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Rumpus Book ClubA quick little publishing rant
I’m not going to name names here but there is something seriously wrong with the way author copies are allocated. Publishers are charging authors 60% of the cover price, no matter how many copies they order, and the books are non-returnable. Every bookstore is getting a better deal than that. Anytime a bookstore orders a copy or two if they pay 60% the books are returnable. For a large order, say over 250 copies, a bookstore will usually only pay 45% of the cover price. When you get up to 1,000 copies the wholesale price goes down to 40%.
No matter how many copies authors buy, with most large publishers they can never get books for less than 60% of the cover price, non-returnable. The result is that authors are discouraged from selling their own books. Many smaller presses recognize this and only charge the authors 50% of the cover price hoping the authors will handsell books in classrooms and at events where the book might not otherwise be available.
In the new era of social networking, with publishers in trouble and authors expected to do more work getting the word out about their books, the practice of charging authors maximum rate is particularly short-sighted. As mentioned in the comments, authors also don’t get royalties on books they purchase, despite paying the publishers more than anyone else.
It makes no sense to discourage the one person most invested in finding readers for their work (which is why Steve Almond went ahead and self-published). Why would Amazon.com, for example, a predatory company, be given a better deal than the person who wrote the book? Why would you want an author to show up for an event without enough books because you’re charging them the maximum rate with no returns?
June 9th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Amen.
Unfortunately, this is one of many ways in which large publishers are out of touch with how best to sell their own products — and how to leverage the most valuable asset a book has: its author.
June 9th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Not to mention that “author’s copies” purchased from the publisher are generally not counted in sales figures and for royalties. As if, somehow, the author’s money is less valuable than anyone elses. What I, and a number of other authors I know, do to get around all this, is to find a local bookstore with which we have a good relationship. We make a deal with that bookstore to order copies for us as part of its own order. That way the sales to us are counted as “real” sales and we also get the royalty from those sales.
My previous publisher gave a 45 percent discount to bookstores for orders of more than 20 copies. They gave a 50 percent discount for non-returnable orders of any size. The deal I made with my friendly neighborhood bookstore was to sell my own books to me at a 40 percent discount. The store ordered them as non-returnable, so it made 10 percent off of my purchase, and I got the discount as well as the royalty on the sale.
June 9th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
I do know of writers who have successfully negotiated for the right to sell their own books AND earn royalties from them, so they “count.” I am not one of them, sadly.
Something writers can do to encourage change is to try to have that contract clause changed at the time of signing with a publisher. I think it should be a factor in evaluating how good a deal is, and whether a certain publisher is worth working with or not.
Until the next time, I’m doing what Eric said.
June 9th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Hey Tao Lin, what do you think?
June 9th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Hi Jill,
I tried to have my agent negotiate that clause in my last contract. The publisher wouldn’t even consider it. Pretty ridiculous.
June 9th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
i don’t know what i think, i can tell my experiences with this
‘melville house,’ who has published all but one of my books, has given me probably 300-500 free copies of my books in the last ~3 years
when i try to buy copies of my books from them at 40% off they refuse my money 70-80% of the time and give me the books for free
whenever i go to their offices for a meeting or something they let me have 1-10 free books, when i try to buy a few, and sometimes they ask if i need any books
i get copies of my first poetry book, published by ‘action books,’ either from them for 40% off or from the distributor, small press distribution, for 40%, small press distribution charges something like $1 per book for shipping after $4 or $8 for each shipment, something like that, though, i haven’t asked ‘action books’ if they’ll give me a larger discount, maybe they would
with ‘muumuu house,’ my publishing house, i feel willing to give authors as many books as they want for free, or maybe like $1.00 each if they want like 300 or something
things like that haven’t happened
i think i only want to publish ‘long-term’ friends, who will want to firstly do whatever will maintain the friendship and keep both parties happy, which is what i also want, which is how it has been so far, with two authors
June 9th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
i seem incoherent in some parts of that, going to sleep now
June 9th, 2010 at 4:25 pm
I work for a small, independently-own and run publisher, and we give authors a 50% discount on purchases of 10 books and over (non-returnable), and pay them royalties on their sales, as we feel that they’re entitled to that arrangement. Many writers sell far more copies themselves than a particular bookstore ever would. It certainly seems rather short-sighted of publishers to not negotiate such similar terms with particularly active authors, who are willing to set up readings in unconventional spots where a bookseller isn’t willing to travel to. (And, I know that many booksellers don’t have enough staff to send out to “off-site” locales and/or they don’t think it’s fiscally worth it.) Sometimes book sales aren’t possible in more conventional spots such as school, universities, and at conferences unless an author takes it upon themselves to do it.
