# Wholesale discount

> Source: https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/wholesale-discount

Last updated: 2026-09-06
Category: Publishing & selling
Also called: Trade discount · Short discount

The wholesale discount is the percentage off list price a publisher gives the trade; the full rate is 55%, and bookshops expect at least 40%.

## Definition

The **wholesale discount** (or *trade discount*) is the gap between a book's cover price and what the trade pays for it. A **55% discount** is the industry's full rate: the wholesaler (Ingram, Gardners) keeps part and passes the rest — typically 40–46% — to the bookshop, which needs that margin to survive. Publishers who set a **short discount** of 30–40% keep more per copy but find that shops decline to stock the book, because the margin no longer covers the shelf space.

The arithmetic for a print-on-demand author: income per copy = list price × (1 − discount) − printing cost. A $16.99 paperback at 55% discount with a $4.50 print cost returns about $3.15; at a 40% discount, about $5.69 — but only where the retailer accepts 40%.

Online retailers selling from their own print network use their own fixed splits instead, and direct sales from an author's storefront carry no wholesale discount at all.

## Related

- [Royalty](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/royalty)
- [Returns (returnable books)](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/returns)
- [ISBN](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/isbn)
- [Print on demand](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/print-on-demand)
- [Barcode (EAN-13)](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary/barcode)
- [Business Book Maker](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/formats/business-book-maker)
- [Book Publishing Glossary — 59 Terms Defined](https://www.infinitelibrary.ai/glossary)
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