BOLT stands for Book Long Term pricing and is a special pricing model that allows eligible customers to earn long-term discounts based on their total order patterns.
BOLT is an optional pricing structure that you can pair with our standard rate cards to accrue incremental discounts tailored to your individual performance.
We look at your shipped units in two ways to determine your print rates.
Firstly, your account is placed into an annual print volume tier that determines the range of print discounts that can be earned for the title-level print volume shipped.
Secondly, as your individual title print volume increases, the discount earned on a per-title basis increases along with it.
The tables below show how annual print volume tiers and individual title volume discounts can be combined.
Lightning Source US: USD
Lightning Source UK: GBP& EUR
Lightning Source Australia: AUD
* Please note: “Title” in this document refers to each individual iteration of a book represented by a SKU code in the Lightning Source system. Versions of the same book in different formats (e.g.,paperback/perfect bound vs. casebound etc.) are treated as entirely separate entities for the purposes of calculating title volume.
For customers with volume history, we will use your prior 12-month print volume to set your first annual volume tier. New customers without a 12-month print history will automatically be placed into the lowest annual volume tier of 1-1,000 annual units.
Your annual print volume tier is reviewed every 12 months on the anniversary of the month you first opted into BOLT pricing. At this renewal date, we will use your print volume over the previous 12 months to determine which annual volume tier you are eligible for, and your pricing will be updated automatically. Once your annual print volume tier has been set, it is locked in until the next renewal date. You can see this renewal date in the BOLT section of your online account.
For titles with a 12-month print history we will use that total to determine the starting discount at the ISBN level. For titles with little or no print history, the first order size will determine the starting TITLE volume discount.
As the total number of units shipped for any given title increases, your print discount increases along with it. The more units you ship, the more your discounts increase. Discounts are applied in real time as you submit orders through your online account.
If your annual print volume tier changes, the volumes already earned for each of your individual titles will always carry over to the new tier, but different discounts will apply. If your total annual volume increases sufficiently to move up a tier, your discounts will increase, whereas if your total annual volume falls and you move down a tier, your discounts will decrease.
Example:
Only publisher direct orders are eligible to receive BOLT discounts at the individual title level.
Wholesale, Global Connect and POD Publisher Direct are all counted towards the annual volume total.
Yes, at the end of a 12-month term, you will automatically be moved up into the appropriate annual print volume tier based on your actual performance. This could mean moving up by more than one tier if the annual volume increase is large enough.
It can, yes. The title-level volume discount percentage that is applied changes as you move up or down the annual tiers after each annual renewal.
If you don’t meet the minimum print volume for your current tier, you will automatically be placed in a lower annual volume tier. That lower tier has lower discounts associated with it, meaning you would see lower discounts at the title level for as long as you remain in that lower tier.
Within your online account, go to the At a Glance page and click on Sign up for BOLT Pricing. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the opt-in process.
You will receive an email confirmation confirming that your account has been activated for BOLT pricing. After receiving that email confirmation, you will also have access to a new BOLT pricing section in your online account.
Titles must maintain an active status to be eligible for BOLT pricing. Cancelled titles that are later moved back into production will not retain their historical title-level volume and will be re-set to the lowest title-level discount available in your current annual volume tier.
Of course! Please contact your Lightning Source customer support team if you wish to opt out of BOLT pricing at any time.
