Working Titlez

Kevin Janison

Writers used to squirrel themselves away in remote cabins, dusty offices, revealing themselves only briefly to hand over completed manuscripts to their publishers or to appear shyly at the corner bookstore or coffee house for a book signing or reading. Rarely did authors speak to large audiences or get involved in marketing their great American novel.

But times have changed. Bookstores are closing — both big chains and little indie shops — providing fewer opportunities for book signings and appearances. Authors develop follows through their websites, tweets, and Facebook pages, but never meet face-to-face with their audience. Readers buy online or download straight to their Nooks and Kindles.

Stephen Nasser

What’s a writer to do? Stephens Press authors have found a way to reach out to the community and share their stories by visiting schools and speaking to students. Stu Michaels, author of You Can’t Make This Up! spent time with high schoolers in a creative writing class. Stephen Nasser, author of My Brother’s Voice, has presented stories of the Holocaust at middle school assemblies and Kevin Janison, has entertained elementary-age students with his Deputy Dorkface series. What a delightful partnership! Professional authors doing what they do best — telling stories — and inspiring a whole new generation of budding readers and budding writers.

Stu Michaels

Where do most book buyers purchase their books? Walmart, Costco, Sam’s Club and Target. They sell massive amounts, but don’t have much depth to their offerings, concentrating on the bestsellers. Not much opportunity for new authors or specialty titles. Online retailers are rapidly growing as a preferred source of both print and digital books, taking another big chunk out of the bookstore’s business. E-tailers offer a vast assortment but no personal selling. Many consumers today treat bookstores like showrooms — browsing to find the books they like — then ordering them online. Is it any wonder long-term sustainability of bookstores is in question? Nonetheless, bookstores are an important element in the sales matrix for books. Authors and publishers want their books on the shelves. Guest blogger Terry Cordingley shares his experienced take on the difficulties getting bookstore placement. ~ CHU

By Guest Blogger Terry Cordingley

When an author first publishes their book, they have visions of walking into a bookstore on their book’s release date…any bookstore…and immediately spotting their book on the shelf, right there at the front of the store. There may even be a stack of their books in a point-of-purchase display or in the window of one of the major book-selling chain stores. However, unless they are already a best-selling author, a celebrity or infamous (think Tiger Woods or Sarah Palin), this is highly unlikely.

But why? you might be thinking. My book is great! Everybody who reads it tells me how great it is! This may be true, but believe it or not, the decision to stock your book on the shelf has less to do with the merits of your book and more to do with mathematics.

In 2008, there were 560,626 new titles published in the U.S., more than double the number of books that were published just five years earlier. Most of this growth has occurred in self-published or short-run titles. However, despite the growth in the number of titles, bookstore sales are actually declining. Taking into account the number of titles available and the number of actual books sold, the average U.S. book is selling less than 250 copies a year.

When a new title is released, it isn’t just competing for shelf space at bookstores with 562,626 other titles, it is also competing with the millions of other titles that have been published in previous years. For every spot available on a bookstore shelf, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of other titles competing for that one spot.

Don’t just take my word of it. Most of this information was originally written by the president of another publishing company. As for the prime point-of-purchase displays at the front of a bookstore, publishers pay for that space, and that real estate isn’t cheap. The major chain stores don’t just put the books at the front of the store because they like them.

This information may seem a bit depressing for authors, but only for those that completely depend upon the major chain stores to sell their books. It isn’t the fault of the bookstores. With so much at stake, the bookstore buyers must stock books that they feel will have a good chance of selling and making money for the store. A book by a new, unknown author is a gamble, and a big one, for stores that must turn millions of dollars in profit each year just to make payroll and stay in business. That means stocking a lot of titles by famous celebrity authors, or titles that already have a good track record of sales.

Pretend for a moment that you own a video store. Which movie titles are you most likely to stock? Blockbusters like Twilight, or an independent film featuring unfamiliar actors? This is the same decision bookstores must make, and there are far more book titles released each year than movies.

This is the reason why niche marketing is so vitally important to authors and publishers. One fact I didn’t touch upon earlier is that most book sales don’t occur at bookstores. Most books are sold through other channels, such as retailers other than bookstores (supermarkets, pharmacies, gift shops, coffee shops), book clubs, online booksellers like Amazon, churches (many have their own bookstores now), home shopping TV channels, etc.

