Jacqueline Church Simonds, publisher of the highly successful Nevada small press Beaglebay Books, muses on the current status of the relationship of small press publishers with Ingram distributors ...
Recently, we've had a spate of young turks who are convinced they have found the golden keys to the book publishing kingdom by printing up their books via LSI [Lightning Source Int.] - Ingram's POD [Print On Demand] service, which allows for distribution through Ingram, B&T [Baker & Taylor, the second-largest book wholesaler in the business] and bookstores. They have further chosen to demand a short discount of 20% with no returns.
This method allows for a very a small buy-in (low set-up fees). There is an instant "in" with Ingram (because Ingram owns LSI), the largest wholesaler in the biz and the least interested in dealing with newbies - they usually will not talk to you unless you have 10 titles and can make at least $25k a year in sales with them. This also allows self- and micro-publishers an entrée into Amazon without having to deal with Amazon Advantage's yearly fee and mandatory 55% discount. In fact, it's rather like having a virtual distributor.
Yup, it sounds all good. But there are some catches to this rosy picture.
One of the hardest things for new publishers to get their heads around is that they are about to launch into a $3 trillion a year global entertainment industry. It IS a business. Yes, it takes Art to write the book, but the minute you contemplate selling said brain-product, you are in business. As such, you need to know WHO is going to buy your book and HOW to reach them.
WHERE do they shop for your kind of book? You have to know these things, as
well as HOW MUCH they are paying for similar books (many folks with LSI books are already at price levels above what their customers are willing to pay). LSI may get you a book, but it might be too high-priced or in the wrong venue for your customers. Is this the right delivery system for your book? Or would you be better served at trade discounts (55%), or even an offset
run, which would lower your per-unit cost?
~~A short discount (20%) locks you out of certain markets. Like bookstores.
Again, this is a matter of business.
Reasons to *have* a short discount:
o The book is over $40
o The book is on a rarefied subject (academic, medical or professional)
o It is a textbook
o You are testing an idea and will adjust once you see at what levels and prices you have "action"
o You have no plans for selling in bookstores, the listing with Ingram and B&T is just a way of covering all avenues.
o You are selling BOTR (Back of the Room) at speeches, and there is no reason to discount a book you are selling at full retail.
Otherwise, if you are trying to get into bookstores, you are barking up the wrong spruce tree. Bookstores ask for - and get - a 40-46% discount with full returns privileges. They don't do this because they are mean. They have to have something called a profit margin (remember the thing I said about business?) to be able to turn on the lights, pay the help and have a latte machine. I may not like (and in fact, loathe) the returns system, but it is what it is. Why should they take a chance on a small-press/self-published book that probably won't sell because the author/publisher isn't putting anything into marketing to drive people into the store? So the bookstores are not going to order the book. And if they have customers come in and ask for the book, they'll look it up on Ingram and discover it's listed as "no return" and "special order only."
This is simply the kiss of death for a retail situation. My bookstore buddies just tell customers they can't get it. Let the client get the book on Amazon. It's not worth the hassle of ordering and hoping the customer comes back to purchase this book. If they don't, the store is stuck with a
book at near retail. Nope. They won't buy that book.
Giving a short discount to Amazon is also not a great idea. Amazon customers are hooked on discounts. Heaven knows I am. A short-discounted book has no Amazon discount at all. It can't. There's no margin for Amazon to work with. Your customers are rarely looking for YOUR book. They are looking for a book about X subject. If they can choose between Book 1, which has no discount, and Book 2, which does, they will choose the second, cheaper book almost every time. You lose.
How clever is that?
Libraries don't mind a short-discounted, non-return book, but, in most cases, they aren't taking a chance on a book that hasn't had a review from School/Library Journal, Voya, Booklist or Kirkus (and sometimes PW... and maybe ForeWord). Again, they aren't being mean to you. They are under a financial crisis in most cases, and can only buy books they know their constituents will want - and no more.
~~ That brings up another subject. Many using LSI - short discount or regular- are skipping the whole galley/pre-publication review thing. That's fine, if bookstores and libraries aren't your market. But if those are where you want to go, you are hurting your chances for success. You'll need to produce galleys 4 months before your publication date. And you can't sell any books
"to the trade" or off your website during that quiet period. One good review in a pre-pub can mean thousands of sales.
Then there are all the long-lead slick magazines - from Sky & Telescope to Ladies Home Journal and everything in between. These folks can have leads as long as 6-8 months. You need galleys and time (they don't however, care if you are selling the book or not before they bring out something. Obviously, you MUST have the book available when/if they talk about it). So you have to off-set your short discount "savings" with a galley run of at least 25 to cover the pre-publication reviews.
