Comments on: Bookstores vs. Amazon – A Publisher’s View

By: lynnpricewrites

lynnpricewrites — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 00:03:05 +0000

Well, that’s the thing; their bosses can’t possibly oversee every submission brought to every genre buyer – the sheer volume makes that impossible. That’s why it’s important to have a good distributor, who will fight for their catalog. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And the power the genre buyers wield is heady stuff. And no reasons are given as to why they turn down a title.

As for your runaway best-seller scenario, that wouldn’t be possible without the ordering power of BN, since they are the largest bookstore in the US. If the Amazon and/or indie store trending showed an upswing, BN would jump on the bandwagon post haste.

By: markos

markos — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 23:49:39 +0000

I was very surprised by your genre buyer example, more specifically the fact that they make arbitary decisions. These people are supposed to have corporate bosses looking over their shoulder, yes? Presumably these bosses review their emploees’ decisions or, at the very least, go over the result of these decisions. I would imagine that such a buyer would be very careful to have solid, objective reasons to justify her decision, so that, e.g., if a book they passed on becomes a runaway best-seller, they can say “I didn’t order it for reasons x, z and w”, as opposed to the “I was having a bad hair-day” line of defence.

By: lynnpricewrites

lynnpricewrites — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 20:02:53 +0000

I’m sorry to hear of your troubles. I haven’t had those experiences with indie stores. I usually wave around my “I’m distributed by Consortium” line, and that stops anyone in their tracks. And they are likely to buy our books. BN is the big bugaboo for many of us.

By: Karen Syed

Karen Syed — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:37:36 +0000

I’m not talking about a POD publisher. I’m talking about my company that distributed through Ingram, Partners, sold directly to BN corporate, etc. I am talking about books that I did a 2500-5000 offset print run on.

One book in question had a positive PW review written by an award winning author. The problem with indies is that they think they are the only ones taking a risk. as of last month, my unpaid invoices from indie stores is nearing $10,000.00, some of those invoices are as old as 3 years and those stores have actually tried to order books from me again.

I’m not a POD publisher, I am, a publisher who uses, offset, POD, and eBook technology for producing books. All done in the best quality and also distributed to meet the retail industry guidelines-discounts and returns.

My point was that indie stores are guilty of the same whims as places like BN.

By: lynnpricewrites

lynnpricewrites — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:29:47 +0000

Karen, it’s true that stores avoid POD publishers because they’ve been burned too many times due to the lack of distribution and varying return policies. In a perfect world, they would look at publishers on a case by case basis, but they don’t have that kind of time.

Looking at it logically, if trade presses are having a tough time, I can only imagine how hard it is for POD publishers.

By: Karen Syed

Karen Syed — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:23:18 +0000

I am usually the odd man out on this one, but we need to be very careful about putting too much stock in Indie stores. DO NOT get me wrong, I love many indie stores, but sadly there are many more that have the same kind of power as the genre buyers at BN.

I have gone to indie stores to set up events with the most wonderfully produced books and a guarantee that the books will sell or we will carry them out in our hands, eliminating any risk to them, and have been told that, “we only deal with REAL publishers/authors.” This boggles my mind!

I have gone in to stores and been ignored TOTALLY, even lied to. I used to visit stores to get to know the lay of the land and then go back to pitch our books. I would ask for the manager/owner (knowing I was talking to the manager/owner) and been told they were on vacation. I never call them on it, but it speaks volumes about their character. Why would I support them?

I do support stores that support me, not only as an author but as a customer. I demand good customer service and a warm friendly attitude. It’s what I offer my customers and it is what I expect.

There are no sure things in this business and there are good and bad in each aspect, but make sure you know all the angles in all the venues.

By: lynnpricewrites

lynnpricewrites — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:12:01 +0000

If I had the answer, I’d be a millionaire several times over. Businesses succeed because people buy their product. If shoppers can get the same item more cheaply somewhere else, then that business is going to be in trouble.

By: Chihuahua Zero

Chihuahua Zero — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 19:03:51 +0000

What’s your suggestion for saving indie bookstores?