Proposed price changes for the U.S. Postal Service were filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission today. If this proposal is accepted, the increases will take effect on January 2, 2011.

After reviewing the potential changes, about 90% of USPS services will see an increase of between 4% and 6%. For complete details of the pricing proposal, visit the USPS website at http://www.usps.com/prices.

As they say, the devil is in the details, and publishers will need to pay very special attention to these details. The proposal includes an 8% increase for Periodicals, 5.1% increase for Catalogs, a 23% increase on Standard Mail Parcels and a 7% increase on Media/Library Mail. USPS’s justification for the larger increases was that these specific services did not cover the costs associated with them.

Other price increases noted include taking a First-Class Stamp to $0.46 cents and increasing the cost of mailing a First-Class postcard to $0.30.

It is well known that the USPS continues to struggle just to break even. Over the last ten years, they have reduced expenses by more than $1 billion every year. Even with the 2011 projection there will a shortfall of $7 billion. In order to eliminate that gap, the Post Office would need a 20% price increase across the board to eliminate the estimated shortfall.

The Post Regulatory Commission has 90 days to review this proposal and make its final ruling. They can decide to accept all increases or reject all increases. Stay tuned for more updates from Ware-Pak.

Recently, I was asked by a new author how to get an ISBN number. I thought it might be helpful if I just answer the question in a blog entry so others could refer back to it when needed. Let’s begin by looking at what ISBN really means. ISBN is the International Standard Book Number and a different number is assigned to each book title. ISBNs assist librarians, distributors, wholesalers and booksellers in identifying, ordering and maintaining inventory control over new titles. A publisher will be issued ISBNs according to the number of titles in print, to be assigned to each existing title and to future titles.

If you use Twitter, there is a great forum on Fridays to discuss different issues relating to ISBN’s. All you need to do is search on Twitter using the hash tag #ISBNhour. Lots of useful tips and good information is exchanged during this Friday forum.

So, here is how you get started in receiving your ISBN. To receive an application for for an ISBN or for more information, contact:

International Standard Book Numbering/U.S. Agency
R.R. Bowker
121 Chanlon Road
New Providence, NJ 07974
(908) 665-6770

You can now apply for an ISBN online (or download application materials to mail). Go to the ISBN page on R.R. Bowker’s website (www.rrbowker.com). They also give more information about Bowker’s function as the U.S. Agency for ISBN, as well as listings of places to get ISBN barcodes made.

Questions regarding the process of registering a copyright or obtaining ISSN or ISBN numbers should be directed to the Copyright Office Recorded Information System at (202) 707-3000. If the recorded messages (or websites) do not answer your questions, you will eventually (after a long hold) be put through to an Information Specialist.

It’s no secret that the best ideas and solutions are often achieved through opportunities to network and share with our peers. Having additional ways to stay informed about what’s happening in the book industry can help you keep on top of supply chain standards and best practices. Gathering information from publishers, retailers, manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, librarians, as well as others involved in both print and digital publishing can result in better problem solving and more successful business practices.

In an effort to provide publishers with helpful resources, Ware-Pak will be exploring a number of book trade associations we feel you should know. Let’s get started with a few of these today…

American Booksellers Association, Inc. (ABA)

The ABA is a national, not for profit trade association that exists to protect and promote the interests of independently owned bookstores, large and small. Since 1900, the ABA has offered education, services and products, advocacy and relevant business information for independent booksellers.

Visit the ABA Website | phone (914) 591-2665

American Library Association (ALA)

The ALA is the oldest and largest library association in the world. It is a non-profit trade association which promotes library services and librarianship.

Visit the ALA Website | phone (312) 944-6780

Book Industry Study Group

The Book Industry Study Group is non-profit trade association working to create a more informed, empowered and efficient book industry supply chain for both physical and digital products.

Visit the Book Industry Study Group Website | phone (646) 336-7141

Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA)

The IBPA is a trade association that serves book, audio and video publishers located in the U.S. and around the world. The IBPA strives to advance the professional interests of independent publishers and offers beneficial programs and information to all member publishers, regardless of their size or experience.

