So who are the bad guys in publishing?

It does start looking like there are a lot of bad guys. LOL But in all honesty, it's simply time for things to change. As in most cases however, change usually starts at the top and since most publishers at the top hardly experience the problems we smaller publishers experience, it's not likely any change will help us any time soon. And small publishers certainly can't make enough noise to be heard--or can they?

Saying that you just won't worry about having your books in Brick and Mortar stores is ridiculous and well, it's not exactly the bookstores fault. Truth be known, the return policy in place today was put in place by the now larger publishers. They needed relief with warehousing because they had to print so many books at once due to the cost of printing in those days. They made a deal with bookstores that basically said if you put a lot of our books in your back rooms we will promise to let you return what doesn't sell. Worked well at the time. At least for the larger publishers. I suppose with the entire printing business the way it was you just didn't have a lot of small publishers. You were either big or you weren't.

Now that there are a LOT of small publishers, this model needs to be changed. But who changes it? The larger publishers sure aren't going to make the move. This model only helps them and it helps keep the competition out of the bookstores. I'm not sure why the bookstores don't work to change this except perhaps for the same reason.

Bottom line, I don't think there are any real bad guys. Just a very real need for change since printing books is no longer the costly venture it used to be forcing publishers to print way more books than they could afford to stock thus seeking help from bookstores. ;)