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msagaraThe purpose of all these rambling comments has been to share my take on various things I've seen. It is, of course, subjective; it is filtered through a narrow sensibility. It is not meant to imply expertise on my part, because there's still a lot I don't know, and things change constantly, so knowing anything is an ongoing process.
A couple of trailing comments that I couldn't jam in elsewhere, and then back to the question of my current ignorance.
1. On Hold. This is an accounting category that no one speaks about. Let me speak about it briefly, as I mentioned it in regard to large bookstore chains/accounts. An invoice is, as I mentioned net 30 days. It means the bookstore has 30 days to pay it. I particulary loathe sales embargos in which a book is shipped two weeks before the bookstore is allowed to shelve it, but the invoice dates from the shipping, and not the sell-date. Digression.
A chain does NOT pay its bills in 30 days. Ever. In the old days, it didn't pay in 60 days, either; 90 days was about the expected pay date. Three months after the books were received, by which point, the returns had been done, and a credit applied to the account. At the moment, I believe 120 days is not uncommon. For big stores. That's in bold, although I didn't.
An independent store, however, has between 30 and 60 days to pay, period. Because the publisher's list doesn't depend on the bookstore, it being small no matter what its volume sales are, if the invoice is not paid in that period, the store is put On Hold. Which simply means that the distributor will not ship any books to the store until the bill for that period is paid. I understand why the chains aren't put on hold -- because the publishers have some faith that eventually the large company will pay those bills. When they don't, whole companies can sink without a trace.
When Chapters went under, it was in part due to the internet black hole, and in much larger part due to the fact that it had decided to start its own distribution network. Publishers who hadn't been paid in 6 months still shipped books to Chapters, and in the end, they didn't get paid. At least one major distributor/publisher in Canada went under due to that. Chapters was bought by Indigo. Things have sort of stabilized. But the chains still get their books, even though they take much longer to pay, and they charge placement fees, etc. It's an irritating world, at times. Otoh, it's much more likely that a small store will close shop owing that money.
2. Advice to writers: If you're going to miss a deadline, make sure you miss it with plenty of notice. Plenty of notice. Why? Your editor probably already has ulcers in progress, but with notice, she can pull the book from the schedule far enough in advance that it won't actually have been presented to sales reps, put in catalogues, etc.
If you're a midlist author with middling sales, having a book presented to bookstores -- and sold -- when in the end it won't be available is one thing. Most stores probably won't notice (unless they're specialty stores). If you're a midlist author whose sales are good and who has buzz or momentum, this is very bad. Because the sales reps present your book, and it fails to come in. You ask your reps where the book is. They tell you it's been pushed back. (where back means ahead, as in by many months). They don't like to do this; it makes them feel slightly stupid. Do this again? They feel stupider. Do it again? They don't even want to mention your book. They don't want to sell it. Yes, I'm thinking of a specific author. No, I don't think it's his fault; he certainly makes clear on his web page that the book isn't finished. But it doesn't matter whose fault it is: It's embarrassing to offer a book four times and have it fail to arrive. The squirming is visible.
David Eddings also caused the reps to have ulcers when he started to alternate between books in two series. It annoyed the hell out of buyers, and the buyers then harried -- guess who? -- the sales force. You really, really want these people on your side. Or at least neutral.
This is where art and business collide in a messy way. No one has complained about the quality of the Martin books when they finally get a chance to read them. Truly. No one (at least in our store). But it's also true that frontlist drives backlist, and that the longer the period between books, the slower the backlist moves. You lose momentum, and some clout, in that fashion. But I honestly feel that it's better for an author to write the book they feel is the best book they can, because a slap-dash book will also lose readers.
It's one thing to be late. People will write the publisher and demand to know where the book is. People will write, saying they know the book is finished, and they want it now, when the book isn't finished. But this doesn't affect the reps; it annoys the poor editors who have to deal with the email, but no promises have otherwise been made to the bookstores, and therefore, no bookstores have promised their customers that a book will be out by a certain date. No one likes to look like an idiot, and blame is part of the human condition. Best to have that blame, where it exists, fall on the author when it is the author's to bear: the excuse that a good book needs as much time as it needs is usually met with resignation or even agreement.
3. The most annoying bit of publisher insanity I've encountered.
At a Worldcon, there was a panel in which several editors were speaking as their publisher's representatives. It was a bookselling panel, and a number of booksellers were therefore in the audience. At one point, an editor asked the booksellers in the audience what they would find most helpful as an aid to selling the books that were being published.
I said (I'm not terribly shy with opinions) that the most useful thing they could do would be to keep the first (and subsequent) book in a series in print until the series had been finished. And one of the editors looked at me, put her hands on her hips (which was silly, given that she was seated) and said, "Are you saying that people won't buy a second novel in a series if they can't find the first one? Because I don't buy that."
Hello? Is anyone home?
Yes, I understand there are reasons why it's difficult to keep a series that isn't selling as well as beancounters would like in print, and I've enumerated a number of them. But, damn it, don't ask if you don't want an answer.
On the other hand, her response so offended the rest of the booksellers in the audience that they responded before I could (which, if you know me, is saying something), and a woman seated behind me said, "I'm not a bookseller, but as a reader, I certainly won't pick up a second book in a series if I can't find the first one." She was C.S. Friedman. It was just after her first novel had come out, and I adored it, so I was happy on two levels: one, that she was giving a reader perspective and two, that I could gibber at her like a brain-turned-to-mush fan.