Visit the IBPA Website | phone (310) 372-2732

As publishers look for ways to increase sales, many are turning to a market that is often overlooked – the library market. For the average publisher, the library market represents about 5% to 10% of their total sales. However, publishers who are not currently selling in this space struggle with how to really penetrate the library market.

Ware-Pak has been providing warehousing and fulfillment services to publishers for nearly 50 years. In that time, we’ve seen many clients sell to the library market successfully. Publishers who have done well selling to this market typically have 5 common tactics in their approach.

The publishers who are most successful in the library market…

1. Submit their books to the top 5 or more library wholesalers and/or distributors for promotion to the library market.
2. Locate and submit their books to mail order catalogs that are sent to the public librarians.
3. Place ads within the publications that are most commonly read by librarians.
4. Work closely with a co-op book exhibitor to have their product displayed at the major public library shows throughout the country.
5. Contact and follow up with the top 50 public libraries in the country with information and a sample product.

At Ware-Pak, we believe that in order to be a successful order fulfillment center, it is our responsibility to help our clients continue to sell more books. If you are a publisher in need of additional help breaking into the library market, contact Ware-Pak. We are always happy to help.

Contact Keith Shay, CEO, at 708-534-2600 or by email at kshay@ware-pak.com. Feel free to visit our White Paper Library for additional helpful resources.

As every fulfillment center knows, a residential address is one of the most difficult places to get a parcel delivered cost effectively. Recently, Ware-Pak has gained a number of accounts with heavy shipping volumes going directly to consumers. In order to respond to their needs, we have been researching this issue and we believe we have a solution.

The normal shipping methods to residential addresses are: USPS Media Mail (for bound printed matter only), Priority Mail, and UPS. Each of these methods have certain restrictions.

USPS Media Mail is the most cost effective. However, it has limitations.

• It is restricted to bound printed matter only.
• It does not have tracking capabilities.
• There is slow transit time – 7 to 12 business days.

Priority Mail is significantly more expensive than media mail. On the other hand, it does offer limited tracking capabilities. Transit time to major metropolitan areas is 2 to 3 days and to outlying areas it is 3 to 5 business days.

UPS is considered to be the highest quality service, but costs are 10% to 15% more than priority mail. It does offer the best tracking and transit times of any of the three options. However, the normal UPS discount does not apply to residential deliveries. UPS only offers a 1% to 2% discount on this service, making it the most expensive option.

In our search we found a new method of shipping small parcels at a cost effective rate, with improved transit times:

Mail Innovations, a division of UPS, is a small parcel service that marries the best of UPS and the Post Office. Mail Innovations can offer UPS speed and tracking capabilities at rates that rival the USPS. Parcels are picked up by UPS, sorted and transported to the closest USPS office for final delivery by the postal system. The total transit time, 4 to 8 days, is close to half the time of media mail. The cost, however, is just a few cents more than USPS Media Mail.

The shippers who will benefit most are those who ship UPS Ground residential. They can save up to 60% off the UPS rate without having to worry about residential chargebacks and other fees. Small parcels weighing less than one pound can ship for as little as $1.17, which makes Mail Innovations an effective method for residential deliveries.

As of March 8th, this service is now being offered to all Ware-Pak clients.

Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI, is computer-to-computer communication of business documents, in a standardized format, between two companies. Even though publishers are being put under pressure by big distributors to implement EDI transactions, there is much confusion about what an EDI transaction really is.

Electronic data interchange has created a vocabulary of specific terms that publishers will need to be familiar with. Below is an English version of some of those technical terms.

You can now download the “Guide to EDI for Publishers,” which includes the full glossary of terms, from the white paper library on the Ware-Pak website, along with any of our other white papers. To do so, please click here.

Purchase Order Acknowledgements:
A POA tells the bookstore the status of their Purchase Order: what books were shipped, back-ordered, canceled, the list price, and discount.

Transaction Set:
A transaction set is the EDI term for a business document. Each transaction set has a standard three-digit numerical code that identifies it.

The four most common sets are: 850: Purchase Order (PO); 855: Purchase Order Acknowledgement (POA); 856: Advance Ship Notice (ASN); 810: Invoice

Important Note: Your first two EDI transaction sets must be Purchase Orders and Purchase Order Acknowledgements. Future transaction sets are your choice.

