During my career in publishing, several factors have led to self-publishing becoming a viable and profitable path for authors. These include:
- The growth of ebook sales, which in some ways replaces the mass-market paperback
- The rise of online retail: the majority of books are now sold online regardless of format—and we all know where, at least in the US
- The advent of print-on-demand (POD) technology and distribution
This last one has been of tremendous benefit to traditional publishers and authors alike. It means that no one has to take a financial risk on a print run when demand is uncertain. Nor does anyone need to worry about warehousing and inventory management. Rather, the book is printed only when an order is placed, then it’s immediately dispatched to the customer.
As of 2021, most readers cannot tell if the paperback they’re holding in their hands is print-on-demand or from a traditional offset printer. Even hardcover print-on-demand is seeing an increase in sales and acceptance by consumers. Yes, print-on-demand carries carries a higher unit cost (and thus lower profits), and it has some design and production limitations. But for the average self-publishing author, this makes publishing more accessible and affordable than it has ever been. (The same is true for small presses, of course.)
As more and more books get purchased online, it doesn’t matter if your books are available on a physical bookstore shelf or not. You don’t need a bricks-and-mortar presence for your book to be discovered and purchased. All you need is a product page at the major online retailers. Readers won’t know how the book is printed or that it’s only printed when they order it, or they may prefer a digital edition.
Print distribution using POD can be set up quickly by anyone, at no cost, using Amazon and Ingram. Amazon KDP is the portal that self-publishing authors use to upload their book for sale in both print and ebook formats. Ingram is the biggest book distributor in the world, and authors can access its distribution network through IngramSpark. Ingram sells to anyone and everyone who buys books, including your independent bookstore, libraries, chains; it also has a global distribution network that reaches just about any country you can expect to sell in. Your book is available to be ordered at thousands of retailers once it’s active in Ingram’s system.
So quality distribution is not hard. It can be obtained by anyone by simply signing up and uploading printer-ready book files or ebook files.
So why do people talk about the need for “distribution” so much if distribution is essentially free for all?
Some people conflate book distribution with having a sales and marketing team.
There are two types of distributors in traditional book publishing. One type of distributor actually sells the book into retailers, in significant quantities. Sales reps pitch specific accounts or buyers. They try to secure orders for hundreds or thousands of books prior to the publication date. (Learn more about this type of distributor from publisher Joe Biel.) This makes sense in a traditional publishing model where there’s a print run and you’re trying to generate as much interest and demand as possible in the lead up to publication, to get as many books on shelves as possible. The print run might even be adjusted based on how much accounts order. (For an excellent look at literary, small press publishing, and why small presses care so much about distribution, read Art Over Numbers.)
The other type of distributor simply ships books when they’re ordered. They take care of warehousing and fulfillment. They are not selling and marketing books, but they typically take a smaller cut of sales than the type of sales-responsible distributor.
Ingram is a bit of a confusing character in all this because it handles both types of distribution. But for the purposes of self-publishing authors, it really only serves the latter role: it makes books available to be ordered. Your book is included in its database of thousands upon thousands of titles. But they’re not actively going out and selling or marketing titles to accounts, any more than Amazon has a sales force that sells your ebook or POD book.
If you’re investing in a print run, then distribution is in fact a major challenge
Imagine spending thousands of dollars to pay an offset printer to ship you 1,000 print copies of your book. The books have arrived at your front door on a pallet. Now what? How will you get these books into retailers’ hands? Where will you store them? Who will ship them? This is a big problem. Some authors rely on Amazon Advantage to help solve it, but that has limitations.
So, it is exceedingly difficult to distribute print books as an author when you do a print run. You really need to be working with a service company of some kind, or a hybrid publisher, or someone who can warehouse the books and fulfill orders for you over the long term, who has a relationship with Ingram, Amazon, and so on. There is no realistic way for a single-title author to work directly with either of those companies unless you’re using their print-on-demand services.
Still, distribution doesn’t equal sales
Let’s say you decide to work with a hybrid publisher or some kind of publishing assistance firm. They help coordinate that print run and get your book warehoused then fulfill all the orders that come in.
But who is creating demand for that book? Who is ensuring the orders arrive in the first place? Hopefully, the company or hybrid you’re working with has a sales team or otherwise offers marketing and promotion support that ensures someone somewhere is buying, and you’re not storing thousands of copies indefinitely, hoping interest will generate out of thin air.
