Simon says

Over at the Big Green Bookshop this time last week, Simon Key was blogging about the fact that he looks at The Bookseller website at least twice a day. I try to look at it myself also, maybe not twice a day, but at least once. It is after all, the best source of information on publishing, and where at least half of the stories I blog about come from. The headlines for today were Worthing Methvens re-opens as Bookstack (great news for both the town and the staff), former MP Martin Bell is to publish a book on the expenses scandal (that's a novel way to cash in!) and the tale of an author whose book has been dropped by his publisher due to complaints from the island community where he used to live. Apart from the Methvens story perhaps, none of these are really headline news, but just tasty little tit bits for us to chew on.

As Simon says, these headlines only serve to remind us of the things that really are important and of how futile worrying about this stuff is. Most of us spend half our lives worrying about stupid things that never even happen and really don't matter - how many nights a week do I want to work, how many invigilators will wish to buy my book tomorrow when the last exam is finished, and how many copies do Gardners have in stock. None of it matters.

What matters is that I am alive. End of.

I will of course like Simon, continue to look at The Bookseller anyway, as it is good to keep up to date with what is happening in your industry, but will endeavour to keep it all in perspective. 99.9 percent of what we worry about never happens - so why waste time doing so when you could be out there living!

A tough Christmas - especially for celebrities

With sales down at almost all major retailers, within and without the book trade, and crisis talks at Woolworths, this will be a bleak Christmas for many. The market in which I work is one of the worst hit, mainly since the products that we sell are seen not only as expensive, but also as non-essential.

The book world is finally being forced to wake up to the reality of the discounting culture that it unwittingly created with the abolition of the Net Book Price Agreement. Echoing what I have been saying for months, The Bookseller reports that according to the Booksellers Association Benchmark Study, the results of which were released on Friday (November 21st), UK booksellers are locked in a damaging "vicious circle" of discounting, and are making fewer profits and seeing less growth than their counterparts overseas.

The report goes on to say that book stores have been hit by a "triple whammy" of declining average prices, stagnating growth and rising costs. Of the countries studied (UK, USA, Ireland, Netherlands, Finland and Sweden), only one (the United States) had a lower average selling price than the UK, with perhaps more worryingly, the number of books sold at discount in the UK rising from 44 percent in 2004 to 51 percent in 2007.

The report estimates that UK bookshops lost around 10 percent of volume sales to other sources, such as supermarkets and online retailers during that same three years. Gross margin for UK booksellers per book is put at around 25 percent (meaning that my book which is sold at 40 percent discount, is a relatively high earner for most), far lower than the average of the countries surveyed.

Echoing my own words, BA president Graham Rand said: "We have to ask ourselves whether the industry has gone too far in creating this -'lowest price' environment for consumers; through this serial discounting are we simply devaluing the worth of the book in consumers' eyes?" I have been saying this for a long time, ever since I first began to learn about publishing in fact and understood how the supply chain works. The lower the prices go, the more books are seen as throw away commodities, of little or no value.

Any fool can surely see that such heavy discounting is not good for business - and not just for book stores. Every sector of publishing is affected by this aggressive strategy, from publishers to book stores to authors. On the surface, it is good for the consumers, since they get lower prices, but it also means less choice, as the money is no longer there to nurture and support up and coming talent, hence the explosion in self publishing. Instead of welcoming this, and seeing it as a good thing that leads to increased choice and competition, the majority working in the industry see this as bane and a dumbing down of quality, to be kept out at all costs. One look at the average celebrity (supposedly) written book will soon tell you where the real dumbing down has come from - the industry itself that pays such obscene amounts to publish these books - not for much longer though.

The BA hopes that this report will be used as a springboard to book sellers to re-think their business strategies, and so do I, for the good of all. Discounting has its place, to encourage sales in slower moving titles perhaps, but to sell brand new books as loss leaders is irresponsible in the extreme. Instead of creating business and instilling brand confidence, this ultimately has the opposite effect. The company I work for, in the electrical sector is undergoing a major re-branding exercise to overcome their public image as a discount retailers; if the book stores do not change their stance, they may be forced to do the same. The conditions may be difficult - they are for all - but there is more than one way to skin a cat - if money is tight, instead of discounting, we need to find ways to cut costs by as the report suggests, closer negotiations with publishers, rethinking of labour costs, increased product ranges and ensuring the supply chain is being used effectively.

Things may be good for Katie Price (her latest book is reported to have outsold Gordon Brown's by 4,446 copies to 193, in just two weeks) but the signs are that the industry is finally catching up with public opinion and cottoning on to the fact that these so-called celebrity memoirs are not worth the money being spent on them. As a genre, celebrity memoirs are losing popularity fast, in favour of self help and books on how to beat the credit crunch.

As well as a more cautious public, who see these books as expensive luxuries, publishers can no longer afford fees reaching into seven figures for such authors. In the first six months of 2008, publishers' lists for non-fiction hardbacks were crammed with books by celebrities, including the aforementioned Katie Price, Katherine Jenkins, Myleene Klass and Craig Charles. Books were also scheduled for older more established stars such as Esther Rantzen, Julie Andrews, Mike Oldfield and William Shatner (now that one might be worth reading). Lists for 2009 reveal only 3 such celebrity books, by comedian Jack Dee, TV host Jeremy Kyle, and comedienne Jo Brand.

The majority of these books are issued as hardbacks, with cover prices (before discount) around the £19 mark, which is a high price to pay. Last December, books had to sell at least 10,000 copies to make it into the Top 20 of the Bookseller magazine's sales charts, this year that has halved to just 5000 copies. While some books have done remarkably well, other have failed to meet expectations. Dawn French is said to have received an advance of up to £2 million for her memoirs, Dear Fatty, yet the book has sold just 30,000 copies. Simply put, celebrities are becoming a de-valued currency. Despite these huge advances with thousands spent on publicity, the majority fail to deliver on sales and do not earn their advances back. Books like this cost publishers money, and lots of it, and the more books that make a loss, the less there is to pay the real writers, who in the meantime, struggle to get any advance at all.

Publishers are beginning to see the light, and are becoming more and more cautious when it comes to these deals. As Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday's literary editor, said: "When even the big names aren't selling, the economics don't add up. Add in the shrinking books market overall, as the credit crunch takes effect, and publishers become no longer willing to take a chance."

Publishing, or for that matter any business venture, is a game of chance, which can go either way. The current economics and experience show, that celebrity books are losing favour with the reading populace. Everything goes in circles, as I knew it would sooner or later. At times of uncertainly the public do not want to know about other peoples glamorous lives, as all this does is create more misery, what they want is believable information and ideas on how to escape from their own. Maybe it is time for me to write that book about Lundy?

An insult to our nearest relative

A funny thing has happened these last few weeks, considering all the angst that I have been through this past year - I have found that I am thinking less and less about books and more and more about what non writing friends refer to as 'the real world', so much so, that I hardly think of myself as a writer at all anymore. I am not sure whether this is a good thing or not.

We all need to work to pay the bills, and I am no exception to this. For quite a time I had my head in the clouds, thinking I could make a full time living from what I love, and became very fed up and depressed even, when I found that I could not. I blamed the job for a lot of the problems that I had, which mostly stemmed from my non acceptance of this situation. A symbiotic relationship has developed, where I use my experiences at work to feed what writing I do do, which lately has been confined to this blog. It will not have escaped readers notice that the majority of posts in recent months have been more about my work than what is going on in the book world, and I have to make more of an effort each week to keep up. I am not alone in this struggle, since the majority of writers are in the same boat. There is no easy answer, and all I can do is make the most of what time I do have, and have a sneaky look at publishing websites when the boss's back is turned!

I write then for the second time today, about some recent developments in publishing ...

I wrote on here some time ago that Borders were undertaking a restructuring of their buying team, with buyers being asked to re-apply for their jobs (sounds familiar). Now that this is complete, eight of them are to leave. Four will leave at the end of September. Of the remainder, some are being made redundant, while others are moving elsewhere. I wish them all luck.

The new fiction team will be headed by senior fiction buyer Michael Jones, who has been appointed acting books category manager. He (The Bookseller refers to him as a she I notice!) replaces Caroline Mileham who left Borders last month to join Play.com. Michael will be supported by fiction buyers Ruth Atkins, Radcliffe Harris, John Packard and Sarah Cahill, who has been promoted from assistant airports buyer to real time airports buyer.

