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BOOK DISTRIBUTION

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Because small presses, literary presses, and university presses often do not have adequate funds to pay for a sales-force to visit bookstores all around the country, many associations of small press distributors and wholesalers have stepped in to distribute small press, literary, and university press books. 

These distributors and wholesalers provide the  sales-force that visits the bookstores, as well as the storage, shipping, and distribution fees of getting the small presses' books out to the national bookstores. 

In return for these services, the small press pays a fee or a percentage of the profits from the books sold, or a percentage of the book's cover price.

Sometimes, small presses make arrangements with larger, Trade houses, which then feature the books of the small press in conjunction with their own book in their larger catalogues, sell the small press' books along with their own using their sales representatives, and store & distribute the small press' books with their own. 

In return for these services, these Trade publishing houses get a percentage of the sales of the small presses' books.

If a distributor charges the small press 26% of its sales, for example,  to distribute the books on a national level (distributors and wholesalers can take as much as 55% of the cover price of each copy of each title sold), many small presses take that 26-55% from the money that the author earns.  This often means that the author never earns any money on his book, no matter how good his sales figures are, simply because his "profits" are constantly paying for the national distribution of the book.

At RockWay, we don't take the distribution costs from the author.  As authors ourselves who have been deprived of our royalties due to distribution and publicity costs, we make sure that our authors get their contracted royalties. 

Money for distribution or publicity comes from RockWay's percentage of the books' sales.

Also, RockWay makes sure that its books are available at bookstores throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom through Ingram and through Baker & Taylor. Our books are also available nationally & internationally through online sites such as Amazon.com Borders.com, WalMart.com, Barnes & Noble.com, Target.com, and - soon - RockWay Press' Bookstore)

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