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Where will my book be available?
All Xlibris Trade Publications (trade paperbacks and hardbacks and shortbooks) will be listed on Amazon.com,
Borders.com, and BarnesandNoble.com. They will be listed in the Books-in-Print database and available through
Ingram Distribution, Baker&Taylor, and Xlibris directly. All Xlibris Picture Books will be available through
Xlibris directly and will be listed with Books-in-Print database.
Will my book be placed on bookstore shelves?
In the current bookselling climate, it is difficult to place any books on bookstore shelves. This
is an industry-wide statement, but applies to print-on-demand books in a particular way. Most booksellers order most
of their titles from a wholesaler who carries many different titles from many different publishers. Booksellers buy
these books on consignment, meaning that they will pay the wholesaler within 90 days after they SELL the book (the
wholesaler in turn then pays the publishing company). If a book does not sell, they can return the book to the publisher
at any time, in any condition. Books spend between 6 weeks and 6 months on bookstore shelves before they are returned.
Printing enough books to put one copy in every bookstore in the country (or even every college bookstore) would represent
a sizeable investment and a financial risk from which we hope to protect our author-publishers.
The next tricky issue is the wholesaler. Book distributors, or wholesalers, expect to order books from publishers at a 50%
discount. Xlibris books are a little more expensive to produce than regular large-run, off-set books and so there is not as
much room in the price for large discounts. We offer a 40% discount on Trade Paperbacks and a 20% discount on hard covers to
booksellers and libraries. Xlibris can offer a 50% discount on the trade paperbacks, but still cannot offer to sell books to
wholesalers on consignment. However, because your book will never go out of print, the bookstores are assured of being able
to obtain a copy whenever they need one. Xlibris books are sold on a non-refundable basis.
If someone wants to find your book, they will find it easily. More than a third of our current sales are to booksellers.
Do traditional retail outlets like B&N and Borders know about you, and do they order from you?
Do you pursue sales with them?
We do not pursue marketing and sales with bookstores — marketing and promotion remain in the hands of the author-publisher. If a bookstore
wishes to order an Xlibris book, they can. About one third of our orders currently come
from bookstores. These are mainly for what the bookstores consider special orders — they are ordered for a customer who has
asked for the book.
Bookstores do not routinely stock Xlibris books for a number of reasons. The first is that there is extremely fierce competition
to get books onto the limited bookstore shelves. Without the support of a major publishing house's publicity department and its
incentives, it is notoriously difficult to place books on shelves.
More importantly, however, is that the business model of the traditional printing and bookselling industry is horribly wasteful
and costly — one of the reasons it is so hard for traditional publishers to take a chance on an unknown author. Bookstores expect
to receive a 40-50% discount, to buy books on consignment, pay for them 30-90 days after they sell them, if they sell them, and
to be able to return any quantity to the publisher, in any condition, at any time. There are a number of reasons this does not
work with the Xlibris model.
Since Xlibris prints books on-demand, the individual unit prices are somewhat higher than in traditional printing. This means
there is a smaller profit-margin and less room for discounting. (We currently offer bookstores a 20% discount for hard covers and a 40% discount for Trade Paperbacks). In addition,
because we print on-demand, we print only what has been requested, and so do not accept returns. We also require pre-payment.
If someone wants to find your book, they will find it easily. Either online or through an order at a bricks-and-mortar boosktore.
More than a third of our sales are to other booksellers.
What distributors do you use?
Xlibris is aware of the handicaps that self-published authors who utilize Print On Demand face. To help alleviate this situation,
Xlibris has an alliance with Lightning Source and Ingram Book Group.
Will my book be available on Amazon?
All Xlibris Trade Publications (trade paperbacks and hardbacks and shortbooks) will be listed on Amazon.com,
Borders.com, and BarnesandNoble.com. They will be listed in the Books-in-Print database and available through
Ingram Distribution, Baker&Taylor, and Xlibris directly. All Xlibris Picture Books will be available through
Xlibris directly and will be listed with Books-in-Print database.
Do people have to buy my book on the Internet?
No. Readers can purchase Xlibris books by telephone, fax, e-mail or mail. See Order Books Offline.
How many copies does the average Xlibris book sell?
How well a book sells is heavily dependent on what the author's goals are and how actively they choose to promote their book.
Some of our authors are very visible, talking on the radio, organizing book signings, and reaching and exceeding their sales goals.
Our higher-selling authors have sold over 5000 copies so far. On the flip side, we have some authors that have only sold a few copies, mostly to friends and family, because that's all they wanted to sell. We believe our authors will sell more and more copies as we continue to introduce services that will give them the ability to market their books more effectively, but in the long run, sales are a reflection of each author's goals. If becoming a bestselling author is your goal, you will be working to achieve maximum sales. If you are publishing your family's history or a personal memoir you may only wish to have your book available to family and friends. How well your book sells is entirely up to you.
I already have printed copies of my book. Will Xlibris sell them for me?
Since Xlibris' inventory of books is completely electronic, we are unable to manage inventories of previously printed books.
When will information about my book appear in Ingram Book Company's database?
Lightning Source, Inc. is the print-on-demand facility of Ingram Book Company. After your book has completed the publication process and is approved for sale, the printing files for your book are transmitted to Lightning Source. Your file will then complete their pre-press process and one book is printed. A copy of your book is sent electronically to Ingram Book Company, where your title is further prepared for distribution. The cover of your book is scanned, your file is stored, and the title information, annotations, and other pertinent information is registered in their database, IPage. Most independent bookstores, libraries, and online booksellers subscribe to IPage. This process can take from 30 to 40 business days. Add an additional 10 days for hardback titles. After this pre-press process has been completed it takes 48 hours to print trade paperbacks orders and 6 to 10 days for hardback orders.
Can libraries order my book?
Libraries may order your book directly from Xlibris and receive the bookseller discount by contacting orders@xlibris.com or by calling
1.888.795.4274
Will the Xlibris and Lightning Source partnership affect my royalty accounting?
While readers and booksellers may now get your book more quickly there is a downside to working with these distributors. The reporting of your book sales through these channels will take longer than usual. These distributors release their sales reports to us just as they do for traditional publishers and that can result in a reporting delay of two to three months. So, while you may sell more books through the distributors, you won't see the results right away.
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