Working Titlez

One of my favorite book biz bloggers is Terry Cordingley, who tells it like it is. Here’s his take on the Borders demise. As a publisher, I morn the loss of an important book retailer that had a lot of reach. We found them good to work with, especially on a local level and they hosted many book events for us. I can only hope that indie bookstores grow and thrive as a result, but the short term results are going to be hard on both publishers and authors. ~CHU

Why Borders Failed

By Terry Cordingley

Borders finally made it official:  it is closing all of its remaining stores and laying off its 11,000 employees.   Customers, publishers and authors are mourning the loss.

Unfortunately, this news doesn’t really come as a surprise.  In fact, I predicted Borders would fail and go out of business during a staff meeting three years ago.  Not many people at the time argued with me. It was obvious that they were doing so many things wrong.

Many people will probably try to blame the fact that readers are flocking to ebooks, but that is only part of the picture, and I’m not convinced it is largely responsible for the failure of Borders. In fact, I think Borders would have failed even if ebooks didn’t exist.

Read more …

Do the game-changing chain bookstore woes mean we’ll all have to buy books online, from the limited selection of retail big boxes, or not at all? Is there an opportunity for a Renaissance of indie neighborhood bookstores? What about your habits? Do you view the bookstore browsing experience a chance to discover something new and wonderful? Or do you consider retail bookstores merely a showroom — and you’ll actually buy your books online? The authors of this thoughtful essay examine the role of the bookstore in a changing marketplace. ~CHU

Will Independent Bookstores Seize the Day?

By Jack McKeown and Don Linn

“Borders ended up caught between the variety of the Internet and the intimacy of the independents. Its outlets could never stock as many books as Amazon. Nor could they duplicate the native flavor of the corner bookstores…As paper books become a niche product, niche retailers will be the best place to buy and sell them.” —Edward McClelland, “How Borders Lost its Soul,” Salon.com, February 19, 2011

Southbury is a town located in western Connecticut, part of a region known as the Central Naugatuck Valley. It is a town with both rural and suburban neighborhoods, and a charming historic district. With its four-largest neighboring towns, it comprises a book market of approximately 175,000 souls whose demographics skew to relatively affluent, highly educated and older, propelled by an influx of Baby Boomer empty-nesters and retirees over the last ten years. Two weeks ago, Southbury lost it sole surviving bookstore—a 22,000 square-foot Borders in Southbury Plaza, one of the two hundred superstores closed throughout the country as a part of the chain’s bankruptcy. The nearest Barnes & Noble is in Danbury, 22 miles away. The nearest independents are in Ridgefield and Washington, 20-to-25 miles distant—too far for a casual shopping trip. Without an enterprising independent stepping in to fill this vacuum, who could blame Southbury’s population for falling into the waiting arms of Amazon as the only viable alternative?

Read the rest . . .

Book production is up . . . and down. Bowker, the international agency that issues ISBNs and tracks publishing statistics reports in Publishers Weekly that traditionally published book production fell 3% in 2008, down to 275,232 titles. Meanwhile, on-demand and short run digital production is up a whopping 132% to 285,394 titles. On-demand and short run printing is the production method of choice for self-publishers. Thus publishing growth is attributed primarily to authors publishing their own works, mostly through publishing services companies like Xlibris, AuthorHouse etc. These books, which are rarely stocked in bookstores sell, on average, less than 99 copies total. Although the growth in the production method is substantial, the growth in book sales is not. With major New York houses cutting or eliminating acquisitions of new titles in the past six months, and national chains like Borders and B&N putting moratoriums on new inventory purchases, book publishing has been turned upside down. I’m not sure this is necessarily a bad thing. In the past five years, the growth of new titles published in the United States has exploded. Sadly, the number of readers buying new books has not, resulting in massive numbers of unsold books ending their short unread lives in landfills or recycling centers. Perhaps a better balance between books published and buyers ready to buy them will be an odd beneficial result of the economic meltdown.

Q: Do children’s books contain lead?

A: Very little.

Carolyn being interviewed by KVBC Channel 3 News on the issues surrounding the lead in children's books requirements of the new Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act.

The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) goes into effect on Tuesday, February 10, 2009. Administered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, it oversees all products intended for children 12 and younger, including toys, clothing and books.

Brought about by public outcry over the lead-tainted toys and impure baby formula from China, the Act is broad in requirements to protect children. Perhaps overly broad.

The new requirements prohibit more than 600 ppm of lead in children’s products (dropping to 300 ppm in August). Independent third party testing by approved laboratories is required of every product.

Children’s books, which consist of ink on paper or ink on board, typically test out at less than 5 ppm, considerably under the 600/300 ppm threshold. From the publisher’s perspective, books should be exempt. The testing is prohibitively expensive, and for small publishers, financially impossible to implement.

The American Association of Publishers (AAP) and the Small Publishers Association of North America (SPAN) have led the way in providing documentation to the Commission supporting an exemption.

At Stephens Press, we’ve supported these efforts to educate public officials on the justification for the exemption. We’ve acquired component testing (ink, paper, film) from our manufacturers. All components fall into the 2 to 5 ppm range. General Certificate of Compliance documentation has been provided to our distributors and retailers such as Borders and Barnes & Noble.

The Commission has just implemented a one year “exemption of enforcement” of the product testing requirement. Products must still meet the lead requirements, but the testing of products can be delayed. It is our expectation that an exemption will be acquired within the year.

We all know babies and young children chew on everything, and we certainly want and expect toys and children’s products to be safe and lead-free. Fortunately, children’s books are not a risk.