Publishers' FAQ > Sales and Distribution > What's the difference between a wholesaler and a distributor?

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Both wholesalers and distributors sell your publications to retail outlets, acting as your billing and fulfillment department. Distributors supply the additional service of serving as your sales department--actively soliciting orders from bookstores and other venues through sales representatives, rather than only fulfilling passively received orders. Therefore, a distributor generally demands a fee for services (usually expressed as a percentage of net sales—i.e. after discounts taken by the retailer: around 25% is standard), while a wholesaler merely demands a discount (55% is standard). A distributor is mostly beholden to you, the publisher, while a wholesaler sees the retailers as its primary customer.

Examples of wholesalers are Small Press Distribution, Bookpeople, Koen, Ingram, and Baker and Taylor. Examples of distributors are Distributed Art Publishers, Consortium, and National Book Network. See our list of distributors and wholesalers for more.