OUR SERVICES
We aim to be the surrogate office here in Europe for our client publisher, handling all day to day admin, this includes:
Advance information sheet production, printing and disseminating.
Entering data onto Nielsen Book Data the bibliographic provider, we subscribe to the enhanced data programme giving us the ability to add long descriptions, author biographies and other data to the basic entry, Nielsen supply data onwards to all major customers including Waterstones and Amazon.co.uk, there is a fee per title charged by Nielsen and Star includes these costs in it fees.
We operate a combined client Advantage account with Amazon.co.uk, this has enabled us to negotiate a preferential trade discount.
Because the Advantage programme operates by stock being supplied to Amazon on consignment, we simplify the reporting of this to our clients by purchasing any unsold stock at Amazon after 120 days, this means that we can treat them as export sales for the purposes of reporting eliminating the need to report unsold stock at Amazon separately.
We produce quarterly catalogues in January, April, July & October as well as complete stock listings twice a year.
SALES OPERATION
We have seven representatives covering the UK & Ireland, this includes a specialist representative calling on museums, galleries and photography/art shops in London.
In addition, key accounts and new business opportunities are handled in house and referred to the sales team as appropriate.
Europe is covered by a team of representatives covering not only Europe but also the Baltic States and Russia.
All customers are visited by prior appointment on a regular basis.
Our team consists of experienced sales agents who have worked their territories for many years.
We start selling new titles five months ahead of publication, starting with the major wholesalers and Waterstones, the sales team start selling around three months before publication and they are supplied with sales kit updates monthly.
Our title information sheets are produced to a standard format enabling everyone to find relevant information quickly.
FAIRS
We take a stand at the London Book Fair
INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING GROUP [IPG]
We are members of this group enabling us to keep up to date with changes in the trade as well giving access to Meet The Buyers events and lobbying groups.
COMBINED BOOK SERVICES [CBS]
CBS operates from facilities in Kent, this is in southeast England.
CBS is a large independent book distributor, most other major distributors are owned by international publishing groups, being independent means that they do not have any pressures applied by the parent company to prioritise their own shipments particularly at busy times.
CBS provides a consolidated ledger for multiple client publishers.
TRADING TERMS
Books are sold “see safe” in the UK, this is like sale or return except there is a requirement to request authorisation rather than being an open return.
We have agreed discount structures in place with our customers and all of our clients titles are supplied against this matrix.
All orders are supplied post free and at full trade terms, the shipping costs are included in our fees.
Returns are processed back into stock and deducted from sales for the month, there is a small fee for processing returns.
Storage charges are levied monthly.
STOCK INSURANCE
Stock insurance is payable annually, shipping costs and insurance from your location to the CBS warehouse is your responsibility.
