 | 22 Aug 07 |
I heard from an author friend yesterday who’d just returned from a publicity meeting with her publisher and agent. According to her, the primary reason for the meeting was to negotiate what marketing endeavors the publisher would pay for when her latest book was released next year.
Now she was smart from the get-go. Since she’s relatively new in the business, she brainstormed with a few of us old-farts who had a couple of releases under our belts, asking what she should push for during the meeting. We discussed things like arcs, signings, co-op placement, convention sponsorships, etc, and she went into the meeting, guns loaded.
But she was the one who got shot.
She was told that pre-order sales were down and most of that decrease was due to Walmart. Evidently, the suck-the-life-out-of-small-enterprise Goliath has a new book buyer, and that buyer has been instructed to restructure their book buying process. And for Walmart that usually means the buyer is not allowed to have operational brain cells. They’re only supposed to do what they’re told. And what the buyer was told was to only purchase standard count orders from the top of the New York Times Best-Sellers list. They are no longer allowed to choose 5 off-list titles from different genres, be it romance, mystery, thriller, horror, etc. So basically, even if the entire population of Chicago decided to picket their local Walmarts because they wanted Karin Tabke or Jennifer Apodaca or Deborah LeBlanc’s books on the shelves, all the buyer can do is shrug and say, “Sorry, no can do.”
Now although I believe in free enterprise and understand that Walmart has the right to do and buy whatever the hell they want, the change in their book ordering process is going to affect MANY mid-list and beginning authors. For example, let’s say last year Walmart, as a corporation, ordered 10,000 copies of your book, and 8000 copies were actually sold. Even though sales were strong, this year, because of the new policy, they order none of your books. What do you think the author’s going to face the next time he or she has to negotiate a new contract with their publisher? That’s right, they’re gonna get squashed. If fewer books are ordered for this new title, no matter the reason, said author is going to have a hell of a time negotiating higher advances or royalty percentages.
For writers, it’s tough enough that the reading pool is shrinking in America. This move by Walmart, in my opinion, will only worsen the problem. Not only will readers have fewer titles to choose from, some writers are going to wind up moving on to other things because they can’t make a living writing anymore. Fewer titles, fewer writers, fewer choices.
Makes ya wanna kick somethin’, don’t it?
© 2007 – 2009 Deborah LeBlanc. All rights reserved.
Deborah LeBlanc is an award-winning author and business owner from Lafayette, Louisiana. She's also a licensed death scene investigator and an active member of two national paranormal investigation teams.
She is the president of the Horror Writers Association, president of the Writers' Guild of Acadiana, president of Mystery Writers of America's Southwest Chapter, and an active member of Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc, and International Thriller Writers Inc. In 2004, she created the LeBlanc Literacy Challenge, an annual national campaign designed to encourage more people to read, and founded Literacy Inc. a non-profit organization dedicated to fighting illiteracy in America’s teens. She also takes her passion for literacy and a powerful ability to motivate to high schools around the country.
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I do not buy books at Wal-Mart. They never have what I want to read. I buy from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders and sometimes Target. You know, places that actually sell books. I am sorry to hear that their new “system” is going to end up screwing with people’s careers. One retailer shouldn’t have that much control.
by ktzmom August 22nd, 2007 at 7:11 amI feel sick to my stomach.
by Wendy Roberts August 22nd, 2007 at 7:33 amI might as well go put in my application at Wal Mart….
by Jen Apodaca August 22nd, 2007 at 8:17 amI agree, Ktz. Unfortunately, that one retailer has been changing people’s careers since they opened. The little mom and pop department stores that had to close because they couldn’t compete–same with grocery stores…even pharmacies for heaven’s sake. I know their prices are cheap compared to a specialty store’s, but sometimes you get what you pay for. At the small shops, at least you had service, folks who wanted to make sure you were happy with your shopping experience so you’d go back. And those little shops gave us a stronger sense of community. We lost a lot of that with the onslaught of hyper-marts. Hell, there is no such thing as service anymore. You’re lucky if you can even find a cashier without a serious attitude problem.
Same here, Wendy….
by Deb August 22nd, 2007 at 8:24 amI have to agree with Ktz I’ve never found a book I wanted to read at Walmart.
by Cele August 22nd, 2007 at 8:46 amlol, Jen, I can see you now, big ol’ grin on your face…”Hi, welcome to Wal-mart!”
I agree, Cele…unless of course you’re looking for a romance novel that mentions a heaving bosom or throbbing member in every other paragraph…puuulease!
by Deb August 22nd, 2007 at 9:12 amThis move is going to crush some writer’s careers. It will keep the already bestsellers at the top and the rest of us with no chance to get there. I keep thinking that readers will go somewhere else to get their books, but truth be told, most readers will just buy what’s available and not look for the other authors that didn’t make the grade.
by Vivi Anna August 22nd, 2007 at 9:15 amI don’t want to get in an argument about the pros and cons of Walmart, though I think this decision is poor for a variety of different reasons. HOWEVER, the NYT list is fluid. Yes, the same people make it all the time, but there are new people every week.
