Beth D. writes:
Wolfgang, this has nothing to do with self published "indie" writers. JB is attacking published authors (and thinking he's hurting Amazon) whose books are released by Amazon Publishing, not people who upload their unpublished manuscripts onto the internet. Big difference.
JB counters:
I don't believe anything I've written has been an attack on an author. I could've ignored Author X's request for a signing and tossed the ARC as another bookseller says he has done. I thought the guy was owed an explanation. I'm not rejecting him - I'm rejecting enriching a corporation that is destroying my industry. (And, please note that I took pains to not include his identity. This isn't about him or his writing but it is about his publisher.)
And for the record, we're peppered with requests from authors daily who say they have a book published and expect a signing. If the book doesn't meet certain financial requirements (available from a major wholesaler at a reasonable discount and is returnable), we turn them down because the economics do not work for us. Many people seem to feel that running a bookshop is all fun and games - it isn't. It is a brutal world of dollars and cents/sense.
There is also a feeling afoot these days that just because someone can become a published author that they should become a published author. That's not true. And it isn't true that everyone who has a printed book is automatically owed a signing. There are all kinds of factors that go into us agreeing to holding a signing but the major one is does it make economic sense for us to do so. If it doesn't, we can't.
Wolfgang writes:
What is this total denial I am seeing with indie bookstores? The technology is here. It isn't just Amazon. It is Smashwords, B&N, etc. Ereaders are selling like hotcakes. Editors and agents are no longer the gatekeepers. Readers are the gatekeepers. And when they can spend less money for more books..duh! That's a no brainer. This is all about economics. I understand your argument and yes, it sucks for you. You live in a a bad time for indie bookstores. A very bad time. The publishing world has turned upside down but the only way for you to survive is to embrace and support novelists and invite them into your store for signings. Otherwise, you're dead. Harsh but true. You can thrive if you invite indie authors to your store and carry their books but you won't. You think you're fighting a war but you aren't. This is just the future, man. That's all. Go with it or die. And that stupid reference to Its a Wonderful Life was just that. Stupid.
JB counters:
As founding member and president of the "JB is Stupid" club, I say welcome. It is a large and healthy membership. No dues, secret handshakes or meetings. We're vocal but casual.
As for the economics of selling e-books, let me note that we've investigated the Google/Indiecommerce e-book system and will be rolling out a new website on July 1st to enable our loyal customers to buy their e-books from us. We won't be selling Kindle versions as that is proprietary and I personally do not understand how flexible the files are for Nook vs. Kindle and if one can be read by the other (I don't care either, as I personally have no interest in reading from one.)
We've been investigating it all for months and have talked to a number of other independents and the concensus is that if they sell 10 e-books a month it was a good month. The vast majority of sales of e-books are going to the huge corporations. While it is grand that Google and the American Booksellers Association have worked out this way for us independents to sell e-books, a dirty little secret of it is that anyone wishing to do so has to set up a Google account to buy from us. Once they do, they do not have to go back through us to buy more e-books. So, conceivably, this is a way for Google to build up a client base to compete head-to-head with Amazon in a way that does not need our inclusion. We'll all just have to see how that turns out.
But if you would like to know more about the raw economics of selling e-books, our bookkeeper and bookkseller Fran crunched the numbers in a blog post on Feb 3rd, and the math is education. I urge you to take the time to go through it. Having the capacity to sell e-books will not be the saviour many expect it to be.
And the reference to It's a Wonderful Life was meant to be a way to give people who are not working in bookselling a frame of reference. It is also an apt comparrison, but I understand that you did not appreciate it. In this debate, it is important to keep all of the factors in play - the economics, the scales and the emotions.
Shelfaware had an interesting thing today about the who and how and why of Amazon's recommendations:
How do you become a top 1,000 Amazon reviewer? A new study by Cornell professor Trevor Pinch suggests that the website's elite reviewers "do not always make independent decisions about which books and other products they write about.... the reviewers in many cases acknowledge that in order to maintain their high rankings and continue to receive free products (one of the perks of being a top reviewer), they have to make surprisingly calculated decisions about what to review and what to say about those products," paidContent.org reported.
Pinch noted that a fundamental problem is the expectation on the part of Amazon's customers that reviewers are just ordinary shoppers. "The issue of the 'customers' not really being customers needs to be addressed," said Pinch, who found that 85% percent of respondents had received free products from publishers, agents, authors and others. The "way to keep those freebies flowing is to pump out glowing book reviews," paidContent.org wrote, adding that 88% of respondents reported that most or all of the reviews they wrote were positive.
If the independents go away, then so do their recommendations, websites, blogs, newsletters and insights. That, the 'customer reviews' on Amazon may be your main source of imformation. Is that what you want?
One of our local sales reps (thanks, Cindy!) sent us this link to a essay in the Seattlepi.com by Trevor Griffey explaining in depth the Top 10 Reasons to Avoid Amazon.com due to their actions as a corporate citizen.
I understand that I may not be changing any minds with these posts. But I do hope that they're causing people to think about the issues involved. If you understand the elements involved, the threats and dangers and benefits and outcomes and you consciously chose to spend your money with a massive conglomerate or a small independent, fine. But if you haven't been aware of the issues that we're trying to raise, you need to be.
~JB
I stumbled on this article completely by accident. I am purely a reader, I get a large portion of my reading from local libraries or small resale shops, I refuse to buy from B&N largely because they seem to sell on a 30% mark up from my corner book store. I confess I have bought from amazon marketplace when I can't find a title locally.
This argument completely disheartens me, because if indie book shops are no longer and everyone is forced to buy a frappin kindle or e-reader (which I loath)how will writers ever break in to the market if there is such prejudices working against them?
