Predators
Here’s an idea: Bookstores and festivals should pay the author for events. I mean, this is a business, right? The author is a commodity that equals attendance/sales, right? So what’s with this attitude that the publisher (or, in many cases, the author) cover travel and lodging?
This especially gets on my tits when the author is invited to attend. I suppose I can forgive the bookstores that are solicited by the publisher, but…well, no, I can’t. It’s criminal and it’s predatory.
All I’m talking about is airfare and lodging. Fine if you don’t want to pay the author…and even if you don’t want to buy them a beer. No problem.
Now, sure, the indie bookstores are dying. The big chain bookstores aren’t motivated, and many festivals are strapped for cash when all is said and done. Then, my colleagues argue, if the publisher demands compensation for travel and lodging, festivals and bookstores will stop having events. It’ll just be the big publishers who can afford to send authors around.
Folks, we’re just about at that point now. A small press can’t afford the thousands needed to send an author out on an extensive tour, unless you cheat on everything and hold the author’s family hostage. Here’s a loaf of bread. This will be your only nourishment. Drink only tap water. Do not make phone calls.
A properly done publicity tour will usually clock in at ,000. That’s one of those random numbers thrown out by experts. A small press can get away with 00 or so. Then lie about the cost so they’ll get reviews. What really gets the cost up is travel and lodging, of course. Thus the reason I now have a violent and bitter reaction (after I sweetly hang up the phone) when some asshole says the publisher is responsible for all that.
Predators… I’ll start with the festivals. The second tier book fairs that rank under Texas, Miami, Harbourfront, and the National Book Fair (all gigs that pay). Here these second tier folks are scrambling for names (if they’re the sort to organize a panel of guest speakers), so they’ve got demand, and the publisher has the supply. But that’s where the song of capitalism ends. Those festival folks don’t even hesitate to insist that the publisher pay the way. Just drop a grand to get your author to our fair! No problem! Then the old saw, which I hear all the time: “The payoff is in all the extra media attention!” Usually that comes with the promise that the media attention will be through the roof.
No. Never true. Their priority is to promote the festival itself and, unless your author is the single, keynote speaker, there’s no special media attention except being among a list of names.
But it’s not even that. If the event doesn’t push a thousand books, it’s not worth it. And no event will see those sort of figures. So the publisher isn’t going to see any real money from sales, the media attention isn’t going to be focused on the author…and the festival people don’t want to part with any cash. Let’s see…the average second tier festival will have 50 exhibitors – printers, mailers, small presses, the vast sea of self published fuckos, geegaws, doodads, etc. All paying, say, 0 a booth. And booths mean a guide! And a guide means advertising space! And an event means concessions, so in come the cokes and beers. And whoever is hosting the festival has stuff to sell as well – membership, subscriptions, books…
Festivals that host a panel of featured authors often have a reseller license (or a deal with a bookstore where they get kickbacks). There are all sorts of little avenues of income there so, hey, at least spring for a cheap hotel room, assholes. You’re getting a product – now pay for it. How sick has our society become where we’re supposed to be grateful for the “honor” of spending money for nothing?
On to bookstores. I try to be friendly and regard them as allies but, in the end, that’s hard to do. Especially when dealing with the big chain stores. They don’t care about anything but sales. That’s just fine…it’s business. But Borders and Barnes & Noble have become famous for their auto-return policy, blindly clearing shelf space after just a few months. In more cases than you think, they’re returning books before they’ve even received them. I’ll get to how this costs the publisher (and the author) in a minute. First, since this is a sensitive topic, I should go ahead and spell out how the bookstores aren’t really losing money, and why they should put up for a cheap hotel room if an author comes in for a reading.
We’ll call our example Book X, and let’s say it retails for . On average, the bookstore gets 40% off of the retail. That depends on the publisher, distributor, quantity ordered, and type of book, but 40% is a good average to go with. So the bookstores pay . (By the way – check my math, because I have trouble adding one plus one. I have a BA in History and Poli Sci, so all I really need to know is how many Congressmen it takes to change a light bulb.)
Okay, that’s money out the door. But, if the book doesn’t sell, the bookstores have 12 fucking months to return it for a full refund. That’s a win-win situation. Sell it for 40% more than you paid for it or return it for 100% cash back (well, maybe lose a few dollars on shipping, but still).
Who suffers in this business? The poor authors getting their puny royalties, and the publishers who are nickel and dimed by the machine. You would think publishers are walking away with all the money. Some are. The big ones. But even Harry Potter’s US publisher is living the corporate equivalent of paycheck to paycheck, so that right there should dispel that myth.
Back to Book X, at $15. The first cost, of course, is paying the author. This is an advance, paid back by later book sales, that can range anywhere from nothing to a million bucks, depending on whether you’re me or, say, James Lee Burke. The typical small press advance will be in the low thousands. It’s money out of pocket for the publisher, but it’s also sort of shadow money because the publisher gets to keep the author’s royalties until they’ve made back the advance.