ANSI X12:
This cryptic term refers to the overall set of standards governing the use of EDI documents by all industries in the U.S. It is the protocol that makes sure all items on a document land in the right spaces. Usually called “X12.”

Translation Software:
The program that takes an EDI standardized X12 document and converts, or translates it, into a format that your Order Processing computer can recognize.

Communication Software:
The program that allows you to connect to your EDI mailbox.

Descriptions of EDI Mailbox, VAN, EDI Provider and several additional terms can be found in the white paper “A Guide to EDI for Publishers” in the Ware-Pak White Paper Library. If you’d like to request a PDF of any of the white papers in our library, please contact me directly. I can be reached at (708) 587-4116 or kshay@ware-pak.com

Publishers are being put under a great deal of pressure by the big distributors, such as Amazon, Baker & Taylor and Border’s, to implement EDI transactions. There is a lot of confusion about what an EDI transaction is. I decided to put together this blog post to help explain some of these technical terms.

EDI: What does it stand for and what exactly is it?

EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange, is a computer-to-computer of business documents, in a standardized format, between two companies.

Although it has a technical-sounding name, EDI is fundamentally a business initiative that has been developed over the past 30 years. It was pioneered by the transportation, retail and grocery industries in an effort to increase quality and customer service, and offer long-term cost benefits. EDI also represents a major step in creating a paperless office.

By replacing paper documents, such as purchase orders or invoices, with their EDI “equivalent” (a computer-readable EDI document), four key benefits are realized:

1. Accuracy is increased because human intervention (the acts of entering and re-keying data) is eliminated.
2. Timeliness is increased (the electronic transmission of forms eliminates the delays inherent in conventional mail, or even Fax).
3. Customer service process is automated.
4. Bottom line costs are reduced for the trading partners.

The Definition of EDI Explained:

“Computer-to-computer” means that the data you send or receive from a bookstore (the most common examples are invoices or purchase orders) is communicated via electronic transmission, without human intervention or interpretation.

“Business documents” means that EDI will be used for the exchange of specific documents only, such as purchase orders or invoices.

“Standardized format” is at the heart of EDI and causes much confusion among publishers. EDI requires you to follow standards that define the format and content of your business documents. When you start using EDI, PO’s and invoices will be converted by the EDI translation software program into the exact same format as those used by all the other publishers using EDI. (The publishing industry EDI standards have been set by the BISAC – recently renamed BASIC – committee of the Book Industry Study Group.) This means that each purchase order, invoice, or pack slip will be completely readable by any computer used by any bookseller using EDI.

In Summary:

When you do business via EDI, you send business documents directly from one computer to another, the documents are in a machine-processable format, the exchange is limited to documents, and the document exchange is governed by standards.

EDI has also created a vocabulary of terms that publishers should know. These terms will be posted in a separate entry later this week. The terms, as well as this guide to EDI for publishers, will be available in whitepaper form on our website, in our Whitepaper Library, shortly. Stay tuned! If you’d like to request a PDF of any of the whitepapers in our library, please contact me directly. I can be reached at (708) 587-4116 or kshay@ware-pak.com

Regardless of a fulfillment center’s methodology, you are paying for two things – space and activity. Each 3 PL or order fulfillment operation has its own methodology and payment schedule. Some fulfillment warehouses charge fees to store your books and fees to pick-and-pack and ship the books from the warehouse. Others will charge based upon percentage of sales. One of the best ways to control cost is by controlling your inventory. Whatever the fee structure, you must clearly understand the rates, terms and conditions of the contract.

Looking at pricing proposals from different warehousing and fulfillment vendors can be difficult because each one uses a different methodology for computing their rates. For this reason, reviewing the pricing proposals of warehousing and fulfillment companies should be done with great care and diligence. Here are tips to help avoid some of the challenges of warehousing and fulfillment pricing:

• Make sure the warehousing and fulfillment vendor has listed ALL costs
• Beware of monthly minimum charges
• Determine all monthly fixed recurring charges
• Ask if the vendor makes margin on freight charges and UPS discounts
• Double check move-out charges – some warehouse operations add huge penalties for move-out fees
• Ask for referrals from current customers to ensure that costs don’t change after signup
• Check the vendor’s BBB rating
• Make sure that everything is documented in a contract

Want to know additional important considerations when choosing an order fulfillment service? They are now available in a Whitepaper on our website. If you have additional questions, or are interested in receiving this white paper by email, please feel free to contact me directly. I can be reached at (708) 587-4116 or kshay@ware-pak.com

When choosing a third party fulfillment center, two additional and important issues to consider are the quality of communication and the financial stability of the warehouse.

