More About Frustrating Book Distribution

Since I mentioned Ingram in my last post I figured I might as well delve a little deeper into some of the growing pains that all POD and custom publishing companies are experiencing when dealing with old-fashioned corporations struggling under this new paradigm shift.

One of the advantages of POD is zero-inventory management that allows books to exist virtually rather than physically. Wholesalers, distributors, and even most bookstores seem to have a hard time getting their wits around the concept of a book that exists unless they hold it in their hand. I often wonder how these people own bank accounts, because the philosophy is exactly the same.

Mr. Book Bookbuyer, when your bank account says you have $5,000, those are just numbers. There isn't actually a little vault in the bank with your name that contains 5,000 crisp $1 bills. If you want that money, you have to request it from the bank.

Same thing with POD, and yet many retailers assume zero-inventory management is synonymous with no availability. It also doesn't help that distributors aren't doing their part to reeducate retailers on this new inventory model.

Up until 2nd Quarter 2004, Ingram printed "stock" copies of every Print-on-Demand book it handled, in order for online inventory management programs like I-page to list the book as available. I-page is used by Barnes & Noble and other bookstores to check on book availability. Unfortunately, most BN employees are conditioned to disregard a book that doesn't demonstrate a number higher than 5 or 10. And rather than "back ordering" a book "or special ordering it" they find it easier to tell the consumer the book is out of print. The problem is, POD books don’t "exist" in physical matter in quantities as high as 5 or 10 until they've been purchased.

Do you see the chicken and the egg thing happening here?

As if that wasn't enough, here's what then exasperated an already unwieldy problem. Ingram decided to stop printing stock copies altogether. There were simply too many books, even at only 1-2 copies apiece. As a result, some publisher's books began appearing as unavailable, at least, to the old-fashioned eye.

Fortunately, by March 31, 2005 (yes, the gauntlet has been dropped), Ingram (and presumably other distributors if applicable) will begin presenting "pseudo" inventory numbers to book retailers. Time will tell if this is an affective solution. Part of me thinks distributors and wholesalers are purposely being obtuse because it's been suggested that the Internet, direct retailers like Amazon.com, Google Print, and Random House going direct are all signs that the old fashioned publisher / distributor / retailer days are numbered.