Of course, publishers do want their books to be stocked and sold through bookstores. Bookstores do, in fact, sell books. However, this shouldn’t be the only marketing channel used by publishers and authors. Focus on the book’s niche, figure out who the audience is for a particular title, and where that audience can readily be found, and you’ll have identified your prime market.

Terry Cordingley is the Associate Director of Marketing for Tate Publishing and Enterprises and has been with the company for more than five years. Terry currently holds every sales record in the Tate Publishing marketing department, and has personally sold more than $6 million worth of retail product. Follow his blog at http://terrycordingley.blogspot.com/.

Author Joe Koranth

Most authors face their first bookstore signing with eager trepidation. What to expect? Will people show up? Talk to me? Buy books?

Thriller author Joe Konrath is a veteran of signings and he shares both encouragement and practical tips for follow writers in this guest post. Joe is the author of the Jack Daniels series and each book is named for a cocktail. Great concept and he’ll not run out of title ideas anytime soon! Joe and his books can be found at Joe Konrath and his blog at here.

By Guest Blogger J.A. Konrath

No aspect of a writer’s job offers more opportunity for euphoria (and anxiety) than a book signing. But how do these events really go down?

The Fantasy. Your escort picks us up at the airport and drives you to the largest bookstore in the state. She tells you they’ve advertised the event in the three local papers and on the radio. When you arrive, there are a hundred fans already waiting. You meet the excited staff and sit behind a table stocked with a huge pile of books, under a giant color poster of your cover. You read a chapter aloud, receive thunderous applause, and then do a quick Q & A before signing for a solid 90 minutes, people waiting patiently in an endless line to tell you how much they love you.

The Reality. You arrive at the bookstore ten minutes early. There’s no crowd of fans—there’s not even one. No posters, no signs, no table full of books. The employees look at you like you’ve grown a second nose when you say you’re the author and there to sign. Finally you convince someone to help you and they unearth a box of your books and set up a small table for you in the rear of the store, near the washrooms. You sit there for two hours, each second an eternity. People try hard to avoid eye-contact when they pass. Some approach you and ask where The DaVinci Code is. One will always come over and say, “So you’re an author? I’ve got a lot of ideas. How about I tell them to you, you write them, and we’ll split the millions?” No one buys a book. It’s debasing, humiliating, discouraging, and you vow to never do this again.

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One of our authors recently contacted me to ask about her royalty statement. Her book was published four years ago and her most recent statement showed nearly as many books were returned as were sold during the reporting period. Returns are the bane of publishers and sometimes make me think the American publishing business model is broken — to say nothing of what boxes of books crisscrossing the country from publisher to distributor to bookstore — and back — and forth — uses in energy.

Q: My royalty statement shows book sales in typical numbers, but it also states returns that nearly equal the sales, resulting in very small net sales, and a small royalty check to match. What happened? Were the books really returned?

A: In a word, Dear Author, yes. Like it or not, to play in the sandbox of the huge national bookstore chains, we have to be willing to accept returns. Basically, it is a consignment business. We ship books to our distribution center in Kansas City. Our distributors call on store buyers in NYC who decide which books will go to which stores. Books are shipped either to corporate distribution centers, or occasionally, direct to the stores. Books go on the shelves and if they sell, this information will eventually be reported to distributor who will report to Stephens Press. Ultimately (it is a long, slow process) we’ll be sent payment for those books that shipped and sold months earlier.

It is the books that don’t sell right away that become subject to returns. How do the stores decide which books to send back to the distributor/publisher? We aren’t officially privy to that information, but we know that some buyers will put a return date into their computers at the time the order is placed. If it doesn’t sell in sufficient numbers within X weeks, it is adios for that book. Bookstores want to keep their inventory fresh (and why not, since the books haven’t been paid for?) so returns regularly occur as selling seasons change. Some stores may periodically “clean house” in a particular subject or a new title may push another on the same topic off the shelf. Eventually (six to twelve months, depending on contracts) the stores DO have to pay for the merchandise, sold or still on the shelf. That’s when returns may ramp up — and every publisher has a “returned today, reordered tomorrow” story.

So what happened with our author’s book? We can’t know for sure, but it is probably a bit of all of the above. Unfortunately, the current economic conditions suggest we’re going to see greater returns in coming months.