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.
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.
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.