Trade Discount
What is a Trade Discount ? What does it mean to me?
A "trade discount" is also known as a distributor discount and is the percentage off your retail price that you offer to the publishing trade for distributing your book. The "publishing trade" consists of wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. Everyone who handles your book takes a piece of the trade discount.
Obviously, the larger the trade discount, the more money there is to split up among the parties involved. Standard trade discounts range from 50% - 70%.
However some caring publishers, such as Sleepytown Press offer their authors the flexibility of setting their own trade discount. Flexibility varies by publisher. You may select any percentage from 20% and up.
A 55% trade discount, which is what a typical book retailer seeks when considering whether or not to order or stock a book for a physical bookstore, means you make less money from any and all sales through online and stores.
WHO DETERMINES MY BOOK'S TRADE DISCOUNT?
As with the retail price, the trade discount is up to you. It depends upon what type of distribution you are seeking and how high or low you want your retail price. We tell you the "cost" of you ordering your book and you set the discount. There are no surprises.
With most other publishers, the publisher sets your trade discount and retail price for you. This is not true of Sleepytown Press.
WHAT PRICE PLAN SHOULD AN AUTHOR SET?
Since the price plan is directly related to both your profit and your retail price, special consideration should be given to picking the right plan. The higher your plan, the higher your retail price and/or the lower your book profits. The lower your plan, the higher your profits, but perhaps to the detriment of distribution.
Remember that a trade discount is different from a retail margin. Wholesalers receive the trade discounted price. Then they turn around and distribute your book to a retailer for a retail margin they (Ingram) set. If the trade discount and retail margin were the same, Ingram wouldn't make any money and would go out of business. For this reason, the retail margin passed to the retailers is always lower than the trade discount you set with your price plan.
Good news! Sleepytown Press will work with book stores, if the author gives us permission to allow a higher discount for Brick & Morter stores. No other publisher does this. That means that you can set a low % of discount, but allow Book Stores to pay a lower percentage, just to make it easier for Book Stores to carry your books.
A "trade discount" is also known as a distributor discount and is the percentage off your retail price that you offer to the publishing trade for distributing your book. The "publishing trade" consists of wholesalers, distributors, and retailers. Everyone who handles your book takes a piece of the trade discount.
Obviously, the larger the trade discount, the more money there is to split up among the parties involved. Standard trade discounts range from 50% - 70%.
However some caring publishers, such as Sleepytown Press offer their authors the flexibility of setting their own trade discount. Flexibility varies by publisher. You may select any percentage from 20% and up.
A 55% trade discount, which is what a typical book retailer seeks when considering whether or not to order or stock a book for a physical bookstore, means you make less money from any and all sales through online and stores.
WHO DETERMINES MY BOOK'S TRADE DISCOUNT?
As with the retail price, the trade discount is up to you. It depends upon what type of distribution you are seeking and how high or low you want your retail price. We tell you the "cost" of you ordering your book and you set the discount. There are no surprises.
With most other publishers, the publisher sets your trade discount and retail price for you. This is not true of Sleepytown Press.
WHAT PRICE PLAN SHOULD AN AUTHOR SET?
Since the price plan is directly related to both your profit and your retail price, special consideration should be given to picking the right plan. The higher your plan, the higher your retail price and/or the lower your book profits. The lower your plan, the higher your profits, but perhaps to the detriment of distribution.
Remember that a trade discount is different from a retail margin. Wholesalers receive the trade discounted price. Then they turn around and distribute your book to a retailer for a retail margin they (Ingram) set. If the trade discount and retail margin were the same, Ingram wouldn't make any money and would go out of business. For this reason, the retail margin passed to the retailers is always lower than the trade discount you set with your price plan.
Good news! Sleepytown Press will work with book stores, if the author gives us permission to allow a higher discount for Brick & Morter stores. No other publisher does this. That means that you can set a low % of discount, but allow Book Stores to pay a lower percentage, just to make it easier for Book Stores to carry your books.