Trade Distributor
Definition
Trade Distributers are partners or a separate company that works with a publishing company. They control where books are warehoused and where they are sold. Trade distributers are in the middle between a publishing company and bookstores, or any place that would sell books.
Why Publishing Companies Use Trade Distributors
Almost all publishing companies use Trade Distributers as they help get the books in bookstores, but its essential for many indie or small publishing companies to use them as well. Its more important for small publishing companies to use them because of their size and scope, trade distributors often have better leveraging power to sell books and get good placement for the books they represent.[1]If your a indie publishing company, you're not going to have the influence of a trade distributer that would get your books sold and in better places. publishers partner with distributors because a publisher trying to start and do their own distribution is cost-prohibitive. Distributors (like Simon & Schuster, PGW, IPG, and others) represent multiple publishers because selling into accounts is a very specialized job.[2]As a publishing company, why spend extra money trying to distribute your own books when you can use trade distributors. Yes, using them will cost money, but far less than doing it yourself. Essentially its a win win situation, because trade distributers get paid by the amount of books they can sell, and if they sell a lot of books the publishing company makes money.
