Deconstructing Distribution
● 10 key master distributors: $400 million–$500 million
● 10 key major publisher distribution services: $750 million–$1 billion, and
● 350 commission reps: $250 million–$500 million.
This totals about $1.4 billion–$2 billion, or 8 percent to 11 percent of book sales to booksellers. My guess is that more than 90 percent of these sales dollars are coming from among the 5,300 publishers in the $500,000–$49 million bracket mentioned earlier.
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.