Last week we discussed book pricing among the biggest advantages in self-publishing. Book pricing can actually be more complicated that it would appear on the outset, and worth discussing in a bit more length. Let’s start with trade discount.
The “trade discount” is the percentage of your retail price that you offer to the publishing trade for distributing your book to retailers. The “publishing trade” consists of wholesalers, distributors, and retailers—not your publisher. Everyone involved with your book after the publisher all the way to the reader falls into the “publishing trade” circle, and they all take 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%.
Most publishing companies do not offer any information about their trade discounting policies up-front, nor do they give the author any say in the matter.
Look for a publisher that offers authors the flexibility of setting your trade discount from 0% – 55%. A 55% trade discount will result in an industry standard 40% retail margin, which is what a typical book retailer seeks when considering whether or not to order a book. So in addition to availability on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble’s website, Borders.com, and the many other sales channels—your book can have the retail margin that bookstores and chains are looking for.
Cheers!
Karl Schroeder
Self Publishing Advisor 