I don’t do this often anymore. Frankly, the scheduling became a nightmare., and I always have something to say. LOL But today, I’m happy to welcome B Alan Bourgeois, Director Authors Marketing Guild, LLC. You may have run across this name because one of their outlets is the Virtual Book Festivals where I’ve been interviewed at least twice. (Before Covid 19, we had in person Book Festivals around the state.)
Hopefully, you’ve seen Facebook and Twitter posts about the release of book 8, TAINTED. I have one for each day before the release, Sept. 21. In Case you’ve missed it, here’s today’s post.

Look for my newsletter next week, when we’ll consider the 19 Anniversary of 9/11, which is tomorrow, a Facebook event on Sept. 18.
Alan’s post is especially helpful to authors, but interesting to readers too, for a bettering understanding of what authors juggle. So please give a little love to B Alan Bourgeois. Take it away, Alan.
COVID 19 Shines A Light on Inequities for Authors
While I want to write that COVID19 has created some issues for Authors to sell their books, the reality is that this pandemic has shone a blinding light on what already exists for authors and small presses. That is the unfair practices that Amazon and the big five, soon to be the big four, publishing houses have established to keep control over the indie author and small presses.
Let’s start with the issue of Retail Prices
With both Amazon and the Big 5 controlling the general retail price of books sold, indie authors and small press have been faced with the challenge of not being able to adjust their retail price to accommodate the ever-increasing print increases. Which over the past five years has slowly ebbed away at an author’s profit margin. If an author increases their retail prices to adjust for printing charges, then they price themselves out of the market. Who after all can order 100,000 copies of a book to compete with a large publishing house?
Now let’s talk about Distribution
Ingram which is a part of Lighting Source has a monopoly on distribution for small press and indie authors. With their ability to have books printed in most continents, it’s a good avenue for POD/self-published books. While the Big 5 can afford the warehousing of their books with distributors like Baker/Taylor and others, small press and indie authors can-not afford the high fees they would be charged with the distribution companies. This then forces authors to work with IngramSpark for POD and distribution. Amazon is not a distributor, only a POD for their system.
But Authors Need Book Sales
This now leaves us with the option of bookstores. We as authors count on them to generate sales and opportunities for us to get a chance to do readings and other programs at these bookstores. No matter if it is Barnes & Noble, or an indie bookstore. The more chances we have of being able to get face time with readers, the greater chances we have of sales and hopefully success. But, to have the bookstores sell our books, we need to have a distributor that will accept the book returns and at a price rate that is appropriate for the store to purchase the book and make some money from it. This brings us back to a distributor like Ingram that prefers but does not require indie authors to sell their books at a 55% discount off the retail price. You can opt to do a lower discount, but if you do, then there is a good chance that you will not get picked up by bookstores as it then prices the book out of their profit margin. Most bookstores need to make a 40% profit margin. When you choose a lower rate with Ingram or any other distributor, then they cut into the rate the bookstores can purchase the book, thus cutting you out of the store due to a lack of potential revenue.
Confused? Wait it gets better.

Let’s do an example. I will keep it very simple with a $10 retail price book (a 6×9, 125 pages, perfectly bound, glossy cover). You have it available on Ingram at the 55% discount. The book is then valued at $4.50, your printing cost as of the writing of this essay is $2.73, leaving you a profit of $1.77 before their handling fee and shipping cost. If you were lucky to order 100 copies at one time that would come to a cost per book with printing to $3.52, leaving you with a profit of $0.98 per book. Starting to see the challenges?
If you are with Amazon Select, then you may make a little more money for each book sold. But the downside is that you are missing out on over 30-40% of the customer base (bookstore sales). Is it worth it if you can’t reach the readers?
It should be noted that eBooks and audiobooks were not discussed as examples, as that too has many unfair practices that both Amazon and the Big 5 have put into place that have harmed the indie authors and small press. This is for another essay of its own.
The sample is a perfect example of the cycle of frustration that the authors experience constantly and why the Big 5 and Amazon are making more money than the author. The monopoly that both of them have is not fair, but because they control the majority of book sales, they get away with it. The adage of controlling the market is to buy up the competition and price everyone else out of the market. Thus, the big 5 is soon to be the Big 4.

Very informative article. it’s food for thought.
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Thanks for stopping by, Carolyn. 🙂
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Thanks, Marsha for allowing me to share some knowledge. I hope any author that reads it takes us up on some of our FREE programs, so they can see the true value of our very inexpensive membership program.
Cheers,
Alan
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Hey, Alan. Happy to have you. Sorry I forgot to send link. Hadn’t hosted in so long, I flat forgot. Yes, I hope this will draw some folks to a really excellent organization. Thanks for visiting. 🙂
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Hi, Marsha! Thanks for helping Alan to get the word out about some of the challenges authors face in today’s world!
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I have seen how amazon is basically a monopoly, and yet we keep feeding them with our books because that’s where the readers are. I have not gone exclusive with them and learned that I can get sales from other distributors. Thanks so much for this information and links to help authors.
JQ Rose
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