A couple of trailing comments that I couldn't jam in elsewhere, and then back to the question of my current ignorance.
1. On Hold. This is an accounting category that no one speaks about. Let me speak about it briefly, as I mentioned it in regard to large bookstore chains/accounts. An invoice is, as I mentioned net 30 days. It means the bookstore has 30 days to pay it. I particulary loathe sales embargos in which a book is shipped two weeks before the bookstore is allowed to shelve it, but the invoice dates from the shipping, and not the sell-date. Digression.
A chain does NOT pay its bills in 30 days. Ever. In the old days, it didn't pay in 60 days, either; 90 days was about the expected pay date. Three months after the books were received, by which point, the returns had been done, and a credit applied to the account. At the moment, I believe 120 days is not uncommon. For big stores. That's in bold, although I didn't.
An independent store, however, has between 30 and 60 days to pay, period. Because the publisher's list doesn't depend on the bookstore, it being small no matter what its volume sales are, if the invoice is not paid in that period, the store is put On Hold. Which simply means that the distributor will not ship any books to the store until the bill for that period is paid. I understand why the chains aren't put on hold -- because the publishers have some faith that eventually the large company will pay those bills. When they don't, whole companies can sink without a trace.
When Chapters went under, it was in part due to the internet black hole, and in much larger part due to the fact that it had decided to start its own distribution network. Publishers who hadn't been paid in 6 months still shipped books to Chapters, and in the end, they didn't get paid. At least one major distributor/publisher in Canada went under due to that. Chapters was bought by Indigo. Things have sort of stabilized. But the chains still get their books, even though they take much longer to pay, and they charge placement fees, etc. It's an irritating world, at times. Otoh, it's much more likely that a small store will close shop owing that money.
2. Advice to writers: If you're going to miss a deadline, make sure you miss it with plenty of notice. Plenty of notice. Why? Your editor probably already has ulcers in progress, but with notice, she can pull the book from the schedule far enough in advance that it won't actually have been presented to sales reps, put in catalogues, etc.
If you're a midlist author with middling sales, having a book presented to bookstores -- and sold -- when in the end it won't be available is one thing. Most stores probably won't notice (unless they're specialty stores). If you're a midlist author whose sales are good and who has buzz or momentum, this is very bad. Because the sales reps present your book, and it fails to come in. You ask your reps where the book is. They tell you it's been pushed back. (where back means ahead, as in by many months). They don't like to do this; it makes them feel slightly stupid. Do this again? They feel stupider. Do it again? They don't even want to mention your book. They don't want to sell it. Yes, I'm thinking of a specific author. No, I don't think it's his fault; he certainly makes clear on his web page that the book isn't finished. But it doesn't matter whose fault it is: It's embarrassing to offer a book four times and have it fail to arrive. The squirming is visible.
David Eddings also caused the reps to have ulcers when he started to alternate between books in two series. It annoyed the hell out of buyers, and the buyers then harried -- guess who? -- the sales force. You really, really want these people on your side. Or at least neutral.
This is where art and business collide in a messy way. No one has complained about the quality of the Martin books when they finally get a chance to read them. Truly. No one (at least in our store). But it's also true that frontlist drives backlist, and that the longer the period between books, the slower the backlist moves. You lose momentum, and some clout, in that fashion. But I honestly feel that it's better for an author to write the book they feel is the best book they can, because a slap-dash book will also lose readers.
It's one thing to be late. People will write the publisher and demand to know where the book is. People will write, saying they know the book is finished, and they want it now, when the book isn't finished. But this doesn't affect the reps; it annoys the poor editors who have to deal with the email, but no promises have otherwise been made to the bookstores, and therefore, no bookstores have promised their customers that a book will be out by a certain date. No one likes to look like an idiot, and blame is part of the human condition. Best to have that blame, where it exists, fall on the author when it is the author's to bear: the excuse that a good book needs as much time as it needs is usually met with resignation or even agreement.
3. The most annoying bit of publisher insanity I've encountered.
At a Worldcon, there was a panel in which several editors were speaking as their publisher's representatives. It was a bookselling panel, and a number of booksellers were therefore in the audience. At one point, an editor asked the booksellers in the audience what they would find most helpful as an aid to selling the books that were being published.
I said (I'm not terribly shy with opinions) that the most useful thing they could do would be to keep the first (and subsequent) book in a series in print until the series had been finished. And one of the editors looked at me, put her hands on her hips (which was silly, given that she was seated) and said, "Are you saying that people won't buy a second novel in a series if they can't find the first one? Because I don't buy that."
Hello? Is anyone home?
Yes, I understand there are reasons why it's difficult to keep a series that isn't selling as well as beancounters would like in print, and I've enumerated a number of them. But, damn it, don't ask if you don't want an answer.
On the other hand, her response so offended the rest of the booksellers in the audience that they responded before I could (which, if you know me, is saying something), and a woman seated behind me said, "I'm not a bookseller, but as a reader, I certainly won't pick up a second book in a series if I can't find the first one." She was C.S. Friedman. It was just after her first novel had come out, and I adored it, so I was happy on two levels: one, that she was giving a reader perspective and two, that I could gibber at her like a brain-turned-to-mush fan.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-18 10:39 am (UTC)