~~ Publish in haste, repent at leisure. That saying adapts so nicely. Why do you have to have it out this week? What's your rush? Very few things are time-sensitive. Hurrying makes for some awful mistakes. Not just typos, but fatal business miscalculations that can doom your book, and your publishing company. Slow down and understand the process before you publish. This is
the real, harsh world. No one will feel sorry for you when your book tanks and you are out moolah. No one will take pity on you, dust you off, pat your po-po and give you your money back. It will just fail. And that s**ks.
In 2003, Ingram threw out self- and micro-publishers (1-4 books). It was devastating. One minute people had Ingram distribution, the next they didn't. By some odd twist of fate, Beagle Bay wasn't tossed out on its long, flopsy ear. We were suddenly in the distribution biz, as several pals came to us asking to have us rep their books.
Ingram has a history of abrupt policy decisions that are not favorable to small presses and self-publishers. I predict that they will get bored with the short discount game within 18 months. The cut-off will be swift and merciless, with no appeal.
The LSI distribution deal will not disappear. Just that you will be forced to accept a 55% discount, or you can't have access to Ingram, etc. So, no, I am not saying you are stupid to do LSI with a short discount and no returns - if you have a sound business reason to do so. But I'd keep an eye on alternative ways to get my books out, just in case LSI/Ingram wakes up with a tummy-ache and gets an idea to harm small publishers...
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Tom Bullough, like his website, slowly recovers
Writer Tom Bullough, who was the victim of the devastating mis-announcement of the award for the Wales Book of the Year, is back online at http://www.tombullough.com and though hungover (according to his own confession) is getting back into balance. It must be helped by the stacks of supportive messages, by phone and post as well as e-mail, he has received. And, let's face it, being one of the three shortlisted authors is a tremendous achievement.
Friday, July 4, 2008
... "a glimpse of hell"
Writer Tom Bullough, the man mistakenly announced as the winner of the Wales Book of the Year Award, confesses that the experience was "a glimpse of hell." According to extensive quotations from his blog, given in the Wales on Line report, it was a nightmare culmination to years of living on the poverty line in damp, amenity-free Welsh cottages, writing for a pittance in the wild hope of getting the award. For a delirious moment, the cup of success was lifted to his lips, only to be dashed away. The messages of sympathy must be pouring in, as his website, http://www.tombullough.com/ is down for lack of bandwidth. The culture minister feels almost as badly: it was a moment, he says, when he sincerely wished that the floor would open up beneath his feet and let him out of the room.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
WHOOPS!!!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/7485572.stm
Culture Minister Rhodi Glyn Thomas announced the WRONG WINNER before backing up to declare Dannie Abse the Wales Book of the Year author.
Culture Minister Rhodi Glyn Thomas announced the WRONG WINNER before backing up to declare Dannie Abse the Wales Book of the Year author.
Train-plane-beach books
What characterizes a book you take to the beach or on board an aircraft or train to while away the hours as pleasantly as possible? Dan Zak of the Washington Post picked up the phone and asked a handful of bestselling writers who faithfully produce a "beach book" on an annual basis (surprise, surprise, they are published in June), and asked them what they thought. Readability came top, along with Diana Gabaldon's rather charming comment that the book must be interruptible too, as children tend to tag along on vacations, and have demands on the reader's time, too. The conclusion is that they might be potboilers, but they are entertaining, undemanding, and fun. They also sell a lot of copies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/19/AR2008061901803.html
Zak then goes on to claim that beach reads -- aka train or plane reads -- began with the advent of cheap, portable, paperback books in 1945, when publisher Ian Ballantine started Bantam Books. Maybe so in America, but Europe beat Ballantine by quite a few decades -- ninety-two years, to be exact.
In 1853, when rail travel became available to the common crowd, a Paris bookseller by the name of Louis Christophe François Hachette launched La Bibliothèque des Chemins de Fer―"The Railway Library," France's first chain bookstore―and pioneered the practice of putting stalls in railroad stations stocked with cheap, light, readable books. Soon these were supplemented with travel guides―"Guides Joanne," now known as "Guides Bleus."
