Centraal Boekhuis (CB)
Make it stand out
If you have readers in the Netherlands and/or Belgium, consider distributing your book through the Centraal Boekhuis (CB).
Photo: CB website
There are many acronyms in the self-publishing world. When you work with them on a daily basis, you become blind to the fact that not everyone knows what they mean.
If you distribute books in the Netherlands or Belgium, CB is an important acronym. CB stands for Centraal Boekhuis.
A bit of fun history first, CB has well over 150 years of experience in logistics services. They distribute physical books and e-books, in the shopping streets and online in the Netherlands and Belgium. CB also offers logistics solutions for the Healthcare market. With more than 800 professionals, CB contributes to the success of their customers every day, some who are Storyhouse Works authors!
The history starts in 1871 with the establishment of the Bestelhuis van den Nederlandschen Boekhandel. Before that, booksellers had to write to various publishers for their orders and their books were delivered through various channels. An inefficient and expensive process. The Association for the Promotion of the Interests of Bookstores took the initiative to establish the Bestelhuis. Central storage, processing and delivery of books was possible via the Order House. This created a unique logistics solution for the book sector, which continues to benefit all parties to this day. From 1926 the company was called Centraal Boekhuis and in 1973 it moved from Amsterdam to Culemborg. With the arrival of the Internet, E-commerce services were started in 1999.
From 2012, Centraal Boekhuis also became active in the Healthcare sector and the trade name became CB.
In honor of CB's 150th anniversary, the Royal designation was awarded by His Majesty King Willem-Alexander on April 6, 2021. The honorable award is a crowning achievement for their work.
At Storyhouse Works, we work together with partner ABC Uitgeverij who handles the administration and invoicing for our authors that have readers in the Netherlands and Belgium, and therefore want to distribute their books in these two countries. Our authors can set up a subscription service with ABC Uitgeverij as they have a special contract with CB. Our contact at ABC, Vera Volk, keeps track of our authors' book supply, informing them when they've also run out so that they can send more copies. Authors can choose to stop their subscription at any time, as it's month-to-month. The subscription costs are deducted from book sales, so if the book sells well, authors can get paid out by ABC.
Having your book available through CB offers a good way to make your book commercially available in the Netherlands and easy to order for Dutch bookstores.
