Newsletter Articles by Niki Chanel: What Happens to Your Book After It’s Published?

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

It is said that volunteering for a board position with your RWA chapter teaches you more about the writing profession. I am here to tell you that is absolutely true for I have uncovered some little know sales procedures that are affecting us all in powerful and insidious ways. They are the downfalls of distribution.

Exactly, what happens to your book after it’s published?

It’s shipped to retail stores all over the country and put on the shelves for people to buy, right?

Wrong. Unless you’re lucky enough to link up with a huge publisher, more than likely you are in mid-standing with a well known “small press”. Just to be sure we’re on the same page about what a ‘small press’ is, Wikipedia states:

Small press is a term often used to describe publishers with annual sales below a certain level. Commonly, in the United States, this is set at $50 million, after returns and discounts.

Fifty million dollars annually! Yet for all this, you may not even be listed as buyable!
Surprised? I was.

Here, I am trying to put together a book fair for over a dozen authors and a full quarter of these talented writers books are listed as ‘trouble-makers’… or not listed at all!
So, what makes a book troublesome for the retailer?

A label of ‘pre-pay’ next to a book listing means the book can only be ordered if it is paid in full. To do this, the customer must know the authors name, book title, publisher and the ISBN (the International Standard Book Number) and pay for the book in advance; not a good selling point.
A book that is tagged ‘non-returnable’ means the publisher will not accept any books returned to them. Retail stores hate that.
Print on demand, or POD, used to mean self published. Too many unprofessional books went unsold and the stores were left ‘holding the bag’. Though some bad blood remains to this day, it can be circumvented. In the future, this will probably be the only way books are printed as it is the ‘greenest’ approach to saving trees, storage and needless handling costs.
‘No discount’ is the worst. Normally, the publisher offers a discount of the final sale price of the book (retail price) to the distributor. The distributor shares that discount with the retail store. For instance: If a book is slated to sell for $20.00 the publisher can give the distributor a 50% discount and they each take $10.00. The distributor then shares 50% of their cut with the retailer and they each take $5.00. Only when the book sells does anyone get paid and the disbursements can take months.

The trouble here is that even though the publisher has given a good discount, the Bookmaster catalogue can still be listed as ‘no discount’. Is this just a computer entry problem and easily fixed? No. I have learned some publishers have succeeded in getting the information changed only to have it revert back, a week later. Certainly errors do occur but politics, lack of communication and mysterious corporate ways dominate this business. In all my research (which has been extensive) I have yet to find the source of this problem. There is no central organization or guru that explains what to do. The store managers think it’s the distributors’ error, the publisher’s think it’s the fault of corporate offices of retail stores while the author has no privileges with the distributor and limited access to their publisher… a mystery, indeed.

Emma Ward of Management Consulting News states “Many people in the publishing industry feel that the easiest part of bringing a book to market is writing the book. With that in mind, you must begin planning at least as soon as you have written your manuscript—preferably before.” http://www.managementconsultingnews.com/articles/ward_market_book.php

Clear as mud? Well, maybe I can clear that up with a little story.

Once upon a time there was a writer named Wannabe. Wannabe was given many nicknames by the townsfolk: Wannabe Read, Wannabe Rich & Famous and even Wannabe Taken Seriously were some of these titles.

One day Wannabe decided to put a book on the market. The manuscript was sent to many different publishers across the land and finally one of them sent Wannabe a contract. Wannabe was thrilled because this had taken a long, long time. The town lawyer helped Wannabe tweak the contract, it was signed and returned to the publisher.
Many weeks turned into many months and at last the day came when the publisher announced a date for release of the book. On that day Wannabe rushed to the nearest book store to see it on the shelf… but there was no book shining out from the rest with Wannabe’s name on it. Days went by, then weeks and still no book on the shelf. Worry set in, for Wannabe had heard the gossip that after 6 months, a book was considered ‘old’. My new book will be ancient before anyone gets to see it, let alone read it!

Wannabe sent a letter by Donkey Delivery to the publisher asking what had happened.
Word made it back to Wannabe that the messenger had been slain by a terrible dragon that was keeping the publisher prisoner. It was said that many writers had the same problem and that the dragon was getting fat eating the messengers. At least now I know why things are slow, but I want to see it with my own eyes!

When Wannabe arrived on the cliffs overlooking the Valley of the Publishers, it was clear there were others in the same fix and all were in fear of not one, but many dragons menacing the publishers. Wannabe asked around for information about these huge creatures.

Mr. Wise, the wizard, explained: “The largest one is a book wholesaler and distributor based in La Vergne, Tennessee and its name is Ingram. His family controls about a million titles and sells to booksellers, librarians and specialty retailers and they have warehouse caves in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Indiana.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingram_Book_Group

“How can they sell books if they don’t release them?” Wannabe wanted to know.
“Best as I can tell,” sighed the old codger, “if the publisher agrees to give the dragons 55% to 65% of their gold, the dragons will let their books out onto the market. The publisher must also promise to accept returns.”

“But that’s more than half! Are you saying that this is a Catch 22?” Wannabe’s nose wrinkled in the noon-day sun. “It sounds like you’re telling me that the Small Press Publishers cannot afford the amount of gold the dragon wants, so they cannot sell their books to make more gold.”

“That’s about right, unless the retail stores get lots of orders for the book. If that happens they will start to stock it. It’s all about the gold.” A puff of smoke later and the wizard was gone.

Wannabe didn’t want to take ‘no’ for an answer so went to the friendly neighbourhood Fairy Godmother and told the sorry tale.

The Fairy Godmother looked in her Big Book of Spells (self published) and told Wannabe the magic 12 step program that might break the curse:

Create a website, Blog, MySpace, Twitter and Facebook accounts – ahead of time
Call your local Barnes & Noble and Borders. Ask for the Community Relations Managers to check on your book in their Bookmaster listing. If everything looks good, proceed to step 3. If not, go to step 4.
Publish an ad for the book in Ingram’s monthly catalogue, Ingram Advance
If the CRM finds a problem, contact your publisher to repair the listing
Write a catchy press release and send it to newspaper & magazine editors
Order at least one copy of the book from Amazon
Ask writer’s to review your book on Amazon and reader sites
Send a copy of your book to each of your favourite retail store(s)
Take a book tour; introduce yourself and book to retail brick and mortar stores
Give lectures or discussion panels at independent book stores and libraries
Give radio and TV interviews
Go on book signing tours – it’s best to tour where the story takes place

Hopeful and with new confidence, Wannabe ran to the nearest Barstuck Coffee Shoppe, ordered a Clappaccino to celebrate and got to work on the laptop. Victory is at hand!
News of the book fascinated town and country folks alike and multiple orders were placed for it. Soon the stores were sending in orders for the item and the dragons realized this may be one of those stories that will make a lot of gold. So they allowed the book to get inscribed into the Masters Book List. Finally, Wannabe got to see the book on the shelf. Now I can live happily ever after.

But someone was interrupting Wannabe’s thoughts. It was the store manager.
“So, when’s your next book coming out?”

The moral of the story is: Be diligent and check on your status every step of the way. Ask your publisher if your book conforms to the standard editorial requirements. If not, ask why. Be part of the process: write letters, make phone calls, send emails, read the small print and get your pumpkin home before midnight!