How Does Print and Ebook Distribution Work?
One of the most essential parts of self-publishing is understanding how you’ll sell your book. If you’ve done your homework, you’ve likely seen the term ‘distribution’ in various forms. If you’re wondering what distributing your book really means, you’re in the right place!
What Is Book Distribution?
Distribution, often called ‘wholesale distribution,’ means making your books available to wholesalers who make your books available to major retailers like Amazon. Whether you’re a self-published or traditionally published author, the distribution network you’ll most likely work with is Ingram Content Group. Distributing your book through Ingram makes it available for purchase to upwards of 40,000 stores, schools, and libraries.
To simplify this, you can think of distribution as a catalog service; booksellers select the books they will sell from this catalog.
Benefits Of Distribution
The most important benefit is availability. No matter what you think about Amazon, having your book available on their network is beneficial. If your goal is to sell books, you have to sell your book where the readers are. And for some, that absolutely means Amazon.
If you’re growing your author brand, getting in front of a wider audience is vital. Weaker profit margins from book sales are a trade-off for being discovered.
And it’s pretty simple to make your book available for retail distribution. So there’s really no reason not to do so.
Problems With Distribution
There are two significant issues with retail distribution.
- You are limited to the requirements ALL retailers impose. That means meeting Amazon’s standards since almost all retailers use them as a benchmark. If your book uses some unique formatting or uncommon elements, there might be some restrictions.
- You’ll pay a wholesale price (sometimes called a wholesale markup). Basically, retailers will mark up your base price (with Lulu, this is the print cost) by a factor of two. Here’s an example using our pricing calculator—the retailer markup appears as Distribution Fees. The book is a Paperback US Trade, 200 pages using Standard Black & White ink.
As you can see, the distribution fee is $7.66 USD, driving the book’s price up substantially. I’ll touch on some options you have to work around this later on.
First, let’s look at how you prepare your publication for retail distribution and what the retailers require.
Select A Goal: Where You Sell
The first step is to identify your goal for the book. You’ll select this during the first step in the publishing process, right after you select the Product type.
Distribution channels have specific formatting, design, and metadata requirements. Remember that there are some formats on Lulu that retail distributors cannot produce, like coil binding.
To help you make the process easier, Lulu offers specific instructions for Print and Ebook distribution.
Print Distribution
Distribution for print starts with formatting your book to fit the sizes our retail partners accept. We’ll help guide you through adding your metadata and uploading your file. The most important thing to remember is that metadata MUST match in all locations, including what you add while publishing on Lulu and what you include in your print files.
Publishing for distribution means meeting all the requirements our retail partners provide. The list is long, though many of the requirements are common sense for publishing. You should read and review our complete list of distribution requirements for print before you begin publishing.
To help make it easier for you to create your book files to be accepted for distribution, we’ve got a guide to distribution exclusions in our Help Center. Again, take some time to read and review the exclusions list before you publish your book.
Book Creation Guide
Our free guide to creating your book PDF files and preparing your work for publishing and printing with Lulu.
The final step is a required proof copy of your book. Our retail partners require that you review and approve your book before we can send it to them for review. I’ve had authors approach me at events and push back on this idea that forces everyone to buy a copy of their book.
But I can’t disagree more strongly. If you don’t actually see the physical proof of the printed book, there’s just no way to know that what you’ve created will print exactly right.
Basically, always proof your book! It’s a small expense, and it’s well worth it.
Ebook Distribution
Ebooks are a great way to offer a lower-cost, highly mobile, and versatile version of your book to interested readers. Similar to our print distribution, your ebooks can be sold in all the major online stores.
The important details for an ebook are mostly the same as those for a print book, with a couple of unique considerations.
Like print books, ebooks have unique requirements that must be met before retailers list your ebook in their retail stores.
The most essential requirement is the need for a searchable table of contents (called the NCX file) is the most vital. Our Ebook Creation Guide details creating a table of contents using text styles.
Ebook Creation Guide
Prepare your DOCX file for conversion to EPUB with our free ebook guide.
Ebook Distribution Review Fee
As part of the review process, Lulu charges a one-time fee the first time you submit an ebook for distribution. The distribution review process helps ensure your ebook is accepted quickly by retailers.
This fee does not apply to revisions of a published ebook.
You’ll pay the distribution fee for all newly published ebooks before completing the distribution submission process.
