Simon & Schuster Celebrates Banned Book Week!

Here's the LINK: Simon & Schuster Celebrates Banned Book Week! or in this case, "here's your sign."



So the publisher responsible for the ludicrous "industry standard return policy" between bookstores and distributors that ensures ALL small publishers will fail if they abide by it, is now celebrating banned book week!



Is anyone really waiting for their true color to show?



Good Grief!

The Publishing Industry - Just so you'll know.

This very enlightening article explains it all in great detail and leaves no question as to why the publishing industry is the way it is presently. I quote it often and will continue to do so. The link I initially gave is a bit weird now though. So I've found a new link to the page:

This is the new link.

Though I've discussed it before it seems when I post about it again that new readers are immediately shocked and surprised. If you're an author and you want to understand more about why things are the way they are then you need to go to the link above and read it thoroughly.

For your viewing pleasure I will only quote some excerpts:

"The 1920s saw the founding of such important publishing houses as Simon and Schuster, Random House, Alfred A. Knopf, and Viking Press. Although Random House would grow to be the largest and most successful publisher in the country, and would hold that position into the twenty-first century, Simon and Schuster introduced some important industry innovations with long-term consequences."

*Sue scratches head* I wonder what those "important industry innovations" were?

"The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the book publishing industry as hard as it hit every other sector of the American economy. Booksellers at that time were mostly small local businesses, and to help them survive the economic hardships of the depression, Simon and Schuster invented a system allowing booksellers to return unsold copies of books for credit against future purchases. Other publishers quickly had to follow Simon and Schuster's lead, and the practice became the industry standard."

Well, I guess it was a good idea at the time. But I like the way this "industry standard" is described here: http://www.creativemindspress.com/business.htm

Back in the Depression, when bookstores were going under right and left, publishers realized they had to do something radical to keep booksellers in business. They came up with the idea of returns—a system whereby any bookseller may return any book, with little regard for how long the book was kept or what condition it was in. No one told the book business the Depression ended 70 years ago. We still have a system that—not to put too fine a point on it—sucks. Few other industries operate on what amounts to a giant consignment scheme.

LOL SUCKS! Really? Not only that but small publishers don't even get to see their returned books. The only way to survive is to make your books non-returnable. That way large bookstores can still order your books but not take you down with the ship. I sort of hate to say it but unless this return policy mess is straightened out, Barnes & Nobles is next. Good thing there are Independent Bookstores to pick up the slack. Independent bookstores that don't abide by Industry Standard that is. ;D

Want me to do a book signing at your B&N?

**I would like to add that ALL large bookstores operate like this. If a small publisher makes their books non-returnable (to survive) they will not be put on the shelf by large bookstores for any reason (they can be ordered though. How nice!) Several small published authors, myself included, have had limited success with a few ventures at B&N but all in all they end in disaster!!!! Complete and utter disaster. The model is set up to deal with large publishers. Corporate could care less about small pubbbed authors. My local B&N actually let me do a book signing then refused to pay me for the books I BOUGHT IN AND SOLD because CORPORATE told them they didn't allow for this kind of signing anymore. Two years running and I still haven't been paid. They're not picking on me. This is how they treat all small pubbed authors. Small publishers are the new large publishers. Deal with it B&N or don't and you can end up just like Borders**


Want me to do a book signing at your Barnes &Noble?

Too bad.

Barnes & Noble is an outlet for large publishers ONLY! Always has been. Always will be. And they don't seem to be budging on the matter. In fact, they're only tightening the reins. Before they'd allow their CRM or Customer Relations Manger to humor small published authors who didn't have distribution through the "big two" Baker & Taylor and Ingram. They'd let the author bring their own copies to sell.

NOT ANY MORE!!!!

And to make matters worse, they don't allow book signings for any author who makes their books non-returnable which is the only way for Small Press to survive. If a small publisher doesn't make their books non-returnable, large bookstores like Barnes & Noble will order at will without a care in the world because of the deal they have set up with large publishers that Simon & Schuster started during the depression. They can return ALL books ordered whenever they want to for free, no matter what shape they're in and no matter when they do it AND they get there money back.

That's where all the books you see in Books-A-Million come from since they are only a reseller of "returned from the bookstore" books. Sadly, this model works for large publishers but will "sink" any small publisher because when the books are returned (as they ALWAYS are) the small publisher has to pay shipping and has to return any money to the bookstores!!!!! And guess what folks, nine times out of ten the books aren't returned at all. They're "supposedly" destroyed because the distributors don't want to pay the postage to have them returned. I say supposedly because I've had books show up for sale at Books-A-Million when BAM is a reseller of "returned from the bookstore books." That can't happen unless someone is lying. And no, I make nothing off the books sold from BAM.