Even if the company does have a sales team, their sales efforts may fail. Or they may have only modest success in securing orders. Worse, books can get returned by retailers who can’t sell them. There’s a lot of burden on you, the author, to invest in marketing and publicity to ensure sales.
It makes one wonder: why not just choose print-on-demand in the first place and avoid that risk of having a bunch of copies you have to pay to store, fulfill, and ship?
The only print distribution many self-publishing authors need can be found through Amazon KDP and IngramSpark, because you don’t really “distribute” a POD title beyond those two services. The printing and the distribution are all wrapped up in the same service offering. You could order as many of those POD copies as you like, and fulfill special orders or bulk orders on your own if you like. Or you could do a print run off to the side for special orders if you have enough of them. But that’s not distribution. That’s you selling direct.
What you need to remember
- Any company touting the power of their “distribution” may be focused on selling you something you don’t need. You can get the most important distribution of all by simply having your book available for sale at Amazon (use KDP). Even traditional publishers sell 60 to 70 percent of their books through Amazon. For self-publishers, it’s about 90 percent. While I don’t advocate a distribution strategy that’s all about Amazon, you can succeed with one.
- Be honest with yourself about the need for a print run, if you’re considering it. POD is much less risky for first-time authors or those without certain demand.
- If you do invest in a print run, know where and how those copies are going to sell. If you’re banking on the publishing service provider or hybrid publisher to sell those books for you through “distribution,” you may have a sad story to tell in the near future.
- For more guidance, see my post on distribution for self-publishing authors.
Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.
I also think it’s important to note that if you’re enamored of seeing your book on your local bookstore’s shelves, it’s not going to magically happen and it probably won’t happen if you go POD. Yes, bookstores can special order your book from Ingram because a customer asks them to but they won’t stock it and most customers will just turn around and order it elsewhere rather than wait. Or buy something else. So again, you’re mainly going to need to concentrate on internet sellers, rather than actual physical outlets
With my own book, I’ve found bookstores willing to order and stock once they see demand or a consistent level of sales. But you’re right – it’s not going to happen in many cases, and certainly not upon launch unless you’re in a very unique situation.
It didn’t happen with me. In 2004 I choose to self-publish and went with a POD publisher. I knew next to nothing about any aspect of publishing and it wasn’t until I’d signed the seven year contract that I realized publicity and marketing was entirely up to me. Granted, this company charged me nothing up front to carry and print my book, but took a big chunk out of the back end. A single trade-paperback copy of my 387 page book cost me nearly a whopping twelve bucks, not including shipping! At that time, an unknown author like me needed to sell his books for under five dollars. I couldn’t get copies under that price unless I ordered at least 100. Naturally no bookstore in my area (Phoenix, AZ) was willing to pay even five dollars for an unknown and for the most part none of them handled self-published books anyway.
That bad experience left a bad taste in my mouth. I didn’t attempt to self-publish another book myself until e-books had come well into their own in 20011. I am now my own publisher on Smashwords and can do my own marketing, pricing, and so on. while they make the books available to B&N, etc. Not totally happy with that setup – they only do e-book – so am once again considering POD.
Great post, Jane.
Excellent (and sober) explanation, Jane.
One slight tweak: …But they’re not actively going out and selling or marketing titles to accounts, any more than Amazon has a sales force that sells your ebook or POD book.”
Amazon actually does do a form of marketing for titles that is hard to beat: they send out millions—billions?—of “you might be interested in…” emails each day showcasing books. It’s all about their algorithms and the author’s metadata and how well they line up.
If one considers algorithms or automations to be a sales force, then sure!
There is a gap in the services available for small presses and author-publishers. POD can indeed be a great option for books that are in the mass-market or trade paperback space.
For books of a higher production value—such as children’s picture books, art/photography or coffee table books, cook books, books with special finishing or materials, or anything that is more than 8.5 inches wide, the POD options are unfortunately still limited.
There are short-run printers that do a great job of creating these kinds of exciting, interesting, beautiful books. But as you point out, Jane, getting these kinds of books into online, let alone brick-and-mortar, bookstores and other retailers is a real challenge without distribution. And no distributor is likely to pick you up with only one book, no matter how many you print.
POD helps many, but the dependence on distributors and the nature of the existing publishing-bookstore business model unfortunately still keeps many great books from ever achieving their potential.
