Annual Book Distribution Subscription Fee
What Does Your Annual Book Distribution Subscription Fee Pay For?
This fee covers the worldwide wholesale digital distribution and on-demand availability for hardcopy printing, which is what allows your book to be listed on major online retail sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well as being accessible via iPage (INGRAM's ordering database), and via INGRAM Book Wholesalers. And, it is what allows your book to be printed on-demand when requested by you through your Author Center. This fee also covers the ongoing tracking, reporting, and processing of your book sales and royalties.
Why Is This Fee Charged?
INGRAM charges all publishers an annual fee for every book they distribute. All publishers pass this cost on to their authors. Many publishers, including Outskirts Press, are up front about this fee by referencing it in their contract and stating the amount of the annual fee on their website. Interestingly, even though the fee all publishers pay INGRAM is relatively consistent, the fees publishers charge their authors are all over the board. Most on-demand publishers charge anywhere between $30-$199 a year for these fees. Some publishers don’t charge this fee directly but instead pay lower royalties and/or charge a higher author copy price--in other words, they’re getting this fee somewhere else. The most common industry descriptions for this fee are: maintenance fee, storage fee, hosting fee, or distribution fee.
Outskirts Press is always up front about its fees, and we charge all authors this fee equally. We prefer to pay 100% author royalties to our authors, which rewards the authors who are selling well, rather than punishing them by asking them to subsidize others. And since we want ALL our authors to sell a lot of books and be successful, this works out best!
The Annual Distribution Subscription Fee is assessed for each physical format (paperback and hardback) of a published book. Since each format is distributed separately by INGRAM, each format is charged its own Annual Distribution Subscription Fee. So, for instance, if you have one paperback format for your book, the fee will be $30/year (regardless of how many actual copies you sell). If you have one paperback and one hardback of the same book, the fee will be doubled. If you have two different paperback formats (of two different books), the fee will be $30 for each book, and so forth.
Outskirts Press bills our authors their annual fee in January, regardless of when their book is published. In other words, we bill at the start of the first full calendar year of publication. The only exception to this is for books that are published at the end of the calendar year. In those cases, since the book is published so close to the annual fee due date, we cover that cost as a courtesy for those authors.
Payment of these fees is due on or before January 31 to avoid any late fees.
You can pay securely and conveniently online with a credit card by clicking the Shopping Cart button below.
Steps for Completing your Checkout
- Click the shopping cart link above to go to your cart
- Click the blue Confirm button to be taken to the payment screen
- Enter your payment details and click Confirm
- You will then see a green screen with your confirmation number which confirms your payment has been received
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As an added bonus, once you have completed the timely payment of your Annual Distribution Subscription Fees, you will have access to the most recent Annual Book Marketing Calendar in your Book Marketing COACH Dashboard.
We hope this article has helped you understand your Annual Distribution Subscription Fees. If you have additional questions, please click here to email a representative.