To keep this from happening anymore, I've made my books non-returnable. But like I said, Barnes & Noble won't let me in to do a booksigning because this means they don't get to give the books back and charge my publisher shipping.

They can ORDER my books for you if you ask them even though most of the time they'll tell you they can't just because they don't want to mess with it.

So there ya go.

And you wonder why I hate Barnes & Nobles and ALL large bookstores.


Jerks!

Ya, so if you want to order ANY of my books, please visit Black Bed Sheet Books or my website suedent.net I invest a LOT of MONEY in making my books the best they can be. I can't keep doing that if they don't sell. Support small press. Don't support Barnes & Noble or other large bookstores. At least not until they support small press and quit "pooping" all over them. Big FAT bullies!!!!!

Amazon Continues To Give Publishers Run-Around.

For all of those who'd post otherwise, I'm not talking about publishers that have the money and the where-with-all to sue Amazon or otherwise cause them loss of business if they don't pay attention to them. I'm speaking of all those OTHER publishers who are at Amazon's mercy.

Oh you want an example. Well while I can give you many, I'll stick with my own frustrations as not only can I provide facts but also prove that the facts are genuine.

Amazon shows the Hardback of Never Ceese as being available through them as "new." The hardback of Never Ceese is out-of-print though and has been out of print for some time. More recently, the rights to the book have reverted back to me. I have the letter from the original publisher that states this.

Baker & Taylor, the original distributor, also has the letter. I sent it to them upon request and after a conversation I had with them. Do I know whether they actually stopped distributing the book? No. And I doubt that they did but I would have to take legal action to force them to and I don't have that kind of money.

Regardless of whether Baker & Taylor are acting in a legal manner or not, Amazon should. I've told them of the matter as well. I told them that if they list the hard copy as new and available through Amazon as such then they are breaking the law. The basic response to all of my emails to them, please talk to the publisher even though I am the publisher.

Bottom line, buy the book through second-hand sellers. I still don't get money but neither does the original publisher who liquidated over 4000 copies without giving me the opportunity to buy them back myself, keeping 250 copies so they could sell them themselves. How much did I make off of Never Ceese the hardback? A $500 dollar advance against royalties. So basically $500 dollars and some pocket change. Considering what I paid for editing, the original publisher didn't edit the book, and publicity, the original publisher did little in this area, I will forever more be in the red for the hardback of Never Ceese.

Oh and if Amazon has copies and you buy one, it's stolen and they know it because I've told them and provided them with information to show this. Way to go Amazon. Keep on bullying.

Sue Dent

Boycott {insert publisher of choice}

A new trend? It does seem to be the case. But I've found, at least so far, that the publishers being singled out by their authors don't operate much differently than all the other traditional presses out there.

They're attempting to play the game as set up by the money controlling "big dog" publishers without considering that doing so means certain death. The publishing industry rules only work for the larger publishers. Small presses need a completely different set of rules to survive.

So do I agree with boycotting small traditional houses? Not really (and I've been with two who went under due to believing they could actually operate under the rules set in place by large publishers.) And boycotting large houses is futile because they control the industry and are far tooooo big to be touched by our rock throwing. Readers aren't being affected by authors being "screwed" so life will go on.

And just in case you think I don't have a dog in the hunt, there are over 4000 hard-back copies of Never Ceese out there that I'll never see a penny from. Not one cent will come to me . . . ever. Gotta love that. ;)

Concerning Virtual Book Signings . . .

From press release:

Concerning the idea of a virtual book signing Sue says, "It's a very real solution to a very real problem. Large chain book stores are distribution centers for large publishers. They don't embrace small published authors and certainly not self-pubbed ones. Most of us aren't even allowed to do signings. The reason? We have to play it smart and make our books "non-returnable" so bookstores don't eat us alive. Large book stores won't order your books if you make them non-returnable which means you don't get a book signing. A virtual book signing means we don't have to worry about dealing with these bullies anymore and we can sell face to face with folks all over the world!"

Making books non-returnable to survive in large bookstores set up to only distribute large publishers books is a bad idea anyway. The scenario of these bookstores ordering thousands of books (to subsequently push large publishers books to the top of best seller's lists) and sending all most all of them back for FREE isn't a scenario that will EVER work for small press or self-pubbed authors. It will take them down and has in record numbers.

And because I've neither the funds nor the "connections" to advertise my book signing the way each and every large publisher does, I MIGHT sell five books. Thank you large publishers for taking over the world with your money. I guess that means you WIN!

Not your usual LAME Virtual Book Signing!

That's right. There have been a few others ATTEMPTING to do a BRICK & MORTAR book signing and broadcasting it live via whatever platform providing the guest with a signed electronic CARD or label they can PASTE into their PRINT book should that be what they order.

