What Is a Discount Schedule and Why Do Authors Need One?

Adapt my sample for your own use and establish a new norm of volume book sales and professionalism for your business

Photo by Artem Maltsev on Unsplash.

What is a discount schedule?

Discount schedules are a sales convention across industries. They outline a company’s discount structure, conditions / terms of sales, and rules / guidelines related to different types of sales. See the sample below — basically the last one my publishing company used in the final years I was a traditional publisher — and you’ll have a sense of them. Feel free to copy this one for your own use and adapt as needed.

Why do authors need one?

At the most basic level, authors need a discount schedule:

• because they are businesses and should have terms of business; and
• because a discount schedule presumes volume sales and your author activities should be oriented around or at least highly attuned to volume sales if you’re going to create a sustainable, income-generating author life.

What are other benefits of an established discount schedule?

• It’s an existing document of guidelines both you and your customers can refer to.