A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: What Is Consignment and Why Should an Author Seek It?
It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. Today's topic is book consignment. It is a valuable tool for book distribution that few authors know about. Most authors, especially new ones, assume that the distributor will place their books on bookstore shelves, and they (the authors) will sit back and collect royalties through their publisher. Yes, it works that way, but quite poorly for authors without wide name recognition, and many stores will simply not shelve their books. However, they might be willing to take books on consignment; this is when you place books in the store with the understanding that payment will be made when all the books are sold, and if