Publisher Services - Distribution Explanation

Distribution & Identification in the Book Industry Supply Chain

With the advances in technology, the traditional processes for book production and marketing have been forever altered, so anyone can effortlessly print and make their work available to the public. Twenty-first century publishers now get to capitalize on the advances in digital printing and global internet sales. Booksellers, such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble, have specific guidelines for publishers to upload ISBN and book information. ISBN assignments are valid and our publishers are responsible to communicate book information directly with their trading partners. Our Independent Publisher Program is geared to provide assistance to these new types of publishers who intend on distributing their publications themselves. As illustrated in the diagram below, today's independent self publishers have a multitude of potential avenues to distribute their work.

ISBN's obtained through Independent Publisher Program™ have a generic non-descript publisher identifier listed as Independent Publisher, but all copyright and distribution rights are retained by each publisher.Publisher Services™ does not provide any bibliographic information to third party databases. Since an ISBN is simply an identifying string of numbers (like the license on a car), Publisher Services™ customers convey ISBN and corresponding book information directly with their trading partners. Booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble have specific guidelines for publishers to upload ISBN and book information. ISBN's purchased available through Publisher Services™ have a generic non-descript publisher identifier listed as Publisher Services, but all copyright and distribution rights are retained by each publisher. ISBN assignments are legitimate and unique to each author and title. Our publishers are responsible to communicate this information directly with their trading partners.

The large book distributors typically handle order fulfillment and marketing services for the mid to larger publishers. Many smaller companies do not opt for this route because the distributor usually charges 45-55% of sales for their services. Companies who intend to market multiple publications and utilize book distributors are encouraged to obtain ISBN blocks directly from the ISBN agency. The illustration below depicts how medium and large publishers distribute their publications.

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