Confirm trade distribution and terms
Confirm national or regional distribution arrangements
Write down who gets each format of your book into bookstores, wholesalers, and libraries, where they distribute it, and the trade terms buyers will see.
Authors often hire help with this: metadata or distribution.
Why it matters
Every later channel item on this list (wholesalers, library vendors, bookstore orders, international availability) depends on the distribution arrangement. Authors who don't know who distributes their book can't tell a bookstore how to order it, can't fix an availability problem, and often pitch accounts that can't buy from them. Knowing the arrangement six to nine months out leaves time to correct gaps.
Your part
- What you do
- Ask. Someone else normally owns it. Get an answer, then record it.
- Who normally owns it
- Publisher and Author and Distributor. Publisher or distributor arranges; author confirms and records
- When
- 6 to 9 months before publication, before metadata goes to retailers (Confirm trade distribution and terms: twelve to three months before publication, before preorders open)
Your part changes with your publishing route.
How to do it
The full walkthrough
Distribution is the arrangement that gets physical books from the printer to the accounts that sell or lend them. A distributor warehouses stock, takes orders from bookstores, wholesalers, and libraries, ships, invoices, handles returns, and usually has a sales force presenting the list to buyers. Large publishers distribute themselves; smaller presses sign with a distributor; self-publishers use print-on-demand distribution through a platform, or a small-press distributor if they qualify.
What you need to know is simple and often unclear: who is the distributor of record for each format, which countries or regions they cover, whether the book is presented by a sales force or simply listed as available, and whether the arrangement is in place before metadata reaches retailers. Ask, and ask for a plain answer. "Available through Ingram" is not the same as having a distributor with a sales force, and many contracts mean the former. Neither is wrong, and print-on-demand with wholesale availability is real distribution in the sense that stores can order, but none of it includes anyone selling the book on your behalf. Know which one you have before you plan any bookstore or library outreach.
Common mistakes
- Assuming 'available on Amazon' means bookstores and libraries can order it on normal terms.
- Treating a print-on-demand listing as equivalent to distribution with a sales force.
- Not asking about international territories until a reader abroad cannot buy the book.
- Discovering at launch that the ebook and print editions have different distribution routes with different gaps.
Identifiers for Confirm national or regional distribution arrangements
Set a status on any record and it joins this step. All book identifiers.
| My status | Identifier | Why this matters | Yours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingram The wholesale catalog most bookstores and libraries order from, plus IngramSpark, the self-publishing platform that feeds into it. | This decides whether a bookstore or library can order your book through the channel most of them use, and on what terms, so when a shop says it cannot order your book this is usually where the answer sits. Ingram's data also reaches many retailers and library vendors, so an error in the record can surface in several places. Traditionally and hybrid published authors normally ask whether the title is in Ingram wholesale, at what wholesale discount, and whether it is returnable, since those are the two terms a bookseller checks before ordering; if you publish the book yourself, you set the discount and the return policy in IngramSpark, and both have real money attached. Get the discount and return terms in writing, then check that the title record matches the other major listings. | Nothing to record |
What done looks like
- The distributor of record for each format and territory named in your Book Identity Sheet.
- Whether a sales force presents the book to accounts, or the book is simply listed as available.
- Territories covered and any excluded.
- The date the arrangement is active relative to your publication date.
- For self-published titles, the platform distribution settings confirmed and recorded.
Ask your publisher
Copy this into an email. Replace the bracketed parts with your details.
Sources and last checked
- Official source
- No single official page for this step.
- Last checked
- Not checked against its source yet.
- How confident we are
- Verified