The non-fiction team will be led by senior non-fiction buyer Richard Humphreys, who continues in his responsibility for the history section. Guy Raphael will be in charge of lifestyle, biography, travel, film and TV; Rob Hughes will buy current affairs, academic and reference, and popular culture books; and Emma Carter will have responsibility for food, gardening and art and design, as well as managing the bargain books section. I am not sure who will be in charge of my subjects of mind, body and spirit, popular science or religion and philosophy, not that it makes a difference, since hell would have to freeze over (not that I believe in hell anyway, but you know what I mean) before any of them would deign to even look at a POD book, let alone talk to its author. Perhaps one day I will phone up pretending to be from Random House and see what happens - it might be interesting !

CEO Philip Downer said the reorganisation was done in time for the business’ switchover to its new less centralised buying (in theory at least) systems next week. We shall see if it makes a difference (it certainly will for the Cornish economy), but I won't hold my breath ...

In the meantime, I see that another European country, Switzerland has moved one step closer to the reintroduction of fixed book prices, after the economic committee of the Swiss parliament narrowly recommended such a move. Fixed book prices were abolished in Switzerland in May 2007 after the Swiss government supported a court ruling that the Net Book Agreement (NBA) in the German-speaking region of Switzerland was an illegal cartel. They were abolished throughout the country, and not just the German speaking regions.

The vote was as expected very tight, with 13 in favour, 11 against and one abstention. The bill will now go before the Swiss Parliament, where it will no doubt be rigorously debated. It is of course by no means certain as to whether it will be passed, although I am sure that Swiss authors sincerely hope so. Observers, most of whom probably have no insider knowledge of publishing, are widely expecting another cliffhanger after a number of MPs declared their opposition to the bill. The committee concluded that past experience of retail price management for books in both Switzerland and other countries had shown a positive impact on the trade. To readers maybe, but not to writers or retailers, who in common with the electrical market in which I work, find themselves working harder and harder for less and less.

The bill, which was initiated by the late parliamentarian Jean-Philippe Maitre, is expected to go before the parliament in spring 2009. If it succeeds there will still be some room for discounts, since the bill does not completely outlaw them.

Discounting does not appear to as aggressive in Switzerland as in other European countries, most notably the UK, where it has led to a number of disputes. The majority of bookshops stick to publishers' recommended prices or offer restricted discounts on very few titles, but there is stiff competition from the Internet, with online booksellers offering discounts of up to 30 percent. This is probably what lies behind this move; the fear that what is happening here and in the United States, will happen there, and this from where I am sitting, is a fear which is very well founded. If the Swiss want to protect their publishing industry and keep it buoyant then they need to take action before it is too late. It is good then to see them learning from our mistakes. I just hope that we don't leave things too much longer before this is also debated here - in an open and rational manner that benefits not only those who sell the books, but also those who write them. It is after all, our livelihoods that are threatened, and with the rise in e-publishing, the need for debate is more and more acute.

The article that really caught my eye this week, was that regarding the memoirs of Cheeta the Chimp. I reported back in January that Cheeta had been commissioned to write his memoirs for Fourth Estate, and unfortunately this was no monkey business !

The book which is due for release in October, has now been nominated for a book award - The Guardians First Book Award! Readers from six Waterstone's book groups are to help select the final shortlist, following the announcement of the 10-strong longlist today on 29th August. The books selected on the longlist include the autobiography of Cheeta the Chimp.

The panel of judges includes novelist Roddy Doyle; broadcaster and novelist Francine Stock; poet Daljit Nagra (longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2007), historian David Kynatson; novelist, broadcaster and co-founder of the Orange Prize Kate Mosse and Guardian deputy editor, Katharine Viner. Claire Armitstead, literary editor of the Guardian, will chair the panel. Six Waterstone's stores throughout the UK – Bath, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds, London and Oxford - will ask their reading groups to also vote. Stuart Broom of Waterstone’s will represent their views on the judging panel.

The shortlist of five books, to be agreed by the panel and Waterstone’s readers’ groups, will be announced in early November with the overall winner in December. The winner (which I assume will be the ghost writer and not the chimp!) will receive a prize of £10,000 and a promotional package across The Guardian and The Observer.


It goes without saying that this book must have been ghost written, since a chimp cannot speak, let alone write, English. I would hasten a bet that whoever this writer is, it is not their first book, as publishers usually use experienced people for this kind of work. I fail then to see how it can be nominated for a first book award, and take back what I said about this not being monkey business! Whoever nominated this book must think that we are monkeys if they seriously expect us to believe otherwise.

Comments on the Writers News Talkback forum, where I posted the news, were less than flattering. We are a lively bunch who pull no punches and like to tell it as it is ... One member commented that it was really no different to the so-called works of Jordan or Jade Goody being nominated for a literary prize. However, she went on to say that the chimp book was probably more interesting and better written! She then added that the Guardian is probably run by chimps anyway, but took that back as it was in insult to our nearest relative! Say no more ...

Fat cats spray on Borders territory!

Reading The Bookseller online, and the various other bulletins that I receive from around the publishing world, plus of course reading between the lines, Borders Books seem to be experiencing a lot of problems of late.

It started back at the end of June with the closure of their Croydon store. This was rapidly followed by the closure of Lakeside. Since these were both stores which had agreed to stock my book, I would ordinarily have been quite upset, but in both cases, the books have long since been returned. Borders, unlike some of their competitors, seem to return books which have failed to sell after exactly three months, which does not in my opinion, give them a fair chance, but then that is the company all over, and given my experiences, which I have detailed on here on many an occasion, I cannot say that I am altogether surprised at their difficulties.

These closures appear to be the least of their problems, since there are also changes afoot within the Buying Team, in fact the whole way in which they buy their stock is being re-structured. Three positions are being cut within the eight strong Buying Team, with all existing Buyers being asked to re-apply for their jobs. These changes, from what I can tell, have been brought about by the imminent closure of the company's supply base in Truro, and the decision to instead obtain stock direct from wholesalers, thus reducing book miles. At the moment almost all stock is obtained centrally, via Head Office, with the Buyers acting as the gatekeeppers.

On the surface this re-structuring would appear to be good news, since my book is of course stocked by Gardners, and as I discovered when telephoning most of the Borders and Books Etc stores, hell would have to freeze over before the company would ever consider supplying a print on demand book centrally. While Managers do have the ability to buy direct from local authors through wholesalers and the like, their idea of local is not the same as everyone else's, which seems to be living in the same, or the next town to where the store is based. Even though there a number of their stores within a hour or so's drive of where I live, most of them refused to order copies, and I was disappointed to find that those who did agree to, in most cases either failed to do so, or if they did, just put the books on the shelf and promptly sent them back again!

Trying to get through to the Buying Department on the telephone to see exactly what their policies were proved to be a total waste of time, as most of the time all I got was an answerphone that never called you back. When I finally did manage to talk to a human being, I was given information that contradicted what the stores had already told me, making it clear that the left hand did not know what the right was doing, and that those in store were for the most part clueless as to their own company's policies, and had basically lied through their back teeth, telling me what I wanted to hear just to get rid of me. It is safe then to say that my opinion of this company is not very high.

When I posted some watered down comments to this effect on The Bookseller website, some of the Buying Team read them and took offence, saying that I should show more compassion for them at this difficult time, and that calls from authors were really the last thing that they needed.

While I have every sympathy for those who may be about to lose their jobs (how can I not have when I am in the same position myself), I also feel that they are being rather short sighted. I work in retail myself (and let's not forget that book selling is just that - selling), dealing with difficult customers and awkward situations every day, that frankly I could also do without. But the point is, it is only because of these customers and their problems, that I have a job at all, it is why I am there.

As an author who wishes to have her book stocked in their stores, I am also a customer, and the reason that they are there. Their jobs only exist because of people like me who write books. They should therefore make the time to talk to people like me, and take a leaf from Waterstones book (no pun), who in total contrast, are always willing to talk, if not by phone, then by email, and whose buying policies are easy to understand, and more to the point, easy to obtain. If Borders clearly laid out on their website what their policies and submission procedures were then they would not have to deal with endless calls from the likes of me in the first place!

From what I can tell, a lot of their problems stem from the fact that the majority of their stores are on these out of town sites. People do not go to these sites to buy books, but to get the larger items such as electrical equipment, DIY and furniture. You have to make a special trip to get there and know what you want. Book selling though is about browsing and does not work in the same way. Because they are away from the High Street, they do not attract the passing trade and the lunch time shoppers, who like to browse, since the only people who work on these large sites are themselves shop workers, many of whom are on minimum wage, and simply cannot afford to buy books. Many of them are also part time, and do not get breaks in which to browse in the first place.

All the warning signs appear to be there, and given its problems and the curent economic climate, I would not be a bit surprised to hear of further closures over the next few years, and the eventual demise of this chain, within the UK at least anyway. I hope for the staff's sake that I am wrong. If I am right, as Graeme Neil predicted back in March, Borders loss will be Waterstones gain. Pity then they turned down my own application to work for them. Their loss in turn though will be someone else's gain.

