Any self-published writers here who have dealt directly with distributors before? Recently, a chain bookstore gave me the contact details for a local distributor. If I want bookstores to carry my book, that distributor would be a good choice. And I can see their work. A local self-published writer wrote a glowing article about how that distributor helped her get her first novel into the chain bookstores. HOWEVER, another local writer also told me that the distributor estimated his sales wrongly and that he only got back his money after two years. So that got me worried. And that's why I am soliciting for opinions from veterans in this industry, especially those who have dealt with distributors before. Is 2 years a normal waiting period to get your money from a distributor? I heard that sometimes if sales is bad, they won't pay you half-yearly like they are supposed to, but only when your sales of your books have achieved the minimum required sum. And the writer who complained was working through his publisher. But I am my own publisher so I will have all the invoices from the deliveries of books, right? That means I don't have to go through a third party to find out exactly how many copies I have sold, right? Which means that there's no way they can estimate my sales wrongly? So I have been wondering if I should take the risk and work with that particular distributor? Based on my research, there's only 4 in my country who can get books into the chain bookstores. 1 may reject me soon so there's only 3 of 'em left for me to choose from. For all I know, the others may also have a habit of estimating sales wrongly? Opinions and feedback welcomed.
I was interested in these types of questions before, there is quite a lot of information you can find by reading the already published authors’ notes/suggestions/ experiences on their websites. Mostly they are different experiences (based on type of book, type of readers it’s intended for, where you are located geographically, whether there are similar works out on the market now or recently, whether your cover looks good, and so on and so forth). Most of them do point out the importance of contracts... Just be intelligent and try not to get swindled, basically. Good luck!
Wishing you luck even though I can’t answer the question. Have the contract be looked over by someone who knows the law for contracts such as a lawyer if you don’t understand the contents well yourself. Let us know how it goes.
are you your own editor, too? who do you send your drafts to in order to get it reviewed or whatever? I must have several hundreds of thousands of word docs sitting there that i desperately want someone to go over and tell me my shit sucks. or you know, it is the bomb and they want me to sell my work. idk.
Try searching reddit if you can't find any answers here as they tend to have a lot of subreddits, some of which may answer your questions.
Two years seems like an overly long time before getting paid. If everyone got paid for a job they did two years later the would have ended! Have you compared the locals with publishing on Amazon? I haven't published anything before, but I wish you good luck!
Which country do you live in? Depending on the country, using a distributor could be a terrible idea, such as Greece. In Greece, if you have a fantasy story, selling ten paperback books in an entire month is considered amazing.
Hi, I was lucky and managed to call up an old friend who used to be an editor for a magazine. I won't mention names but that magazine has a wide readership in the UK, so I know her skill and judgement as an editor can be trusted. If you don't know anyone who can name newspapers or magazines on his or her resume, then you can go to Upwork. A lot of editors there have done work for businesses such as magazines. Once your draft has been scrutinized by an editor, you can send it off to publishers and ask if they would like to publish your manuscript. I am from Singapore and the chain bookstores will only work with distributors.
@Eishun thanks. mostly, i have been using Grammarly (the free mode, like everything else i use) and just hoping for the best, but i also tend to use some of these methods. https://thewritelife.com/self-editing-basics/ however, that doesn't change the fact that i feel there is something glaring at me from my work and just leaving a mess everywhere. of course, it could be my attention span forgetting an important character or plot point, but maybe this will help. thanks.
@Evil_Ginger Actually, it's good that you are using free resources as you are writing your draft. However, once the draft is completed, you should hire a professional editor or proofreader to look through it before sending it out to the publishers. It has been said before. Plenty of times. It's a bad idea for writers to edit their own (finished) manuscripts.
Depends on the minimum pay out. Each contract is different, even more so for local distributors. Typically, the chain is from consumer to distributor to publisher to author. Whatever accumulates in the first term out of 4, you should be paid a month into the next term. Ex. Jan-March is first term. So, April 1st you should be paid. Now that is from publisher to author. Typically, contracts have an "if publisher receives funds". So, that month you wait to receive your money, is the month the distributor should be paying the publisher. So, if you are the publisher, then namely you. And that's if the min amount of payout is met. Each publisher and distributor has a min. So, if you don't even sell enough to hit 100$ and 100 is your min, no one gets paid. Local distributors are hard as contracts might have a 2 term year. So, every 6 months. Just look over the contract, and you'll get a gauge on things. Make sure it is included the time frame and what happens after x days that they don't pay you. Also, make sure you don't get into an exclusive distribution. They are not your publisher. If exclusive, make it worth it and not in perpetuity. 2 years is standard.
Well.. could you not just talk it out with them? i mean you both want to make money so it would seem strange that would not also try to meet you in a contract.
For starters, you sound like you have a misunderstanding, to me, it sounds like the estimation of sales should be the preemptive one, ie, the one before you start selling, for how many copies are expected to be sold. That is to say, how many copies they make. If you are your own publisher, you should know that books cost money, one price for making books, and one price for each of them, no? Also, when you say "back" is it, back as in invested money because he was a self publisher, and someone told him that the estimated sales would be so and so and he sold way less than expected ans thus only got back his invested money after two years? I'm just slightly confused because of the vagueness of what you said. I have no experience with this subject, this is just my thoughts and speculations on it. Take this with a slightly big pinch of salt.
Seeming like a noob or lacking confidence could get him shown the door or thrown out in negotiations. The other side wants to help themselves and can find many people to accomplish it while he only really has three chances with this particular novel since he said there are 3 distributors. Going in with a strong front can be very important, just like with a job interview. Now that I’ve read more of this, it sounds like the friends issue was more with the publisher. The distributor just parcels out the books at x cost to bookstores and as long as they aren’t getting these returned or end up with too many in stock without enough selling, they will probably be happy. The publisher finds books, edits them, and gets them printed / has someone print them before passing them to the distributor with an estimation of sales. As your own author and with likely little to no advertisement, this money will end up coming out of your own pocket instead of a publishers, with no guarantee of return. The publishers have room for failed sales while you will not. Your best bet as a self publisher might be to release in editions with a limited first edition. Not only will this lower the initial investment, it will still get your name out there. Going modest is still a gamble as people may not notice your book, but flooding bookstores is much more likely to leave you with nothing. At least this way you could release a second edition based off of previous sales and whether reviews were positive or negative without completely cleaning yourself out.