The HarperStudio cavalry is on the march.
Via the (indispensable) HarperStudio blog and the WSJ comes news that HarperStudio and Borders have reached an agreement on a framework for ending returns. In exchange for a discount ranging from 58-63%, Borders will buy HarperStudio books on a nonreturnable basis.
On the HarperStudio blog, Bob Miller writes that they had originally hoped to have a more expansive non-return program, but after six months of discussions they decided they needed to have a mix of returns and non-returns because some accounts can’t or won’t go the nonreturnable route.
The returns model has long been a problem for publishers, who often end up having to print (and pulp) twice as many copies as actually sell, an economic and environmental mess. While it allows bookstores to be flexible with ordering and theoretically allows them to take chances on unknown commodities without being stuck with the bill if they don’t sell, some have called the process, well, sloppy and inefficient. It’s a system that few people have any affection for, and now Borders is signaling a willingness to tweak the model (of course, at a steeper discount). (For more background on returns, please see this essential Richard Curtis post, via Moonrat).
Questions remain. Will booksellers grow more cautious in taking on new titles when they know they can’t return them? Will they stock fewer titles? Will it be harder for first timers to break out because of cautious print runs? Or will the system make booksellers put more care into the titles they buy and make sure they sell?
It’s going to be interesting to see how this shakes out, particularly if it is adopted in a more widespread fashion. But BRAVO for experimentation in a time when we desperately need to see some new ideas in action.
Nathan, but Amazon.com is not a place where you can take kids to pick out a book to buy with the gift card that Grandma sent them for Christmas. “Oh, let’s all huddle around the computer monitor and find you just the right book!” Doesn’t work. You need brick and mortar, some music, little kid-sized chairs, a balloon sculpture artist, maybe a counter selling cookies and coffee, a partnership with the local SPCA so you can have PUPPIES to adopt on display. Amazon doesn’t have puppies.
I'm wondering more about the on-demand model for books, too. The bookstore experience is definitely part of the product. Just ask B&N. I have no idea how feasible it is for publishers to do incremental print-runs of books. I'm hoping technology is making that more of an option, so that bookstores can shift to a no return policy, buy in smaller lots at a steep discount and get *smart* (you daytime software engineers – here's a product opportunity) about managing inventory. I agree that many trees would breathe a collective sigh of relief if returns went away. But I'm more motivated by the sheer inefficiency of the returns model. When fuel prices are high and the cost of shipping exceeds the cost of what's being shipped, that's a tough inefficiency to subsidize with shrinking profits just because that's the way it's always been done. And as far as honesty re destroyed inventory – contracts in other industries (music and video game cd's) have an inspection right for the publisher, if they want to, to come count and audit the remaining inventory prior to destruction and opt to reclaim it at the publisher's cost for shipping if they want to. They never do, but having the right helps distributors stay honest.
How’s this for a business model? Instead of a publisher trying to place books in dedicated bookstores, place sample copies in different businesses — travel books at travel agencies, books about cars in the auto body shop waiting room, YA books in HotTopic and Claire’s outlets, genre romance in the beauty salons. No books for sale, but all could be ordered right there. If you can’t get the people to the books, take the books to the people. (Of course it would mean the demise of chain book stores.)
OOh. Even better. No complete books, just partial samples so they can’t read the whole thing right there. Like the “search inside” on Amazon. They want to find out the ending, they have to order the book. And people would be less tempted to walk off with a sample that explains how to take a transmission apart, but doesn’t have the chapter on how to reassemble it. (And if they did, it would serve them right.)
My take on this whole new world is grim: as difficult as it has been to break in as a new author, it will be close to impossible from here on.
Which is why I’ve trunked my wips and MS and I am now writing only short stories. This way I can still write and enjoy the craft, and at least some of it is likely to appear somewhere…
I think everyone has brought up some good points here. This news is both good and scary.
I don’t think we should give up our endeavors as novelists, though. Our industry is going through some big changes right now, but that doesn’t mean that we will become obsolete, or that there will never be opportunities for new voices to be heard. Embrace the changes you have no control over and make the necessary adjustments. It’s the only way to keep your head above water, and you may just find yourself surfing these new waves one day.
Back here in the UK returns are a bit lower than in the US, but still a huge issue. A year or so ago Hachette Livre, Britain’s biggest (15% of the market) and most profitable publishing group, went to firm-sale-only of all backlist (i.e. any title more than a year old). The idea is that new and untried titles still need the bigger exposure which only being physically available on bookshop tables can give them, while on the other hand any bookshop worth its salt should know enough to be able to make sensible decisions about how much to order of established titles, and absorb some of the risk which at the moment only the publisher takes.