In the meantime, Borders UK CEO Philip Downer has stated in a lettter to The Bookseller, that it is very much business as usual, and that despite the current economic climate and the company's re-structuring, sales remain healthy and strong. The number of events has increased and Borders have achieved their “best ever score on customer service quality”. “Our market share is robust and our ability to drive share of high-profile promoted titles, series and themes continues to be strong,” he said. In other words, they continue to demand high discounts from publishers, refusing to sell anything that does not earn for them at least twice what the author and publisher earn when put together. This may sound cynical, but I have been around this industry long enough to see through the hype and understand the language used. I also know that when you stick your head in the sand, all you see is an arse!

As one publisher commented, the letter did nothing to reassure with regard to the company's future, leaving them with no idea as to what is going on. I suspect if my own company are anything to go by, that the staff at Borders know even less. One publisher commented that “Nobody will be able to finalise Christmas or get next year underway until this is resolved.” This underlies the point that in today's climate no one can think that far ahead, as we do not know from one week to the next where we will be. This is the beauty of print on demand, that it allows you to respond so much quicker; the average commercially published book takes a year or more to go through the different production phases, but a POD book can be out in less than two months. I feel that the industry will have to start responding an awful lot quicker in response to this change, and that in time, print on demand will become the norm. That will certainly change the dyanamics between author, publisher and supplier.

In the meantime, I was astonished to read the other day exactly what Waterstones MD Gerry Johnson earns. It is a lot more than I get, that's for sure! It is nice to know then where the profit from my book sales is going - talk about fat cats!

According to The Bookseller, which seems to be my main source of information of late, Gerry was the third highest paid Director at parent HMV Group last year. Following his promotion to the main board, he earned a basic salary of £234,000, with an annual bonus of £360,000, taking his combined earnings to £595,000 in the year ended 26th April.

HMV Group Chief Executive Simon Fox, received £992,000 in the same year, inclduing a bonus of £498,000; and group Finance Director Neil Bright, earned £717,000, including a £360,000 annual bonus.

Johnsons salary although large by anyone's standards, dwarfs that of some within publishing, no doubt to the irk of book selllers anad authors combined. Reed Elsevier Chief Executive Crispin Davis was paid more than £2 million in 2007; Pearson Chief Executive Marjorie Scardino, took home a total of £2.3 million; John Makinson, head of Penguin, received £1.4 million; as did Kate Swann, head of WH Smith, and Bloomsbury Chief Executive Nigel Newton earned a total of £740,000.

The HMV accounts reveal that Waterstone's sold 75 million books in the year ending 26th April, with books accounting for 29 percent of HMV's total group sales, about £450 million. Over the period Waterstone's improved its sales by 5 percent to £564 million, with profit flat after incurring £1.2 million of start-up costs of the book hub distribution centre.

HMV reported that part of Johnson's bonus, £99,375, related to the integration of the Ottakar's business, of which a payment of £33,125 has been deferred for 12 months. It added that one-third of the directors' annual bonuses earned in the year was deferred for three years and would be payable in shares. Good job he doesn't work for Borders then, as in years to come they wouldn't be worth much!

What do horses and Amazon have in common?

The Hachette Livre versus Amazon debate continues apace, with it featured on the Radio Four programme Today earlier on, from what I have been told. I did not hear the progamme myself, since I only listen to local radio, but I will try and find the link later on on the BBC website, since it is bound to still be there.

The author and agent community appears to be backing Hachette's stance, no doubt to the chagrin of Amazon, with leading agents leading the backlash against the online retailer.

It was reported earlier this week that Hachette CEO Tim Hely Hutchinson had sent a letter to authors affected by the dispute, whose books have been removed from Amazon's site, asking for their patience and understanding. According to The Bookseller online, the response has been overwhelmingly positive. In his letter, Hely Hutchinson said that he would stand firm against conceding any additional trading terms, adding that Amazon's sanctions were creating a breach of trust between the online retailer and its customers, which could prove to be a catalyst for them starting to lose their popularity with book buyers.

Despite advantageous terms, far better than most chain stores get (when buying direct from publishers anyway), Amazon seems to go from one publisher to the next year on year, making increasingly high demands in order to get rich at everyone else's expense.

Of course the cynic in me says that all retailers do this, and this is not confined to the publishing industry. Amazon though are by far the worst example of this that I have come across, and from what I have seen and heard in recent months, will stop at nothing to gain almost total control of the marketplace until they are the dominant book retailer and traditional book stores are driven out of business. This is then the thin end of a very long wedge, and is exactly why the publishing industry needs to make a stand. If we are not careful then given its current rate of growth, Amazon could become the largest bookseller in Britain within the next three years, and if they are not stopped now, then they will be able to dictate any terms that they like.

Curtis Brown MD Jonathan Lloyd commented that the entire industry is 100 percent behind what Hachette are doing, and that someone somewhere has to draw the line as using authors as what he terms 'a financial football' is disgraceful.

Clare Alexander of Aitken Alexander added that 'this is a disturbing glimpse of the iron in Amazon’s soul. I think its ruthlessness in bargaining is extremely disturbing'.

The MD of a unnamed rival publication said that removing buy buttons is akin to walking into a High Street bookstore and asking to buy a book, only to be told no. The irony of course is that until quite recently, this is exactly what did happen with some POD books, since inexperienced booksellers were unaware of how the system works. When they saw that the POD book was not in stock at the wholesaler from where they obtained their stock, they assumed that it was not available at all, unaware that there was such a thing as special orders. This though is changing, as the publishing industry wises up to what POD is about and how it works.

An spokesperson for Amazon said that they continue to be committed to offering the broadest range of titles possible, through both their own retail offering and re-sellers (Amazon Marketplace - where Hachette titles are still available). Amazon.co.uk is also committed to ensuring we offer our customers the lowest possible prices.

What they fail to understand is that by making this move, and alienating the largest book publishing group in the UK, they are failing to honour those principals and cutting off their nose to spite their face, as they are not offering the broadest range possible at all. All that will happen is that readers wishing to buy these books will go elsewhere to bricks and mortar stores, or to other online retailers such as Play.com, Book Depository or Bookrabbit.

The online community upon which Amazon's business is built will turn against them, and ultimately prove to be their undoing. This is I think, the beginning of the end, and one never knows, the backlash against discounting and ever increasing terms may also be applied to traditional book stores as well, with firm sale, on back list titles at least, becoming the norm. How this would affect the indepedent and print on demand author is very much open to debate.

In the meantime, if we are not careful, then in the US at least, Amazon may soon be invading the High Street as well. Associated Press reports that Pershing Capital Management's William Ackerman, a major stakeholder in Borders Group in the US, said that the troubled book chain should consider approaching Amazon about a possible acquisition.

Borders, which was put up for sale in March has around 500 stores throughout the US. One possible incentive to Amazon to buy the Borders stores may be the some 18 states are considering the introduction of sales tax to online businesses. Once Amazon lose this tax advantage, then they may be keen to move into bricks and mortar book selling.

In an interview with the Wallstreet Journal earlier this week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos compared books to horses, stating that the industry faced the challenge of improving something which like the horse, had been around for many years and was difficult if not impossible to improve. From my perspective, there is one more thing that Amazon and horses have in common - their ability to produce s*** in copious quantities !

What goes down, must go up!

I know there is hope for the world, and in particular the book world, when I see comments such as those on the blog of Neil Denny, editor in chief of The Bookseller magazine. On his blog, Neil calls for an end to the practise of high discounting in these times of economic uncertainty, in order to protect the interests of both publishers and book sellers. He points out that the price of books, like anything else, can go up as well as down.

During the last decade, since the abolition of the net book price agreement, we have seen the prices of books plummeting, with both book sellers and publishers, not to mention of course authors, working harder and harder for what seems like less and less. When I did my own accounts yesterday, I was shocked to see that despite all my hard work, my income from book sales for 2007-8 was just over £800, which is not a lot to show at all for all that work. Of course it would have been a lot more had the book not been on sale or return for such high discount, but then again, would I have sold as many books as I did? Somehow I think not, and so in the scheme of things, I am still better off, as although I earn less now per book sale, at least I have the chance to make some sales!

Perhaps though for the book trade as a whole, it is time to have a re-think on the discounting issue and begin to charge cover prices again, or at the very least, reduce the discounts that we have in store to a more reasonable level.

Since 2001, the date at which the sales figures first became truly comprehensive, the average sale price for books in the UK has fallen from £7.81 to £7.57. This may not sound a lot, but by the time you factor in inflation, it is clear that the price of books has fallen way less than it should be. In real terms, prices have dropped by almost 20 percent.

