44 word on the street A is for agility Let people know what’s going to be happening in the magazine. If you have an issue that has Harry Styles on the front cover, let them know, because they’ll probably tell you to print a gazillion extra copies. That way you’ll maximise the sales on one issue. B is for balance There’s another route to market – specialist distribution. This is for smaller and more niche titles. You can do both too; for example, distribute it through Seymour to big stores around the world, but also distribute in art galleries, clothing shops, hotel receptions. It’s getting a balance. C is for cashflow One thing you have to bear in mind with international distribution is how long it takes to get paid. Your magazine gets into a warehouse, then it goes on a consolidated pack with lots of other magazines, usually by boat. Then you have the on sale period, then they have to count up all the unsold copies, then they are transported back to your local distributor in the country of origin. It can take months. It’s just the nature of the beast. D is for DistriPress Training Foundation DTF is a charity, set up to try and encourage especially new and independent publishers to think about what they want to do with their distribution. E is for evolution Every single issue evolves. It’s about looking at your content and gearing it. What’s clever is if you can drop it into relevant areas, perhaps one issue only. So you’re a music mag, and you put 100 copies into Atlanta because there’s a big gig going on. And hopefully, with the next issue, there’s some retention. For publishers, distribution can be daunting. This is where the DistriPress Training Foundation comes in. President Stuart White talks about this valuable resource for the mag community, and shows how effective distribution is as simple as A, B, C… Illustrations by Ryan Gillett. A-Z DISTRIBUTION F is for flexibility Back in the day, it was a case of putting as many copies out there as possible, and see what sticks. Printing and shipping was cheap. Now distributors, instead of having a 30% sales efficiency, are aiming for 70% sales efficiency and printing/ shipping a lot fewer copies. You can fluctuate – talk to your distributor. G is for gravitas Distribution gives a physicality to what you’re doing. There are plenty of 16-year-old influencers sitting in their bedroom in their mum’s house with a gazillion followers, but their capital is limited. Once you actually prove you’re a publishing house and you produce something, that gives you gravitas, it gives you a weight as a publishing entity. H is for happy to help The DTF was set up years ago to try and help breathe life into our industry. There’s a whole collection of people, all of them senior, who want to set people on the right path. I is for integration I think publishers, when they first come in, believe they’ve got to go mad, take over the world from day one. But you’ll just lose a lot of money doing that. Build your brand, slowly integrate with social media. You’ve got to let people know it’s there in any way you can. J is for justify You need to make a good argument as to why your magazine should be displayed. Shops have a limited amount of space, so in most instances, your magazine will be replacing another. Make sure you give your distributor succinct information that highlights why you deserve that space on the shelf.
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