Before embarking on setting up Ravenshead Press I often used to wonder at the range of books found in my local Watersones. A minor poetry section stocked about twenty books, about half mainstream poets and the rest made up or departed greats like Wordsworth, Shelley, etc. The computer section on the other hand had as many books just on the subject of operating Windows Vista.

How have we got to the stage where dull books about computers (not that all of them are dull, some are excellent, but that many on the same subject generates some rubbish) are stocked in preference to some of the amazing poetry that is being produced.

Previously I had assumed that the only answer was that shops stock what sells, why waste shelf space on books that no-one buys. While setting up Ravenhead’s first book one of the questions the printer wanted to know was what discount I was going to offer the book seller, was it to me Short discount or Trade? and was I going to allow returns? Moments like these the process suddenly gets more complicated.

What was Short or Trade discounts? Why would I want to allow returns? Luckily I stumbled across an excellent article here http://www.fonerbooks.blogspot.com/2007/08/short-discount-vs-trade-discount.html. A Trade discount means that you are giving the book seller around 50-55% of the cover price for each book they sell. Now that means your book has a better chance of being stocked than a seller who is offering Short discount (maybe 25% of the cover price). Many smaller publishers cannot afford to give away half or more of the cover price, considering that the printing costs will eat up another 25%. What is left won’t turn enough profit to cover set up costs and all the other costs involved in producing a book.

So books that are going to sell well will be offered to book stores at Trade Discount, even if the publisher is only going to make a pound a book, by the time it has sold a thousand copies or more it is turning a good profit.

The other factor involved here is returns. By agreeing that the bookstore can return any unsold books for a refund you again raise the chances that your book will make it on to the shelves. However again the cost to the publisher is that all unsold books come back and suddenly refunds need to be paid out. Offering a high discount and returns could mean that the publisher has suddenly lost money on the whole deal including that tiny profit margin. The books returned may no longer be in saleable condition after kicking around on book shelves for a couple of months.

This sadly is a main reason why poetry will become more and more the domain of place like Amazon and with Superstores stocking the best sellers at a lower price than bookstores, bookstores themselves will struggle more and more to survive.