Who gets the textbook distribution fee?

Textbooks will be highly discounted.

Through the phone number of the sales department of the publisher of the Canh Dieu book series (Vietnam Education Equipment and Publishing Investment Company (VEPIC) in collaboration with the University of Education Publishing House, Hue University Publishing House and Ho Chi Minh City University of Education Publishing House to compile and publish), which was publicly posted, we made an appointment to meet the sales staff. Before meeting in person, this person sent us a price list of the book series for all levels for our reference.

Employees believed to be from the Education Publishing House discuss textbook “commissions”

Coming to the official distributor of the Canh Dieu textbook series on Trung Kinh Street (Cau Giay, Hanoi), we met an employee named L. "I want to get books to bring to schools through education departments and sell online. What percentage of discount do you want, how is the delivery and how is the payment method?", I asked.

After thinking for a moment, employee L. asked: “Have you sold books yet or are you just starting? How much discount did other places give before?” I replied that I had sold a few books and now wanted to find more suppliers to get better discounts.

Seemingly understanding the customer's needs, this employee said that the company is the main distributor of the Canh Dieu book series in the North. "The company can only sell to you without invoices or contracts. If you want to sell to schools, you need those documents. If you want to buy them, we will push them down to the agents below to provide them. The goods will be delivered by the company's vehicles to your place and to each school. You have to pay in advance for each order," said this employee. "Do you want to pay in installments (have a new order, pay off old debts)?", I suggested but this employee shook his head and refused.

Seeing me hesitate, this employee continued: “We let you get 15 (15%) for textbooks, that is the highest price, other places only give 13 (13%). As for exercise books, it is 20 (20%), supplementary and reference books are 25 (25%) and teacher's books are only 10 (10%). If you take a large quantity, the company will let you get that. Later, if you take more, the company will adjust it further. But certainly, textbooks are only discounted a maximum of 15%, much higher than many other places.”

Staff L. discusses the discount rate for the Canh Dieu book series.

Employee L. added that the company only sells to agents, collects money immediately, and the agents below will sell books through education departments. Normally, if selling through education departments, it will take a long time to get paid, some orders take up to half a year, so the company does not do it.

Discount increase trick

We continued to contact the publisher of the two book series Connecting Knowledge with Life and Creative Horizon (compiled and published by the Vietnam Education Publishing House). Through discussions with the staff of the joint stock company specializing in publishing books for the Education Publishing House in the North, we were introduced to a staff in charge of publishing at a bookstore located in Ha Dong district (Hanoi).

After introducing myself, I expressed my desire to buy books in large quantities to sell to schools in the southern districts of Hanoi. This employee asked: “How long have you been doing this? How do you want to buy? Do you have any orders? If you have sold, have you bought through book distribution companies in Ha Tay (Ha Tay Book and School Equipment Joint Stock Company) or Hanoi?”. I introduced myself as new to this sales, inexperienced, and not buying through local book distribution companies.

This person said that the southern area of ​​Hanoi is the market for local book publishing companies, the book market has been divided by district and province. “It would be better if you send a car to the bookstore to pick it up, we will give you a good price. We will sell books by the box, you check the inventory yourself. Textbooks are discounted 11 (11%), exercise books are 15 (15%). You cannot pay for textbooks on credit, you have to pay immediately. This is the highest rate, but you have to buy in large quantities. If you buy in large quantities of exercise books, the discount rate will be adjusted to increase by 0.5% (ie exercise books are discounted 15.5%). Selling textbooks for 1% or 2% is a problem. Selling textbooks requires revenue, but selling to agents is only 9 or 10% at most,” said this seller.

The salesperson showed us how to add reference books and exercises to the textbook set to increase the discount: “If you buy textbooks through the Department of Education and Training, you will only get 7-8 (%). That’s a lot of difference in percentage points. We have many reference books, you can add them to the list of books to sell together. The reference books with the “lightest” discount will be 35 (35%)”.

According to this employee, recently, two sets of books from the Vietnam Education Publishing House have announced price reductions compared to last year. Accordingly, the new cover prices of the reprinted textbooks this year have decreased compared to previous years. Specifically, the cover price of the Connecting Knowledge with Life set has decreased by 9.6%, the cover price of the Creative Horizon set has decreased by 11.2%. The above discounts and distribution fees are applied to this new price.

In addition, this person agreed that if the two parties cooperated, they would not sign a contract and would not issue invoices. "This is not because of legal issues, but the market share of textbooks has long been clearly divided into regions, and no party can compete with each other," this employee said, adding that the company is a distribution unit that brings books to publishing companies in the provinces.