Hachette Distribution Sales Reports
Using the “Customers Who Bought Books” report to calculate royalties
Hachette Book Group (HBG) distributes books for client publishers from its warehouse in Lebanon, Indiana. Some of those clients, such as Chronicle Books, distribute smaller presses in turn, so your books may move through Hachette's system even if your contract is with another distributor. Familiar reads Hachette's transaction-level sales report, called Customers Who Bought Books.
The Report You Need
Customers Who Bought Books (.xlsx)
One row per transaction: each sale, return or free copy, with its document date, customer, ISBN, title, list price, net value, quantity and ship-to country. Familiar needs these columns: Document Date, ISBN, Title, Currency Code, Price, Net Value, Quantity, Transaction Type Code, ShipTo Country and Demand Class. Export it as Excel (.xlsx).
How to Get Your Report
If Hachette Distributes You Directly: Use SalesTracker
HBG gives client publishers a web reporting tool called SalesTracker, with standard and custom reports you can run on demand or schedule. Look for the Customers Who Bought Books report, run it for the month and export it to Excel. Hachette doesn't publish SalesTracker's menus, and we haven't confirmed where this report sits in it, so if you can't find it, ask your HBG sales director or client services contact for it by name.
If You're Distributed Through a Hachette Client: Ask Your Distributor
If your distribution contract is with Chronicle or another publisher that uses Hachette, request the Customers Who Bought Books report from your contact there, as an Excel file.
Upload to Familiar
Upload the .xlsx file and choose Hachette as the distributor. You don't pick a month: Familiar files each transaction under the month of its Document Date, so a report covering several months is split correctly.
How Familiar Reads the Report
- • SALE rows become sales and RETURN rows become returns, using Net Value as the amount you're credited.
- • GRATIS rows are free copies (review and promotional copies). Familiar records them as complimentary units with no revenue, so you can see them without paying royalties on them.
- • Demand Class becomes the sales channel (trade, export, direct and so on), and ShipTo Country the country.
- • The report has no format column. Where it can, Familiar takes the format from the book's details in your Familiar catalog, so set formats on your books before you upload.
This is a sales report, not a payment statement, so it doesn't show distribution fees or reserves against returns. If your royalties are paid on what the distributor remits to you, compare the totals with your monthly payment statement and adjust your contract terms or expenses in Familiar to match.
Troubleshooting
A “required value is blank” error: every row needs an ISBN, Title, ShipTo Country and Demand Class. The error names the row; check whether the export was trimmed or a filter left blank cells.
“Unknown Hachette transaction code”: Familiar understands SALE, RETURN and GRATIS. If your report has another code, contact Familiar support with the file so we can add it.
The file type is rejected: Familiar takes this report as .xlsx only. Export to Excel rather than CSV.