It may seem strange to be discussing this move at a time when consumers are already struggling with higher bills and fuel costs, yet as Neil Denny points out, increases such as these are creating a climate where consumers actually expect prices to go up, across the board.

If other businesses pass on the cost of their higher bills to the consumers, then why should the book trade be any different? Books after all need to be printed and shipped around the country (if not the world) and with the way that oil keeps going up, sooner or later, these costs will have to be passed on.

Companies are under pressure, as staff push for wage increases in order to compensate for higher prices. By increasing their own prices, and thereby their profit, book sellers will be in a better position to give their staff that raise, at the same time injecting life into their business which they can use to invest in training and better facilities all round.

Books are vastly underrated in our western society, and absurdly cheap. In a climate where some paperbacks cost less than a pint of beer, a cup of coffee or a magazine, then what does that say about the value that we place upon them? Customers at the store that I work in think nothing of spending £1000 on certain items, yet baulk at the price of books. I can imagine a world without much of what we sell, but I cannot imagine a world without books. Books educate and make us think, they make us laugh and cry, they take us outside of the ordinary realms of our existence, guiding and inspiring us with their wisdom and their insights. The world would be a much poorer place without them.

Lower discounts would be good news for the industry all round, not least of all the small independents, many of whom are struggling to compete with the chains, and let's not forget, are vital to the success of the book trade as a whole.

While the cover prices of certain types of books have crept up in recent years, the cynic in me says that this is in response to high discounting. If a publisher sells to book stores at 50 percent discount, it is in their interests to set higher cover prices, as 50 percent of £8.99 is a lot more than 50 percent of £5.99.

If books were not so heavily discounted and under valued in the first place, then this would not be necessary. It would be far better to control the level if discounts, keeping this to a sensible level, and allowing new releases at least a few weeks to be sold at full price. It is increasingly common though to discount at launch.

The solution then is not to increase cover prices, but to lower the discounts offered at point of sale. Of course some would say that consumers will just buy online instead. Although online book sales are increasing year on year, the majority are still bought in stores, as nothing can replace the feel and atmosphere of a book store, browsing the shelves. If customers truly want a book, then they will find the means to buy it - we cannot hold back doing what we know is right simply through fear of the competition. Someone somewhere has to make the first move, and personally I will be straight through their doors buying all their stock when they do - as like attracts like, and if I wish to be abundant, then I have to support others. That is the way of the world.

Positives and Negatives

I had been planning to write a little more about Amazon tonight, as I see from the Bookseller, that Angela Hoy of Booklooker in the United States, has now lodged a complaint against them in the US courts. Her website goes into much more detail than I could regarding the ins and outs and the whys and wherefores. It is not much that has not been said many times before, and I wish her well in her endeavours. I think it may be a while before this is over yet.

Several things have happened for me in the last few days - mostly concerning the imminent release of the new Indiana Jones film - Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. My book, Genesis of Man began life as a thesis on crystal skulls, and Coran and I are still guardians of around 20 of these wonderful objects, which we work with from time to time, perhaps not as consciously as we might. A lot of the skull material has since been taken out, but I kept it carefully filed away for future reference, and I am glad that I did, as it has enabled me to begin using this new film as a springboard to increase both interest in and sales of my own book.

I got the ball rolling by sending an email out to everyone on my own mailing list. One of these is a man called Cris, whom I met around six years at a conference on the Knights Templar. Cris and I got talking and exchanged contact details, and have been in touch by email ever since. He is an interesting man, as he happens to be a personal friend of the late Anna Mitchell Hedges, who was of course the adopted daughter of real life Indiana Jones, FA Mitchell Hedges, and the discover and guardian until her death in 2007, of the Mitchell Hedges crystal skull. Cris has bought a copy of my book, which Coran posted me for today, and has hinted that he may be willing to put a link on the Mitchell Hedges site to my own website. He also informs me that the skull is due to visit the UK in June, and has promised to send me the details as soon as the dates are announced.

I have experienced the skull many times during meditation, but it would be truly wonderful to have the chance to see this fantastic object in the flesh, and also of course, to meet up with Cris again after all these years.

Out of this came a new crystal skull section on my website, followed by an amendment to the email to those on my mailing list, and the circulation of said email to every Waterstones in the country. This was rapidly followed by the posting of some press releases on various free PR sites, and this morning an email to all Blackwells stores.

A copy of the email was sent to both Richard and Paul, and Richard has replied to say that he loves what I have written, and will try and see if the journalist who picked up the news feed on the Shakespeare book that Richard had such success with, is interested enough to get in touch, and if I am lucky, and God is willing, take this to the next level.

The emails seem to have having some success, since on Sunday night when I sent them around, Gardners had 36 copies in stock, and tonight, 2 days later, they have 28. This means that 8 copies have gone out in the last 2 days, which is more than I have had for a while. It will be interesting to see over the weekend, once they arrive in store, which branches of Waterstones I can now add to my list of stockists.

One hell of a ride

Today it looks very much like I will soon be out of a job. We were told at work some time ago that a big announcement would be made to the City today regarding the future of the company and where we were heading, and it was not good news.

Our parent company have decided to close 77 stores. Most of these closures will come about in the form of natural wastage - simply put the stores will close as and when their leases expire. The lease in our store expires at the end of July, and so it seems that mine will be too, and I will have to look for a new job.

While this is still not official, it is as good as a done deal. While I had been half expecting this for several months, it has still come as a bit of a shock to find that despite my rantings about the job on here, I have got used to going there four mornings each week and interacting with the customers.

The publishing world in the meantime, continues to make waves regarding the firm sale debate, which has now moved from Publishing News and onto The Bookseller. This is good, as it means I can post comments of my own, and maybe get some kind of dialogue going. There are one or two independent book sellers who have already added their own comments, and appear to have similar views to my own.

The article on The Bookseller does not say much that Publishing News did not, but whitters on about how unfair it is that book sellers should have to bear the risk, and heaven forbid, actually be responsible enough to carry the can for their own buying decisions. One retailer has said that the changes will affect areas such as academic titles, backlist titles bought for signing sessions, and marketing promotions, all of which would be counted as backlist, but would not be stocked by booksellers if they could not be returned.

The head of one retail chain, whom the article does not name, added that the level of returns was "ridiculous", and that he was sceptical about the motives behind a firm sale move. "There's a touch of green wash in recognising an opportunity to do something really significant in changing terms but dressing it up in green clothing," he said. "I believe that a move that forces improved efficiency is not necessarily a bad thing, but that comment applies to publishers and agents as it does to retailers." Same old, same old...

Another article, this time from Publishing News, states that publishers are reacting angrily to a crude attempt by Amazon to increase its discount. This will no doubt be of interest to my publishing friends across the pond. It is interesting to see that Amazon's demands are as I predicted some time ago, also affecting commercial publishers, and are no longer confined to the self publishing sector through print on demand, not that they ever were, since these days most commercial publishers also use this printing method at least for backlists. The debate re discounting has forced the issue much more into the open, and it is interesting to see the parallels here between the firm sale issue and this issue with Amazon, for if the book sellers get their way, then higher discounting will become the norm rather than the exception, in order to compensate for the loss of returnability.

It seems that Amazon are doing exactly what they did to the print on demand publishers - going from publisher to publisher with extortionate demands, and if they do not persuade one publisher to play ball, then going back to the first house and saying that X has agreed to such and such.

Publishers say that this isn't the first time this has happened, and they are angry and fed up. One unnamed spokesperson said: “UK publishers already give the biggest terms in the world, far larger than the US and Australia. What we see is Amazon attempting a strategy of world domination. In the US, we've already seen them demanding that publishers use their facility for print on demand. It seems that the only people who benefit in the value chain are Amazon. They already have 15 percent of the market in the UK.”

Publishing News estimates that if Amazon continue to grow at this rate, their market share will have doubled to 30 percent within three years. There is then a very real danger that this will result in book store closures. The article goes on to say what Angela Hoy and others like myself have been saying for months, namely that Amazon will then be in a position of such dominance that they will be able to dictate whatever terms they want and destabilise the entire market.

One CEO went as far as to hint that the Competition Commission should look at the situation, although others were not so certain. It certainly hasn't got print on demand authors very far in America. It seems that like the US, the Competition Com­mission here in Britain, pays little heed to protecting the interests of authors and publishers. Perhaps when Amazon do get to the stage where they have 25 percent of the market then they might be interested, but I suspect that by then it will already be too late, as hundreds of book stores, and small presses will have been driven out of business unable to compete with Amazon's aggressive pricing strategies and free deliveries.

