Do book shops only stock bestsellers?

[Brian G Turner]

I've been thinking of late - I've heard publishers say that book shops account for 75% of book sales.

However, whenever I visit a Waterstones I usually check to see if any of our chron authors are stocked. Usually they aren't.

Instead, I can easily find best selling classics in the SFF section. Little else.

It therefore occurred to me that publishers may be looking at very skewed figures - that book shops are only selling books known to have a potential high volume sales potential, mostly through proven track record.

In other words, most of the books sold in book shops are best sellers that sell anyway.

In which case - what is the point of a debut author signing up with a publisher?

Agreed, there is some publicity and trust - but chances are their books will not appear on book shelves at major stores.

So the vast majority of sales would be through Amazon - especially ebooks. For that privilege, the author allows the publisher to take a massive cut of the income.

The business issue being that if someone is willing to invest in proper editing and marketing - which will be quite a cost - the potential returns would be significantly better.

I'm not trying to argue for self-publishing as much as a broken model for traditional publishing.

I just keep thinking it makes more business sense to push on having a very polished product and epublish than have a publishing company do it.

I mean, if the publishing company cannot guarantee that they can book physical books on physical bookstore shelves, then what is the point of using them?

Additionally, Amazon continues to innovate, while publishers have still yet to grasp exactly what the internet is, does, and can be used for.

Which means when it comes to online sales - the place where new authors will mostly be reliant on for sales - it is the holder of the majority of royalty rights that wins. And with a publishing company, that's them, not the author.

Simply thinking aloud.

In the meantime, next time I'm at my "local" Waterstones, I'll be looking out for:

Anne Lyle
Francis Knight
Toby Frost
Mark Robson

to see if they are properly represented.

I would recommend others do the same - I'd love to hear your feedback.

Because if publishers are failing to put books for debut and relatively new authors on the book shelves, then they are failing their authors, and therefore making themselves somewhat irrelevant.

Something I've been thinking about...

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have quite a bit of experience of bookselling. Ten years ago a section buyer had pretty much carte blanche and the reps promoted books to them. Now that is all done centrally/regionally with more limited branch intervention. Plus, with retail margins so tight in the recession, a buyer who purchases something which doesn't shift must justify that purchase. Books cost both to buy in and to return and high stock levels have a negative impact on margins during stocktake.

Sadly, it means less diversity and we're now in the vicious curve of Amazon carrying stocks of most titles (it's where I got all the Vorkosigan books) and bookshops selling volume sellers.

The best to do to get a Chrons author on the shelves is to ask the book buyer, but one person asking won't swing it. (I got Anne Lyle into Waterstones in Belfast by asking). If they get sales they will reorder - Mark Lawrence is doing well in Waterstones at the moment and they are reordering as it sells through.

So, yeh, sadly, the skew is to volume. Whether this eases after the recession remains to be seen. Independent booksellers are a different kettle of fish and for genre publishing may be the high street way forward. Local authors can also take that pitch.

Oh, and publishers sell debut authors in, but this process is done centrally.

Ps i did come across an Ian Whates collection of shorts in Easons in Belfast last week. (The Irish Smiths.)

 

[Dozmonic]

Generally the majority of a high street store will be best sellers. They'll dedicate some space to others who may seem topical. GRRM sells well, fantasy expands a little and they diversify who they stock. I work for one of the bigger high street book names and Mark Lawrence is a local author, but we sold the last copy of Prince of Thorns 2+ weeks ago and have had no replen yet. Whereas if we get down to our last 5 copies of any GRRM, we'll get enough stock in the next delivery to last us a month at least.

The problem is one of space. Bestsellers do, by definition, sell. Which means they bring in money. It's a balancing act between stocking best sellers and stocking a range. It's not easy for new authors in the high street, unless their publisher gets a good deal to go on a promo drop in a high street store, or they get deals to be given away with pre-orders, be bought cheap when you buy the Times, do promo giveaways with newspapers etc.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The last time I looked, Barnes and Noble (soon to be the late Barnes and Noble) stocked just about everything by Angry Robot, which would, of course, include Anne Lyle.

While I wouldn't say that US bookstores only stock bestsellers, midlist writers have been being squeezed out for a while, and with the demise of the big chains it will be even worse, unless we see the independent bookshops return.

(Department stores with book sections, like Target, are even more risk averse than bookstores, so fingers crossed for the independents.)

 

[sooC]

We only have Eason's in town. I usually buy a book and order what I originally came in for. I miss Keohane's, which closed the year before last, but I'm basically doing the same thing I always have. Only now I'm in and out of there in ten minutes because there's little to hold my interest, the choice is far easier now.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

On a more personal level, then. I was a manager in a bookshop chain for ten years and had to give it up to make my life more family friendly - i specialised in news and magazines which need early starts.