I remember 17ish years ago, I was 11, I found a tiny little novel that was beautiful and sad. I loved it, but if we have no books to stumble on how will our children's children ever have the joy that I found in that little book?
So I say make your stand!! get mad! you are our last defense against the black tide, you are the to readers as, Osgiliath is to Minus Tirith. I want to have the joy of old books for centuries to come!
Posted by: Kerry | July 10, 2011 at 02:20 AM
I've been following this thread since it started. I keep going back and forth on adding my two cents to the conversation (really there is no monetary value if someone is counting). This post keeps eating at me though. It's an invaluable commodity to have someone in your community available to help recommend books based on their knowledge of what books and authors exist as well as what a persons' specific likes and dislikes might be. I agree. We need to support those stores.
My concern, and what's eating at me -- if you aren't going to recommend books to me -- no matter how much I'd like reading them -- based on who published the book -- or any other reason based on factors external to the quality of the book -- I'm not sure I'd trust that I was getting the best possible recommendation.
I’m sure it’s a better experience visiting your bookstore than it is to utilize an online seller or a giant box store that employs people better at making coffee than they are at recommending books -- but I think integrity is an important quality for those precious few bookstores that can offer quality recommendations. For my experience, you've lost some of that integrity by refusing to work with one publisher -- no matter how valid the reason.
Posted by: Emme B. | June 28, 2011 at 04:27 PM
You are absolutely attacking authors. You boasted about pulling ALL the books off your shelves by any author who dared publish with Amazon.
God forbid these people (you know, the ones with the talent) refuse to be used and discarded by the NY publishers, and instead team up with a publisher who knows how to sell books.
You need to support authors and not publishers. They are the ones who matter.
Posted by: Beth D | June 27, 2011 at 05:58 PM
You are effectively banning books as well as depriving your customers of the works of those writers. That's sad.
Posted by: Joan Milne | June 27, 2011 at 03:29 PM
I totally support your decision to not sell Amazon's imprint. For one, it's your store. You're under no obligation whatsoever to sell that imprint's books. You might get an irate customer who comes in for that particular book and can't get it, but I'm sure you get that regularly because you don't stock a lot of books from a lot of imprints. Space, what will sell, and all that. So really, nobody has any business bitching.
Sadly, bookstores indie/box and otherwise are, in my opinion becoming victim of not just Amazon per se, but our culture of convenience. Bezos just found a good way to tap into that cultural mentality. We want what we want and we want it now and as cheaply as possible. When you just want the next (insert author here) to read, nobody wants to travel across town to the bookstore to get it when it can show up on the doorstep the next day. You don't invest time or gas in the process. On a purely consumer level, it makes sense.
Another issue I think, is that people (a lot of them anyway), take storytelling for granted. The internet has done a lot to devalue content, and books have been pulled down right along with everything else. Amazon has certainly done it's two cents worth to help this along.
For those who argue, "why wouldn't I buy from Amazon? It's the cheapest and most convenient way to get books," you might think about the notion of supporting your local community. Investing in the well-being of those who live around you and your community in general is a good thing to be doing. I get the need to buy as cheaply as possible. Having suffered through up and down employment over the past 3 years, I get the need to minimize. If I want a book, and I can order it for $5 on Amazon, and I don't have 30-60 min and $5 for gas to go to my local bookstore to get the same book for $7.99, I'm in a position right now where I have to do that. I'm sorry, indies, but when it comes to just getting a book, economics wins.
That said, JB, how can bookstores make getting books something more than just cruising in and grabbing said title off the shelf and swiping the debit card? I've asked myself this question every time I see these discussions. I love bookstores. I find them both peaceful and stimulating. They are generally just great spaces to hang out in. How can bookstores make the extra investment more appealing? Of course, being a specialty bookshop, you have a clientele of dedicated readers, who will always shop there, because you cater to their dedication, which is something an online presence like Amazon can't really duplicate no matter what their algorithms are. But how do bookstores do this for the more general reader?
I see bookstores gradually fading away except for in big cities that have a big enough base of dedicated customers to draw upon. I hope this doesn't happen, because I believe they can be a benefit to any community. Storytelling is too valuable a cultural commodity to get sucked up into the digital black hole. I have no answers, other than I believe bookstores need to alter the perception of what they provide, which for the general public is just a place to go snag the latest best seller off the shelf. Stories have value and significance, and it's bookstores and libraries and schools which are going to keep that alive, not the Amazons of the world.
Posted by: J.N. Duncan | June 26, 2011 at 09:08 AM
Whatever success I've had as an author has been due to the care and feeding I've gotten both from my publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, and the independent bookstore owners around the country who've hosted me, passed enjoyable hours talking with me, then hand-sold my books to customers who relied on their booksellers' knowledge of both published material and their readers' tastes. Anyone who thinks if amazon does drive all bookstores out of business, that a company for whom the bottom line is measured solely in dollars would treat authors as anything other than very poorly-compensated 'product producers,' is certifiably delusional. And should amazon ever hold a publishing monopoly, readers will fare no better. They'll get what amazon wants them to have, and nothing else. And what will happen then? We'll see a resurgence of independent publishers and bookstores, with chastened readers ready to admit you get what you pay for.
Posted by: Larry Karp | June 24, 2011 at 09:05 PM
Thanks to you and the staff, JB, for standing up on this. I fully support your decision. I made my own decision recently not to buy books from Amazon.com. I am definitely paying the price financially. But to me it is well worth it to maintain the community and face-to-face interaction that only independent bookstores can provide.
Posted by: Evan Hershman | June 24, 2011 at 05:17 PM