Regarding non-returnable sales — it should be clarified that book sales by publishers to bookstores are never a done deal. Stores always have the option of returning books, which seems to me to be an archaic hangover from the early days of this industry. As a result, a publisher and author never really have a sense of true sales until, sometimes a year from publication date — at least that’s how it feels in the small press world. So, this is why we, and other publishers big and small, try to sell non-returnable when we can. If returns come back in any damaged way, they’re not salable, which is another burden put on the publisher.
June 9th, 2010 at 4:34 pm
those numbers may be wrong
think i might’ve gotten more free books from ‘melville house’ than 300-500, maybe 350-700 is more accurate
June 9th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
The publisher of my recent short fiction collection In the Devil’s Territory sent me on a 25-city tour, and they have been very generous with author’s copies in support of the project, and very willing to work with me on alternative sales strategies of all sorts, whether they fit the stated terms of the contract or not. This is mostly, I think, because the publisher, Steve Gillis, and the editor, Dan Wickett, love the books and their authors and want to get them into as many hands as possible. I appreciate the work they’ve done, not only to help my book find an audience, but also to help me continue to write books. It’s an unexpectedly good situation, not unlike what Tao describes with Melville House. I hope over time other publishers will follow suit, because it is good for the publisher in the long run for the author to be actively engaged in helping readers find the book.
June 10th, 2010 at 10:34 am
One of my publishers gives me extra copies at printing cost, which seems to work out well for both parties.
June 10th, 2010 at 10:39 am
Great post, Stephen, and the conversation here is eye-opening. I will definitely try for royalties on copies I purchase next time. My money is as good as anyone else, makes total sense.
I get my books (Otherworld Publications, a new press out of Louisville, KY) for the following prices: (in addition to TWELVE free copies. Damn, Tao, now I feel like I gave it up too easy)
40% off of 1-49 copies
50% off of 50-100
55% of 101+
June 10th, 2010 at 11:21 am
That’s not bad Richard. That you get 55% off after 100 copies is actually a pretty fair deal.
June 10th, 2010 at 11:22 am
All publishers should do this Brendan. Clies press gave me a couple hundred copies at printing cost which gave me a lot of copies to work with for PR.
June 10th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Stephen: I agree. An author having the ability to easily give away books is vital for PR. One of my previous publishers I had to go through so much trouble to get them to even send off a PR copy that was outside of what they were already doing that in the end I just gave up. And buying copies from them at 40 percent off, after shipping, ended up being about 10 dollars a copy, which makes you think twice before giving them out.
June 10th, 2010 at 11:37 am
Such an interesting conversation here…I received about 3 cases of free boxes upon publication of my book (cookbook/memoir $35 hardback), but have had to pay for more copies at about 50% off, not including tax, plus shipping of about $2 per book. I couldn’t believe that I had to pay taxes on the books, but guess that’s how it goes in regards to the state.
Once I found out that the books I buy wouldn’t be counted against my royalty, I’ve pretty much stopped buying them and tell people to shop locally. It’s all interesting especially for me as a first time author. What peeved me more, though, was the holding back of royalties for potential returns (a %20 rate, even though my actual return rate was less than 1%). Still fuming on that one, and still waiting for the royalties that I otherwise did earn within the first 3months, but won’t see until end of year.
