June Loves Author
Measure the usable run, divide by the spine, then peg the order to last year's sales — the three sums between a shelf and a purchase order.
Sum one: the run. A 1.83 m (6 ft) shelf with a 25 mm centre divider leaves about 1.80 m of usable run. Measure your own shelf the same way — upright to upright, minus every divider — because the nominal size is never the working size.
Sum two: the fit. Divide the run by the spine band. Trade paperbacks at 15–28 mm give 60–95 per 1.80 m; mass-market gives 95–140; hardcovers at 25–40 mm give roughly 45–72. A wall of four 6 ft shelves in trade paperback therefore holds 240–380 books before a single face-out is allowed for.
Sum three: the display cost. Face-out cuts the titles a metre of run holds from about 30 to about 10, at 0.30 m for a 30 cm title and 0.13 m for a 13 cm slimline. Subtract faced sections from the run before dividing, or the delivery will not fit the plan.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Then the order quantity. For a new title, order 1.5–2 times the copies sold in the same period of the previous year; the multiple covers the display and reading-room copies without over-committing. A title that sold 20 copies in last year's same period opens at 30–40.
Finally the reorder point: when on-hand stock reaches 2–3 weeks of average sales, reorder. Counted weekly, that buffer covers the supplier's lead time without a gap; counted less often, the gap appears before the order does.
Worked end to end: one 6 ft shelf, trade format, no face-out — 60–95 homes for stock; a new title pegged at 1.5–2× last year's same period; a reorder trigger at 2–3 weeks of sales. The formats behind sum two are tabulated at /book-format-sizes.
Further reading