Fair Trade Publishing

To all Readers and Lovers of Books Everywhere:

Please support those responsible for the creation of your favorite books by buying direct from the publisher's web site or from the author wherever possible.

Here's Why ...

• Books sell for deceptively little compared to the costs of their creation

• The value of any book quickly decreases in the today's mass market

• Even the best of books must achieve high-volume sales to give profit

• Standard retail outlets take a significant percentage of the sales profits

This means that it is extremely difficult for those who invest the most in a book - authors and small publishers - to earn a reasonable return on their investment.

Principles of Fair Trade Publishing

Fair Trade Publishing seeks to
adequately compensate those most responsible for the creation
of a published work for their effort.

Learn More ...

Writing and publishing a book are hard work.  It often takes thousands of hours to research, carefully craft compelling text, edit and re-edit it, before a book is ready for public consumption. For most authors it is a labor of love requiring great fortitude, personal investment, and  a challenging series of discouraging moments.

After the writing is done, a publisher or serious self-published author must hire an editor, a proofreader, someone to do interior layout, a cover designer, and an indexer, then seek permissions from those quoted and endorsements from others in the field, before the book is ready to be subcontracted to a printer for production. 

Once the book is off to the printer, a publicity campaign must be mounted, review copies sent out, book tours organized, potential customers and sales outlets notified of the book's existence.  All of this takes an immense amount of time, money and energy, often spread out over the course of several years of intense, concentrated effort.

The book that you hold in your hands, which you bought for $19.95 or whatever the cover price might be, sells for an amount that is incredibly and deceptively cheap, compared to the cost of its creation.  The actual return for each book is often a ridiculously small percentage of this price.  The only hope for making the book work as a business proposition is high volume sales, which are not easy to attain, even for the best of books.

Recent technological innovations such as desktop publishing software, print-on-demand, relatively easy e-book distribution, and internet marketing opportunities have to some extent leveled the playing field and made it possible for small independent publishers and self-published authors to compete with large publishing houses. 

On the other hand, this brave new world of publishing has also flooded the market with nearly 200,000 new books every year, compared to less than half that many ten years ago.  It has also created an intensely competitive sales environment in which the value of any book quickly tends downward toward a price that rapidly depletes available profit. 

Digital distribution of printed work raises serious copyright issues, which have not yet been resolved.  Often the attitude in the marketplace is fueled by a cavalier sense of entitlement, which assumes that anything in print should be made freely available to all, without any regard whatsoever to adequate compensation for the hard work of those responsible for creating it.

This competitive and often parasitic sales environment makes it extremely difficult for small publishers to break even, much less earn a reasonable return for the inordinate investment of time, money and energy mentioned earlier.  Brick and mortar retailers routinely get a 40% discount off the cover price of the book; wholesalers and distributors take 55-60% or more. 

Most resellers of a book get a 90-120 day grace period before payment is due, and many of them try to postpone payment as long as possible, often requiring distasteful collection efforts on behalf of authors and publishers.  Most resellers also expect a return policy, which means if books don't sell after a certain period of time, they can return them, often in unsaleable condition, for a full refund.

Online retailers  typically take wholesale discounts for drop ship orders for a minimal number of books, thus changing the very definition of the word, 'wholesale', which used to mean a purchase of quantity for a discount.  Many of these retailers encourage third-party vendors to bid down the retail price of the book, so beyond the extraction of additional fees, postage paid by the publisher, and discounts necessary to be competitive, the slim margin between overhead and profit all but disappears.

To counteract this trend, Ancient Tower Press promotes Fair Trade Publishing.  Fair Trade Publishing (not unlike the concept behind Fair Trade Coffee) seeks to adequately compensate those most responsible for the creation of a published work for their effort. 

Toward this end, Ancient Tower Press sells a minimal number of books through standard retail outlets, preferring instead to connect directly with the end-reader of the book.  Our relationship with the reader does not end at purchase, but continues through the availability of our authors for dialogue, and additional opportunities for interaction at lectures, workshops, and through correspondence courses.

Special arrangements can be made with any retailer willing to order books directly from us, rather than through a distributor, or to conference organizers willing to sponsor events where books can be sold.  We give the standard retail discount for a purchase of 6 books or more, but we do not accept returns, and payment must be made upfront.  We will pay shipping costs. More information for Retailers.

We offer a wholesale discount of 55% for orders of 12 books or more.  Payment must be made up front, and returns are not accepted.  We pay shipping.  More information for Wholesalers.

We are willing to make consignment arrangements with any conference our authors attend.  The usual terms are 40% plus shipping to and from the conference of any remaining books.  Alternately, conference vendors can choose to purchase the remaining books at the end of the conference at the regular volume discount.

Please read more about our Fair Trade Return Policy here.

View our suggested Principles of Fair Trade Publishing here.

Aside from setting our own terms of business according to Fair Trade Publishing standards, we further encourage all readers and lovers of books everywhere to support those responsible for their creation by buying direct from the publisher's web site or from the author wherever possible.  In this way, the incentive will remain within the publishing world to invest the time, effort and money necessary to produce quality work. 

It's easy; it's still a bargain at full retail price when you consider what you are getting for your money; and it's the right thing to do.

Thank you, Joe Landwehr (Publisher)

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Fair Trade Publishing


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