• Zetta Brown
  • [Reality Check] Bookstores: Are They the Enemy?
This blog was featured on 09/04/2016
[Reality Check] Bookstores: Are They the Enemy?
Contributor
Written by
Zetta Brown
May 2013
Contributor
Written by
Zetta Brown
May 2013

Have you ever tried to get your book into a bookstore—chain or independent—but was turned down cold?

Here you are, a local author with a novel. Your book may be fiction or nonfiction, it may have local significance or not, but it would be nice if at least your area bookstores would carry it and show some support. Yet, they don’t want anything to do with you. They wouldn’t spit on you if you were on fire.

Some stores won’t deal with you because you are self published or your publisher uses print-on-demand technology (never mind the fact that major publishing houses use the same technology). Or they won’t deal with you because your book is not listed with a distributor.

Authors whine about “literary gatekeepers” and go so far to bitch about and smear “rival” authors when we should be complaining about the barriers that keep books from reaching the bookshelves and the paying customer.

Some authors rant about “greedy” publishers. Frankly, these people are talking through the hole between their left and right butt cheeks and have no clue. Anybody who is familiar with the business of publishing knows the truth.

I’ve said many times how book returns kill. Book returns should not be allowed. Authors and publishers alike need to demand an end to this practice. Don’t you know that if you or your publisher accepts book returns, it will come out of YOUR pocket in one way or another?

In this day and age, bookstore owners should be expected to make responsible book ordering decisions and take only what they need. Print-on-demand makes this possible so there is no excuse.

Take grocery stores for an example. Sadly, there is notorious waste going on in the grocery industry, and when a grocery store cannot sell its stock, it spoils. They cannot take the rotten food, send it back to the farmer/producer, and expect a full refund...but this is what the retail book industry EXPECTS.

Bullspit! Don’t you think that’s bullspit?

Let’s say you earned $1000 in royalties in the first quarter of 2012 and your publisher paid you this amount in the second quarter. Now let’s say it’s the fourth quarter 2012 and you get a royalty statement saying that you’re owed another $1000. “Yippee!” you cry...but end up only getting $50 in your royalty check. “Bloody murder!” you scream, but if your publisher accepts book returns, the reason may be that returns from January are now kicking your butt in December—or later! Publishers have had returns YEARS after the initial “sale.”

How is this possible? Let’s consider how and when the publisher gets paid. It’s not uncommon for third-party vendors—those places selling your books—to pay royalties 60-90 or even 180 days—that’s SIX MONTHS!— in arrears to account for any returns. This means that if your book sold 50 copies in January, you won’t see payment for those until at least March and possibly August—because all of those books could be returned. Don’t scoff. Some publishers are seeing NINETY PERCENT RETURN RATES because the returns-based system is a free-for-all.

Retail bookstores EXPECT the right to return any unsold books at ANY TIME IN THE FUTURE. To make matters worse, the distributors may decide to retain EVEN MORE of what they owe you to protect THEMSELVES against any returns of your titles. Yeah, that just screams fairness, doesn’t it?

Now let’s do the math. Your book has a cover price of $10 (rounded up from $9.99 to make it easier). Your publisher works through a distributor who commands a SIXTY-FIVE TO SEVENTY PERCENT DISCOUNT OFF THE TOP. Let’s say 70%  for this example meaning they get the book for $3 and your contract with your publisher is 5% of the cover price for print—since you don’t have a “name” yet, even so, don’t expect too much more from more-traditional publishers. This means that out of a $10 list price,  the distributor takes off 70% and the publisher gets $3 (and the publisher still has costs (print and probably even shipping) to pay out of that $3!) and you get $.50.

Do you think I’m exaggerating? I’m not. These are actual terms that can be found in the industry. This is what your publisher is having to sacrifice just so that you can get your book into bookstores. Amazon, for all their other evils, is not this grasping in their terms, generally speaking.

If you earn $.50 per book...how many books do you need to sell to make your car payment? Your mortgage payment? Hell, how many books do you need to sell to fill your gas tank?

Do you see where I’m going with this? You need to start looking at things this way because it may prompt you to hustle your bustle and promote yourself and your work. Now do you understand why publishers release authors with books that do not sell? They cannot AFFORD to keep them.

THIS IS BUSINESS, PEOPLE! Yes, I am yelling because I don’t think y’all are hearing what I am saying. If you were cut loose from you publisher for lack of sales, don’t take it personally and don’t blame them. See it as the cost of doing business and for whatever reason, your book turned from asset to liability.

Whom should you be mad at? Your “greedy” publisher, the book distributor, or the bookstores that are, in essence, getting free stock that they can return for a full refund at any point in the future? I’ll give you a hint: it ain’t the publisher.

