Book Selling: What the Baker and Taylor Shutdown Means For Authors

Baker and Taylor are winding down their retail wholesale operations, leaving Ingram to take over that space and perhaps some small regional players. So what does this mean for the indie publishers? You know, all of us self publishing authors. If you're wondering that or you don't even know what the heck I'm talking about, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad award winning author and founder of Book Launchers. You're your professional self publishing team that will help you write, publish and promote a money making impact creating nonfiction book. For a little while, the rumors have been circulating that Ingram might be trying to buy Baker and Taylor. For whatever reason, that transaction did not happen. But I'm getting ahead of myself. You might not even know what I'm talking about. Who is Baker and Taylor? Well, they are a distributor or they were a distributor of books and entertainment. They've been in business for over 180 years before being acquired by Follett. Follett, Follett, I don't know. In 2016, Baker and Taylor had over 2.6 billion in sales. So not a small player. In May 2019, they announced the decision to exit the wholesale book distribution market. This will allow them to align their resources and everything else they've got going on to focus on helping public libraries support the communities they serve. Now if you have only ever published your books on Amazon, you won't really feel the impact of them leaving the market. But for anyone looking for bookstore distribution, they this change could be interesting. Baker and Taylor was a way to get your book into bookstores. You could set up an account with them and have your books placed in their catalog so bookstores could order them. They were a wholesaler with good connections to distribute to those stores. And a lot of independent bookstores relied heavily on Baker and Taylor for their ordering. While the major chains ordered direct from the major publishers as well as from Ingram and typically from Baker and Taylor. Many of the smaller independent stores found that the the discounts were more favorable from B and T and had a better relationship with them. So they relied on them for their book buying. It's too early to know how this could shake out for self publishing authors, but I have a few thoughts. Number one, if you are setting your book up with Ingram, the more opportunity to connect with more bookstores is going to be there because most of those smaller bookstores that previously used Baker and Taylor will likely switch to Ingram catalog system. This could be a positive. Two, there could be an opportunity for someone else to come in and fill the gap. Whether it be a regional player or someone else. It is possible and that opportunity could be a good one for self publishing Authors don't know three stores want books that will sell and that they can make a margin on. In one of the articles on Publishers Weekly it was noted that 60% of the purchases from bookstores are direct from publishers. Now where that used to be 40%. And my guess is that's because the margin has been squashed. And this is also why bookstore distribution remains a challenge for self publishing authors. Because the stores aren't seeing your book as an option unless it's topping the charts and they look for it in their catalog of choice. So what does that mean for you? Well, if you want bookstore distribution, make sure you're setting your book up with the right wholesale discount. A video is coming out on that one next week, so make sure you subscribe to the channel so you catch that video. And it means your book has to be selling. So you have to have the right discount and you have to sell sell books and then approach the bookstores and show them that they will make money and you're set up in the Ingram catalog with the right discount for them to order and have a shot at a profit. In some ways it's sad to see such a book selling institution just fold up, but in others I think change is exciting and there are always those that will be able to spot the opportunities in this big news and make the most of it. Will that be you? We're working hard at Book Launchers to create amazing opportunities for every one of our author clients and we're hiring. So if you know anyone looking for work, work with experience in any aspect of the non fiction book publishing, printing or promoting space, send them to book launchers.com job and if you're planning to self publish a non fiction book and thinking OMG I do not want to do all this stuff, well hey, Book Launchers could be the perfect team to help you. You bring the expertise, stories and ideas and we can help you with everything else to create a great book that you'll be proud to hand to anyone and that bookstores will carry and sell if that's what you want. Check this out. This is our client Gautam Bates book in the Omaha airport and this one is a display for Gillian Gertson's book in Chapters Indigo in Canada. We've got your back and care massively about your success. To chat with me, fill out this form@book launchers.com application alright, like this video smash that thumbs up button and comment below about what you think about the future of book distribution. And when you comment, the day a video is released, you will be entered to win some sweet book launcher swag. Now, there are some other videos that I think you'll really like. For example, this beauty on getting your book into bookstores and this other recent video that I put out. Check them out. I'm waiting for you. Go ahead, click it.