What's Simon & Schuster doing to distribute?

A lot more presses get the S&S badge these days

After a book is written and produced, it's time to get it sold. Distribution is not a term used in many discussions about what makes books great, or how they become bestsellers. Not-great books do become bestsellers, and those sales can come from the success of distribution.

Distribution amounts to

warehousing
fulfillment
promotion
sales

Distribution isn't good for much, if you don’t care about bookstore sales. Yes, “We’re distributed by Simon & Schuster” counts for industry insiders. But S&S has been adding presses a-plenty, for many years, and all without beefing up its sales headcount much. It’s not quite the “I Voted” sticker you get at the polls, but S&S isn’t what it used to be. Books are a hard business, and you need luck to do well.

Distribution for a book can be a bragging point for a publisher to impress an author with. But unless there’s an active sales force at the distributor’s beck and call, distribution amounts to warehousing and order fulfillment. That's a place to store book…