A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Don't Let Book Success Bankrupt You, Negotiate!

 

It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side. 

This week's conversation addresses a thorny and frustrating issue--the finances of book sales, especially books that, in general, sell well. (We are not talking about authors who take thousands from savings to plaster information about their books everywhere or buy their own copies to try to get onto a bestseller list. Rather, we are talking about the average author, who simply desires to get the word out and the sales in.) Nearly all authors intently want to see their book in every bookstore they walk into -- and every one they don't. They don't realize three important things that can destroy their life if they actually get their dream.

Book stores are not a good source of book sales.

We all grew up with the local bookstore model. That is where we all got our books. But times have changed, and bookstores are no longer the primary source of book sales. In fact, some latest figures show that only 5% (!!!) of all books sold come from bookstores. So, where instead, do sales come from?

• The biggest source of book sales is Amazon. (Do you want to advertise? Have limited dollars? Amazon ads may be your best bet.)
• Other online bookstores are also good sources of sales but at far less a rate than Amazon.
• Book launch activities (and re-launch activities and just-let-me-tell-you-about-my-book activities) at places other than bookstores sell a fair number of books.
• Local coffee shops and presentations there.
• Presentations at the local library.
• Presentations anywhere they can be organized; think creatively.
• Direct, large quantity sales to business and organizations (this possibility will depend upon the topic.)
• Conferences.
• Book clubs buy books at a good clip.
• Eblasts to mailing lists are a good source for sales, assuming that they are targeted. Authors' lists are the best.
• Podcasts and broadcasts (even on famous shows) no longer sell the kinds of books they used to, but they can be helpful in bringing some temporary attention to the book (and as serving as ad copy: "as you saw on the X" show...).

Book stores are the biggest source of book returns and even the cause of some publishers going out of business

Yes, this is a problem, a big problem. (See other posts about book returns.) When books are returned, not only is the revenue from the book lost but also additional costs accrue:

• shipping;
• handling; and
• initial print costs that are not realized by sales.

These costs can outweigh aggregate revenue if enough books are returned. If 3000 books sell, and 1000 are returned, the results are negative revenue and, of course, disappointment. Today, for example, when I looked at our distributor's record early in the morning, we had a sales record of 64 books with 27 copies of one book returned from a book launch that took place in June. That threw us into negative revenue. (Yes, it does affect publishers, too.) Sales from multiple books undermined by the returns from just one book. 

Returns can come from anywhere, but most, in our experience, come from bookstores. To complicate matters, bookstores often overorder, especially for book launches, return, and re-order in order to have "fresh copies,"

Authors can negotiate with books stores for better--and safer--returns

We have a policy that once revenues from returns move a book into an overall negative revenue category, we will no longer offer right of return to stores for that book. (And yes, some books tend to be returned more than others; we do have some books with a near-zero rate of return, but commonly, books do get returned.) 

What else can be done? Specifically, what can authors do?

• Like us, an author can decide not to offer the right of return, realizing that most bookstores will not then order the book--but sometimes, a 5% opportunity to make some money from the book versus a much higher chance of losing money on bookstore sales can make the decision a no-brainer.
• Authors can negotiate with bookstores (so can publishers, and we do) to:
• Scale down the number of books ordered for a book launch (most will order around 25 for a relatively unknown author, and though authors do not want to believe it, generally sales will amount to half of that; avoid the need for stores to return half the books, which will drop the negative book revenue into about twice that of the positive revenue, and a book launch can be financially successful).
• Ask bookstores to keep the leftover books for a year before returning unsold copies (some will).
• Ask bookstores to buy the books direct from the publisher or author (this allows the publisher and author to manage both the scope of order and the potential cost of returns)
• Ask the bookstores to take the bookstore on consignment (rather than purchasing them). that negates the need for return and all sales will be positive revenue (the smaller bookstores will do this; the larger chain bookstores generally will not, but it never hurts to ask).

Bottom line: Selling books is a business. Keeping an eye on the bottom line (and the costs that eat away at the profits) is critical.

See more Publisher Conversations with Authors HERE.

 Learn more about publishing from an acquisitions editor -- how to get your book proposal accepted, why proposals are turned

The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic that you would like addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.

                         

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Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.

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Steven Greenebaum, author of award-winning books, An Afternoon's Discussion and One Family: Indivisible, talking to a reader at Barnes & Noble in Gilroy, California.

   

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