A man of humble origins, Hachette's meteoric rise was directly due to his mother, who ensured he had a good education by enrolling him at the prestigious Lycée Imperial, where she worked as a linen maid. There, despite the obvious social difficulties, Louis justified her faith by doing well scholastically, and making influential friends. His ambition was to qualify as a professor, and when he managed to win admission to the foremost teacher-training institute in France, École Normale Superieure, it looked as if a glowing future in the classroom lay ahead. Sadly (or perhaps fortunately), he was foiled. In 1822 the school was closed down by the authorities, being considered too left-wing, and young Hachette was unable to claim the teaching certificate he had earne
d.
This was where the friendships he had made in the gracious courtyards of the Lycée Imperial began to play an important role in his life. First one old schoolmate, and then another, gave him a job in private tutoring. Then, in 1826, his current employer, Pierre Foucault de Pavant, loaned him 13,956 francs to buy a little bookstore at 12, Rue Pierre-Sarrazin, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, from a man named Brédife. Of the small stock the most valuable item by far was the license to produce and sell books. This was the entrée to Hachette's brilliant business career.
Renewing the license was difficult, but Hachette persisted, until at last he held the vital certificate in his hands. It was a moment of triumph. Cheated of his ambition to teach dozens of pupils at a time, he now saw the means of teaching thousands all at once. Adopting the motto, "Sic quoque docebo!—Thus shall I teach!" he launched into publishing educational books, becoming the first man in history to specialize in producing texts for elementary school children.
With the profits, Hachette persuaded friends who were now professors to translate worthy books, and published works by Victor Hugo and George Sand. Louis Hachette also produced lavishly illustrated magazines, focusing on "healthy and good reading," with the intention of educating as well as amusing his subscribers. A pivotal moment arrived when he joined forces with a man who shared his deepest ideals. This was fifty-two-year-old Édouard Charton, a philanthropist who fervently believed in the goals of the Age of Enlightenment: equality, education, and respect for human dignity. Hachette appointed him director of publications at once, just in time to edit a new weekly, Le Tour du Monde, which was launched on February 1, 1860, and proved a stunning success.
However, Hachette's greatest achievement was the introduction of cheap, portable, readable books for the vacationing public, the idea that was so profitably emulated by Ian Ballantine. Unsurprisingly, when he passed away in 1864, Louis Hachette was one of the richest men in France.
Evidently this is my week to write about Hachette . . .
Cheerfully cribbed from an article I wrote for the splendid book collectors' periodical, Fine Books and Collections, which appeared in print back in March.
http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/0602/index.phtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/19/AR2008061901803.html
Zak then goes on to claim that beach reads -- aka train or plane reads -- began with the advent of cheap, portable, paperback books in 1945, when publisher Ian Ballantine started Bantam Books. Maybe so in America, but Europe beat Ballantine by quite a few decades -- ninety-two years, to be exact.
In 1853, when rail travel became available to the common crowd, a Paris bookseller by the name of Louis Christophe François Hachette launched La Bibliothèque des Chemins de Fer―"The Railway Library," France's first chain bookstore―and pioneered the practice of putting stalls in railroad stations stocked with cheap, light, readable books. Soon these were supplemented with travel guides―"Guides Joanne," now known as "Guides Bleus."
A man of humble origins, Hachette's meteoric rise was directly due to his mother, who ensured he had a good education by enrolling him at the prestigious Lycée Imperial, where she worked as a linen maid. There, despite the obvious social difficulties, Louis justified her faith by doing well scholastically, and making influential friends. His ambition was to qualify as a professor, and when he managed to win admission to the foremost teacher-training institute in France, École Normale Superieure, it looked as if a glowing future in the classroom lay ahead. Sadly (or perhaps fortunately), he was foiled. In 1822 the school was closed down by the authorities, being considered too left-wing, and young Hachette was unable to claim the teaching certificate he had earne
d.This was where the friendships he had made in the gracious courtyards of the Lycée Imperial began to play an important role in his life. First one old schoolmate, and then another, gave him a job in private tutoring. Then, in 1826, his current employer, Pierre Foucault de Pavant, loaned him 13,956 francs to buy a little bookstore at 12, Rue Pierre-Sarrazin, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, from a man named Brédife. Of the small stock the most valuable item by far was the license to produce and sell books. This was the entrée to Hachette's brilliant business career.
Renewing the license was difficult, but Hachette persisted, until at last he held the vital certificate in his hands. It was a moment of triumph. Cheated of his ambition to teach dozens of pupils at a time, he now saw the means of teaching thousands all at once. Adopting the motto, "Sic quoque docebo!—Thus shall I teach!" he launched into publishing educational books, becoming the first man in history to specialize in producing texts for elementary school children.
