Distributors: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Screenshot 2025-11-07 at 10.47.31 AM.png|thumb|Publisher to Retailer Process]] | |||
== Definition == | == Definition == | ||
Distributors in the publishing industry are the intermediaries between publishers and retailers.<ref name=":0">Robinson, Solveig C. ''The Book in Society : An Introduction to Print Culture''. Peterborough, Broadview Press, 2014. | Distributors in the publishing industry are the intermediaries between publishers and retailers.<ref name=":0">Robinson, Solveig C. ''The Book in Society : An Introduction to Print Culture''. Peterborough, Broadview Press, 2014. | ||
Latest revision as of 07:48, 7 November 2025
Definition
Distributors in the publishing industry are the intermediaries between publishers and retailers.[1] The distributor physically stores the printed copies of the book to distribute them to wholesalers and retailers.[1]
Distributors have also been historically involved in marketing the book, introducing new methods and strategies specifically designed for book marketing.[2] This introduces the idea that a book is a commodity or, "...manufactured paste, paper, and leather goods..." rather than, "The gathering of stitched signatures pressed between bindings [that] contain ideas..." which sets book selling apart from from the selling of other commodities, according to James Gilreath.[2]
History
Book distributors became prominent during in the nineteenth century, when publishing started to develop tools and business models we still use today.[1] Without the invaluable advertising and storage services book distributors and wholesalers provide, publishers and retailers alike would be overloaded by the sheer amount of work that book distributors and wholesalers take on.
Instead of manually sorting through titles, libraries and retailers could contact distributors and wholesalers directly to see what new titles were of interest to audiences near them and request to have them shipped to their location to be sold.[1]
Distributors vs Wholesalers
Distributors are not to be confused with wholesalers; although both of them are intermediaries between publishers and retailers, their functions in the publishing business are very different. Distributors have more contact with the publisher than the retailer while wholesalers have more contact with retailers and libraries.[1] Distributors discounts tend to run between 65-70% off the retail price while wholesale discounts tend to be 55% off the retail price.[1] Distributors also prefer their contracts to be exclusive which is not the case with wholesalers.[1]
