Archive1. SPGN 2014/01 – Tips and ideas for your publication 2. SPGN 2013/01 – Formatting various book formats ready for publication 3. SPN - Distribution channels for book publications 4. SPN - DOI - Digital Object Identifier 5. SPN - Academic/scientific publications on the Internet 6. SPN - Get-ups for technical publications
Archive Details
SPN - Distribution channels for book publications
=================================================
Shaker Publishing Group
=================================================
Dear Authors,
In our last newsletter, we reported to you on the
improved traceability of digital publications thanks
to the increasing propagation of the DOI system.
But how does a work published as a book get from
the author's desk to the bookshop, to the libraries'
catalogues or, finally, to the readers?
In today's newsletter, we would like to show you
the various sales channels and possibilities of
marketing for books, which still represent the
most frequently used information medium in the
scientific field.
Yours sincerely,
Shaker Publishing Group, Aachen
================ Contents =======================
1. Production and delivery
2. Lists of available books
3. Book price maintenance, rebate systems and authors' fees
4. Wholesale book trade
5. Bookshops
6. Internet book trade
7. Direct dispatch by publishing houses
8. Side-markets
9. Your publication
10. Information on new publication
11. Your opinion
12. Newsletter distribution list
================ Contents =======================
=================================================
1. Production and delivery
=================================================
Unlike digital publications, which can be fed into
the Internet and thus onto interested readers'
computers quite directly, printed books have to pass
through a large number of stations before they can
be found and purchased by the readers.
To start with, a manuscript is processed for printing,
supplemented by the publisher's pages and the cover
and finally printed, bound and provided for delivery.
The path to the customer can be either by direct
dispatch from the publishing company or via one or
more additional distribution agencies.
=================================================
2. Lists of available books
=================================================
A first important step for the distribution of a book
is registration by the various lists of available books,
for example Nielsen BookData for Great Britain, the VLB
(List of Available Books) for Germany or the
Swiss Book Centre. These extensive and central databases
are the most important instruments of information for
the book trade and thus an important marketing platform
of the publishing branch.
If a book is to be included in such a list and thus be
traceable and orderable for all dealers and libraries
all over the world, an ISBN must be assigned to the
publication and printed on the cover and the preliminaries.
Alongside the ISBN, all the relevant bibliographical
information and metadata (e.g. finishing and keywords
on the contents) are stated.
=================================================
3. Book price maintenance, rebate systems and authors' fees
=================================================
In some countries, books are subject to statutory price
maintenance, with the result that a title is available
everywhere at the price stated by the publishers - be
it in a small book store, a department store or the
Internet. This law is intended to express the fact that
books are regarded not as mere commodities, but
simultaneously as cultural goods - which is also
reflected in many countries by the reduced rate of
Value Added Tax or non-taxation of books.
In recent years, book price maintenance has been rescinded
in many countries by their cartel agencies or supreme
courts, for example as early as 1970 in Sweden, 1995
in Great Britain and, lastly, in May this year in
Switzerland. No fixed book prices apply for books
imported from these countries into countries with
statutory price maintenance, such as Germany, France
or Austria.
The amount of the author's fees also depends on the
sales price, although, as a rule, the sales price of
the publisher and not the (maintained) final customer's
price is used as a basis for calculation. Therefore,
an author's remuneration is not the same for each sold
copy and varies even if there is price maintenance, as
the publishing companies grant various traders differing
rebates. The amount of the rebates depends, amongst
other things, on whether the buyer sells directly on
to final customers or acts as an intermediate trader.
=================================================
4. Wholesale book trade
=================================================
The intermediate book trade is formed by the wholesalers.
Important wholesalers are Bertrams and Gardner for the
British book trade, Libri and KNV for the German-language
area or Seelig & Co for Scandinavia. They buy books from
the publishers for their own account and sell them on to
the bookshops. The publishing houses accordingly grant
the wholesalers larger rebates on the shop price than
they do to the bookshops. The latter, for their part,
buy from the wholesalers on similar terms to those valid
with the publishers themselves. The wholesalers finance
themselves from the profit margin which results, and their
warehouses and delivery make an essential contribution to
books being procured for the bookshops' customers, in some
cases overnight.
=================================================
5. Bookshops
=================================================
The book trade or retail trade, which as a rule has lower
warehouse capacities and budgets at its disposal than the
wholesalers, makes a tight selection when buying. This is
unavoidable with a view to more than 100,000 British and
around 90,000 German new issues per year. In particular,
very specific, scientific titles are thus not very often
found in the branches. But the bookshop owner has the
possibility of obtaining every published work directly
from the wholesalers or the publishers for his customers.
In order to put certain titles into the range, the
publishing house can offer purchase at particularly
favourable conditions, e.g. via bulk discounts or free
copies from a certain ordered quantity. The amount of
the discount for the traders is customarily in the range
between 20 and 40 per cent.