My Virtual Book Singing will be the first ever and probably only one of its kind for quite a while where you receive, shortly after the signing, your very own personally signed DRM Free PDF to be converted into whatever format is your preference via one of many sites out there that allow this.

The up side, I don't have to go near a large "bully" book store and YOU get an ebook signed to YOU or to whoever you'd like it signed to with a personalized message. Just wanted to clarify that. No other author or publisher has offered this to date.

Here's the link once more in case you need it. ;D

Hope to see you there!

Oh Let's do dicuss Random House shall we!

Alternante-Title: How many times do we have to watch large publishers go down this road?

New article out and hot of the press. What are large publishers doing now besides running around blindly as they hit wall after wall after wall. Well here ya go! A nice article on Random House's goings on.

Again just a link to support my discussion about parts of it. ;)

Random House, one of the largest book publishers in the world, has finally joined its peers in coming on board to Apple's digital e-book platform, the last of the major publishers to do so.

Oh boy! Small publishers of the world rejoice as one. The large publishers who could care less about your existence and step on you at every turn have now ALL decided on a way to hopefully keep you locked out of the market.

Random House books do appear on the Kindle and Nook stores . . .

No! Really? Of course they showed up on Kinde and Nook stores. The Nook is Barnes & Nobles ereader format. Barnes & Noble is a chain bookstore set up to distribute books published by large publishers. DUH! And Amazon . . . well, they're just Amazon and for Random House another safe haven because the books are DRM encrypted (which really means very little if you know anything about anything.)

Apple has tweaked its guidelines and enforcement for apps like Kindle and Nook, which means it may soon not be possible to buy e-books on an iPad from any place other than the official iBooks outlet. . .

What? What? What?

Oh YEAH!!!! Another distributor attempting to corner the market by making something digital impossible to buy from anyone but them. *Sue chanting* "Go Apple, it's your birthday . . . go Apple . . .!"

I'm so glad all the large publishers know what they're doing. Aren't y'all? All I can say about this particular news is that, well, the APPLE doesn't fall far from the tree! HA!

Did you really think large publishers weren't going to band together to try and form some sort of alliance. They did it during the depression to survive with Simon and Schuster going out on that proverbial limb to extend that insane return policy to keep their bookstores from going under. All the other publishers of the day had to follow suit or go under.

Just keep this in mind. When it says large publishers have all joined together to do something, it doesn't mean they all agree. It simply means they don't trust each other. They're all in heated competition and each one is so influential that if something works for one of them the others are sure to fail if they don't go along with it.

This should all be very interesting to watch. *Sue sits back with her bucket of popcorn.* Very interesting indeed.

Why are large chain bookstores going under?

*******
Note: facts suggest that Christian chain bookstores are going under for a completely different reason than the one given here since they weren't around during the depression. I may blog about that later.
*******

As with anything, there are many opinions out there but I tend to gravitate to finding the facts. Not that it will keep things from happening the way they're happening but at least, armed with the facts, I can help others understand should they want to.

Many businesses seem to be failing in light of the internet or the ability for others to provide something digitally and quicker than the brick-and-mortar store. And while I'll agree with this theory in part I do not feel it is the primary reason for the demise of larger bookstores.

Does it matter what I think? No, not really but if you read on you'll at least know why I feel the way I do and perhaps you'll sleep better tonight.

Here's an excerpt I've posted before from an article I link to quite frequently. Since it is in an on-line encyclopedia it is unbiased and can't readily be pulled or changed due to my linking to it. I only point this out because many articles I find on the internet now lead to dead links having been moved all together. While I say that I'm not worried about this link going anywhere, I've copied it none-the-less. It has valuable information in it. Here's the link and here's the excerpt:

"The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the book publishing industry as hard as it hit every other sector of the American economy. Booksellers at that time were mostly small local businesses, and to help them survive the economic hardships of the depression, Simon and Schuster invented a system allowing booksellers to return unsold copies of books for credit against future purchases."

(Warning long sentence coming up. Read with caution.) I typically use the above excerpt to point to the reason why once-smaller-now-larger bookstores don't give a poop about small pubbed authors while pointing out that it is this return policy that bites small press in the butt so that they have to make books non-returnable just to keep once-smaller-now-larger bookstores from taking them down which as a result keeps once-smaller-now-larger bookstores from ordering small press books because they can't return them whenever they darn well please causing small press to eat the print cost of their book because AS WE ALL KNOW, no POD publisher wants to pay for shipping of the returned-from-the-bookstore books to be sent back to them. (long sentence over.)

Today I will use the excerpt to point to a much different issue. If large publishers cared so much back in the depression that one of them, Simon & Schuster and subsequently the others for sheer survival--broke protocol and created a return policy that would help the bookstore more than the publisher, then why aren't they acting today? These are THEIR bookstores. The same ones from the depression.

