Although it might be the least glamorous of subjects,
distribution plays a key part in getting your book into the bookshop, so
it’s as well to have some understanding of how it works.
Most of the big publishers have their own distribution centres, with
large warehouses to store the stock. Smaller publishers either
distribute their books through a specialist distributor or use one of
the big publishers’ facilities.
Book distribution used to rely heavily on manual handling and was
thus quite labour-intensive. A stable and quite large labour force
worked in 'the warehouse', which would be at a location well away from the publishers’ expensive
metropolitan head offices.
The introduction of new technology
With the advent of technology all this has been swept away. Efficient
distribution demands substantial investment in modern warehouses,
computer systems, fork-lift trucks and highly automated order-picking
and despatch procedures. Only large companies with deep pockets can
aspire to this, so it’s the corporate publishers and the specialist
distributors who have tended to survive.
But not all manually-based facilities have bitten the dust. I have,
relatively recently, seen a well-organised, stable distribution centre which
worked, rather successfully, in the old-fashioned way. Although this
costs more in terms of paying the workforce, it needs less investment and
things are less likely to go badly wrong.
The introduction of the new technology has not been easy. Horror
stories are legion of warehouses which seized up when a new computer
system or an automated picking line were introduced. For vulnerable
and poorly-capitalised small publishers it can literally spell
bankruptcy if their distributor goes belly-up and they are unable to
fulfil orders for their books.
Warehousing
Publishers often used to store their books in bulk long-term and
more active short-term warehouses, bringing stock forward to the picking
area as required. Now the stock location and picking instructions
are computer-controlled, so it is more common to hold all the stock
relating to a particular title in one location, with bigger picking
areas to deal with titles currently in demand.
Just-in-time ordering procedures and more efficient control of
overstocks mean that most publishers no longer hold large stocks of
individual titles in their warehouses. It is cheaper in the long
run, and less risky, to print fewer books and reprint more often. Print
on demand is also affecting the way that publishers handle
their backlists, so they no longer hold small stocks of lots of
slow-moving backlist stock.
Deliveries to the warehouse
Printers arrange for the stock which they have printed on the
publisher’s’ instructions to be delivered to the warehouse as part
of the service they provide. It all has to be booked in in advance,
or it will usually not be accepted and it will arrive on pallets to
be handled by the warehouse's equipment. When the stock arrives it is
assigned a stock location by the computer and will then be moved to that
position, which can be on a high ‘shelf’, using huge fork-lift
trucks.
Picking and packing
Computerised order- picking and automated packing lines have replaced
the order-picking staff in warehouses. The latest technology is
impressive. At its best it can deliver the books as packages ready to go
out without the books being touched by hand. Greater despatch speed
and considerable operating cost reductions are the benefits technology
can provide.
Distribution
The book parcels are then fed into the distribution system, using
whatever combination of postal and special delivery services the
publisher has opted for. Some chain bookshops, such as W H Smith in the
UK, want most stock to go through their own warehouse, which gives them
more control but can cause further delays in getting a book into the
shops.
Many independent bookshops order their books through wholesalers,
such as Gardners and Bertrams in the UK, and Ingram in the US. These
wholesalers carry vast stocks and deliver very quickly, in the UK within
24 hours. If you order a book in a bookshop, it will be delivered
specially for you. Bookstore orders are handled electronically and
passed very quickly down the line to the wholesaler or to the publisher’s
warehouse. These days many of these orders are for books which are
printed using print on demand, and the wholesalers work with print on
demand printers or offer this service themselves.
Once the book has been delivered to the bookshop, it still needs to
be unpacked in the stock room and put on display – an obvious point to
make perhaps, but there can be delays at this point if the staff are
busy.
Does distribution matter to the author?
From the author’s point of view, it’s important that your
publisher has an efficient warehouse and distribution network. Your
book needs to be in the shops before it can sell. Small publishers are
vulnerable to poor service from their distributors, but one of the
benefits of larger publishers is that they have usually been forced by
the demands of their business to invest to heavily to achieve a good
distribution service.
Chris Holifield