With the profits, Hachette persuaded friends who were now professors to translate worthy books, and published works by Victor Hugo and George Sand. Louis Hachette also produced lavishly illustrated magazines, focusing on "healthy and good reading," with the intention of educating as well as amusing his subscribers. A pivotal moment arrived when he joined forces with a man who shared his deepest ideals. This was fifty-two-year-old Édouard Charton, a philanthropist who fervently believed in the goals of the Age of Enlightenment: equality, education, and respect for human dignity. Hachette appointed him director of publications at once, just in time to edit a new weekly, Le Tour du Monde, which was launched on February 1, 1860, and proved a stunning success.
However, Hachette's greatest achievement was the introduction of cheap, portable, readable books for the vacationing public, the idea that was so profitably emulated by Ian Ballantine. Unsurprisingly, when he passed away in 1864, Louis Hachette was one of the richest men in France.
Evidently this is my week to write about Hachette . . .
Cheerfully cribbed from an article I wrote for the splendid book collectors' periodical, Fine Books and Collections, which appeared in print back in March.
http://www.finebooksmagazine.com/issue/0602/index.phtml
Puzzles for Publishers
In Sunday's Washington Post, Jonathan Karp, publisher and editor-in-chief of Twelve, an imprint of the Hachette Group, has much of intense interest to say about the problems facing publishers who have been instructed by their boards or marketing managers to increase annual growth. As he meditates, the choices are limited:
* Spread your risks by adding more titles to the list (Twelve is called "Twelve" because Karp's policy is to publish twelve very good books per year)
* Sell more copies of existing authors and titles (That would be nice! But how?)
* Ask popular authors to increase output (No wonder non-fiction writers struggle to get more than twelve months to produce an enlightening and comprehensive study of some broad topic like the Twelve Hundred Years War)
* Diversify the product (What, another Botox book?)
* Cut costs, pray to the gods of movie tie-in paperback editions, or hope like mad that one of your authors gets his or her own talk show on radio or TV
Highly recommended reading.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Hachette vs amazon
"Over here the cliffhanger is the Hachette/Amazon stand-off," confides Spy Mouse from London today. "Amazon were demanding more and more favourable margins, and Hachette - who own Hodder Headline and Orion among others - have stood firm."
Tim Hely Hutchinson, CEO of Hachette in Britain, has sent a letter to all his authors, briefing them about a stand-off with amazon.uk, which has been pressing for unacceptable discounts, and which Hachette is now refusing to pay.
In retaliation, amazon.uk has been removing the "buy button" from their listings of certain Hachette books, and taking some titles out of promotional positions on their site.
Read about it on the Bookseller website:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/61034-agents-pick-sides-on-hachette-v-amazon.html
Phillippa Gregory wannabes, take note
Writing a saga set in the colorful and eminently novel-worthy Tudor era? British History Online has put the Calendar of State Papers Colonial, East Indies, China and Japan - 1513-1616, volume 2 on line.(http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=759)
How not to respond to critics
When blog-queen Judy McGuire spied that the current cover of the Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger had certain similarities to the jacket of her book How Not to Date, she wrote about it in her blog, and sent a friendly e-mail to Stranger editor Dan Savage.
Savage went ballistic the way many authors would love to respond to critics after reading hostile reviews (but usually have the sense to refrain).
Read about the stoush in GalleyCat @ mediabistro.com:
Skewed figures
After reading my post Nielson's Numbers (see below), economist Brian Easton pointed out to me that these figures are skewed, too. They cover only one-year data, not the life of the book, so books published late in the year will report much more poorly than books published in January, for instance. (Are any books published in January?) To which, I added, there is the factor that a title may have several ISBNs, gained when it goes into paperback, large print, condensed book, and so forth. If Nielson's sources report sales by ISBN number, then of course the results for each publication will be fragmented.
In the course of this lively conversation, I also pointed out that publishers expect most sales to happen within months, if not weeks, of publication. Bookstores, unfortunately, tend to clear their shelves and return unsold copies on a regular and increasingly frequent basis. Also, I believe the figures include self-published books, which tend to have very small print runs. Unless, of course, the book is The Shack . . . (Scan down.)
In the course of this lively conversation, I also pointed out that publishers expect most sales to happen within months, if not weeks, of publication. Bookstores, unfortunately, tend to clear their shelves and return unsold copies on a regular and increasingly frequent basis. Also, I believe the figures include self-published books, which tend to have very small print runs. Unless, of course, the book is The Shack . . . (Scan down.)
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