Welcome! Congrats on opening a bookstore!
My name is Maureen Karb and I’ve been working in the publishing industry for more than 20 years. I have owned Como Sales for the past 12 years. We are an independent commission sales group. What does that mean exactly???
We contract with publishers to represent them to indie booksellers in a certain territory. Como Sales covers the entire East Coast. We currently service roughly 10 publishers or distributors. Working with us is just like working direct with the publisher!
Publishers pay me a tiny portion of any sale to any independent bookstore in my territory. But I am NOT paid when books are returned, so I’m not motivated to sell you books that don’t work for your store. If you do well, I do well.
I’m here to help you set up accounts and order from any of my 10 publishers. I have a list of all of them below!
Here is the complete list of the publishers I represent, their sales terms for independent booksellers, and other helpful information! You can click on each publisher name to see their website and find out more info. And you should be able to scroll, I have bestseller catalogs for each if you scroll to the right.
If you’d like a quick glance at some of the books I’m selling for each publisher, here’s a collection I made of some of their most widely ordered titles for 2026.
What does a publisher sales rep do?
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Honestly I’ll do whatever it takes to help you get set up and ordering direct from my publishers and distributors. I want to make it easier for you to order direct. Ordering direct will get you a better discount, it will often mean books are more likely to be in stock when you need them, and you will get access to publisher promotions and special items.
In terms of what that looks like on a day to day basis for hundreds of indie stores….
They come to me with questions or customer service problems
More than 100 established indie bookstores will meet with me seasonally - 3 times a year - to review the new books and order what they want. This is usually a painless 30-60 minute phone call. They meet with probably 20-30 reps to guarantee that each Tuesday they have the best books publishing that day in their store ready to go. There is a robust world of bookselling out there, these stores are always willing to help you get this routine established!
Helpful Links
I highly recommend that any indie bookstore joins the American Booksellers Association and their region trade association as well.
New England: NEIBA
Mid-Atlantic: NAIBA
South: SIBA
In New England we have a directory of sales reps: www.bprne.org
This website is also a wealth of information including a directory of educational sessions and a publishing database: https://www.theindependentbookseller.com/
How do I get started?
There’s obviously 100 ways you can do it… maybe you just need 1 book for a author event? Then just email me and I’ll walk you through setting up an account and getting that one book.
Maybe you don’t have any publisher accounts and you are confused by how you can get credit references?? I can help! My publisher Microcosm does not require references and they are a great place to start with
Maybe you have accounts with a couple of the bigger publishers??? I can help with that too! Three of my publishers utilize big 5 pubs to ship. If you have accounts with either Harper, Hachette or Simon & Schuster I can show you some books you can order using those accounts to make the most of them! These are books you would not have seen in their catalogs.
Not to “toot my own horn” but I’m also pretty knowledgeable. I’m happy to jump on the phone and we can chat for half an hour about the best way to use Edelweiss to order books, or anything else.
Some publishing terminology…
Wholesaler… Ingram is a wholesaler. You can get almost any book all from one place.
Distributor….. this is different from Ingram, a distributor strikes an agreement with lots of different publishers to physically ship, bill and in some cases sell their books. While places like IPG and Lakeside seem similar to Ingram, you can only get certain books from them not all.
Edelweiss….. a website and online platform that the majority of publishers use to showcase their books. Organized into catalogs by season.
Frontlist…. these are “New” books. Each publishers definitition of frontlist is different, but usually its any book that has not yet been published or is only recently published.
Backlist…. these are all the older books that have already pubbed. Again, each publisher has their own definitition (it ranges from any day after the pub day to the previous year).
ARCs….. also known as review copies or galleys, these are advanced copies of books (usually fiction). These are always labeled as “Not for sale” and are for review purposes only.