This is why Amazon is the big dawg and retail bookstores are its bitches. Amazon may (foolishly) think that it can own all of the publishing market, but the reason they have it all over retail stores is because they’ve made access possible. Yes, Amazon is full of crap books, but when you have so much choice, the cream will rise to the top, (that is to say best seller and midlist titles) and the crap will be buried and fall into obscurity. Amazon has adapted to modern living and modern business practices and is kicking butt and taking names...unlike many other retail bookstores.

If you’ve read my earlier blog posts on She Writes about Borders, then you’ll know that I think that the business practices of many brick-and-mortar bookstores are archaic and unsustainable.

Is there any hope for us? Yes, there is, and it’s where independent bookstores can really bounce back—IF they are smart and leave nonsensical, unsustainable business practices behind.

If you’re lucky, you’ll find a local bookstore that will buy books direct from you or your publisher.  Smaller publishers can give very favorable terms that make it possible for everyone to benefit: bookstore, publisher, author, AND the consumer. Let’s not forget that none of this is possible without consumers buying product, and consumers will go to the places they can find the product they want.

Unfortunately, many indie shops have been burned when dealing with authors and publishers directly or brainwashed into adopting the bullspit business practices discussed above in order to compete with chain stores. Regardless of the reason, it’s time to “turn the page” and start again by building relationships with indie booksellers and educating them to the benefits.

It really is possible to do this, and authors are key in the process. They know their local area and can deal with stores directly. It can be profitable too. For example, one of our bestselling books is because we have made direct selling arrangements with bookstores—and other retail stores—to carry the book. This is after the local distributor refused to carry it. This would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the author putting us in touch with the store owners. They don’t demand the ability to make returns. As a result, these shops order what they can handle (at a discount) and contact us whenever their stock runs low.

So instead of wasting our time and energy running down each other, let’s work for change in the industry where it REALLY counts—the bottom line, and getting books to the customer.

  1. NO MORE RETURNS.
  2. Responsible book ordering.
  3. More direct ordering—order direct from the source and save money.
  4. Work with smart independent bookstores that want to support local talent.

I strongly urge you all to read my other blog posts found here on She Writes:

Take off the rose-tinted glasses, people. If you’re serious about being a published author, it’s time that you start paying attention to the BUSINESS that is book publishing—warts and all.

 

 ©2013. Zetta Brown. If you like this post, then stop by Zetta’s Desk or Zetta’s House of Random Thoughts.

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Comments
  • Lovenia Leapart

  • Lovenia Leapart

    Thoroughly awesome post. Thanks.

  • Gynger Fyer

    AMEN!!!

  • Zetta Brown

    Thanks, Kristen! Authors need to understand this part of the business, because if they did, I think there would be fewer claims of "greedy publishers." I'm not saying there aren't shady publishers and contracts with terms I wouldn't touch with my cold, dead hands, but many are honest and really do want their authors to succeed.

  • Kristen Elise

    This post is f'awesome, both in content and tone. Tweeting and sharing now. People need to see this one :) Thanks for sharing.

  • Zetta Brown

    @Niki -I think I can speak for my colleagues when I say that we ebook publishers HATE Amazon's return policy because it is SO abused. It has the ability to negate earnings just like print book returns do.

    @Peg - That is the dilemma. With indie bookstores rarer than hen's teeth in some places, that leaves little or no choice. Which is sad, because I've been to a few of the Barnes & Nobles in my area and leave empty handed because there was simply nothing that caught my eye. A lot of that shelf space is taken by authors that I've no interest in reading for one reason or another. Your books are excellent and deserve more exposure.

    Now, I will say this to anyone who wants to listen: approach other retailers. One of our best selling books sells out of a RECORD STORE. Bookstores aren't the only places that sell books. If bookstores don't want you, look for other places that do because chances are they don't have to deal with the book distribution BS that bookstores do. 

    I hate to say it, but bookstores really are making it easy for their customers to shop online and STAY online. 

  • Peg Herring

    Zetta and I (and Jim) have had this discussion, since a local bookstore recently told me they didn't want to handle my books anymore. They have too many self-pubbed authors who expect shelf-space and individual accounts, so they made a blanket policy--No authors whose books aren't available from the big guys. But as Zetta says, that brings a ton of problems for small publishers.

    It's hard to be the person in the middle: I schlep books to local stores as needed and accept their terms (which basically earns me zilch) in order to get some recognition. The same week as the policy change mentioned above, I lost a dozen books when a local bookstore closed without any warning (no reply to my requests to get my consigned books back). It's no wonder authors and publishers are losing interest in brick-and-mortar stores when it's so easy to sit back and let Amazon do its thing.

    Zetta's right, but I'm not sure how to make store owners change their thinking when they've got lots of other books to put on the shelf where mine used to be.

  • Niki Smart

    What about Amazon's return policy for kindle - where one can download an ebook and then ask for a return within 7 days. Anyone can read a book in 7 days. And then what is actually returned? Nothing.

