Storage
How does Central Books calculate the storage charge for a publisher.
This article is in draft form as we copy edit and refine it.
To calculate a publisher's storage charge we look at the unit sales we have invoiced in the last 36 months and the total stock we have.
If a publisher has less stock with us than the amount we have sold on their behalf in the last 36 months there is no storage charge.
If a publisher has more stock with us than the amount we have sold on their behalf in the last 36 months then we charge for the difference. The charge for excess storage is monthly and it increases each year, see https://www.centralbooks.com/knowledge-base/freecopy.html#Storage for current charges.
Please note the charges quoted below a excluding VAT. UK publishers who are not registered for VAT will have to pay the additional VAT. UK publisher who are VAT registered will be able to include these charges on their VAT return.
Some simple examples
- A publisher has sold 3,000 books through Central Books in the last 36 months. The total stock at Central Books is 3,000 books. there will be no storage charge.
- A publisher has sold 3,000 books through Central Books in the last 36 months. The total stock at Central Books is 6,000 books. This gives an excess of 3,000 books. We will charge storage for those 3,000 books. In March 2023 the unit charge for storage was £0.016 (or 1.6 pence) so the March 2023 charge for 3,000 excess books would be 3000 x 0.016 = £48.00 for March. These prices exclude VAT, to check for current charges please go to https://www.centralbooks.com/knowledge-base/freecopy.html#Storage.
- A publisher has sold 100 books through Central Books in the last 36 months. The total stock at Central Books is 500 books. This gives an excess of 400.books. We will charge storage for those 400 books. In March 2023 the unit charge for storage was £0.016 (or 1.6 pence) so the March 2023 charge for 400 excess books would be 400 x 0.016 = £6.40 for March. These prices exclude VAT, to check for current charges please go to https://www.centralbooks.com/knowledge-base/freecopy.html#Storage.
- A publisher, who joined Central Books 12 months ago, has sold 1,000 books through Central Books since joining. The total stock at Central Books is 3,000 books. there will be no storage charge. Central Books scale up the 12 months sale to 36 months by a factor of 3 (36/12) giving an estimated 36 month sale of 3,000.
- A publisher, who joined Central Books 12 months ago, has sold 500 books through Central Books since joining. Central Books scale up the 12 months sale to 36 months by a factor of 3 (36/12) giving an estimated 36 month sale of 1500. The total stock at Central Books is 3,000 books. So the Excess calculation is 3,000 - 1,500 = 1,500. In March 2023 the unit charge for storage was £0.016 (or 1.6 pence) so the March 2023 charge for 1,500 excess books would be 1,500 x 0.016 = £24.00 for March. These prices exclude VAT, to check for current charges please go to https://www.centralbooks.com/knowledge-base/freecopy.html#Storage.
For the purposes of calculating Storage Charges, in the last week of every month, Central Books run a report on all our publishers' stock, this report calculates the total stock each publisher has with Central Books, the number of copies Central Books has sold on behalf of the publisher, the report gives grace on books that have only just arrived at Central Books and it calculates the excess stock Central Books have. On request we can supply a version of this report to an individual publisher.
Calculation for Excess Stock, Excess Stock EQUALS Total Stock Held MINUS Units Sales in the last 36 months.
More complicated Examples
Table 1
| Name | Total Sales 36 Months | Total Stock now | Publishers Start Date | Sales of Recent Books | Stock of Recent Books | Estimated Sales | Estimated Sales Excluding Recent Books | Stock Excluding Recent Books | ISBN | Title | Book Pub Date | Excess | Pack Size | Reprot's Date |
| Example Publisher | 40 | 900 | 01/01/19 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 40 | 900 | 9780714733210 | Example Book 1 | 01/01/19 | 860 | 40 | 27/03/23 |
| Example Publisher | 63 | 900 | 01/01/19 | 0 | 0 | 63 | 63 | 900 | 9780714733227 | Example Book 2 | 01/02/19 | 837 | 50 | 27/03/23 |
| Example Publisher | 35 | 1000 | 01/01/19 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 35 | 1000 | 9780714733234 | Example Book 3 | 15/03/21 | 965 | 50 | 27/03/23 |
| Example Publisher | 26 | 975 | 01/01/19 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 26 | 975 | 9780714733245 | Example Book 4 | 02/04/21 | 949 | 50 | 27/03/23 |
| Example Publisher | 23 | 975 | 01/01/19 | 25 | 975 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 9780714733256 | Example Book 5 | 27/03/23 | 0 | 40 | 27/03/23 |
| Example Publisher | 187 | 4750 | 01/01/19 | 25 | 975 | 187 | 164 | 3775 | Totals | 3611 | 27/03/23 |
In the Table 1 above a hypothetical publisher who has been with Central Books since January 2019 has the data for storage charges at the end of March 2023. A recent book "Example Book 5" arrived in March and grace has been given for storage of this new title. The Excess Stock is calculated across the entire list and comes to 3611. Based on charges in March 2023 the excess charge for this hypothetical publisher will be £57.78 for the month of March 2023.