My husband was a specialist senior academic bookseller for fifteen years. His shop closed - academic bookselling has been hit very badly by online journals and such like - and he now works part time in a bookshop as a retail assistant. Our bookshops have been decimated by the internet. We all say we love a nice bookshop but unless we vote with our feet there will be no independents left. I hated buying Bujold on line but the prices offered, the speed of delivery and not having to travel fifteen miles to get it and wait for the order to come in, all had an impact on that decision. Ebooks are another aspect of the same decline.

The only way for independents to make it is for readers to use them, and, sadly, we aren't. Not enough, anyway.

 

[Montero]

Thinking laterally - if I lived near enough to a book shop with a genre section to frequent it, which I don't (over an hour's drive), but when I used to, it was only open during normal business hours. Which for me meant Saturdays and I hate massive shopping crowds and Saturday morning was also my zombie time after a long week commuting.
It is anti-family for the staff, but book shops opening some weekday evenings, especially if they are one of the ones with a cafe, might pick up more trade from people chilling out after work. If they can persuade book clubs to meet there as well, that might help too. Just a thought I just had. I am not at all sure that many people would be in a bookstore on say a Monday morning, so shifting opening hours to socialising times might help.
So I'd suspect that lunchtimes - for nearby office workers - and evenings for local residents could be prime book selling time, as much as there is such a thing.

Another comment on how books sell - re-order. If something sells briskly then a re-order is more likely. If say 4 copies sell and number 5 hangs around on the shelf for ages, if there is a re-order it is more likely to be fewer than 5 copies.

@Springs - in my experience of buying Bujold, she was not stocked by UK booksellers when I started reading her about 10 years ago. I am talking about a big Waterstones - she just wasn't there at all. There were several other big names (whose name I have now forgotten ) that just weren't there either.

 

[Gary Compton]

As everyone knows. I've always wanted to do my own thing. Not because I couldn't work with all those lovely agents and publishers out there.

No! The fact I've been my own boss for 30 years and I wonder if I would fit in. Do I want to fit in?

Another factor is I have a nice quiet life now with very little pressure so I don't fancy deadlines - book a year crap and blah de blah.

So I started 7 years ago with virtually no talent and I've managed to write a half-decent story by listening and learning and listening. Like Bryan says I will employ the best editors to go through my ramblings and when I'm confident I will push the button.

I have a £500 a month budget for advertising for 12 months and every sale in the 1st six months will go back into the advertising pot. I have the publishing company setup and website done

It will be fun and if I only sell 20 books at least I tried!

Onwards and sideways!

 

[Montero]

OK, bit boggled at the 000s going before my eyes.
May I ask what you are spending your advertising budget on?
(Please feel free to say 'bog off'. )

 

[Gary Compton]

First of all I'm a year of publishing, but I thought I'd start with the quality UK papers, like the Guardian and the Times.

 

[Mark_Lawrence]

My local Waterstones always seems to have a good selection of titles and I usually see books by other new faces there - including Teresa Frohock, Courtney Schafer & Mazarkis Williams (all of whom are with smaller publishers), Elspeth Cooper, Anne Lyle...

With other shops it's more patchy. My local WHSmith only has big titles and didn't have my book until it came out in paperback. My local Foyles I had to email and suggest maybe they might stock me

In the US people often report not being able to find my books in B&N. But then a lot of people tell me they found my books in B&N and bought them on a whim 'because of the cover'...

I think my big break-through was having my paperbacks stocked in ASDA, Tesco etc. That makes a huge difference. But each piece builds on the next. Before it was demonstrated that a decent number of people wanted to read my stuff, Waterstones and a scattering of indies was the only place to buy it.

As to the pros and cons of publishers vs self-pub... it's too complicated an issue for a definitive answer. My publishers helped me a lot, but then they paid a good advance and that meant they had to put in the effort to try and make the investment pay off.

 

[Lucian Poll]

I'd echo Mark. Waterstones in Norwich has a pretty decent section for sci-fi and fantasy (less so horror, sadly). I've often seen books from both Anne Lyle and Francis Knight on their shelves.

Re: advertising budgets, one thing I would recommend is to gather circulation figures for the publications you intend to use. You can then gauge the value of each advert. For example I found I had to achieve a sale for every 8 or so readers of Fortean Times to earn the £1900 it would cost to purchase a page, while advertising in Cemetery Dance meant a sale for every 80 readers (and for £125 too!).

