[srf89]

In order to handle the potential of larger orders of print books, I am considering Ingram or Baker & Taylor as distributors. Has anyone ever worked (or know someone who has) with either of these companies and can offer opinions or recommendations? If you have thoughts about using Amazon's POD, I'm also interested in those, but I mainly want to hear about the two names mentioned in the thread title.
Feel free to ask me any questions you'd like if you want a better picture before offering your suggestion/advice.

Thank you!

 

[Guest]

My experience with Baker & Taylor

There were no large orders for paperbacks.
They made about 3 orders each week, but only for 1 to 4 copies per order.
By the time I paid the shipping, and got a low payout, I only made about $3 per book priced at $19.95.
In other words, I was busy as a beaver, but slowly going broke because that $3 had to cover my expenses for supplies, travel to the Post Office, etc.
Another problem was that Baker & Taylor has 3 or 4 warehouses across the country. So if I got 3 orders, they had to be shipped separately to different warehouses at my expense instead of to one central place.
And the pay period was about 60 to 90 days after sale.
The worst part was that Baker & Taylor never paid me. They were always losing my invoices.
I finally ended up cutting off Baker & Taylor and handling my own distribution instead of using a middle man.
Now I'm set up as an individual vendor on Amazon. Amazon sends me the order, I ship the book.
Amazon pays me about $17 for my $19.95 book. And pays 14 DAYS after the sale.
And Amazon sends me the customer's mailing address, which I add to my mailing list.