BTW, this information partly contradicts what the Levy buyer said in July regarding how Walmart buys their books. They have XX number of “slots” and they’ve always picked the bestsellers–then they talk with the publishers about the remaining slots. Sometimes there are fewer slots, sometimes more, based on the bestseller releases.
There is some good news–Walmart doesn’t report to the NYT list so it’s not a catch-22 situation–you can get on the list based on your other sales, and once on the list you can get into Walmart. If this information your friend got was accurate. I sometimes question whether 1) the information publishers give sometimes are 100% accurate all the time (meaning, there are different rules for different authors; and 2) the information may be different from different publishers.
by Allison August 22nd, 2007 at 9:25 amIt’ll certainly affect a lot of careers, Vivi, no doubt, but I’ll be damn if I’m going to let it happen without a fight!
Hey Harvey! Yeah, I know about the throbbing member thing, but I guess you’ve gotta hand it to ‘em (whoever the hell ‘em is)–it sorta matches well with heaving bosoms. Makes me wonder, too…how much research do you think the writer who first penned that term had to do before she/he came up with it?
wh&f
by Deb August 22nd, 2007 at 9:30 amThe challenge, Allison, is that it IS a Catch-22 because it creates a vicious circle. You can’t make the sales needed to make the Times if your books aren’t where people go to buy them….if your sales are down simply because of a buyer change, I guarantee your next book’s print run will be lower–fewer places to sell to….Besides, suppose last year you sold 10,000 books, but 30% of your sales came from Walmart…losing that would be a HUGE hit…
by Deb August 22nd, 2007 at 9:41 amI don’t shop at Walmart. The few times I have ventured into one, the book section has been a tattered mess.
That said, I realize I am one of few Americans who does not shop at Walmart.
Allison, I think you may have hit on something. What the publishers tell the authors could be skewed to stack in their favor. ie, sorry we can’t spend the money on you if the preorders aren’t there.
I also suspect if the variety isn’t on the WalMart shelves, with time those readers will go elsewhere for more of a selection.
I buy a lot of my books at my local Safeway. The section is always clean, well stocked, and well maintained. I never look at the NYTimes rack. I go straight to the regular rack. I love scouring and touching the books in the regular section. I have noticed as I am doing that, as other readers come by they too bypass the best seller rack. My suspicion is, since there is always more of the same there, they look to the regular rack for variety.
by Karin August 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 amDeb, my point is that you can have no books at Walmart and hit the NYT list because Walmart doesn’t report its numbers TO the NYT list. If people are not buying books at Walmart it no impact on the NYT list. Period.
I agree, if your print runs are getting cut because you’re not at Walmart, that sucks big time. An author is now going to have to rebuild their career with the purpose to hit a list so that they can get back into Walmart. I know they are cutting back on their titles BUT I don’t think that means NO non-NYT author will get into Walmart. I’ll be checking regularly and if I’m proven wrong, I’ll be the first to admit it. But to be honest, this has been going on for months, it’s not a sudden thing. I was contacted back in March or April by an author who was concerned about this situation. I’ve heard from industry people that they are cutting back, but that the results are not known yet and it’s totally and completely out of our hands. Those who can impact it would be publishers (paying more co-op) and they’ll only do that if they see a hit on their bottom line. IMO.
by Allison August 22nd, 2007 at 10:51 amI’m too addled to comment wisely on this thread, but I did NOT need depressing news this morning. Day two after surgery, and all I can do is cry… Somebody get me a tissue.
by Natalie August 22nd, 2007 at 11:15 amAh, Nat, how’re you doing? Still in a lot of pain?
by Deb August 22nd, 2007 at 11:25 amAw, Nat, hope you feel better soon! I’ll cry along with you.
Pretty soon there will be only two authors left: J.D. Robb and James Patterson. As much as I like them, it would be nice if there were more. You know, after we’ve read all of J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts and James Pattersons books. For variety’s sake.
by J. Carson Black August 22nd, 2007 at 3:34 pmKarin, I used to buy books at Safeway, but ours just did a major remodel and they stripped the book section down to only the NYT bestsellers. Some clerk told me all the new and remodeled Safeways are going to be like that.
by Poppy Southcott August 22nd, 2007 at 7:11 pmTrue, Jake. J.D. Robb, James Patterson, and I’d probably throw in Sandra Brown.
Hey Poppy, I work with the Safeway group on a corporate level, and have been talking to the CEO about getting a grip on this scale back of books. I think they may do a turn around. Fingers crossed!
by Deb August 23rd, 2007 at 3:08 amtest—checking time stamp on posts…
by Deb August 23rd, 2007 at 7:01 amDeb, if you can do that, you’re my hero!
by J. Carson Black August 23rd, 2007 at 3:35 pm