UKC

When buying a guidebook, where do folk reckon is the best place, in terms of balancing some ethics and price?

I've always wondered if buying straight from the publisher (e.g. SMC) gets the author a bigger chunk of the money as there's less people dipping into the profit margin (no distributors/shops etc.).

I also like the idea of supporting local independent book or climbing shops too, but these are quite a rarity now, and often quite expensive.

Amazon is possibly the worst I can think of in terms of ethics (carbon footprint, giving Bezos money) but is convenient...

Interested to hear folk's thoughts/some knowledge about this!

Either directly from the publisher or an independent bookshop / outdoor shop, thus avoiding Amazon.

As a (self-published) author yes I make more money if you buy directly from me.

But would I make the sales via climbing shops without a distributor? Not without doing a LOT of leg work myself. They don't take that much when you factor in what they sell them to the shops for. It's nice to have them in independent climbing shops as I like to support them where I can.

My book sales in various countries (including the USA) are via Amazon. They take their cut but they print and ship them from the USA (to use that example) with a bigger carbon footprint. That saves me having to pay for a print run and ship it over there, or find another printer and use a fulfilment company over there, who will also take their cut. 

The main trade off is increased volume versus the % you make. It averages out over the different ways of doing it ime. I make more per book I sell, but I sell less. I sell a fair few on Amazon, but make less per book. Each month it's about the same amount.

Distribution of climbing books in Europe and USA is surprisingly difficult. Not because there is a dominant player controlling things, but because there isn't anyone doing it very well, from what I can see.

Really interesting, thanks for the insight!

Talking purely from a Scottish Mountaineering Press perspective (we publish the SMC books), if you buy direct from us the share of proceeds is greater than if you buy from a retailer or Amazon (Amazon being the lowest as they demand the greatest discount). The author/s will receive the same amount. I'd give a massive shout out to anyone who decides to write a book – it's a huge undertaking.

From a carbon footprint perspective, our organisation itself has a very small footprint, it's shipping around the paper/books and printing that appears the biggest impact. Even if you print in the UK the paper has to come from somewhere else as (to my knowledge) there isn't forestry used for paper, and paper mills, in the UK (I'd love to know if someone else knows of anything here). The supply chain is complex, and in a low-margin industry there are trade-offs to be made between environmental sustainability and commercial sustainability. We're getting involved in an industry-wide initiative in Scotland – you can read about it on our website. Different organisations will be doing different things.

Agree 100% with biscuit's view on Amazon from a volume perspective, and breaking into the European/US market.

Also thanks for the insight! It makes sense that you guys would have the lowest footprint - just going to be less links in the chain!

I happen to live pretty close to a (seemingly former) scottish paper mill - it's in Glenrothes. A quick Google suggests that it shut down for modernisation some point pre-pandemic (2015?) and never reopened though.

Aberdeen used to have a few as well - though they might have suffered the same fate.

Cordee always used to do it very well in the UK, but because I haven’t had a book published for over a decade now I don’t know whether that’s still the case.

Cordee still do.