 

[MPorter]

As the owner of a comic store I know that I do a balancing act between ordering the stuff that I really like and ordering the latest Marvel/DC mega crossover title. I have to stock the latter to stay in business. The former is where the work part of running a book store comes in. I handsell the stuff that I like. I put it into customers hands. I talk it up. I do my homework and find out what (if any) mainstream books the writer/artist have worked on so I can make that connection with the customer.

I know that the latest Batman/Superman #1 will sell itself. If I want to stock the more interesting (in my opinion) inde/non-superhero titles I have to be willing to put in the work to make it viable.

~Mike

 

[Dream Walker]

Here in town they have a new used book shop where everyone has learned to go to for anything isoteric or offbeat.
Its always crowded upon Sunday afternoons. In fact I am on my way there now.

I think the problem with the big stores is that people have become resigned to being force-fed the usual lines there now. So they stop looking. So there are less sales and more homogenous offerings.

The real problem is bringing the books into a spot and the people into a spot where they can co-mingle. This spot has cookies.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Good to hear that newer authors are being stocked and my cynicism isn't warranted (and well done Mark for making the supermarkets!).

However, I'm still left wondering if the book chains are in decline then Amazon will become the primary sales platform for newer authors. In that scenario, might it be the case that publishers might stop signing up new authors - unless they have already proven themselves via self-publishing? And therefore able to convince the sales-agents for any major book sellers still remaining to stock them?

Not trying to argue for self-publishing, as much as the increasing dominance of Amazon and what it may ultimately result in for newer writers seeking publication.

 

[Montero]

In the way you have small press now, covering (a few of) the books that don't fall in the territory that big publishers cover, I wonder if you will have small, specialist online bookshops springing up if Amazon proves limited in the context suggested by Brian. So not much market share, but loved by the afficionados.

 

[jastius]

Brian what about contests? becoming a finalist in one of the bigger contests or even in the top twenty five almost demands a look see from the publishers.. granted some of them are vehicles for publishers to noise about their list but the true forums for the opening salvos of newbies offer all kinds of foot in the door opportunities..
( sorry for the cant .. just finished a space battle and my fingers still want to type it..)

 

[Dozmonic]

Contests draw attention, but even in a lot of high street stores all that means is you might spend a month on a small FSDU with a sticker saying "shortlisted for the X award..." Those books won't usually make it onto a promotional drop that people particularly see and their shelf life isn't great.

The stuff that will get taken up is the "if you like X, you'll love..." type books. 50 shades did well and everything like it got given dedicated space. It was in the charts, on promotional ends, larger stores had entire drops dedicated to the genre.

YA is the most progressive genre for what it's currently accepting and getting into high street stores in the UK. More new YA titles go onto promotional drops than anything else. Adult drops are populated by the same authors at the moment. Promotional drops are really the key way of being noticed in the high street stores.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It's also worth mentioning the importance of libraries, which are often a little more forward thinking in terms of promoting debuts etc. It's where I picked up Dark Eden long before it was stocked in the local shops (it's still not in the local shops, actually, which I think backs up Doz's take on contests -- after it won the Clarke award it was everywhere for a week or two). They also run a promo a couple of times of year where they feature debut authors.

IBrian, I genuinely believe that until some sort of quality parameters enter into self-publishing it's never going to be a threat to the big publishers. It's more a question of what they'll do with e-books, I think.

Interestingly, I was chatting to a small group of friends last night, two of whom had been extolling the virtues of ereaders last year and they've both started buying real books again. I think, genuinely, books are a medium that will continue to exist both paper and e -- there are too many of us out there who simply don't want to read a book on screen, no matter how good that screen is. I work all day at a screen, I don't want to spend my leisure time looking at one, and I'm far from a luddite.

 

[Nesacat]

Bookshops here tend to stick to bestsellers for several reasons. We don't have a huge or even a reasonably sized reading public. By this I mean people who read on a regular basis and not those who read Twlight Book 1 and then nothing in between until Book 2 comes out. Most readers here are of this variety, contributes to the stocking of bestsellers.

Reading is considered by many to be a complete waste of time because it does not help you gain employment and when employed does not help you progress in your job. For such a useless endeavour, reading is overly expensive, especially when it comes to books for children. Why pay so much for books filled with pictures and hardly any words.

Bookstores therefore stick to what is tried and tested because they are then reasonably sure of being able to sell a decent quantity. We have very few independent bookstores trying to do more and it's a struggle for them to survive. Most steady readers turn to places like Book Depository and many buy books when they travel.

Having said all this, I must also acknowledge that the stores have come a long way. They used to not even have a section for science fiction, fantasy, horror and comics. Now all stores do, even if the sections are small and carry just Tolkien, George Martin, CS Lewis, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It's a start in the right direction and hopefully with more people reading and asking for books, the selection will increase.