When an author chooses to activate his/her book for Full Market Distribution with River Sanctuary Publishing (RSP), it becomes available for online retailers to activate the book for sale on their websites. In truth, online sales far outstrip sales in traditional bookshops in today’s world. Nonetheless, full market distribution does make the book available to brick-and-mortar bookshops to order and offer for sale in their stores. Even though bookstores are more likely to order books coded with the option of “Returns,” the negative and unpredictable impact of returns for RSP has made it necessary for River Sanctuary Publishing (RSP) to set up its books coded as “No Returns.” “No Returns” means that when a brick-and-mortar retailer takes a chance on stocking your book, should the book not sell, the retailer cannot return the unsold book(s) to Ingram for a refund.

In our experience, brick-and-mortar bookshops are most likely to select books by authors who have achieved some prior public recognition, or whose work is promoted by an agent.   However, activation of full market distribution does make your book available for possible selection by bookstores worldwide, and it is impossible to predict the potential impact of this availability on your total sales. If you believe that your book will have wide appeal and would like to have your book set up to allow “Returns,” RSP offers the following alternative plan for its authors who wish to initiate and utilize a program to allow returns.

Here is how it works:

1.  Author deposits an initial $75 with River Sanctuary Publishing as an in-house escrow book return account.

2.  Any book that is returned from a retailer is shipped to River Sanctuary Publishing. Note: All returned books are shipped directly to RSP, with RSP charged the print cost plus shipping.

3.  If the author wishes to accept the returned book for addition to their personal supply, River Sanctuary Publishing will ship the book(s) to the author deducting the return costs (print cost plus shipping and RSP costs of shipping to the author) from the Returns escrow account.

4.  If the author does not wish to accept the returned book, the return costs (print cost plus shipping) will be deducted from the Returns escrow account. The Author grants permission to RSP to sell the book as a used book and to dedicate any profits as a benefit to RSP.

5.  Should the utilized return account balance fall to less than $50, the author will be invoiced to bring the account balance up to $75.

6.   Should the author wish to no longer utilize the book return program, the author can at any time cancel the program by notifying RSP by phone or in writing. Author’s book status will be changed to “No Returns” in the master print catalog, with Author remaining responsible for any returns from retailers who may have bought the book while “Returns” was in effect. The remaining account balance will be sent to the author — less a $6.00 account maintenance fee.