Selling Your Book
We’ve covered how to prepare your book for distribution and some of the pros and cons associated with it. But we haven’t gotten into the nuts and bolts of what distribution is and how it works.
First, understand that you’ll always make the best revenue selling directly to your readers. Retailers like Amazon and Ingram will list a Lulu book for distribution on their store site, but they’ll also take a more substantial cut of the profits.
When a retailer sells your book through one of their retail websites, they handle printing and fulfillment and then forward any revenue you’d earn to Lulu so we can pay you.
It’s important to understand that we don’t have control over this end of the process; we receive revenue reports within eight weeks of a sale and post the funds in your account, but the printing details are all on the retailer’s end.
This can present customer service issues, as your customers will contact the retailer if they have a problem. You won’t be able to respond or help correct the issue, potentially leading to negative book reviews.
Major Retail Book Distributors
As an indie author, you’ll want to focus on the two major book retailers: Amazon and Ingram.
Amazon
Amazon is pretty simple: you want your work available in their store because Amazon is the biggest retailer. Period. They’re huge.
And because of their size, they’ll offer their Prime customers better shipping than most other retailers, further setting Amazon apart as a super-seller.
If they only wanted to connect with you or learn more about you as an author, they might Google search for you. But if they simply want to locate and buy your book, Amazon will likely be their first destination.
For this reason alone, your book must be available on the Amazon store. You won’t realize the highest returns from Amazon, but you will get more exposure.
Ingram
Ingram is the world’s largest and most far-reaching book distribution service. And when you opt into Lulu’s distribution service, Ingram’s catalog and a network of connected retailers are a big part of that service.
By making your book available through Ingram’s network, your book can reach thousands of retailers, schools, and libraries.
It is important to note the subtle difference here. When we send your book to Amazon for listing, this is akin to proper distribution. Your book is being made available for purchase at a bookstore.
Ingram will not guarantee that your book is listed in any specific bookstore. Instead, they make the book available for order by any bookstore connected to their network. The Ingram side of distribution is closer to wholesale than distribution.
What’s the difference? A distributor tends to work directly with manufacturers to sell products, usually to retailers, but more and more, distributors are also retailers. A wholesaler is working with retailers to purchase products in bulk at discounted rates.
Distribution: What You Have To Know
- Amazon covers all of its markets. Distributing your book to Amazon will get your book into their online bookstores.
- Ingram lists your book in its catalog, allowing bookstores to order it, but it does not ensure a direct listing for individual bookstores or in-store printed copies.
- Sales through a distributor will result in lower revenues per sale.
What Distribution Is And Isn’t
For a self-published author, distribution means your book is listed with retailers and available for print-on-demand sales. It does not mean those retailers will support you with additional marketing efforts, nor does it guarantee your book will appear in bookstores or other non-digital locations.
Just submitting your book to a distribution channel does not guarantee sales. Distribution enables sales; you have to do the actual selling.
Distribution is another piece of the big and complex self-publishing puzzle.
You’ll absolutely want your book in distribution, but your emphasis on selling through distribution channels depends largely on your marketing plan.
- Distribution will be central if you plan to spend most of your energy working with booksellers to get physical copies on their shelves.
- Distribution will be far less critical if you plan to sell most copies by hand or through your own author website.
In conclusion, here’s a rundown of book distribution for you:
Distribution Is…
- a means to offer your book to a broader audience
- a path to in-store representation (with some luck and additional work from the author)
- a way to capture readers using dedicated retail services (most often Amazon)
Distribution Is NOT…
- a promise or guarantee from any retailer that your book will sell
- a marketing platform – distribution is just a piece of your marketing strategy
- how you will sell most of your books
Alternatives To Distribution
When you sell your book using a service, be it Lulu, Ingram, or Amazon, you’re putting a retailer between yourself and your reader.
If you’re an author or creator and you’ve already built a dedicated audience, you should explore direct sales options. You’ll keep all of your revenue, you’ll have a direct connection with your readers, and you’ll get to maintain total control over your books.
Selling Like A Pro
Even if you sell directly, you can still distribute your book to make it available on retail sites.
Don’t limit yourself. I say this so often I’m tired of hearing myself repeat it. But it’s true; nothing prevents you from taking advantage of various retail and distribution options.
You can and should sell your book on Amazon so searchers can find it. However, you should also use Lulu to point readers to earn more revenue from those sales. It isn’t and never has been an either/or scenario.
Publishing smarter means knowing what options you have and how to capitalize on those options.