As far as I know there’s no extra discount involved, but as it applies across all Hachette’s customers, it’s not a case of a special deal. It all seems very sensible to me.
I'm amazed at how many people are ready to let the bookstores go, or don't think there is a need to have books available for immediate purchase. If that's your perrogative, fine, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who would have a nervous breakdown if B&N stopped carrying books.
I browse through Amazon, or even the website of favorite authors when I'm looking for backlists, and then I do my research on the book online. If the reviews are good, if the plotline is interesting, and if the sample provided is a writing style I like – then I immediately do a check of which of the local bookstores carry the book I want and drive there to buy it.
I don't want to wait days, or worse WEEKS to get a book. When I want to read one, I want to read it then. If I purchased books I planned on reading in the future, I'd be even deeper in debt than I am now. Heaven forbid!
I'm also a sinner of the worst kind…I have to read the last chapter first. If I don't read the last chapter, or if I can't, I simply won't buy the book. I've been unhappily surprised one too many times. I have no problem purchasing old favorite authors over the web if the B&N doesn't have it in stock, but I'd *never* do that with a new author.
If publishing ever went into POD only, or bookstores stopped carrying books…I think they'd have to institutionalize me. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, either.
Just to clarify for some of the people asking questions about our Borders news: yes, this is HarperStudio only at this point, and yes, this is about returns from booksellers to publishers, not returns from customers to booksellers. The issue shouldn’t really be that visible to customers, since most of the books that currently get returned never made it out of their boxes at the bookseller’s warehouse in the first place. In terms of presence in stores, my belief is that our titles will get more prominent display, since the bookseller will have an additional incentive to merchandise them.
Mr. Miller,
Thanks much for stopping by and clarifying some points.
As you may have seen, readers are enormously interested in the amount and kinds of books that will be available to them, and new writers are terrified that their work, in the long run, won’t have a snowball’s chance in Mr. Satan’s House when it comes to being sold in a bookstore or getting published in the first place.
The strategy may be HarperStudio’s now, but who’s to say it won’t catch on?
All the best–
A note to other posters: Wordver is “boloist.” Appropriate, since I’ve played oboe as a soloist. 😉
“our titles will get more prominent display, since the bookseller will have an additional incentive to merchandise them.”
This is the trade-off, of course. While sale-or-return encourages lavish (because safe) ordering by the bookseller, there’s a powerful argument that booksellers try harder to sell books they can’t return, even if there are fewer of them on the shelves.
And, arguably, publishers’ sales forces will have to work harder to persuade booksellers that their books are worth the financial commitment. In a rather brutally capitalist way, it should concentrate everyone’s minds, but in an equally capitalist way it will be the tricky books, the unpredictable books, the books which can’t be described in a sentence or two, the books by publishers who can’t afford much of a sales team, which will suffer.
Not sure what’s new about it. My publisher’s been offering a steeper discount for non-returnables for a while now.
I know a lot of writers are worried that this model will inhibit the publication of new authors, and yes, I think this is a possibility… but the other possibility is that this model will encourage a greater diversification of titles and authors. Say right now a bookstore is looking to load up on what is supposed to be a “hit”, and so they order 120 copies. Great… and if they only sell 50, no biggie, that’s still 50 books sold and they can return the rest. But in the new model, hey, maybe we don’t want to take on 120 books when they’re not returnable. Let’s take 50 or 60 and see how it does, first… and what about the spaces that used to be filled by the extra copies of the “hit” book? Well, other books will have to fill those spaces, and that means opportunities for other authors. In this sense, Risk might equal diversification. Why should bookstores overbet on a single horse when they can’t refund their ticket afterward? It might be better to spread the wealth and play the odds a bit.
We shall see, anyway…
My best, as always,
Bryan Russell
Barb S.
Thanks for your kind response regarding my experience with returns. The story I related happened about four years ago, but the lessons learned have stayed with me. Seeing the industry from the perspective of an independent really makes you value the agents, publicists, publishers, and all of the hard work they do. In addition to the “don’t-get-excited-by-the-check” lesson, I no longer have dreams of fame and fortune. I write because I am a creative. Sometimes that’s good enough; sometimes I wish my last name was Grisham. For those unpublished authors of Nathan’s community, if you read this, I encourage you to take note of the information Nathan shares and then use it in any venue presented to you. We spend so much time focusing on traditional paths to publication, but there are alternative paths to building a name. Thanks Nathan for your willingness to share opportunities for writers.
Good business is good business. The publishing industry is way behind the times in production, inventory and returns.
Ack, I’ve gotten behind on blogs lately, but this is fantastic! Kudos to Bob!
It’s a step in the right direction.