Print on demand publishers may have found an ally, since one CEO commented that his company are not moving one single inch, and are if necessary prepared to lose a years sales with Amazon. I say good luck to him. He will need it.

The rise in the Internet does not impact only book sellers, as it is in many ways also responsible for the almost certain loss of my own job. How though do you stop this slide - the answer as always lies within the hands of the buyers - they have to change their attitudes away from themselves and immediate gratification to one of long term gain that benefits all. Everything in time always goes full circle, and in time it will swing back, but in the meantime I feel that we are in for an interesting ride. Where this will end up I do not know, but one thing I do know is that the scenery will be magnificent.

News from the publishing world this week

There have been several interesting stories in the publishing press this week, the first of which concerns Waterstones, who are of course, the UK's largest and most influential book seller. The Bookseller Online reports that their business is very much in a growth phase, as the company has seen like for like growth in the last 16 weeks of the financial year jump by 6.6 percent.

MD Gerry Johnson said that this was largely attributed to a very strong performance from books, which are at the heart of this growth. The performance bodes well for the full year results, due for release on July 1st. Total sales at Waterstone's at the moment, are up by 4.7 percent compared to last year, with expected turnover of £563m, compared with £537.5m in 2007. This is an excellent record for such a competitive market given the fact that we are supposed to be heading into a recession, and it just goes to show the maybe the British public do value books after all, as they are obviously still spending money on them - including my own one - Genesis of Man.

Waterstones very much have the edge over Borders, as most of their branches are in town centres, and able to capitalise on passing trade as well as the lunch time brigade who visit during the working day, as indeed I often do. They seem to have found the correct balance between the needs of both authors and readers, which Borders have so far failed to do, and this is obviously paying dividends - in more ways than one!

Tesco in the meantime, has unveiled plans to double its own book sales within the next three years to £200m, and are also looking to directly challenge Amazon online. Whether this is a good thing remains to be seen, and I suppose will depend upon your point of view. I think though they may have their work cut out, as although their online inventory must be almost as large as Amazon's, people associate them more with top 40 paperbacks and celebrity titles than anything else, and there is of course far more to book selling than just this.

That being said, the company saw in growth in sales during 2006 of 16.6 percent volume and 19.15 percent in value, giving them a market share of some 10 percent. They are still then a force to be reckoned with.

Research from consumer rights agency Next Best Thing, confirms this week what I have long suspected - that it is not reviews or media coverage that drive sales of books, but rather, good quality displays in store.

The research, commissioned by The Bookseller surveyed 1000 people across the UK, one quarter of whom claimed to get information regarding new books and authors from such displays. This does make sense when you think about it, as I know from my own experience that the majority of books that I buy are those that I discover from just browsing the shelves. It goes to show just how important it is for the newly published to get their books into as many stores as possible, as it is the act of being on the shelves that drives that demand in the first place. It is just a shame that the majority of small and self publishers cannot afford the fees demanded by the chains for good placement and promotions that would drive their sales even more, but such is life. Sooner or later things always go full circle anyway, and our time will come, perhaps sooner than we think.

These findings overturn all conventional wisdom on the subject, which found that word of mouth is the most powerful tool for driving sales and creating best sellers. This is probably true to a large extent, but it is is true that this success would not happen if the books were not in the stores to begin with - as they have to be available.

The survey forms part of Reading the Future, a major consumer trends report to celebrate the 150th anniversary of The Bookseller. Other areas covered include cover design, discounting (the results of this one will be interesting), formats, browsing behaviour and emerging genres. Results will be viewed by people’s age, social group and current reading habits, and put in the context of wider cultural and economic patterns. I will look out for the full results when they are published and do my best to report back on here.

Talking of discounting, I see that Mexico has voted by a massive majority to introduce fixed book prices. Hallelujah ! The law was adopted by the Senate on 29th April by 107 votes in favour, with just two against and five abstentions, according to the French weekly Livres bdo.

This is the second time in recent years that the Mexican parliament has voted in favour of such legislation. The new law, which seems entirely sensible to me, if passed, will ban all discounts on retail book prices for the first three years after publication. This will not include school text books for elementary and lower secondary schools, which are bought by the State - I wonder why that is ! ?

This seems to be part of a growing trend, as many European countries also have such legislation, indeed, we did here in our own country until 1995. Such legislation now applies to much of Western Europe - including Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain. Israel is also working towards a fixed book price. Israeli ambassador to France Daniel Shek said in March that a single book price "will happen sooner or later, whether by agreement or legislation". Perhaps it will also be re-introduced here, for the sake of both book sellers and writers.

YouWriteOn urges authors to boycott Amazon

Regular readers of this blog will know that when the whole Amazon thing kicked off, just over a week ago, one of the first things I did was email everyone on my mailing list, and also post on here, encouraging everyone to boycott Amazon and not have any further dealings with them until further notice.

I am pleased to see that I am no longer alone in this endeavour, as the managers of YouWriteOn.com, a website funded by the Arts Council and aimed at budding writers, who review others work in exchanging for having their own reviewed, for a chance of getting a critique by industry experts, including leading UK publishers, have now added their weight to the anti Amazon campaign.

A report written by Graeme Neill in today's edition of The Bookseller online reads as follows:

"YouWriteOn.com, the Arts Council initiative for new writers, has called for a boycott of Amazon after the retailer's move to push publishers into using its own print on demand service.
Last week Amazon caused anger among small and independent publishers in the US when it told them that all p.o.d. titles would have to be printed at Amazon's fulfilment centres by its POD service BookSurge. It sparked fears that Amazon was trying to squeeze competitors out of the POD market.

There are no current plans to introduce BookSurge into the UK. However, YouWriteOn.com has invited all POD authors to list books on its site with a free link to any bookseller apart from Amazon. It called this "effectively...a proactive boycott of Amazon".

"It seems that Amazon are effectively attempting to monopolise the POD industry, and monopolies are never to the benefit of individuals. This will inevitably lead to less choice, less opportunities, and less royalties for POD writers," said Edward Smith, manager of YouWriteOn.Com. "It is also a red flag to the publishing industry in terms of how Amazon may use their influence on books from mainstream commercial publishing houses in the future."

The trouble is that having gone to their site, I cannot for the life of me see exactly how POD authors are supposed to do what Edward proposes. All I have received so far is an invite to review a book. Perhaps I am meant to do this first and then I can upload my book to their site. The report in The Bookseller should really make this clear, and much as I admire their philosophy and what they are trying to do, this does smack in its own way of their own attempt to not just help POD authors, but also to increase their membership. This may of course be my well developed inner cynic talking here.

I know that this is becoming big news when I see that this is the third report on the Amazon debate to appear on The Bookseller online today. Graeme Neill also reports regarding the Authors Guild statement that I mentioned on Friday, where they surmise that Amazon are attempting to control much of what the Guild refer to as the 'long tail' of publishing. The Guild, echoing the views of so many others state that in their view "once Amazon owns the supply chain, it has effective control of much of the 'long tail' of publishing - the enormous number of titles that sell in low volumes but which, in aggregate, make a lot of money for the aggregator."

This is what we in the UK would call back list titles, those books that sell in relatively slow but steady numbers, as indeed mine does.

It is uneconomic for book stores to stock many of these titles, since they cannot get sufficient discount, and the books are also non returnable. Once Amazon has control of the supply chain for these books, via Booksurge, they will be able to dictate any terms that they want, having both authors and publishers over a proverbial barrel, or so they think.

Owning the supply chain would allow them to easily increase profit margins on these books by insisting on higher discounts and upping the prices for printing. Most publishers, the Guild state, would be able to do little but grumble and comply. If Amazon really think this, then they have an awful lot still to learn and are in for one hell of a shock.

The Guild go on to state that "We suspect this maneuver by Amazon is far more about profit margin than it is about customer service or fossil fuels. The potential big losers (other than Ingram) if Amazon does impose greater discounts on the industry, are authors - since many are paid for on-demand sales based on the publisher's gross revenues - and publishers."

The third story to appear today is regarding Amazon's attempt to control pricing as reported a few days ago in Publishing News. I am totally incredulous to see two messages of support that actually agree with this policy, by Julian Rivers and someone purporting to be a tree (if I was a dog I would cock my leg against them and see what they think of that!)

This person states that in their opinion "publishers should stick to publishing and if this action stops publishers stupidly trying to undercut retailers to make a quick few quid, then that's good news for them all from the mighty Amazon to the humble indie. Publishers should support and work with retailers, not cut corners and cut them out." What a shame this does not appear to work the other way.

