Ingram's Spring Arbor

****** Please note that when I first drafted this blog I linked Tom Pigott to a Publisher's weekly article that placed him as the original owner of Spring Arbor before it was bought up by Ingram. As it happens that link is no more. Hmmmm . . . . Publishers Weekly articles rarely just disappear but I'm off to investigate and find it again. ;)

Okay found another link but the name is now Richard Pigott which I believe is Tom's father and this isn't the article I initially pointed to. Going to keep looking for that.

Yep. The article is no more. The original line from the article read as copied:

. . .(his father, Tom [Pigott], sold Spring Arbor to Ingram in 1997).

So yes, it's difficult to provide information when the articles you point to keep getting pulled.
******

What's going on with Spring Arbor anyway? I'm fairly certain that when Ingram purchased Spring Arbor from Tom Pigott in 1997 they didn't plan on pursuing the exact same closed, denominationally discriminative targeted market CBA was set up to serve in 1950 (and then ECPA (a group of CBA publishers) organized in the seventies) but it seems CBA member bookstores plans to make them tow the line, if you will. Because even though Ingram/Spring Arbor approves books by authors whose publishers don't belong to the fee-based Christian Booksellers (trade) Association and who don't write within restrictive guidelines to appeal to visitors of the once aptly named Baptist Bookstores,

member bookstores continue to reject books not from fee-paying member publishers.

It would seem then that CBA still runs the show. There are tons of marketing options for CBA member publishers and authors through Ingram's Spring Arbor yet NOTHING for all the "other" authors Spring Arbor approves for distribution to the Christian market.

You have to be a fee-paying member to take advantage.

So is Spring Arbor still owned by CBA or what?

Of course they are!

Doesn't matter if your book is approved by Ingram's Spring Arbor if you don't pay CBA their fee and write targeted fiction for a very denominational group of readers, then you still don't get into member Christian Bookstores. That in itself is no big deal when you understand that member Christian bookstores are ONLY for CBA and ECPA approved books.

As an author, the goal is to have a presence in any bookstore where readers show an interest in your work. I submitted both of my books for approval by Ingram's Spring Arbor after having many readers from CBA's closed market enjoy my story. Both stories were approved but NO member Christian Bookstore would let me in to do signings or even allow me to place a few books in stores where I knew customers were. And the reason given was that I needed a member publisher to have published my book. But I'd already contacted member publishers and they all told me my work didn't fit their denominationally discriminative guidelines.

So how is it that CBA and ECPA affiliated publishers can freely place their books in general market bookstores (not ABA bookstores as CBAer's refer to them) but can discriminate and keep non-affiliated Spring Arbor approved Christian authors completely out of their stores? They never planned on letting any book into their stores unless it was from a fee-paying CBA member. They got you Ingram!

Keep in mind, Christian is a broad term not one that marks a particular denomination. If a bookstore doesn't represent what all Christians want to see then the bookstore should be aptly renamed. No one accidentally walks into a LDS Christian bookstore without knowing where they are or a Catholic bookstore. CBA member bookstores used to be called Baptist bookstores. It is my opinion they should go back to that.

I've since asked to have Never Ceese unapproved for distribution to the Christian market. As you can guess it made no difference because approval to Spring Arbor means nothing for anyone not even for CBA affiliated authors.

Do remember and keep in mind also that Ingram/Spring Arbor has a vested interest in CBA. Why they're a fee-paying member. No there's no bias there whatsoever. Good Lord!