The wholesale discount is the discount a retailer or wholesaler receives when purchasing a copy of your book. For the reasons listed below, we generally recommend selecting the 40% discount. To see how these discounts will affect your royalties, check out our Royalty Calculator.
The 40% discount is generally sufficient for online retailers to carry your title, but not enough for brick-and-mortar outlets to consider carrying your title.
Brick-and-mortar bookstores and libraries require a 53% discount as a prerequisite to consider carrying a title, but just because you set your discount at 53% does not mean a store will actually carry your title. That determination is made by purchasing managers and bookstore buyers.
Other than paperback editions sold through Amazon (which will always receive a 40% discount), the discount you select will apply across the board to both online and brick-and-mortar retailers. Because most of our authors earn all of their sales online, we recommend setting your paperback discount at 40% unless you happen to have advance knowledge that your book will be carried by brick-and-mortar bookstores and/or libraries.