Not all the books acquired by the book trade can be
deemed sold for the publishers (and the author), as
the book trade is granted a remission period of one
to twelve months (sale or return). In the authors'
fees settlements, this can lead to copies already
settled having to be deducted again in the following
year or quarter, as the case may be, if the books are
returned by the bookshops in the meantime.
=================================================
6. Internet book trade
=================================================
In recent years, the Internet has been increasingly
gaining importance for the propagation of books. The
share of online bookshops such as Amazon, Saxo or
bol.com on the books market is permanently increasing.
As a supplement to the traditional sales structures
described above, the online bookshops above all offer
smaller publishers or very specific titles a great
marketing chance. Here, customers looking for literature
on specific keywords are offered all the available
titles, i.e. also those which they would not have
discovered in the book trade, as a pre-selection by
the trader no longer takes place. Internet dealers
offer all the titles from the cooperating publishers,
regardless of the sales figures to be expected, and
supply them directly to the customer or forward the
order to the publishing house or trader offering the
works in question.
=================================================
7. Direct dispatch by publishing houses
=================================================
Direct dispatch by the publishers also profits from
the increasing use of the Internet. Anyone researching
publications on a certain subject not on the Internet
traders' sites, but with the help of general search
engines such as Google, is frequently forwarded to
the online catalogues of the publishers in question.
Books ordered there are dispatched directly to the
customers by the publishers. Via the online catalogue,
the publishing company can also sell titles to which
it has not assigned an ISBN and which are also not
stated on a list of available books.
=================================================
8. Side-markets
=================================================
A further form of sales is provided by the so-called
side-markets. For example, this includes the book
departments of department stores or the book pillars
in supermarkets. In these side-markets, the trader
mainly only provides his space, the supplier, that
is to say the publisher or the intermediate trader,
deciding on the offer. For scientific publications,
the side-markets do not play any kind of role as a
rule, as they are mainly used for the low-price segment.
=================================================
9. Your publication
=================================================
In addition to conventional book publications we can
offer online publications as well as publications on
CD, CD-ROM and DVD.
Find out more about our publication concept that
offers academic and scientific authors a number
of advantages at http://www.shaker.eu
A number of tips on layouts and formatting can be
found at the link http://www.shaker.eu
This also contains precise instructions on converting
your manuscript into a PostScript file. Ask for an
offer without obligation:
http://www.shaker.eu
=================================================
10. Information on new publications
=================================================
We have published more than 15,000 scientific works
by renowned editors and authors from a multitude of
famous research institutions to date. An overview
can be found on our catalogue pages
http://www.shaker.eu
Use our new publications service. We keep you informed
on new publications in your specialist field every
month by e-mail. Tell us which topics you are interested
in per e-mail to mailto:info@shaker.eu
=================================================
11. Your opinion
=================================================
Tell us what you think about our newsletter. Are the
topics interesting? Are the contents explained in too
much or not enough detail? Do you have any special
wishes or suggestions for topics that we could present
in more detail?
Send your suggestions, praise and criticism to
mailto:newsletter@shakerpublishing.eu
=================================================
12. Newsletter distribution list
=================================================
Our newsletter appears once a month and deals with
topics for authors and editors from the field of
science and research.
If this does not appeal to you and you do not want
to be sent the newsletter in the future we will
delete you from the distribution list.
Simply click on the following link:
http://www.shaker.eu/onlineservice/register.asp?RID=000000&eMail=eMailAdresse
Or let us know by simply returning our newsletter
with no comments to mailto:newsletter@shakerpublishing.eu
Please note that we need your ID #000000# to delete
your address. This is best done by returning the
complete newsletter.
(C) Copyright Shaker Verlag GmbH
All rights reserved, including off-prints of extracts,
reproduction in part or completely,
storage in data processing systems
and translation.
This newsletter is published by
Shaker Verlag, Aachen
For more details contact: mailto:info@shaker.eu
=================================================
Shaker Verlag GmbH
Kaiserstr. 100
52134 Herzogenrath
PO Box 101818
52018 Aachen
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)2407 / 9596-0
Fax: +49 (0)2407 / 9596-9
e-mail: mailto:info@shaker.eu
Internet: http://www.shaker.eu/
Shaker Publishing BV
St. Maartenslaan 26
6221 AX Maastricht
Postbus 3167
6202 ND Maastricht
The Netherlands
Phone: +43 (0)3500424
Fax: +43 (0)3255090
e-mail: mailto:info@shaker.eu
Internet: http://www.shaker.eu/
=================================================
Unsubscribe from the newsletter
Simply return the newsletter with no comments or
click on the following link:
http://www.shaker.eu/onlineservice/register.asp?RID=000000&eMail=eMailAdresse
see also item 12: Newsletter distribution list
=================================================
|