I’ve seen a handful of children’s authors, like Darcy Pattison, do well with the capabilities of print on demand. You might appreciate her post here on the matter: https://www.darcypattison.com/publishing/online-bookstore/
But there’s no doubt: the higher the production quality or the more you’re doing a coffee-table book, the more these POD options aren’t very attractive, and it’s nearly impossible to get distribution outside those POD options. It might interest you to know, however, that Ingram is encouraging small publishers to use their hardcover POD even for color titles to increase sales of books they wouldn’t ordinarily offer in hardcover. They specifically pointed to a cookbook, THE DIZZY COOK, as selling thousands of copies via hardcover POD: https://amzn.to/3z3QtgD
For some authors, the quality compromises required might be worth it to get the distribution.
Great post Jane!
What it makes me think about is that, despite the (grim) realities that you describe here, so many self-published authors still crave the bookstore channel because of the traditional conflation of success = seeing your book stacked on a shelves in bookstores, and are willing to act irrationally, hope-against-hope. It’s understandable.
It remains pretty much the only justification for seeking out a commercial publisher. If you’re willing to give up a chunk of margin, there’s a half-decent chance at least a copy or two will be found in the larger bookstores, upon initial publication, and a review or two will appear in traditional press outlets. If that will satisfy your cravings, then seek out the drug.
But the odds of landing a commercial publisher are roughly the same as expecting your self-published book to appear of its own accord in retail channels, and, either way, you’re going to be responsible for the bulk of the promotion and sales. So hang on tight and dive into the self-publishing waters. Our prayers are with you. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s the only realistic approach.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, Thad!
Great post, thank you!
Do you know if Ingram, probably through LightningSource, offers the service of making small offset print (OP) runs and keeping them in their warehouse for fulfillment to orders? I remember some of their marketing for IngramSpark as saying they would seamlessly upgrade your account as you grew, and moving to OP would be such a jump.
It seems to me that if there’s enough sales velocity, then it would make financial sense to switch from POD to OP. For a typical 80,000 words(ish) novel, it appears possible to cut the per-copy cost almost in half with even a small (1500) OP run. There would be warehousing (and possibly fulfillment) costs, so the math would need to work out. If you could project a sellout of an OP run of 1500 copies in six-twelve months, that looks like a safe bet. The key here is that it’s still Ingram doing the fulfillment, not the author from their garage.
Hi Tom: If they have such a program, I am not aware of it.
@Tom, they do offer this through Lightning Source, yes. You have to sign an LSI contract with them and they have terms that are similar to those of IPS clients. You get a price break with POD when you print 300 or more. I appreciate you calling these OPs, because I think that’s where I get myself into language trouble. You’re right that technically they’re “print runs” but the printing technology, as far as I know, is not considered offset through Ingram. But maybe it doesn’t matter and that would help with the confusion between POD printing vs. offset—that POD is simply one at a time… So thank you.
Thank you Brooke! If you don’t mind me asking one more question? The conventional wisdom is to publish print books via KDP and Ingramspark simultaneously so that Amazon doesn’t show the ‘out of stock’ message for Ingramspark-only titles. (There are ways to fix that, I know.) It seems to me that publishing through two channels is a bad strategy overall because you are splitting your printing between two POD services. I’m leaning toward an Ingramspark-only publish strategy so that all my printing is through that single source. My thought is, if I can get enough sales volume going through that single channel with POD, then it becomes a better bet to later do small print runs with Ingram (IS or LSI) and cut my per-print cost. Am I thinking straight or way off base?
I’ll butt in here and say that profit-per-copy is better through Amazon KDP on your POD sales because you don’t have Ingram taking a cut. But I’m assuming many of your copies will move through Amazon, as it does for most publishers.
I’m not sure why it’s a bad strategy to split your printing between Amazon and Ingram unless you’re very worried about consistency in printing quality. Even then, it seems an acceptable trade-off.
I agree with conventional wisdom on this one! And agree with Jane’s response. You’re not really damaging yourself to split your printing because a sale is a sale, and your books availability through Amazon will be MUCH smoother if you print through KDP. Plus on KDP you can much better control your categories and keywords, and you’re going to want that as you make your way. Plus, and likely not finally, if you want to do Amazon ads, you’ll need to be on KDP. Basically they’ve made themselves a necessity. The only reason not to also publishing on KDP is because you want to take a moral stand against Amazon, IMO.
A few points I want to make here coming from the hybrid publishing side of things:
Thanks for the post, Jane. I agree with you that this is the least understood side of the business from the author’s perspective, and from a publisher’s perspective, I wouldn’t even do this without traditional distribution, personally. I know all publishers are different, but POD as it exists right now is riddled with problems that I’d love to see our industry effectively solve.
