Here\u2019s an idea:\u00a0 Bookstores and festivals should pay the author for events.\u00a0 I mean, this is a business, right?\u00a0 The author is a commodity that equals attendance\/sales, right?\u00a0 So what\u2019s with this attitude that the publisher (or, in many cases, the author) cover travel and lodging?<\/p>\n
This especially gets on my tits when the author is invited to attend.\u00a0 I suppose I can forgive the bookstores that are solicited by the publisher, but\u2026well, no, I can\u2019t.\u00a0 It\u2019s criminal and it\u2019s predatory.
\n<\/p>\n
All I\u2019m talking about is airfare and lodging.\u00a0 Fine if you don\u2019t want to pay the author\u2026and even if you don\u2019t want to buy them a beer.\u00a0 No problem.<\/p>\n
Now, sure, the indie bookstores are dying.\u00a0 The big chain bookstores aren\u2019t motivated, and many festivals are strapped for cash when all is said and done.\u00a0 Then, my colleagues argue, if the publisher demands compensation for travel and lodging, festivals and bookstores will stop having events.\u00a0 It\u2019ll just be the big publishers who can afford to send authors around.<\/p>\n
Folks, we\u2019re just about at that point now.\u00a0 A small press can\u2019t afford the thousands needed to send an author out on an extensive tour, unless you cheat on everything and hold the author\u2019s family hostage.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a loaf of bread.\u00a0 This will be your only nourishment.\u00a0 Drink only tap water.\u00a0 Do not make phone calls.<\/p>\n
A properly done publicity tour will usually clock in at ,000.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of those random numbers thrown out by experts.\u00a0 A small press can get away with 00 or so.\u00a0 Then lie about the cost so they\u2019ll get reviews.\u00a0 What really gets the cost up is travel and lodging, of course.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Predators\u2026 I\u2019ll start with the festivals.\u00a0 The second tier book fairs that rank under Texas, Miami, Harbourfront, and the National Book Fair (all gigs that pay).\u00a0 Here these second tier folks are scrambling for names (if they\u2019re the sort to organize a panel of guest speakers), so they\u2019ve got demand, and the publisher has the supply.\u00a0 But that\u2019s where the song of capitalism ends.\u00a0 Those festival folks don\u2019t even hesitate to insist that the publisher pay the way.\u00a0 Just drop a grand to get your author to our fair!\u00a0 No problem!\u00a0 Then the old saw, which I hear all the time:\u00a0 \u201cThe payoff is in all the extra media attention!\u201d\u00a0 Usually that comes with the promise that the media attention will be through the roof.<\/p>\n
No.\u00a0 Never true.\u00a0 Their priority is to promote the festival itself and, unless your author is the single, keynote speaker, there\u2019s no special media attention except being among a list of names.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not even that.\u00a0 If the event doesn\u2019t push a thousand books, it\u2019s not worth it.\u00a0 And no event will see those sort of figures.\u00a0 So the publisher isn\u2019t going to see any real money from sales, the media attention isn\u2019t going to be focused on the author\u2026and the festival people don\u2019t want to part with any cash.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see\u2026the average second tier festival will have 50 exhibitors \u2013 printers, mailers, small presses, the vast sea of self published fuckos, geegaws, doodads, etc.\u00a0 All paying, say, 0 a booth.\u00a0 And booths mean a guide!\u00a0 And a guide means advertising space!\u00a0 And an event means concessions, so in come the cokes and beers.\u00a0 And whoever is hosting the festival has stuff to sell as well \u2013 membership, subscriptions, books\u2026<\/p>\n
Festivals that host a panel of featured authors often have a reseller license (or a deal with a bookstore where they get kickbacks).\u00a0 There are all sorts of little avenues of income there so, hey, at least spring for a cheap hotel room, assholes.\u00a0 You\u2019re getting a product \u2013 now pay for it.\u00a0 How sick has our society become where we\u2019re supposed to be grateful for the \u201chonor\u201d of spending money for nothing?<\/p>\n
