 49% left over for independent publishers is easily enough to support a vibrant literary culture.
But to what extent do the Big Six … Read More »
Independents v Big 6 Market Share(Based on Nielsen Bookscan Data)
How Much of the Total Market for Books is Controlled by the Big Six Publishers?
I have not seen any sort of figure, hypothesis, or guess in any article or blog about this question, which is odd, because the extent of the market domination of these giant … Read More »
“Follow the money” is good advice for anyone trying to get to the bottom of a business dispute. This has been next to impossible in the case of the squabble over the distribution of eBooks; none of the parties can release any numbers. A great many people who have tried to understand this dispute have … Read More »
Discounts matter. Here is a little history to illustrate that point:
When the mall stores—B Dalton, Walden—arrived on the scene, followed closely in the 1970s by the big box stores—Barnes & Noble, Borders—the big publishers rolled right over to their demands for better discount and of course the independents had to follow.
For the most part these … Read More »
The advent of the e-book may seem to have made the distinction between professional and vanity press publishing less important. Electronic distribution obscures the traditional gate-keeping functions of publishing houses, distributors, and booksellers.
The electronic-format vanity houses argue it is possible now for authors to go straight to consumers and therefore skip all the hypercritical (and … Read More »
The conversation about the pricing and marketing of print books and e-books has not been well informed. Here is information about how the numbers actually run. The place to start is with print books.
What Should a Printed Book Cost?
The royalty rate is usually 10% of the cover price for a hardbound book, 7.5% for a … Read More »
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