Thank you, Brooke. I appreciate the insight here.
Could you tell me more about where that status appears? Is it at Ingram + somewhere else?
During last year’s Blackout Bestseller list campaign, when several antiracist books hit the NYT list, those titles quickly ran out of stock, and demand could only be fulfilled by POD. Ingram’s Lightning Source was able to take some credit for helping publishers keep the sales going in light of that. All sizes of publishers (esp. Big Five) have been more greatly relying on POD due to the supply chain issues (tight paper market, tight printing market) that have been prevalent going back to 2019 and may affect this year’s holiday sales. Ingram has been strongly urging publishers of all types to make use of their POD services to ensure books never go out of stock. They haven’t mentioned it being a problem with accounts, although I assume it’s all about this “status” you mention.
If POD is a status that causes bookstores/retailers to stigmatize POD, they seem to be targeting self-publishing authors or making broad generalizations about who is using it and the quality of author or publisher that is using it. Many small presses and independent authors must use POD — and these are often authors and presses who are already underrepresented in commercial publishing.
I can see why POD necessitates increased costs on a hardcover or with color books, but I don’t see that happening as a matter of course on paperbacks. Publishers tend to keep standard market pricing in my experience. My own POD book is a standard 6×9 paperback that sells fine at $14.99 and still nets me a profit as an independent author. That’s not to say there aren’t higher unit costs and lower profit with POD, but publishers right now must shoulder especially increased costs with freight, paper and printing, etc (the tight market I mentioned earlier). So the benefits of a print run right now are also very big headaches.
Thirty percent is a return rate I know was common 10-15 years ago, but with the shift to online retail (Amazon), that seems pretty high on average to me. Traditional publishers have been reporting a return rate these days closer to 15% even for big titles, especially since the pandemic hit. Barnes & Noble no longer accepts co-op/merchandising dollars and has fundamentally changed how they place orders (it’s now more local), which should only lead to a decline of returns percentages. My publisher (Univ of Chicago Press) held some of my royalties in reserve on my 2018 book, anticipating these old industry standard return percentages that never happened. Finally I got those royalties paid out this summer.
I think the big question I’m left with is: what accounts are impressed by print runs and the distribution tied to print runs? If Amazon is selling 60-65% of all print books right now in the US, and Barnes & Noble is selling 10-20%, and independent bookstores are at 5%-7% (with specialty retailers and big-box retailers making up the remainder), are we talking about impressing that 5%-7%?
I’m in a couple of Ingramspark related Facebook groups, and there have been a handful of posts where people said they were told by their local B&N store that their books could not be stocked because they were POD. So that status must be evident somewhere.
Sometimes POD books are non-returnable, and that’s why bookstores say “no.” Publishers using IngramSpark/LSI have the option to make books returnable if they wish. If the book is only available through Amazon POD, that is often an automatic “no” from a bookstore.
Finally, some bookstores say “no” to POD because it’s an easier policy than getting into a conversation with a self-pub or small press author about why they don’t want to stock the title (e.g., quality concerns related to the book’s content).
Maybe “status” isn’t the right word but yes, with IPS we flip the book to POD “YES” or POD “NO.” I’m not suggesting this is a common term that industry people are using, but buyers can presume a book is printed to order (meaning one at a time) if there’s no inventory. Plus, inside iPage all retailers can see who a given book’s distributor is—and there are so few distributors that it’s an easy nod to the buyer that the book is traditionally distributed, or not.
If I publish a book offset, 1000 copies, those books go to the warehouse, and when a bookstore buyer goes into iPage, they can tell the book is not POD because there’s a lot of inventory. So that’s the cue to the buyer that there’s a print run, there’s a warehouse, and then on iPage our books say that they’re distributed by IPS. All of this serves as a green light to the bookstore, all systems go. Once that 1000 runs out, if I choose to flip the book to POD, it doesn’t change that book’s status, in the sense that I do not flip the book to “YES” status through Ingram, but instead I’m doing a short run POD order—100 or 200 or 300. If I flip the book to “YES” that means the books are printed to order—one at a time. This is what I mean by “status” and it’s an indicator to buyers because if the status is YES then the book is POD, printed to order, and shows zero inventory. If the status is NO, then the book is still being printed POD, but in small runs and fulfilling more books as necessary, or as we decide.