June 10th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Does anyone know about going to the distributors and getting your own copies? It’s a fraction of the cost (sorry, don’t know the exact numbers), but I know I paid $2 a book for copies of my novel that Viking/Penguin wanted me to pay 60% for. I got 25 free copies of the hardcover from Viking and 25 freebies from Plume for the paperback and that was it. When the hardcover went out of print, they still wanted to charge me more than Baker & Taylor, the distributor. I learned about the distributor from my local bookstore owner. Very helpful for any books I needed to sell at events.
June 10th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
It’s not supposed to be easy, it’s supposed to be HARD. If you find the writing business easy, you’ve entered through the wrong gate in the collosseum. “Every day is a good day in the arena,” for the gladiator. Are you going to whine over trifles or kick ass? You sound like a bunch of small shopkeepers on Market St. complaining that homeless riffraff are sleeping on the sidewalk in front of your door. With the exception, of course, that small shopkeepers have to actually work for a living, and have children to feed. I’ve published over 40 books. Some of my publishers gave me a fucking, others were super nice and perfect. Don’t look back, there might be somethin’ gainin’ on ya. We’ve become a nation of beefers–endless beefing morning and night over trivia. Grow a pair.
June 10th, 2010 at 12:38 pm
Neil: I think Stephen’s advice was more towards the publisher than the writer.
I love it when somenoe whines about other people whining.
June 10th, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Sure it’s hard. So what? Does that mean writers are supposed to simply roll over and take whatever publishers choose to dish out to them? Like in any business arrrangement, writers and publishers both have to try and get the best deal possible for themselves. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make the effort. Nor does it mean writers shouldn’t talk amongst themselves about it so that they can be better prepared during their next negotiations. That’s not beefing, that’s just exchanging information and ideas that might be useful at some point.
June 10th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Very interesting conversation. I am about to sign my first novel contract with a new, small press out of Detroit. This conversation has allowed an interesting perspective. Currently, I get 50% off copies, no matter the number ordered. That seems fair. I do worry about those copies not being counted toward sales, however.
Also, I think I understand the mentality with small publishers being unwilling to give away free copies to authors. First, they are small (re: no budget to give away product). Second, if the free copies are meant to be promotional, I would think a larger publisher, with a more established stable of authors, would have both the financial means and the appropriate expectations when deciding how many free copies to give out and how those will equate to future sales. Tao seems to have an amazing relationship with his publisher. I want that.
All in all, I have to accept that people don’t often make a career out of writing, especially when working with a small press. With advances all but gone, and royalty rates being increasingly based on Net Sales (after wholesaler discounts) as opposed to Cover Price, authors may just have to accept that we are lucky to get paid even a little for our hobby.
June 10th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Can I kick the gladiator’s ass? He seems to need it.
June 10th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Yes you may, Marilyn, O savage gypsy queen of the night, she-wolf of the SS. I’ve been fantasizing about just such an encounter with you for a long time. Please wear that black leather outfit that I got for you last Christmas.
June 10th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Thanks for an important post, Stephen. And thanks to all the rest of y’all who contributed your experiences and insight. You’re providing valuable perspective. I hope to be negotiating a few months down the road. Now I know what I want — and what I need to fight for.
Caleb, a hobby? Not for me, man, though not a money-making venture either. Writing is something else entirely… a lifestyle choice, like wearing leather to the symphony, no?
June 11th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
I can get copies of my books from my publisher at cost. It makes me happy.
June 12th, 2010 at 10:17 am
I’m working on a solution to this problem. I’m becoming a bookseller (on paper at least) by getting a business license and setting up a fictitious name statement. I’ve got a checking account and all the other accouterments of business (including tax write-offs). I’ll order my books at discount (and I order books for other writer friends as well), report the sales and get the royalties. It’s a little bit of extra paperwork, but it pays off in the end by getting a better deal on my own books, and I make just enough (about 5%) from other author’s works that it covers the admin costs.
Occasionally several local writers get together to stage a fund-raiser for the local Literacy Council by having a ‘meet the authors’ book signing event. We go through a local indie bookstore. They take a smaller margin, I provide the discounted books, book buyers pay a slight premium to enhance the charity and lots of books get into the hands of readers. It’s a good time and almost always gets great local media coverage.