    There is a petition you can sign at:

    http://www.change.org/petitions/amazon-kindle-e-book-return-policy-stop-allowing-refunds-on-e-books-after-e-books-have-been-read

  • Yes Zetta,

    some things change and some don't. I LOVE the way on my self-published Amazon Kindle books (my last 3 of my 18 novels were self-published) that I can follow the sales EVERY DAY...it's like MAGIC! And to think...I (all of us authors) used to wait a year and then every six months to know what our sales were. I haven't been too interested in placing my books in book stores lately but read your post with curiosity because my Dinosaur Lake eBook is selling so well that I'm thinking of putting it in print and peddling it to every brick-and-motor store I can find. I like reading all the posts here on She Writes...there's always something to learn. Thank you Zetta. Kathryn Meyer Griffith  

  • Zetta Brown

    @Kathryn - Thanks for sharing news from the trenches! :)  And thanks for mentioning the time lag between acceptance, publication, and first royalty statement. A dollar earned in 2012 but PAID in 2013 may buy you less. Unfortunately, the more things change the more they stay the same in some areas. While it's easier to get published these days, trying to get into retail bookstores is still the same having to deal with distributors and/or bookstores that demand returns.

    And I know what you mean about royalty statements. I am not  an accountant or math wizard (that's the husband's forte) but it's one of those things you have to get your brain around so you can see and understand where the money is (or isn't.)

  • Ah, how well I remember returns and tiny royalties from the 1980's with my Leisure and Zebra paperbacks. They sold the paperbacks for $4.50-$5.99 and I got a whopping 4% and then 6%. Wow...about $.14 cents a book!!! I hated the return policy of those days...I never could make any sense of those royalty statements or the returns. Like they were making up those numbers. I always felt so helpless. Hopeless. A mortgage payment...ha, I was lucky to make a dinner out payment every 6 months. Oh, you forgot this: a book would take a year to a year-and-a-half to get to the bookshelves and then it'd be at least a year before you got your first royalty check. No joke. I don't miss those bad old days at all! Things are much better now. Published author since 1984, Kathryn Meyer Griffith

  • Zetta Brown

    @Lloyd - I feel your pain about consignment sales. I've tried it with my book but it's hard to try and track sales when you're living in another country at the time. I eventually wrote off those books. Good thing it was only for 6 copies. Some of our authors have done consignment because we wholesale to them and they can resell at whatever margin they want. It works, but do it long enough and the ROI can diminish.

    @Liz - Maybe we should compile a list of indie bookstores who are indie publisher friendly.  We've encountered a few, but I wish we could work with a lot more.

  • Lloyd Lofthouse

    There's consignment where an indie bookstore agrees to carry a few copies of your work for about 50% of the sale price. Then you have to return every few months to see if the books sold. If the copies sold, you collect a check and maybe place more on the shelf on consignment---that is unless the indie bookstore went out of business and closed its doors (that happened to me once).

    I tried that in a few local indie bookstores.  In time, I decided it wasn't worth it and stopped. Indie bookstores are far and few between and it took a lot of gas to drive from store to store to check on sales and collect a check that in no way was going to compensate for all the time and gas.

  • Enemies? More like addicts. Returns started for a perfectly valid reason. Publishers extended credit to bookstores in the 1930s because the Depression threatened to destroy the distribution chain. If all the bookstores went out of business, publishers had no way to sell books.

    Let me state at this point that I am a firm supporter of independent bookstores, just as I support all independent small businesses. After all, we are one. However, I have had some tell me they'll agree to stock copies of our books if we give them a three-month exclusive—in other words, that we not list the books with Amazon for three months after release. Since 75% of our print book sales come via Amazon, we would be insane to agree, and yet the booksellers who demand it see no problem with doing so.

    Sadly, when the Depression ended, this version of corporate welfare had already come to be considered a cost of doing business, never mind the impact it has on authors. Even worse, authors became brainwashed into believing this was acceptable, because the cachet of being signed by a major publisher appeared to outweigh the obvious drawbacks of this system.

    Enter Barnes & Noble in the 80s, demanding nice fat payments to place new books in prominent positions. By law, this had to be offered to all booksellers, so another non-sales revenue stream was added. In the recording industry, this is known as "payola," and was declared illegal by the Federal Trade Commission in the 50s. Apparently, New York publishing has a better lobby.

    Thus did it become possible for booksellers to start business without having to invest as much money in stock as do all other retailers. I'm not saying it's cheap to start a bookstore, but it's hard to believe these practices don't offer some relief.

    It's also important to mention that there are local independent booksellers who support local authors. I've noticed it's becoming a little easier for my people to hold events than was the case even five years ago, so perhaps we can hope for further improvement.

    However, the fact of life is that some small bookstores only stay in business because of returns and co-op, and they likely aren't going to relax their demands anytime soon. We appreciate those that do.