On to bookstores.\u00a0 I try to be friendly and regard them as allies but, in the end, that\u2019s hard to do.\u00a0 Especially when dealing with the big chain stores.\u00a0 They don\u2019t care about anything but sales.\u00a0 That\u2019s just fine\u2026it\u2019s business.\u00a0 But Borders and Barnes & Noble have become famous for their auto-return policy, blindly clearing shelf space after just a few months.\u00a0 In more cases than you think, they\u2019re returning books before they\u2019ve even received them.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get to how this costs the publisher (and the author) in a minute.\u00a0 First, since this is a sensitive topic, I should go ahead and spell out how the bookstores aren\u2019t really losing money, and why they should put up for a cheap hotel room if an author comes in for a reading.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll call our example Book X, and let\u2019s say it retails for .\u00a0 On average, the bookstore gets 40% off of the retail.\u00a0 That depends on the publisher, distributor, quantity ordered, and type of book, but 40% is a good average to go with.\u00a0 So the bookstores pay .\u00a0 (By the way \u2013 check my math, because I have trouble adding one plus one.\u00a0 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.)<\/p>\n
Okay, that\u2019s money out the door.\u00a0 But, if the book doesn\u2019t sell, the bookstores have 12 fucking months to return it for a full refund. That\u2019s a win-win situation.\u00a0 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).<\/p>\n
Who suffers in this business?\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Some are.\u00a0 The big ones.\u00a0 But even Harry Potter<\/span>\u2019s US publisher is living the corporate equivalent of paycheck to paycheck, so that right there should dispel that myth.<\/p>\n Back to Book X, at $15.\u00a0 The first cost, of course, is paying the author.\u00a0 This is an advance, paid back by later book sales, that can range anywhere from nothing to a million bucks, depending on whether you\u2019re me or, say, James Lee Burke.\u00a0 The typical small press advance will be in the low thousands.\u00a0 It\u2019s money out of pocket for the publisher, but it\u2019s also sort of shadow money because the publisher gets to keep the author\u2019s royalties until they\u2019ve made back the advance.<\/p>\n A smart author, when working with a small press, should waive the advance.\u00a0 A smart small press will insist that such a thing not be done.\u00a0 Why is this?\u00a0 (Let\u2019s go off on a tangent!)<\/p>\n Okay, the author gets their advance.\u00a0 Yay!\u00a0 Pay off some debts.\u00a0 Money\u2019s gone before you even get it.\u00a0 Oh, but be sure to save 50% of it, because that\u2019s what the taxes will be.\u00a0 Then the book may still be many months away from publication, and there\u2019s always a delay before the checks start rolling in.\u00a0 So it may be nine months from the payment of the advance to when the publisher is actually getting money from the book. (I\u2019m not including the so-called \u201cexploitation\u201d rights \u2013 translations, serializations, etc \u2013 where the bulk of the money flows to the author.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way a book really makes money, not sales.)<\/p>\n Once those checks are coming in, then the author is just paying the advance back.\u00a0 Dave Eggers was refreshingly honest about the realities of the money, upon receiving a $100,000 advance.\u00a0 After taxes, agents, etc., he said that $100,000 was down to about $30,000.\u00a0 And, of course, if you\u2019re a writer, you\u2019ve got bills to pay.<\/p>\n But when will he see another check from that book?\u00a0 I\u2019m sure Eggers is getting a higher percentage but, on average, an author will be scraping 10% of the retail price.\u00a0 The book has to make the publisher the full $100,000 back before payouts begin.<\/p>\n Oh, by the way, the average bestseller is usually just 20,000 copies sold<\/a>.\u00a0 And the average \u201clifespan\u201d of a book is measured in a few weeks.\u00a0 After the first big freak-out, sales will drop off dramatically. So you can do the math, I think.\u00a0 By the way, most authors don\u2019t get royalties from book club sales or the mysterious \u201cspecial sales.\u201d\u00a0 You know how your idiot wage slave job description may mention \u201cand perform other duties as assigned\u201d?\u00a0 On my job description at my sad day job, it\u2019s broken down into percentages.\u00a0 \u201c5%:\u00a0 Other duties as assigned.\u201d\u00a0 Of course, it\u2019s really 80% Other duties as assigned, because we\u2019re all managed by lazy waterheads.\u00a0 A publisher can really get away with murder in the special sales arena\u2026and not even report it to the author.<\/p>\n Back on topic.\u00a0 Book X at $15.\u00a0 The advance is funny money, the real investment comes next.\u00a0 Printing the book is another wildcard, but let\u2019s say $3 per paperback (trade) copy will be the cost.