Deconstructing Distribution
It is useful to establish under what circumstances a publisher should take on its own sales and distribution operation. Probably the best discussion I have seen of the matter appears in a report by Cross River Publishing Consultants (PubConsultants.com)—specifically Ani Chamichian and Thomas Woll—for the Association for the Export of Canadian Books in Ottawa. Carla Ruff, a sales and marketing consultant working with new and established publishers, also assisted in the report and helped me work through some of the highlights of this article.
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.