Julian in the meantime states "Amazon are just like any other trader who realises that their supplier is their competitor as well . They are completely correct in assuming that the new RRP is the price that the publisher is seeking to sell the book to the public at. How else could they judge it? I personally think that all the big players should follow suit, and the small ones too for that matter. The publishers need to respect their trade customers large and small, and thank goodness that Amazon are now strong enough to take the publishers on. All the retail trade needs to follow their lead." He does not get it though - it is the retailers that cause the problem, not the publishers. Publishers would never offer to sell books at high discount unless the chains did not do this themselves. What we need is for all of them to get round the table and discuss this in a sensible and rational manner, realising that when it comes down to it, both want the same thing - to make money by selling books. There is nothing wrong with this, but not at any price, for one has to work with the competition and not against it. Competition is healthy, for it keeps us on our toes.

As I say, let's not forget that without the authors who write books there would be no Amazon, and no book industry full stop.

Amazon tightens its grip - now dictating to publishers re their own prices !

Chris Work, who posted some comments on one of my earlier posts on this blog, I see from The Bookseller website, has added a form to his blog to contact the Washington State attorney with regard to the Amazon affair. This can be found here. All you have to do is simply copy the text and send it to the email address that Chris provides with any message of your own. I urge everyone involved in this affair to send this form post haste, as like Chris says on his blog, "Amazon isn't going to pay much attention to you or me... but they will listen to anti-trust lawyers of the state of Washington". I don't see that they will have an awful lot of choice in the matter, but then again, I don't know how US law operates, and anything is possible.

The Bookseller it seems though is not the only British heavyweight publishing website to be covering this story, as according to the latest edition of Publishing News, the headlines of which were waiting for me in my inbox when I got home from work today:

"AMAZON HAS THREATENED publishers who sell direct at discount on their own websites with punitive action. PN understands that it has said that if the publisher continues, Amazon will take the selling price as the RRP and apply its terms of trading to that price. In other words, if Amazon receives a 50% discount from Penguin, for example, but Penguin is selling a £20 book for £15 on its website, Amazon will only give Penguin £7.50, rather than £10. One publisher told PN: “This has been around for a while. There have been discussions going on since Frankfurt. Essentially, they're not happy when the manufacturer, as they call us, sets the price of a book. The threat is that they will apply the agreed terms of trading to our web price. But they are on very shaky legal ground. After all, they've been invoiced at an RRP less their discount, so if they refused to pay that amount, they would be in breach of contract.”

Another publisher was more forthright. “Nobody can tell somebody else what price to sell a book at. Publishers will resist this. We're talking about very few titles and we are very confident of our position.”

Although the number of titles being sold direct by publishers is very few, some observers believe Amazon sees it as the thin end of the wedge and wants to fire a warning shot. The move is being driven by Amazon's UK Head of Books, Christopher North, and comes as a blog storm has erupted over Amazon.com's announcement concerning its print-on-demand operation BookSurge. Independent publishers are angered by the US company's decision to economically favour those companies that switch their printing to BookSurge. The row forced Amazon to release an open letter clarifying its position. Amazon.com will sell titles from other POD providers it said, but the publishers would have to join Amazon's Advantage Program, which has a fee. Amazon UK said that are no plans to introduce the service here, but one publisher is taking legal advice. “They're abusing their monopoly position. Once they've got you, they'll start increasing the terms.”

In the background to the moves may be Amazon's realisation that it has effectively dominated online bookselling for some years. Its figures with publishers grow faster than any other retailer (hence publishers' reluctance to anger it), but with other players establishing their online operations - Waterstones.com and, shortly, Borders as well as increasing noise from Play.com and publishers' own sites - it realises that this might very soon change.

This is indeed the thin end of a very long wedge, and I think Clive Keeble is right when he said a few days ago that "Amazon are a dangerous predator that needs to be stopped".

I have a reading booked with my good friend Diana Summer tomorrow, my first for over a year, to discuss various issues regarding work and the book, and I plan to include this as one of the questions. I have my own theories, some of which I have mentioned in previous posts, but it will be interesting indeed to get spirit's take on this.

Angela Hoy says on her latest post, that she suspects the reason that Authorhouse, I-Universe and Lulu caved in was because there is a clause in their contracts (in Authorhouse and I-Universe's case anyway) that says that authors must pay $75 for inclusion on Amazon.com. They have therefore painted themselves into a corner with their own greed, since by failing to sign the Booksurge contract they would have left themselves wide open to being sued by disgruntled authors for breach of contract. I will have to check the Authorhouse UK website, but I believe I am right in saying that they also make a similar charge. Having had dealings with this company when I was looking for a suitable POD provider back in early 2006, I have to say that this would not surprise me, as they seem to charge for pretty much anything they can get away with, and more's the pity, they do ...

Angela goes on to say that "Lulu has third party service providers (that pay Lulu commissions) that offer Amazon listing enhancement services for a fee to Lulu authors. One Lulu author surmised on their forum, "Lulu will just have to supply Amazon with books..." So, perhaps they found themselves in the same bind as AuthorHouse.

The deadline given to some publishers was rumoured to be April 1st and AuthorHouse/ I-Universe and Lulu both announced agreements with Amazon on March 31st - the day before. This leads both Angela and myself to believe that Amazon may have had them both by the probverbial short and curlies. This is what you get though when you charge authors for something that happens automatically without you actually having to do a thing. Make no bones about it, if my publlsher leaves Lightning Source to do all the fulfilment direct with Amazon, then it is exactly the same with all these others too. They are then sitting pretty taking the authors hard earned cash for doing to put it politely, bugger all. I hear the sound of one thousand unseen chickens clucking as they come home to roost ...

Angela also confirms that there is as yet no word from Xlibris, as does my friend UK based author Marion Webb de Sisto, who because she is married to an American and has her largest market there, chose to publish with Xlibris.

I could write much more on this debate if I chose to, but I do have the questions to write for tomorrow, and it has been a long day, and so I am now going to sign off before I email Angela with the links posted on here tonight and hit the snooze button !

UK authors safe from amazon's threat - for the moment ...

British based print on demand authors can for the moment at least, breath a collective sigh of relief, as after almost a weeks silence, Amazon have finally confirmed that they have no plans to implement their controversial print on demand policy within the UK.

Graeme Neil reports on The Bookseller, that the decision to tell publishers of such titles in the United States that their print on demand titles would have to be printed at Amazon's own facilities in order to be directly available on amazon.com has caused a storm, raising fears that Amazon are trying to squeeze competitors out of the print on demand market.

He goes on to say that "one observer said that the move could be seen as 'the thin end of the wedge'. 'Will they eventually say to HarperCollins for example 'We don't want your physical books anymore. Instead we will print them at our centres'? If you look at what they have done with e-books, they are selling them in their own format. Where do you draw the line?"

Angela Hoy, co-owner of print on demand services company BookLocker, who raised the first objections, said: "From the p.o.d. publishers we've talked to, and from our own experience at BookLocker, we could all be looking at a dire and immediate threat of revenue cuts if we refuse to sign the Amazon/BookSurge contract. 'PublishAmerica said that it had been told that if it did not comply, the "Buy" button would be removed from all of the publisher's listings. This demand would force PublishAmerica to submit 60,000 separate book files (text and cover), and redo each of them in order to conform to Amazon's complicated technical specifications."

Graeme goes on to cite the now notorious open letter from Amazon, before confirming that the company has no plans to implement this strategy in the United Kingdom. No mention however is made of his this impact print on demand books by British authors which are printed by Lightning Source in both the UK and US for these respective markets, and whether the US editions will be withdrawn from their sale. At the time of writing my own book is still live, and until I hear any differently I can assume that these titles too are safe.

In the meantime, Jerry Simmons has dedicated his entire newsletter this week to the unfolding events, which are rapidly becoming well, the biggest thing since print on demand first came to the UK.

I print his newsletter here in its entirety for the benefit of those who are not on his mailing list, and with the recommendation that you consider joining.

"Due to recent events I’ve decided to focus this entire newsletter on the Amazon situation. In my opinion, this is the first step toward the complete elimination of the books by self-published, print-on-demand, and small publishers that refuse to use Amazon’s BookSurge and largely depend on Amazon for sales. This is vertical integration at it’s worst and illustrates what big companies can do when they are allowed to strong arm the smaller ones. It’s time to take a stand, now or forget about it. Forever remain at the mercy of the big booksellers.

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IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T HEARD -

POD Publishers Told to Sell Directly Through Amazon, They Have to Use Booksurge.
Amazon has tried a number of tactics to push the print-on-demand services of their Booksurge subsidiary and now the company is using its leverage in the marketplace to drive that business. For the past month the e-tailer has been explaining their new policy to publishers who use print-on-demand: To have a direct "buy" button that lets customers purchase POD books from Amazon rather than from third-party sellers featured on the site, those books must be printed and fulfilled by Booksurge. Spokesperson Tammy Hovey tells the WSJ, "It's a strategic decision. What we're looking to do is have a print-on-demand business that better serves our customers and authors. When we work with some other publishers, it's not truly a print-on-demand business." She "declined to provide specifics," according to the Journal, but "said she doesn't consider the move an ultimatum.