\u00a0 This depends on the initial print run, graphics, the style of book (everything from margins to paper weight), etc.\u00a0 It\u2019ll probably be less than $3 in most cases.<\/p>\n So Book X is now down to $12 profit.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s that retail discount.\u00a0 We\u2019ll stick with the 40% (but Amazon gets 50%, as do most of the big box catalogers that feed the indie bookstores, etc).\u00a0 So that\u2019s 40% of the $15.\u00a0 Six bucks lost.\u00a0 Plus the three for printing.\u00a0 So a book heads to the reseller and the publisher gets $6.\u00a0 But then the author is getting their 10% royalty.\u00a0 $6 becomes $4.50.\u00a0 Oh, and the distributor is taking 25%, on average (another wildcard, usually based on warehousing and handling costs) of the publisher\u2019s net.\u00a0 So the publisher is making around three bucks per book.\u00a0 And there\u2019s usually a small return fee for when bookstores send their books back.\u00a0 That\u2019s never more than 10%, again depending on the publisher\/distributor.\u00a0 Returns fucking suck, usually at the six month and the desperate 12 month mark.\u00a0 A book can make thousands in the first few weeks, then end up costing the publisher thousands by the end of the year.<\/p>\n A small press cannot make money off of book sales.\u00a0 It can pay for the printing, maybe squeak by with some gravy on top, but there\u2019s no ground gained unless the book goes through the roof\u2026 But, then, if a book suddenly sells 20,000 copies, there are very few small presses that can handle the demand.\u00a0 It is not unheard of for an unexpected bestseller to bankrupt a small press.<\/p>\n So when bookstores and festivals demand that the publisher pay airfare and lodging, you really have to wonder if they\u2019re just subscribing to the delusion that there\u2019s money in writing, or if they\u2019re preying on easy marks.\u00a0 Because they\u2019re going to make money no matter what, while the author and the publisher are walking away in the red.\u00a0 Every time.<\/p>\n At the very least, I\u2019d like to see indie bookstores order their stock in support of a reading directly from the publisher.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got tons of boxes lying around.\u00a0 This will piss off the distributor and, well, may be breach of contract\u2026you know, if they figured it out.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll pat your back if you pat mine.\u00a0 I\u2019ll sell books at 50%, free shipping, and I\u2019ll still be making a larger profit than through the distributor.\u00a0 And don\u2019t fucking return them.\u00a0 That\u2019ll be the deal.\u00a0 And tell no one.<\/p>\n Of course, that\u2019ll never happen.\u00a0 (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.)\u00a0 It\u2019ll never happen because bookstores don\u2019t really care about books.\u00a0 They say they do \u2013 Indie bukstor rulzzz!!! \u2013 but it\u2019s all lies.\u00a0 Like the big chains, it\u2019s the bottom line that counts.\u00a0 And that\u2019s not part of the overall Satanic evil that infects the book industry, it\u2019s just the nature of capitalism.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t try to defend yourself,\u00a0 Mr. Indie Bookstore.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been behind the counter, and even managed, back in my wayward teens and 20\u2019s.\u00a0 I know the score.<\/p>\n What a shame that writing and publishing a book is nowhere near art but, instead, is cold business, from start to finish.\u00a0 What an even greater shame that so many hack writers have glutted the market and make it harder for the professionals.\u00a0 What if we all stood up to the predators?\u00a0 The big chain bookstores, the publicists, the \u201cinvestment\u201d cartels that \u201csupport\u201d small presses, the vanity presses that give voice to the half a million idiots self-publishing each year\u2026 Another shame is the lack of unity in this business.<\/p>\n ****<\/p>\n Did you read all that?\u00a0 Because I wrote most of it on the bus while a madman was screaming at me.\u00a0 So here are the books that you need to support (wink wink)<\/a>.\u00a0 That’s a nice, friendly link that’ll give you various retail and etail purchasing options for you folks who hate Amazon.\u00a0 Or you can just email me at nacho@www.dangerousjoy.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here\u2019s an idea:\u00a0 Bookstores and festivals should pay the author for events.\u00a0 I mean, this is a business, right?\u00a0 The author is a commodity that equals attendance\/sales, right?\u00a0 So what\u2019s with this attitude that the publisher (or, in many cases, …<\/p>\n