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Online bookstore
Apart from the assortment of bookstores, the online book business has of course also grown very strongly in recent years. It is one of the most important sales channels for current books and self-published titles. The Tolino alliance partners, for example, offer well-frequented online bookstores such as Osiander.de, Mayersche.de, buecher.de, and Thalia.de. Amazon is still the absolute top dog in the online business.
In addition, almost every small individual bookstore in Germany now also has its own web store; the overall share of online book sales is still increasing. Incidentally, in terms of sales processes, the paths taken by online stores and the traditional bookselling business are completely identical. Online, too, the bar ranges are the preferred intermediary partner, and sales are mostly made via the bar range order. What is striking here, however, is that it is completely irrelevant to the conditions, and you as an author and/or publisher do not benefit from the lower costs that the online stores have compared to the stationary business.
Stock titles and print on demand with a calculation example
In addition to stock titles, the bar assortments are now also offering an increasing number of older titles. These are titles that are only ordered from the publisher once the order has been received by the bookstore. This usually includes the so-called print on demand (or book on-demand) titles. Although with print on demand the production costs for a single book are usually higher than for a traditional print run, there are no storage costs here and the costs for the bar range are also somewhat lower than 50%. In the best case, however, one should assume that 45% of the netbook price is for distribution through retailers. Regardless of whether the book is sold in a bookstore in Buxtehude or in some large online store.
The following simple calculation example illustrates the situation described above:
Gross sales price (incl. 7% VAT): 12.99 Euro
Net sales price (excl. 7% VAT): 12.14 Euro
Net printing costs (printing costs depend on scope and features): 3,00 Euro
45% inter-trade margin (bar range and book trade): 0.45×12.14 = 5.46 Euro
15% publisher's margin: 0.15×12.14 Euro = 1.82 Euro
Car margin = 12.14 - 3.00 - 5.46 - 1.82 = 1.85 euros
By the way, the publisher's margin can be twice as high for a traditional publisher, and the intermediary margin can also still vary somewhat. For eBooks, this is usually somewhat lower. By the way, further examples can also be calculated here.
So anyone who has the opportunity to distribute books directly should definitely do so. In this simple example, you would then save 5.46 euros in the intermediate trade margin. Although direct sales usually incur costs as well (0.75-1.50 euros per order), the bottom line is much higher, and at the same time, you collect important customer data.
The Directory of Available Books (VLB)
The Verzeichnis Lieferbarer Bücher still plays a special role in the German book industry. The directory has become much less relevant in recent years but is still used. Basically, it is nothing more than a constantly updated catalog of all available book titles in Germany, which is used by bookstores for research. However, unlike the bar ranges, the VLB does not deliver any titles themselves. Many bookstores therefore also like to look directly into the merchandise management systems of the bar ranges to see whether a title can be ordered at all. For this reason, more and more publishers are dispensing with the VLB entry, since it has basically become superfluous and is also associated with high-performance costs and effort.
