How do you buy books wholesale?

I’m thinking about establishing my own independent book store: I’ve got a location in mind, I’m a lawyer and my wife is an accountant, so we’ll save on professional costs, and best of all I have about 20,000 books of my own in great condition which my wife complains about as hogging space, and which I’ll probably never read again. Still, I doubt that this will get me far, and I recognise that I’ll need to go to publishers.

But book stores don’t buy direct from publishers, do they? I figure they buy from book wholesalers. Does anyone know?

Any other tips on running a book store would be greatly appreciated.

Booksstores buy direct from publishers at times, but many books are purchased through distributors.

The largest distrubitor is called Ingram, and the second-largest is called Baker & Taylor.

Good luck with your business.

Any thought for a SDMB Member discount? :smiley:

Heh. It’ll be in Perth Australia. If you drop by, I’ll give you a discount.

What about mail order? I’m after X-Ray by Ray Davies and I Used To Be An Animal But I’m Alright Now by Eric Burdon.

Jumped the gun there.

Have a look at Gleebooks site. They are the best independent bookshop in Sydney. The site has a little potted history. They began as a secondhand bookshop.

Most books in Australia are bought direct from the publishers foir example here is where you sign up to establish an account at Harper Collins.

And here is a list of publishers with websites you can browse.

There’s a trade magazine here in the UK called The Bookseller - although it may still be of use because most of the large publishers are international.

Make contact with the publishers and ask for a rep to visit you.

The discount structures in publishing are often very rigid (but this can be a good thing, as it introduces a degree of fairness) - usually the retailer gets 25% discount for a single copy order or 35% for a multiple copy order, but there are often promotions that you can take advantage of, you might also be able to buy on consignment from some publishers - so you don’t own the stock, but you don’t pay for it until you sell it (or it gets damaged/stolen).

Many publishers/wholesales will also give credit for the return of mint-condition books, if you find that a certain title is not selling.

That is excellent information. Many thanks.

Oh, sorry. Ingram & B&T are the largest American distributors. <embarassed but you should mention these things when your location line is blank>.

Have you ever worked in a bokstore? I’d suggest taking a part-time job in one before you go out on your own. Just to see how things work.

Having beenn the other side of the publishing/bookselling trade (indie publisher), I would seriously advise you to follow Hello Again’s advice and get a peek at the workings in the back office. The inventory systems can be quite maddening (and I just had to ship them out, not order them). I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. But that’s just me.

I’d also suggest beginning to read the print version of Publisher’s Weekly, http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?publication=publishersweekly . It’s a trade publication with lots of information about trends, authors, reviews and ads from the major publishers.
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