Glossary
Booksellers - Any customer that retails books to the end consumer or resells to book retailers, acting as a middleman. Booksellers come in a variety of customer types such as retailers, distributors, jobbers, mass merchants, membership clubs, Internet, and the specialty market.
Distribution – The process of shipping books to selected booksellers. A “good distribution” refers to the correct quantity of books being shipped to the correct bookseller based on the customer type, price, format, category, and potential for sales. Good distribution is the key to a high percent of sale.
Guaranteed Sale - When publishers ship books to booksellers, they guarantee that any unsold books can be returned to the publisher for full credit. For example, if a book retails for $20 and the publisher sells that book to a bookseller at a 50% discount, they will bill the customer $10. If that book remains unsold over the course of several months, the bookseller can return that copy and be credited for the cost of the book or $10.
Percent of Sale – Also referred at as sell-through percentage, the percentage of books sold by the publisher compared to the number printed. If you print 1000 copies and sell 750, you have a percent of sale of 75%. An accurate percent of sale can only be measured after several weeks on sale in the marketplace because the system requires time for the book to have a shelf life, return unwanted copies to the publisher, counted and recorded as returns.
Return Percent – The percentage of books returned compared to the number printed. If you print 1000 copies and sell 600, then after several weeks on sale 400 will be returned, your return percent would be 40%.
Returns – Copies of books distributed into the marketplace that did not sell at retail. These unsold copies are returned to their publisher for full price. This is the result of a guaranteed sale, the method in which all publishers does business.
Sell Through – Another term for Percent of Sale.