Table 2
| Name | Total Sales 36 Months | Total Stock now | Publishers Start Date | Sales of Recent Books | Stock of Recent Books | Estimated Sales | Estimated Sales Excluding Recent Books | Stock Excluding Recent Books | ISBN | Title | Book Pub Date | Excess | Pack Size | Report's Date |
| Other Publisher | 40 | 900 | 27/03/21 | 0 | 0 | 60 | 60 | 900 | 9780714733210 | Example Book 1 | 01/01/19 | 840 | 40 | 27/03/23 |
| Other Publisher | 63 | 900 | 27/03/21 | 0 | 0 | 95 | 95 | 900 | 9780714733227 | Example Book 2 | 01/02/19 | 805 | 50 | 27/03/23 |
| Other Publisher | 1200 | 1000 | 27/03/21 | 0 | 0 | 1801 | 1801 | 1000 | 9780714733234 | Example Book 3 | 15/03/21 | -801 | 50 | 27/03/23 |
| Other Publisher | 2000 | 975 | 27/03/21 | 0 | 0 | 3002 | 3002 | 975 | 9780714733245 | Example Book 4 | 02/04/21 | -2027 | 50 | 27/03/23 |
| Other Publisher | 23 | 975 | 27/03/21 | 25 | 975 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 9780714733256 | Example Book 5 | 27/03/23 | 0 | 40 | 27/03/23 |
| Other Publisher | 3326 | 4750 | 27/03/21 | 25 | 975 | 4992 | 4958 | 3775 | Totals | -1183 | 27/03/23 |
In the Table 2 above a hypothetical publisher who has been with Central Books since March 2021 has the data for storage charges at the end of March 2023. The Excess Stock is calculated across the entire list and comes to MIINUS 1183, The report has scaled up the sales by about 2 to estimate the sales for a 36 month period. So no storage charges for this publisher in March 2023.
Table 3
| Name | Total Sales 36 Months | Total Stock now | Publishers Start Date | ISBN | Title | Book Pub Date | Excess | Pack Size | Excess takes this number of whole packs | Report's Date |
| Third Publisher | 36 | 216 | 01/03/10 | 9780714733210 | Example Book 1 | 01/03/10 | 180 | 40 | 4 | 27/03/23 |
| Third Publisher | 72 | 432 | 01/03/10 | 9780714733227 | Example Book 2 | 01/03/10 | 360 | 50 | 7 | 27/03/23 |
| Third Publisher | 108 | 648 | 01/03/10 | 9780714733234 | Example Book 3 | 01/03/10 | 540 | 50 | 10 | 27/03/23 |
| Third Publisher | 36 | 252 | 01/03/10 | 9780714733245 | Example Book 4 | 01/03/10 | 216 | 50 | 4 | 27/03/23 |
| Third Publisher | 36 | 252 | 01/03/10 | 9780714733256 | Example Book 5 | 01/03/10 | 216 | 40 | 5 | 27/03/23 |
| Third Publisher | 288 | 1800 | 01/03/10 | Totals | 1512 | 30 | 27/03/23 |
In the Table 3 above a hypothetical publisher who has been with Central Books since March 2021 has the data for storage charges at the end of March 2023. The Excess Stock is calculated across the entire list and comes to 1512.Based on charges in March 2023 the excess charge for this hypothetical publisher will be 1512 x £0.016 = £24.19 for the month of March 2023.
Imagine this hypothetical publisher "Third Publisher" asks Central Books what they should to reduce storage charges. A very simple measure, if they have space of their own to store books, might be to take about 1512 books or roughly 30 packs from the Central Books warehouse. Reducing the stock at Central Books, reducing the excess stock to almost zero but keeping the stock for sales in the long term. Alas many publishers do not have their own storage space. The next option is to pulp excess stock but please look at your numbers carefully. This "Third Publisher" could take a quick look at the numbers and decide to pulp 180 copies of "Example Book 1 ", this pulping has a cost but brings the monthly charge for excess stock on this title to zero. Now the mathematics can give surprising results. If we assume that each copy of the book "Example Book 1 " raises £5.00 when it is sold and the sales of 36 copies every 36 months continues, this is 1 copy sold a month. Then it will take 180 months (15 years) to bring the stock down to 36 (no excess storage at 36) at which point the total storage charge will have been £257.76 but the revenue from sales would be £900.00. If the publisher had pulped the excess stock when they had 216 books then they would have sold out after 36 months, 3 years, sales revenue would be £180.00 and storage 0. It looked attractive to pulp the excess but it would have been a short term measure. The criticism of this argument is that sales of back list titles usually decline. If we take this as the example but we assume that sales will decline by a third (1/3) every year and the publisher decides to keep 5 years' worth of sales at Central Books this is still a better long term decision that pulping all the excess. Publisher pulps 156 keeps 60 then after 10 years they still have 16 books, they have paid £40.43 in storage with £220 turnover. If they have pulped the all the excess at the beginning and sales had declined by 1/3 a year then they would only sell 36 copies, so £180 turnover. We recommend keeping:
about 5 years' worth of turnover if you expect the turnover to be over £5.00 a copy sold.
about 7 years' worth of turnover if you expect the turnover to be over £10.00 a copy sold.
about 9 years' worth of turnover if you expect the turnover to be over £20.00 a copy sold.
These are very rough guidelines and may not reflect the sales pattern of your books. It may be worth a publisher increasing their cover prices to help increase their revenue from what they do sell.
The charge for pulping books does change from year to year. Click here for current charges.