Deconstructing Distribution
For example, it is now widely cited that some 85,000 publishers have ISBNs, but how many of these publish only one or a few evergreen books? And how many have sufficient sales volume to create a marketplace for distribution service providers—wholesalers, large publishers representing other publishers, master distributors, warehouse and fulfillment services, shipping companies, manufacturers providing shipping and fulfillment services, and various e-commerce aggregators and service providers?
Eugene G. Schwartz is editor at large for ForeWord Reviews, an industry observer and an occasional columnist for Book Business magazine. In an earlier career, he was in the printing business and held production management positions at Random House, Prentice-Hall/Goodyear and CRM Books/Psychology Today. A former PMA (IBPA) board member, he has headed his own publishing consultancy, Consortium House. He is also Co-Founder of Worthy Shorts Inc., a development stage online private press and publication service for professionals as well as an online back office publication service for publishers and associations. He is on the Publishing Business Conference and Expo Advisory Board.