Angus and Robertson request payment for shelf space

[GOLLUM]

Angus & Robertson's demand that small- to medium-sized Australian publishers and distributors pay amounts said to range from $2,500 to $100,000 in order to have their books stocked in the chain's stores has brought angry reaction from the book industry and book buyers.

More here.....

The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs: Entertainment

I would be interersted to hear from our US and UK friends if similar things are going on over there.

 

[Locksmith]

I don't know about this in the context of books, but one of the things the UK supermarkets are currently being investigated by the Competition Commission for are listing fees or promotional fees - there are numerous terms for them, but they basically amount to the same thing - being required to pay additional money before your product will be stocked.

I know there's a tendency to see these things in black and white, and take a knee-jerk reaction to them, but... book shops are businesses, not charities. They're relying on the publishers to pass through books which they have chosen well and promoted well, so that they sell well. Otherwise, they're just taking up shelf space and not contributing to the bottom line. Ultimately, the management of big businesses will have to report profits to their shareholders. All they're saying to publishers is "if you can't offer us a certain margin, we aint stocking you." Surely that's their choice? There's no obligation to stock any publisher's books.

The real problem arises from the fact that, if it's anything like the UK, the Australian public have made their own bed by buying from big bookshops at the expense of small, independent ones. So there's no alternative outlets for new publishers. This means that if the small publishers can't afford these payments they can't afford to enter the market. That reduces the possible talent pool and sucks for readers.

 

[j d worthington]

I don't know about books, but certainly it is the case in many places with other items, so it wouldn't surprise me. It isn't the case in the small, independent book shops, from what I understand (certainly it wasn't in the shop I worked at). But, as Locksmith says, the public has rather made its bed on this one by bypassing the smaller, independent shops and going for the big chains, thus leaving the small shops to slowly (or not so slowly) die of inanition. (For example: When I first moved to this town, there were three pages of listings for bookstores in the directory. Now it's down to half a page -- and that's both new and used! About three-quarters of that are Christian bookstores, not general....) So... we've only ourselves to blame. (Which is another reason I buy online... nearly all the places I buy from are small, independent shops; so I'm helping to keep the alternatives alive......)

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I seriously would be tempted to tell them to stickit and swivel

 

[Pyan]

Tempting, WWD - but perhaps not if you want to actually make a living out of being an author........

 

[timelord4]

Yes. The author certainly seems to be at the lower end of the gravy trail.

By the corporate giant's doing what they are, they'll eventually consume the smaller publishers, distributors and booksale shops. Rather like the food chain giants, they consume everything including petrol stations, THEN they set their own prices. That's the killer. If the price of books go up any higher in Australia, the buyers will diminish. Hence, the decline in accepted written work. Less authors required. And in our specific genre, that could spell disaster.

 

[Rosemary]

One angry book buyer here! There are no smaller bookshops in my area, so I have to buy from the two big shops, Angus & Robertson or Dymocks.
It really will be a shame if new authors are unable to reach the book readers.

 

[j d worthington]

By the corporate giant's doing what they are, they'll eventually consume the smaller publishers, distributors and booksale shops. Rather like the food chain giants, they consume everything including petrol stations, THEN they set their own prices. That's the killer. If the price of books go up any higher in Australia, the buyers will diminish. Hence, the decline in accepted written work. Less authors required. And in our specific genre, that could spell disaster.

I rather doubt that, actually. More and more people are buying over the 'net, which allows them to shop globally -- and helps to keep smaller businesses in business (as long as the 'net -- as we have it now or in a newer version set up to compete with a more regulated version -- remains unfettered). Even with the risks, the fact is that it is one heck of a lot more convenient, and that almost always sells. The fact that the smaller presses have access to the buyer this way on such a scale gives them a much better chance of survival, if they can only get the word out... and places like this, which mention the smaller presses to those interested in such work, definitely help to boost their sales.

In other words... word-of-mouth (or keyboard) is likely to become more powerful an aid to such small businesses than ever before... if we take advantage of it.

 

[scalem X]

I do think a lot of the time you'll have to pay for good spaces in a bookstore (say shelves near the entrance). But to not store your books if you do not pay? That seems a bit outrageous. That would mean that money equals value...

It does open opportunities for: publisher-shops. Very easy: they publish and they store them in their shops. Simple as that. And when you want fantasy, you'll have to go to the idk immanion-simon and schuster-... bookshop

In fact most publisher have an online shop already, so I guess it's not that weird...

 

[K. Riehl]

Large chain stores are in the business to make money. I worked for a large American chain bookstore for more than 10 years and shelf space is a very sought after commodity. I spoke with a publisher of a small, but critically respected, poetry magazine and he told me about his experience with buying an end-of-isle display for his magazine. For a bottom right pocket(out of 9 on the endcap) he paid $2,800. If it had been eye level it would have been $4,500. This is for the same placement in all of the 800 stores. He had to accept back all unsold copies and pay the chain within 10 days the entire returned amount. Now small poetry publications don't make much money and he calculated that his sell through would have to be 85% to break even. The average sell through for poetry magazines is around 30-40%. He thought to gain additional customers through the placement and went ahead. He lost almost $8,000 on the process and almost went out of business.