A smart author, when working with a small press, should waive the advance. A smart small press will insist that such a thing not be done. Why is this? (Let’s go off on a tangent!)
Okay, the author gets their advance. Yay! Pay off some debts. Money’s gone before you even get it. Oh, but be sure to save 50% of it, because that’s what the taxes will be. Then the book may still be many months away from publication, and there’s always a delay before the checks start rolling in. So it may be nine months from the payment of the advance to when the publisher is actually getting money from the book. (I’m not including the so-called “exploitation” rights – translations, serializations, etc – where the bulk of the money flows to the author. That’s the way a book really makes money, not sales.)
Once those checks are coming in, then the author is just paying the advance back. Dave Eggers was refreshingly honest about the realities of the money, upon receiving a $100,000 advance. After taxes, agents, etc., he said that $100,000 was down to about $30,000. And, of course, if you’re a writer, you’ve got bills to pay.
But when will he see another check from that book? I’m sure Eggers is getting a higher percentage but, on average, an author will be scraping 10% of the retail price. The book has to make the publisher the full $100,000 back before payouts begin.
Oh, by the way, the average bestseller is usually just 20,000 copies sold. And the average “lifespan” of a book is measured in a few weeks. After the first big freak-out, sales will drop off dramatically. So you can do the math, I think. By the way, most authors don’t get royalties from book club sales or the mysterious “special sales.” You know how your idiot wage slave job description may mention “and perform other duties as assigned”? On my job description at my sad day job, it’s broken down into percentages. “5%: Other duties as assigned.” Of course, it’s really 80% Other duties as assigned, because we’re all managed by lazy waterheads. A publisher can really get away with murder in the special sales arena…and not even report it to the author.
Back on topic. Book X at $15. The advance is funny money, the real investment comes next. Printing the book is another wildcard, but let’s say $3 per paperback (trade) copy will be the cost. This depends on the initial print run, graphics, the style of book (everything from margins to paper weight), etc. It’ll probably be less than $3 in most cases.
So Book X is now down to $12 profit. Then there’s that retail discount. We’ll stick with the 40% (but Amazon gets 50%, as do most of the big box catalogers that feed the indie bookstores, etc). So that’s 40% of the $15. Six bucks lost. Plus the three for printing. So a book heads to the reseller and the publisher gets $6. But then the author is getting their 10% royalty. $6 becomes $4.50. Oh, and the distributor is taking 25%, on average (another wildcard, usually based on warehousing and handling costs) of the publisher’s net. So the publisher is making around three bucks per book. And there’s usually a small return fee for when bookstores send their books back. That’s never more than 10%, again depending on the publisher/distributor. Returns fucking suck, usually at the six month and the desperate 12 month mark. A book can make thousands in the first few weeks, then end up costing the publisher thousands by the end of the year.
A small press cannot make money off of book sales. It can pay for the printing, maybe squeak by with some gravy on top, but there’s no ground gained unless the book goes through the roof… But, then, if a book suddenly sells 20,000 copies, there are very few small presses that can handle the demand. It is not unheard of for an unexpected bestseller to bankrupt a small press.
So when bookstores and festivals demand that the publisher pay airfare and lodging, you really have to wonder if they’re just subscribing to the delusion that there’s money in writing, or if they’re preying on easy marks. Because they’re going to make money no matter what, while the author and the publisher are walking away in the red. Every time.
At the very least, I’d like to see indie bookstores order their stock in support of a reading directly from the publisher. I’ve got tons of boxes lying around. This will piss off the distributor and, well, may be breach of contract…you know, if they figured it out. But I’ll pat your back if you pat mine. I’ll sell books at 50%, free shipping, and I’ll still be making a larger profit than through the distributor. And don’t fucking return them. That’ll be the deal. And tell no one.
Of course, that’ll never happen. (Which is probably a good thing, because the distributor will eventually show up at my door on horseback and run me through with a lance.) It’ll never happen because bookstores don’t really care about books. They say they do – Indie bukstor rulzzz!!! – but it’s all lies. Like the big chains, it’s the bottom line that counts. And that’s not part of the overall Satanic evil that infects the book industry, it’s just the nature of capitalism.
Don’t try to defend yourself, Mr. Indie Bookstore. I’ve been behind the counter, and even managed, back in my wayward teens and 20’s. I know the score.
What a shame that writing and publishing a book is nowhere near art but, instead, is cold business, from start to finish. What an even greater shame that so many hack writers have glutted the market and make it harder for the professionals. What if we all stood up to the predators? The big chain bookstores, the publicists, the “investment” cartels that “support” small presses, the vanity presses that give voice to the half a million idiots self-publishing each year… Another shame is the lack of unity in this business.
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Did you read all that? Because I wrote most of it on the bus while a madman was screaming at me. So here are the books that you need to support (wink wink). That’s a nice, friendly link that’ll give you various retail and etail purchasing options for you folks who hate Amazon. Or you can just email me at nacho@www.dangerousjoy.com.