On the surface, all order fulfillment services may look alike and offer similar services. However, when you take a closer look at their individual methods of delivering those services, there can be large differences. As you investigate the process of outsourcing to an order fulfillment service, you need to really think about what you want and what you need in a business partner to help grow your business.

I’ve discussed several things that I feel are crucial to choosing the right operation. Today, I’d like to discuss two more – “Communication” and “Financial Stability”.

Communication

Communication is always mission critical. There will always be times that require changes in the customer’s address, cancellation of an order or checking specific stock. The fulfillment center that you select must be available by phone, email and fax. You should never have to wait more than an hour or two for any request.

Financial Stability

Your fulfillment center must be financially sound – especially during the current economic environment. You will want to question how much debt the fulfillment center is carrying, if they look and act like a profitable company, their Dunn & Bradstreet rating and whether or not they are willing to give bank references.

There are several other important considerations when choosing an order fulfillment service. They are now available in a Whitepaper on our website. If you have additional questions, or are interested in receiving this white paper by email, please feel free to contact me directly. I can be reached at (708) 587-4116 or kshay@ware-pak.com

At Ware-Pak, we believe it is our responsibility to help our clients sell more books. To assist us, we are asking some of the leading businesses in the industry to help us in this pursuit. Over time, I will be inviting a number of people I know and trust to write blog entries that will help publishers grow their business.

Today I would like to introduce Scott Jones, Owner of Packaging Design. Scott’s company is a privately held corrugate manufacturing company that specializes in packaging products and point-of-purchase displays. Scott is a business partner that I would highly recommend learning more about. For more information on his company, here is a link to his website: www.pack-design.com.

Recently at Ware-Pak, we have received several questions regarding point-of-purchase displays. Some publishers are increasing their sales with strategically placed displays inside of retail stores.

Here is Scott’s guest blog entry discussing the topic:

Ideas for Publishers to consider when creating a Point-of-Purchase Display:

When considering a Point-of-Purchase display, publishers need to think about the following 4 issues: budget, type of display and versatility needed, the retail environment it will go into and the graphics needed.

1. Budget: Designers of temporary displays can create an eye-catching display to fit any budget. Knowing and communicating this information to the designer BEFORE he or she begins will help ensure they create a display that uses the correct material, correct number of components and correct artwork. Knowing the budget will reduce the number of revisions or redesigns needed, or simply missing your objective all together.

2. Type of Display and Possible Uses: When decided which type of display you need, it is important for the publisher to consider where and how their product sells best. Will it go on a counter, is it best displayed on an end-cap, is your product large and needs to be placed in a pallet pack? Some of these questions will be answered by the quantity, weight, size, shape and type of product you are selling. Based on your needs, a designer can often create a display with enough versatility to be used in several ways.

Finally, a consideration that needs to be addressed is how you will ship the display. Will it be filled with product or will the product and display ship separately? Again this information should be relayed upfront to the designer.

3. Retail Environment: All retail stores have their own requirements for displays. Any reputable temporary display company will know these requirements and can create a display that will be accepted at the retail level.

4. Graphic Requirements: There are many options in creating an eye-catching point-of-purchase display – from color to moving parts. A design can incorporate flood-coated or solid ink covered pieces, it can be plain white, have full 4-color graphics, moving parts or even holographic headers. These questions correlate directly with the budget for the display. Each one of the options listed will add cost to the display, but are also critical to making the display stand out at the retail level.

Great display companies can provide 3-D renderings at the beginning of a project to show you some ideas for possible displays. By using these, both you and the designer can “tweak” an idea before any prototyping is done. This can save both time and money. Also, be sure the company can provide you with prototypes to obtain final approval from the retail store.

Always remember, this is a creative process and it may take longer than expected.