This is a post I wrote about this a while ago:
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/authors/pw-select/article/75644-indie-authors-and-the-hidden-stigma-of-pod.html
Hopefully this explains what I’m trying to articulate. All big publishers use POD to “fill the gap” and correct, the industry has no issue with it, and yet the industry does absolutely have an issue with the notion of moving to POD as a first measure—because of cost and quality.
As far as returns go, I’m sure this varies depending on genre. I believe we get more returns than your book would ever get on fiction and memoir—due to the nature of fiction and memoir, especially debut authors. Some authors get very very few returns, some more. But the point there is also that we are always going to try. We might have an author who’s doing everything right, great publicity campaign, amazing book, and still there are instances where we push the book out in great numbers (because we believe in it and we think it’s going to sell through whatever quantity), and then for whatever reason it doesn’t perform as well as we’d hoped and we have to take the returns. I’m not saying this is every book, but this happens.
To your question: what accounts are impressed by print runs and the distribution tied to print runs?
—It’s bookstores. For our authors bookstores are a huge deal. It’s about the dream of being in bookstores, for sure, but it’s where we get the most amount of communication from our authors in terms of their needs/desires/wishes for their books. They might sell 500 on Amazon and 20 in bookstores, and still the bookstore presence and prestige is more important to most.
—it’s also specialty markets, though of course self-published authors with the right books can get into any niche market on their own. most don’t have the sales savvy to do so.
—Finally, it’s libraries. They might not be “impressed” or moved by your print run per se, but it’s about the availability and the above-mentioned review situation. Libraries order based on reviews.
For us, Amazon right now is still only 50-55% of our sales…. only, she says. And i would argue that if the bookstore market is 6-7%, its emotional weight is more like 50-55% for a lot of authors.
So much of what’s frustrating about book publishing is perceptions and folks having a dream of what it should look like based on a 1950s view of the industry.
Thank you, Brooke – once again I really appreciate the in-depth information here. It helps a lot.
Thanks for opening up the dialogue. I’ll talk publishing with you any day of the week! 🙂
Thanks Jane and thanks to the commenters. This post was very clear and helpful. I’m about to take the plunge into self-publishing my fiction.
Thank you for the information. It is very helpful. I will try these two avenues.
Very educational, thank you Jane Friedman!
Jane,
Great post. Having worked on the distribution side of publishing for over 35 years and now on my own with my own company, I do have some comments, that I hope are helpful:
1) Physical sales and distribution AND on-line sales and distribution are interrelated. You really can’t have a successful brick and mortar strategy without a good solid on-line ( yes Amazon) presence. THAT includes marketing.
2) It is VERY difficult for a self published author or even an independent publisher to secure a legitimate full service book distributor who has relationships and connections to retailers and wholesalers throughout that channel. A good book distributor will take a good hard even critical look at any submission. Most are turned way. Remember, THEY are taking a risk as well as the author/publisher. Yes, they may take 30% or more of your wholesale price, but their investment in the author/publisher, is their sales force, their logistics, their billing and collecting on your behalf is also a risk. Your success is their success. Full service book distribution is NOT for every publisher/author. It is however a legitimate and profitable way to sell books, if done right. Working with the right company will even help with your printing decisions.
3) No matter what type of distribution and sales stagey an author/publisher may have, on-;fine, POD, Off-set etc., it is critical that a marketing, PR and sales plan be in place. You need eyes on your book. Just listing at Ingram wholesale, will get you just that… a listing, along with thousands of other authors. You need to look at discount, promotions, professional reviews etc,
There is no easy answer to book distribution, but physical distribution remains a viable option and can and should be run along side your online sales venues. In fact most book distributors can run that part of your business just as efficient as their brick and mortar business. It all comes down to the quality of the work, its business model and goals of the author/publisher.
POD is a good option for on-line sales. When you venture into physical store distribution, it can be more costly however. Print cost per book is in most cases is less expensive than POD. There are many companies that offer short run printing and offset. Do your research. Another issue is that there are many independent and some well known chains that will not accept books from certain online sources as they consider them competitors. Even if you approach a store on an individual ( your local bookstore) basis. Again, do your research.
Good luck to all!
Hi Ed: Your comment reminds me that I have a valuable guest post from Joe Biel on working with a distributor (the type that takes 30 percent or a good chunk of sales). For those who want to learn more about that: https://janefriedman.com/trade-book-distributor/
Biel’s book is essential reading if you’re running a small press. He has been successful in having a sales strategy that completely ignores Amazon. But it must be said: his publisher brand and mission attracts an audience of people who likely aren’t shopping that much at Amazon.