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 ...

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.