Mountain Book Company provides an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) for selected small publishers. By sharing the costs of providing electronic ordering, we reduce our individual expense and make it feasible. This levels the playing field for us as we compete with the huge multinational publishers. Mountain passes on the cost of this, manages the ordering,and charges a small percentage for doing so.
We charge publishers a one-time set up fee of $200, plus an annual fee of $60. We "buy" from publishers at a 50% discount and "sell" to stores for a 45% discount. Publishers ship the books directly to the bookstore. We receive the electronic purchase order, email you the shipping instructions, invoice the bookstore electronically and send you a check. Because our margins are so slim and because we expect to fill primarily special orders at first, we sell all books on a NON RETURNABLE basis.
What kind of publisher might benefit from joining Mountain Book?
If you have titles with national appeal but feel you are not reaching some markets adequately, we may be able to help. If you have titles that appeal to the markets we are strongest in (the college book store market, the Christian market, the Canadian market) but haven't been able to crack them, we may be able to help. If you are comfortable shipping books to individual stores rather than paying a wholesaler to do it for you, we may be a good match. If you are already paying to ship books to a wholesaler, but receiving less than fifty percent of the retail price of your books, we may be able to improve your bottom line. If you've got a dynamite title that is sure to sell nationally, but the big wholesalers won't touch it because you don't have a track record yet, we might be a stepping stone for you. We do not demand exclusivity.
Who should not join Mountain?
This organization is not right for every small publisher. If you already have direct EDI relationships established with bookstores, we may not be of much benefit. Our costs are about one tenth what they would be if you joined pubnet directly, (once you add in some expenses you won't think of at first) which is great for us small guys. Larger publishers would be smarter to join directly. If you already do more than, say, $100,000 per year with Ingram or a different wholesaler, it might make sense for you to investigate creating your own EDI system rather than joining our merry little band.
If you have distribution through larger wholesalers and distributors, such as Ingram, bookstores already order your titles through Ingram's EDI system. That may be all you need. In those cases, Mountain may provide one more way to reach some stores. If your books don't have national appeal, it doesn't make much sense. If you realistically can't justify or afford the $200 set up fee and $60 annual fee, it's premature for you to join. If, despite all your marketing efforts, you've been unable to sell those first five hundred copies of your title, joining Mountain is unlikely to save your company. We don't market your books, although joining Mountain will probably result in a bit of additional exposure for you. If you don't market your books, they won't sell no matter how easy it is for stores to order them. If your books are badly written, badly edited, badly produced, ugly, pornographic or hateful, we don't want you. If you fail to ship books in a timely manner or are otherwise unprofessional, we will drop you like a porcupine and you will lose your set up fee. The fine and competent small publishers in our group cannot risk having our own reputations sullied by your laziness. If that's you, don't even bother applying.
If you're still interested, click the "join" link on the right side of this page. We won't ask for credit card information. Despite the high tech aspects of this business, we're old fashioned writers and publishers at heart. You'll give us some information and mail it to us, with a check. If we accept you, we'll cash the check. If not, we'll return your check and application to you by return mail. If you have questions, feel free to email Kenn Amdahl directly, at Wordguise@aol.com, or hit the "contact us" link at the top of this page.