If you walk into the average chain store and look at the front tables with new hardcover or paperback editions. You will notice that 80% will be from the 5 main publishers. The employees have layout grids that require particular books be placed in particular displays at the registers. Publishers send around employees to audit the displays and will report any store that does not comply. All of the fold up cardboard displays are paid for and required to be placed in particular areas.

I watched the control and input of the employees and managers in what should be displayed get reduced to the point where perhaps 1 table or display could be placed in the front third of the store. All else was paid for by publishers and you were not allowed to remove them until the end of the "period".

As you might understand this was one of the main reasons I left the business. When it is no longer book people deciding what to recommend to their customers then it is just another job, and I loved books too much to treat them only as a product.

The only way to get around this type of homoginization is the power of word of mouth. There is no greater influence on the success or failure of a book than the collective "I liked it" or "I loved it, you should read it." So in sites like the Chron. I find the new and the interesting regardless of the publicity put out by the big publishers.

Keep reading and, more importantly, keep recommending those books that strike something inside you and the new authors will find their audience.

 

[areader]

Hmmmm the local A&R (outer suburbia) just doesn't stock the books that I'm interested in...while the top 50 reads shelf is a good guide (er, three fantasy titles, you've read them, er, they haven't changed them in a year)....they don't adjust to their clients. This is a BIGGGGG mistake.

The local QBD does...they are brilliant shelf/customer watchers and cater for niche readers. I was impressed by being pushed into a corner by the staff vacuuming until I realised there it was...the volume I had been eying for months at a massively reduced price. They restock missing volumes in a series eventually : ) .

Big W has fantastic price reductions/tho limited reading.

That's my non-virtual shopping guide and its the equivalent of fast food reading.

Virtual is for the volume you can't find...the serious large book shopping expedition and for books that simply aren't on the shelves. Anyone that reads obsessively is going to need to access online shops just to get their book fix. Chain bookshops don't cater at that personal level. The other books bought by people who have bought this book and the may we recommend other titles...not quite your old fashioned bookseller but something we have missed. Massive online booksellers...well don't try ordering around a holiday period as you will get significant delays.

Basically customer demand works...not the other way around. Everyone knows the best books are not in plain and obvious view ; ) and that authors who stick with a surname of Z are to be respected. In any case, the ones promoted are mass market books...and popular fantasy such as HP aside, these books are not centre of the shop.

 

[Anthony G Williams]

I read not long ago that the big book chains can make as much money from charging publishers for shelf space as they do from actually selling books.

The traditional pattern of book publishing and buying seems to be undergoing a period of accelerating change. And most of the changes are bad for authors in general and aspiring authors in particular.

 

[Foxbat]

Many small farmers in the UK have to pay a fee to large supermarket chains if those chains are to stock their products. This allows supermarkets to offer goods at very cheap prices to the public. The problem lies in the heavy financial burdens placed on small farms because of this. If the farm goes under, the large chain just goes elsewhere for the product. I fear the same will happen to small book publishers in Australia.

 

[scalem X]

The problem is that if small presses disappear, the big presses won't fill in the gaps by producing more diverse products. They don't care if they sell 200 David Beckham biographies or 5x40 of good books. In fact it will be easier for them to focus on the books that sell anyway and try to sell those to every single person.

They will keep rejecting the same percentage of new authors and just produce more of the ones that sold well, so far.

 

[GOLLUM]

Keep up the posts friends, I'm enjoying this discussion, glad I posted it....

Fortunately I tend to trawl various online bookstores, forums, ezines, small book store owners/specliaists, friend's opinions and specific critics for most of my fodder which is often off the mainstream radar BUT for the mainstream buyer I can see them missing out more and more on those literary gems that often don't have the advantage of huge publicity departments behind them or now larger book chains stocking them. Somewhat sad really...

 

[scalem X]

That's what I really hate about mainstream readers. They get all fussed up by some novel that gets publicity and is not bad, but not great (e.g. the Da Vinci Code). Then they have something like: when a great book comes out, I usually buy and read it. Which makes me sigh and .
You men when a book gets more publicity than is good for one, you go and read it?

 

[flygin]

I worked for a large American chain bookstore for more than 10 years

K. Riehl, did the store you worked in have a section with staff-recommended books? I've always wondered if those recommendations are for real, or if it's just another way to sell more of what are already popular books or authors.

 

[K. Riehl]

Yes we had section for staff recs. It was for the employees who love books to feature the books they really like. We used to have an informal competition between the booksellers on who was able to recommend and sell more of "their" selection. A bookseller who is passionate about a given book can do more for promotion of an author short term or long term than any publicity put out by publishers. It was the best part about the job for me. When I would be able to recommend the first Miles Vorkosigan book to a reader and watch when they come back and demand to read all of the books by Bujold.

Over a period of 3 or years I had one customer who read every fantasy series I recommended and pushed for more to the point where I would scout the used bookstores for her and get series like The Hound and the Falcon by Judith Tarr for her. She would pay me back, read them, and demand more. She started when she was 13 and is now attending Emerson College intending to become a writer, of fantasy. So even the chains recognize the value of a engaged and enthusiastic employee who loves books. If they ever removed the section I would suspect they would lose large numbers of their employees.