"The new policy was first brought to light through a coordinated blogging effort by some of the affected POD publishers. Co-owner of POD publisher BookLocker.com Angela Hoy has the longest post on her WritersWeekly zine. She reports on a conversation with a Booksurge salesperson who "admitted that books not converted to BookSurge would have the 'buy' button turned off on Amazon.com, just as we'd heard from several other POD publishers who had similar conversations with Amazon/BookSurge representatives."There are no accounts yet of the policy being imposed on traditional publishers that also use Lightning Source or other print-on-demand vendors; by the current accounts the moved is aimed at independent publishers whose focus is POD books as well as self-publishing competitors to Booksurge such as Lulu.com. (Separately, Amazon has been working since mid-2006 to get mainstream publishers to use Booksurge for print-on-demand books sold through the e-tailer, for traditional purposes out of print books; large print; etc.--as well as to fulfill "demand spikes" when a regular title is temporarily out of stock.) Ingram and their Lightning Source operation have worked closely with Amazon in the past in a variety of ways, including packing orders with Amazon packages and labels.

MY REACTION AND QUESTIONS -

This is an outrageous strong arm tactic by the largest online bookseller in the world. There are forces at work behind the scenes that will only complicate this for anyone that doesn’t buckle under to the demands of Amazon.

Why haven’t the same demands been made of traditional publishers?
Because they all subsidize Amazon through a variety of fees and discounts, completely outside the ability of the small publishers and authors, it’s about money.

What happened to the free market concept of price, service and reliability?
Why bother when you have the muscle to force this upon your customers.

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More From Amazon on POD, and Toasters
Amazon's Patty Smith spoke to Computerworld further about their new requirement that POD-based small publishers and self-publishing companies print their titles through Booksurge if they want the books sold directly by Amazon. "When we publish a print-on-demand title in our own fulfillment center, we can then marry that on-demand book with a regular book, or a toaster, if that's what the customer ordered in the same box and ship it the same day to the customer. And that print-on-demand book that we printed is also eligible for free shipping."She reiterated that companies that don't wish to use Booksurge can still sell their POD books through Amazon's Advantage program ($29.95 per year plus 55% of the list price of the book) and other third-party marketplace seller programs.BookLocker.com Angela Hoy says she will not use Booksurge. "We would [rather] take an initial significant hit to our revenues, and we estimate that Amazon comprises about 30% of our revenues."

MORE REACTION AND A QUESTION -

First of all the excuse that marrying titles to other products is the reason behind this move is ludicrous, it’s an excuse.

If marrying products with books is the reason behind the move why not impose the same on traditional publishers who use offset printing?
Because Amazon doesn’t own an offset printing company, YET!

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Ingram on Amazon
Ingram chairman John Ingram issued a brief statement on Amazon's recent move to drive POD publishers to use Booksurge if they want their books sold directly by the e-tailer, noting "it clearly is alarming many of our publisher partners." At the same time, Ingram reports that "so far we've been unable to get a response directly from Amazon.com."He says, "We all live in a world where decisions are made about insourcing and outsourcing, and free choice is important. At Ingram Book and Lightning Source, we are going to work really hard to continue to be the compelling choice as publishers make their outsourcing decisions.... At Lightning Source, we produce a great product and thus do justice to our publishers' valuable titles. There is no question that we provide the highest print quality, the fastest turnaround speeds, and the most comprehensive portfolio of channels for a publisher's books."

FINAL REACTION AND QUESTION -

I find the lackluster response by the Chairman of one of the largest print-on-demand facilities puzzling and at the same time alarming.

Why do you find the response alarming?
I worked in New York with big publishers long enough to know that John Ingram’s reaction to Amazon’s move is entirely too nonchalant and basically it was a non-reaction. That smells of collusion to me and you can bet, Ingram isn’t budging an inch when it comes to the demands of Amazon. They need each other!

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QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK -

The following interview was conducted by Author Marketing Experts for their blog post which can be found at their web site http://www.amarketingexpert.com/ .

AME - What’s the real outcome going to be from this Amazon decision?

JDS - The publishers impacted will follow the demands of Amazon and print their books with Book Surge. The wider implication is that Amazon strengthens their position with these publishers and creates a monster with their vertical integration. This leaves each one of those publishers vulnerable to new demands by Amazon. What’s next? Higher discounts. Right now these publishers have been forced to change vendors, it might have cost them a bit more money, but remember, they market to writers not consumers. So if they are unable to place their authors’ books on Amazon, it looks bad in the eyes of their customers, the writers. These publishers don’t have the courage to say no and take a stand. And it’s not about the fact they sell a ton of books on Amazon, it’s about their customers’ view of them and their ability to market their own books.

AME - How do you predict the long-term effects of this as it relates to the small author and publisher?

JDS - The long-term effects for the author and publisher are devastating. With Amazon strengthening and securing their place in the distribution and sales channel, they can do anything they want. The next move will be to squeeze these small authors and publishers for placement fees, advertising fees, and eventually higher discounts. When you give in once, it never stops, this is the way of the publishing world and booksellers. It will get to the point where they start to lose money on each book sold. Only then will Amazon back off, but you can bet they are going to push authors and publishers to the wall and take every possible nickel out of the equation.

AME - What can an author/publisher do to “fight back?” -

JDS - Draw the line with this decision, pull their books from Amazon, create a new online market for selling their books, a central location for all self-published, print-on-demand books that has no alliance with any publisher or printer. Again, it’s not about selling books, it’s about how they are seen in the eyes of their customers, the writers. They are concerned about their own pipeline for new business drying up and that is much more important than giving in to Amazon’s demands. Each one of these publishers could switch all their allegiance to B&N.com today, but they haven’t, and the reason is that in the eyes of the writer, they feel they must be on Amazon to be successful. Short term it hurts business and they are more concerned about that than the longer term impact which is going to be a continual erosion of their profit margin.

AME - What alternatives do authors and publishers have besides selling their books on Amazon?

JDS - It’s time for the self-published, print-on-demand companies and small publishers to begin creating their own marketplace, totally and completely separate from all the online platforms that sell their books. I strongly believe that the website http://www.nothingbinding.com/ is a solution, and for full disclosure, it is a site that I founded. But here is the key, if you are not part of the traditional world of big New York publishing, from which I spent 25 years, then authors must realize it is fruitless to continue to struggle to become part of something dominated and controlled by the largest publishers in the world. Amazon is clearly inside the traditional world, and they are setting restrictions on anyone outside that wants to be part of their world. This will never end! It’s time now to create your own community and establish a voice in the marketplace. I’m confident that Nothing Binding can fill that void, becoming the community and voice for Independent publishing. The name alone signifies a non-alliance with any publisher or printer. A social networking website that allows authors free placement of their books with links to outside sources is a perfect way for authors to separate themselves from the traditional world of big publishing; in fact, it’s the only way to create a market and achieve increased sales they so desperately want and need.

AME - Do you think this was a bad decision on Amazon’s part and if so, why?

JDS - Obviously Amazon weighed the profit from the sales of all these POD books versus the additional revenue of printing AND sales. They made a calculated gamble and it appears they have been right. Now there is no stopping them on their demands. It won’t happen overnight, but they will make new rules and continue to do so until it negatively impacts their own revenue stream. Giving in is a monumental mistake for the author and publisher, if the POD companies had taken a stand against the decision and risked short-term profits, they would have been much better in the long term and more respected by their own customers in the marketplace. Why do you think Amazon did this only for the print-on-demand books and not books that are offset printed? They claim they did this so it would be easier for them to marry books with other products that customers wanted, combine the package and shipping for convenience and cost savings. What about all the other books that are offset printed? They have the same problem with marrying books and products, but they don’t own an offset printing company, yet! If I was running any company that does a substantial amount of business with Amazon and saw what they were doing with books, I’d keep a close eye on what other parts and manufacturing companies they purchase. Vertical integration in this case is good for Amazon, no, great for Amazon, but bad for the publishing business and possibly very bad for other product lines sold on Amazon.

AME - Since AuthorHouse/iUniverse and Lulu have signed the contract with Amazon, does this change the playing field for the other publishers, or is it irrelevant (and if so, why)?

