Biblio Publishers Frequently Asked Questions
Inventory

The parantheses () indicate the corresponding section of the contract, if applicable.

What are the requirements for incoming stock?
The inventory sent in must have a scannable bar code for bookstores (Bookland EAN bar code). It is also required that the ISBN be printed on the back of the book and a price be printed on the jacket also. Cartons must have publisher name, title, ISBN, carton quantity and US price marked on each carton.

Books must also be in saleable condition when we receive them. Our warehouse staff is trained to recognize the conditions that are unacceptable to our bookstore accounts.

What are the incoming shipment requirements?
We need a packing list for all shipments. This packing list can come with the shipment or can be sent ahead of time. You can either fax it to 717-794-3828 or use the on line form which was created to notify us of an incoming shipment.

If the cartons are coming any way but truck -- UPS, FedEx or US Postal Service, each carton must have a green label which says "New Books Receiving" on it. These cartons come into a different area of the warehouse, along with a lot of other shipments, and are extremely hard to track. You should track the shipment yourself (US Postal Service cannot be tracked) and e-mail us if you do not see the shipment appear on the on line reports within a day or so of when you believe we would have received the shipment. You must give us the method of shipment, the tracking number, the date our warehouse received the product and the person who signed for the product. UPS shipments are traceable through the site ups.com and FedEx shipments through the site FedEx.com

How do I know when to send stock to the warehouse?
It is your responsibility to monitor the inventory and send stock in whenever the warehouse inventory levels are getting low. The best way to monitor this is to look at the daily report "Low Stock Report". This is an exception report, which lists any item for which we have less than a 4-month supply. The last column is a calculated number, which will get the inventory back to a 4-month supply. You can send more or less than this figure. If you want to review how many you should be sending, please contact Larry Fox at LRFox@bibliodistribution.com

How many books should I send to start? Until we know about your promotion plan, we can only guess at this answer. We generally suggest no less fewer 500 and no more than 1000 to start on a new book unless you have major national publicity to warrant more. You may send us fewer than 500 if that is all you have. Because of the warehouse fees, it's a good idea to keep no more than a 6-month supply with us.

What is a "stock transfer fee"?
Anytime you ask us to move your inventory from our warehouse to another location and it's not as a result of a sale we've made. For example, you may need 60 books sent to your office for promotional use-that would be a stock transfer.

Why aren't my books covered by your warehouse insurance?
Our insurance covers only our warehouse, not its contents. Think of it like renter's insurance-you're essentially renting space in our warehouse for your books. They're still your books-you still own them-even while we're storing them for you. Many of our publishers choose not to get insurance because it can be very expensive. In all likelihood the cost to replace your current inventory in the event of an accident would be far less.

What happens if a store returns my books to you damaged?
If the book cannot be restored to a saleable condition then we will have it destroyed. It will show up on your inventory (Gross, Returns, Net) report as a received return that was destroyed. We receive very few damaged returns.

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