The number one question is usually, “What are the costs involved?” Here is a detailed list of the costs you can expect. All costs are subject to change, and it is impossible to give accurate courier costs for obvious reasons. It will give you a good idea of what to expect before you submit your application.
- Courier costs – sending your books to our office (variable prices, you pick and pay your courier to deliver to our door) for packing and labelling.
- Packing and labelling costs – for us to send the books according to Takealot’s requirements with their prescribed packaging and barcoded labels for each product and box. This will be R5 per book, which covers poly bags and printed labels and other printing of documents and box labels, as well as labour.
- From our offices we employ a Takealot preferred courier to fetch and deliver books to both DC’s (1 box to CTN and 1 box to JHB). Prices vary, but, it should be around R300 in total.
- Monthly fee of R400 for membership, administration and accounting, payable in advance as soon as the contract has been signed. No books will be listed on Takealot’s database, nor sent to their DC’s until this fee is paid. This fee is non-refundable and applicable each month until the books have either been sold out or removed from Takealot’s warehouses and our agreement has come to an end. Why R400? Takealot charge a monthly fee of R345 to be a seller on their site, regardless of sales, but this amount is included in the aforementioned R400. You, therefore, are only paying R55 extra for this convenient service per month, which saves you a lot of time and effort.
- Takealot charge their own fees, which include a success fee (14% of retail price), a fulfilment fee of R28.75 (Takealot sends your book to the customer) and, if applicable, after 30 days, a monthly storage fee of R4.60 per standard size book – this price increases over the festive season (October to December) to R10 per book. These fees are deducted before they pay out any profits.
- Should it be necessary, removal of books from Takealot involves a small handling fee and courier costs to deliver the books from the Takealot DC back to your physical address directly (courier costs will vary in this case).
If you want to sell more than one title, all the same costs will apply (steps 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6), but an additional once-off R150 per title, from the second title onwards, will be charged for the administration thereof. The monthly admin fee will remain R400.
Authors will receive a monthly invoice with detailed line items, to be paid by the 3rd of each month at the latest. When the contract is signed, you will provide your banking details for profit payments, after deductions.
For more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.