JDS - With Author House and Lulu agreeing to Amazon demands, it puts pressure on the other companies to follow suit. None of these companies can risk their own business drying up and even though it’s doubtful they lose a ton of sales if they dropped from Amazon, it would be the negative perception their own possible customers would have, i.e. the writer, and of course their competition would use this as leverage in their own marketing as “being the one company still doing business with Amazon.” These writers don’t really understand the implications, yet, all they see is that their books are or are not on Amazon for sale; that’s all they care about.

In the survey of writers I completed long before NB was started, I found that virtually 98% felt they must have their books on Amazon, and clearly 70% hated the fact they had to give a 55% discount to them. When asked if Amazon went away tomorrow, how much would it impact sales, only about 15% felt they sold enough books on Amazon to make a difference. They must be there, they hate being there, yet it doesn’t really make a big difference, so what’s the point? Once Amazon raises the effective discount, or asks for ad or placement fees, and the publisher passes this along to their authors, they might wake up. But who knows, right now, all the author cares about is making sure their books are still listed and for sale on Amazon.

Fighting back should be done gradually and not a knee jerk reaction. I think if these authors and publishers set a deadline for Amazon to reverse their decision or else they would pull all books, they could get positive media attention to this, they will have capitalized on this in a way that would draw attention to them and their books, and in the long run they would be out from under the thumb of a very big online retailer. The analogy I use is that if the U.S. had been serious about alternative fuels back in 1973 during the oil embargo, we wouldn’t be in the mess we are today, 35 years later. Of course you can’t compare oil to books, but the fact remains, this cave in to Amazon is a very steep and slippery slope and it won’t take anywhere near 35 years for them to realize their mistake, maybe 35 months!

AME - If authors seek out other platforms to sell their books – how will they compete with the “comfort level” consumers feel with Amazon?

JDS - There is no way to compete with the comfort level of Amazon and that of course is a problem, but a short-term one. Solutions will create short-term discomfort, but I strongly believe people buy books on Amazon because it’s all they know. If there was a viable alternative, then I think consumers would welcome it. The responsibility is on the shoulders of the publishers to counter this strategy with cover price discounts, until the consumer starts to feel comfortable again and then you can readdress the price issue. These publishers will have to make some short-term concessions to attract their consumers, but it beats what they are going to have to endure when they cave to Amazon. There is no easy solution, there is no silver bullet that will make everything okay tomorrow, there will be some issues that have to be worked out, but if all these authors and companies would combine forces, create a new online market for themselves and their books, in 35 months they will be glad they did. Eat it in the short term for long term gain—that is the answer to the Amazon problem. Because Amazon is going to do nothing in the future to help the POD companies’ bottom lines, they are going to continue to eat away at their margins in a number of ways while at the same time squeezing them on price and discount. It’s a no win situation for the authors and publishers and it doesn’t appear that they really realize the situation they put themselves in by giving in to Amazon’s demands.

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MY PRESS RELEASE RESPONSE –

An Amazon Monopoly?
Authors shut out of Amazon; one site offers a solution

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – The little guy has lost another battle but this time, it’s the book industry that’s taken a hit. It was a shot heard round the publishing world in record time when Amazon announced that any small press or print-on-demand publisher doing business with them would need to print books through their publishing arm: BookSurge. Insisting it’s just “good business,” the terms of this deal feel more like a monopoly to those affected.

Jerry D. Simmons is a former Executive with the Time Warner Book Group who left there in 2003 to build one of the leading social networking sites for Independent authors, NothingBinding.com, says: “The long term effects for the author and publisher is devastating, with Amazon strengthening and securing their place in the distribution and sales channel, they can do anything they want. The next move will be to squeeze these small authors and publishers for additional fees and eventually higher discounts. When you give in once, it never stops.”

So what can an author or small publisher do? Penny C. Sansevieri, President and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., whose company specializes in Internet promotion says: “It’s time for authors to realize that Amazon is not the only game in town. They need to expand their online marketing to include social platforms like http://www.nothingbinding.com/. A site that can give their book exposure and then link the book to a store other than Amazon will help them fight and hopefully win this new war Amazon has decided to wage against the little guy.”

Can Amazon be stopped? “It’s doubtful,” says Simmons, “the wheels are already in motion, now the only thing the smaller publisher and Independent author can do is look for alternatives. This is a sad day for Independent publishing. Now it’s time to show Amazon they can’t win.”

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AMAZON DISCUSSION ON BLOG TALK RADIO -

You can hear my new blog talk radio show hosted by myself and Penny C. Sansevieri of Author Marketing Experts, Inc. Friday 10:00 am MST, Noon CST, and 1:00 pm EST. Simply cut and paste the link below to your web browser and tune in:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ThePublishingInsiders

If you would like to listen to last weeks’ show, cut and paste to your browser or click the link below:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ThePublishingInsiders/2008/03/28/The-Publishing-Insiders-1

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SUBSCRIBE TO MY BLOG -

Beginning yesterday April 2nd, I’ve started my blog on Nothing Binding. You can subscribe via rss feed at the site, here is the link:

http://www.nothingbinding.com/blog/jerry

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A RECOMMENDATION FROM OUR FRIENDS IN THE UK -

From Author June Austin, April 1, 2008

I would not normally do this, but some issues are just too important to ignore, and this is one of them. I and others in the publishing industry, are calling on as many people as possible to boycott amazon.com (and co.uk if they copy what .com are doing). The following article, which I posted on my blog site yesterday, explains all, and more to the point, why. THIS IS NOT A HOAX.

To read what I have to say, go to http://juneaustin.blogspot.com/

In short though, amazon.com are trying to force print on demand authors and publishers in the United States to switch printers, from market leader Lightning Source, to Amazon’s own recently acquired operation, Boksurge. They are threatening to remove any books printed by Lightning Source from their website if they do not sign agreements with Booksurge by tomorrow. This is no April Fool, but deadly serious.

Please circulate this to as many people as possible on your own mailing lists, as the more people that know about this the better. At the moment I am unsure as to how this will impact authors and publishers outside the US (Lightning Source also have a printing plant in Milton Keynes where my book is produced along with millions of others). My editor has today emailed their CEO and is awaiting a reply.

This is not a hoax, but a very real threat facing all publishers and authors who use print on demand methods, whether through self publishing or otherwise. Don't take my word for it though, but see for yourself here:

http://www.thebookseller.co.uk/news/55688-amazoncom-tightens-printing-rules.html

http://writersweekly.com/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/004597_03272008.html

In the meantime, I would urge you all NOT to order any books from Amazon at all until this is resolved satisfactorily.

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FINAL COMMENTS -

I spent 25 years in New York publishing, I’ve seen just about all there is to see. I’ve personally experienced the pressure a large bookseller can apply to a publisher for more money. The first time you give in to those demands, it’s over. These companies will continue to apply pressure in a number of ways to get what they want.

In the case of Amazon, I predict that this is just the first step. I realize that publishers have caved to the demands, but as authors you still have an opportunity to take a new direction. Create your own online marketplace for your books! This is the only chance you have to be successful via the web. A single location where you can direct traffic away from Amazon is your only hope if you ever want to maintain an online presence and have any chance of selling books in numbers that will make a difference.

Amazon was never your solution, they are part the traditional world of publishing, and will always be a part of that world. You aren’t invited and they don’t want you, they’ve made that obvious by their actions. If you don’t start a movement now, today, this weekend, away from Amazon onto another completely free and unaligned website, you are going to be stuck in the mire and deceit of someone like Amazon until the day they kick you to the curb.

Make your move to http://www.nothingbinding.com/, before it’s too late!

Jerry D. Simmons
April 3, 2008"

The boss at my own publishing company, Authors OnLine Ltd said in an email to me this morning that he is somewhat concerned at the lacklustre response to this threat that has been made by Lightning Source, and I have to say that I agree. It makes one wonder if there is more to this than meets the eye. He goes on say "I have to say I haven't got to grips with the complete story of this. The reason I say that is we don't actually deal with Amazon at all. It's Lightning Source that deal directly with them, we don't even know what Amazon have bought from us until after the event! And LS are saying in their statement (now on our front page) that "All your titles continue to be available to all of our channel partners, including Amazon.com, with immediate availability for shipment within 24 hours." Now that is a very understated response to say the least and, unless I have totally misunderstood the situation, rather odd for a company who's basic business is directly threatened.

Take the small self-publishing guys like us out of the equation for the moment and look at LS's core business. Most of it comes from making traditional publishers books into POD, their main client being Cambridge University Press. They print over a million books a year for them alone. Now are Amazon going to refuse to sell such mainstream publishers POD titles only through BookSurge. Now that would be interesting! Ok AuthorHouse and Lulu are big players but minnows compared to the amount of POD done by traditional publishers - and increasing very steeply annually."