The business of print publishing — producing physical books and shipping them here and there — has taken two more serious blows in the last month.

H.B. Fenn, Canada’s largest book distributor, filed for bankruptcy on Feb 3, leaving major publishers like Macmillan in the lurch.

Borders, the second largest book chain in the US, filed for bankruptcy on Feb 16. Though the company hopes to restructure and emerge with a pulse, it has set about closing more than 200 of its current locations.

These announcements are simply two in a long string from the past year, including the dissolution of Canadian publisher Key Porter and the closure of indie bookstore after indie bookstore.

The economics of moving print books across the country and around the world are becoming increasingly untenable. It’s relatively expensive to create, ship and store physical books, and with already razor-thin margins, traditional publishers, distributors, and booksellers are feeling the pinch.

But what does it all mean for you as a self-published author?

Physical space for selling books is decreasing
Sobering fact: Your book has less than a 1% chance of being stocked in an average bookstore. With shelf space dwindling, competition for what’s left is fierce. You think it’s hard getting your self-published book into a bookstore now? Expect it to get even harder. The thing is, while mainstream bookstore distribution is great if you can get it, for a lot of business authors, it’s not the only game in town.

Exploit other channels
You’ve got all kinds of other sales channels available to you, such as back-of-room sales at speaking engagements, bulk sales to special interest groups, direct sales to your client base, and online sales through Amazon. Use them.

Lock in your digital strategy
Yes, a print book still confers the most cachet, which is important for the freebies you give as gifts to clients and contacts. But don’t neglect the e-book market — it’s booming and will only continue to grow. At the very least, make sure your print book is available on all the major e-reading platforms. It’s not hard to do.

And start to think about ways you can establish your e-book as the premium gift. How about giving top prospects an e-book reader skinned with your book cover and a link to a free download of your book?

The print book market will be around for quite a while yet, but it will get increasingly harder for self-published authors to get distribution through mainstream channels. Pursue that distribution if you like, but don’t let it be your only or even primary strategy. Multiple channels for reaching readers are your best insurance.

To the world at large, to distribute means to disperse something.

In the publishing industry, distribution means something more specific: using a third party to get your book into multiple bricks & mortar bookstores.

Book distributors take on the job of selling your title to bookstores. They fill orders from the stores as they come in, handling all the work of issuing invoices, packing shipments, and managing returns. To ensure they have enough copies to fill the book store orders, they also warehouse a certain amount of your books.

In exchange for these tasks they take a cut on each sale, around 25-35% of your net revenue

Distributors make money when your books sell, so it can be extremely difficult to find one that will take you on as a self-published author. They want to know you have a well-established market presence and a significant ability to drive readers to bookstores. Otherwise, their efforts in selling you into the bookstores net them nothing. No reader demand=no bookstore demand=no sales for the distributor.

“No problem!” you say. “I’ll just distribute my book through Amazon. They only take 45% of my list price, so it’s a better deal anyway.”

Well, hold up there. Yes, you can list your print book on Amazon, and through Amazon disperse your book to readers. It’s definitely a great option for making your book available to a wide audience, and one that every self-published author should choose right from the start.

But selling your book on Amazon is retail. To the book trade, that’s not distribution. Amazon does not put you on physical store shelves.

So if you ever hear a publisher say, “That book doesn’t have distribution,” it means the book isn’t widely available in bookstores.

Many independent authors do well enough without distribution if they have reliable ways to reach readers directly, say, at seminars and speaking engagements. Is bookstore presence important to you? Let us know what you think.