Where is the call to arms? I don't see it? The larger chain bookstores of today are the once-small bookstores of yeasteryear. Where are these wonderfully gracious publishers?

Many still point to ebooks as being the demise of the brick-and-mortar bookstores. I say "nay-nay." I say that if larger chain bookstores embraced and worked with small press (afterall there are more of us than them) the same way they work with larger publishers or at least offer us something as lucrative, they most likely wouldn't be in the shape they're in today.

I'm certain that large publishers (starting with Simon & Shuster) meant well by offering the hang-by-the-neck-until-dead (for small press anyway) return policy but after reading the above excerpt, one has to wonder at their motive. Okay, maybe not everyone but I certainly do.

Small press publishers might help but it's difficult to do this when the door is shut and locked to their presence. I'll not mention the insults that are heaped upon small press when they actually attempt to ask for the type of agreement larger bookstores share with larger publishers. Ooops.

I hate to see this happen as I hate to see any large entity go down but it's their own fault . . . in my opinion.

Oh and since small press books are swatted down at every turn, here's the best place to go to find Black Bed Sheet Books recently published edition of Never Ceese

Buy Never Ceese here!

Hey, if I didn't tell you, how would you know?

You'll just sound like you don't know what you're talking about.

To all my author friends out there who come to me for advice on occasion (don't understand it myself but okay) please keep this in mind. When you break the book market down into "Secular" and "Christian" you are showing your ignorance. That isn't meant to be mean even though I used the word ignorance. When you use these two labels to define the overall market you are telling any general market publisher you might be soliciting that you don't understand the industry at ALL!!!

Those general market publishers that are familiar with the two labels will write you off as someone who obviously writes for the targeted market that spawned the two labels and most general market publishers leave targeted markets alone.

The Christian Booksellers Association is most notable for using these to labels as they seem to believe that their targeted fiction is the only "Christian" fiction out there and any other fiction is "secular." If you're a Christian author seeking publication and your work has general market appeal it would be in your best interest when talking to publishers that you stay away from distinguishing the market as such.

There is general market fiction and non-fiction. Under this umbrella fall all the different genre's of the world. Just because some targeted market publishers say otherwise doesn't make it so. Good grief!

Simon and Schuster are the ones to blame!

*****Reposted with today's date specifically for Kristy Tallman =)

Well after continued research I now have the smoking gun and it lies squarely in Simon & Schuster's lap. Whose responsible for the outlandish return policy that sinks all small publishers eventually--Simon and Schuster. Here you go:

. . . The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the book publishing industry as hard as it hit every other sector of the American economy. Booksellers at that time were mostly small local businesses, and to help them survive the economic hardships of the depression, Simon and Schuster invented a system allowing booksellers to return unsold copies of books for credit against future purchases. Other publishers quickly had to follow Simon and Schuster's lead, and the practice became the industry standard. At times booksellers have been able to use this system to their advantage to clear inventories or to "pay" for copies of new books by returning unsold copies. Publishers have adapted to the system of returns by adding costs of shipping, warehousing, and recycling returned copies into the price of books. . .

Always nice to have facts. ;) 

So a system designed to help small booksellers survive the depression has become the Industry Standard and we have Simon & Schuster to thank for it.  

It says that publishers have adapted to the system of returns by adding costs of shipping, warehousing, and recycling returned copies into the price of the book. This means larger publishers. Smaller publishers haven't adapted to anything. They were never a part of the scenario. There is no costs for recycling books for them. Returned-from-the bookstore-books are never recycled and I doubt they ever were. My understanding is that today returned-from-the-bookstore books are sold to wholesalers who dabble in selling such books. For instance  Books-A-Million's two main wholesalers only sell returned-from-the-bookstore books. Going into a Books-A-Million you'd never know the books weren't actually new. For us small-pubbed authors those are stolen books. In other words we never see any money from them and our publishers never see any money from them. Our distributors tell us these books are destroyed.

Anyway I just wanted to add that little tidbit for all you new authors who wonder why things happen the way they do.

I particularly liked this clip as well which sort of sets the tone for how larger booksellers operate today.

In the 1970s, national chain bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and Waldenbooks began to open retail outlets in malls across the country. By buying in volume, chains could earn more profit on each copy of a book sold, allowing them to pay higher rents. Buying in volume also meant that they could negotiate deeper discounts from publishers. By passing this discount on to book buyers, the chains were able to attract customers away from the smaller independent bookstores. 

Well would you look at the bolded text! And one wonders why I detest Barnes & Noble and ALL the larger chains. I'll never make my books returnable again. Everyone makes money in this business but the producer of the product. Lovely.