from our bookmark

As a former independent bookstore owner, I have a very healthy skepticism about big box stores – in particular Amazon and CostCo.  Come to think of it, maybe they are beyond the big box category.  But, in large measure, they put our bookstore, the Bookvendor, out of business at the turn of this century.

We simply could not compete. They were selling books at a retail price that was far less than we paid to get those same books directly from publishers or from our distributor.  Our pockets just weren’t deep enough or full enough for us to sustain.

For a while afterwards, we had our own little boycott going.  If we bought a book, we bought it from an independent store that was, somehow, able to keep on keeping on.  Better yet, if we were interested in a new book, we tried to buy directly from the author knowing, as we did, that they often get a little higher percentage that way.

But, over time, we have relaxed our position somewhat.  I even have placed a ‘button’ on my website so that readers can buy directly from Amazon if that’s their choice.  For most of my own books, that reduces my cut to single digits rather than double digits per book.  I’m talking pennies here, folks.  Seriously.

So, the other day I ran up against yet another way that big box stores adversely affect authors.  This time, it’s not a matter of the bottom line.  It’s a matter of the ‘in the beginning was the word’ part.  Last week I agreed to write another book for a local organization – a book that had been suggested and encouraged by the nation’s leading publisher of regional and local photographic history books according to the publisher’s acquisitions editor.

At this end we decided that a good release date for the published book would be eight months hence, to coincide with a big, local annual festival.  A great time for a book launch we thought.  Maybe came the answer from the publisher.  Maybe they could make that publication date.  I would have to have the book completed by early April so that it would come out in mid-October.  Say what?

I get six weeks.  They get six months.  What is wrong with this picture, I asked.  The answer wasn’t what I expected but not exactly surprising, either:  The main issue with the timeframe is that the six months for production and printing is not really an accurate reflection on how much time we need to put the book together but rather the requirement on us from chain stores for advanced notification about upcoming books. They need that time to plan their inventory across all of the publishers with whom they work…  Even though we use a number of retailers and distributors to help get the books in front of a wide audience, having a major retailer refuse to carry a book can really impact it negatively…

So, there you are.  That old bottom line again.  Big Box Bottoms this time.  I repeat… who knew?