Here’s more on yesterday’s announcement that Baker & Taylor is getting out of the business of wholesaling traditionally-published books to bookstores.
From Publishers Weekly:
The departure of B&T from the retail side leaves Ingram as the lone national wholesaler, a situation that worries many independent bookstores. “I believe removing that competition in the retail wholesale market is a huge detriment to the independent bookselling industry,” said Larry Law, executive director of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association. Michael Tucker, owner of Books Inc., which has 10 stores in California, noted that “B&T was doing a very good job servicing us, we had better discounts than from Ingram, and they always had an indies reserve. That said, Books Inc. has always had a good relationship with Ingram, and we hope they will prove to be a good partner.” Tucker also pointed to one of the reasons B&T got out of the retail business: the move to more direct ordering by stores. “In recent years, we have seen a shift in the way we order books,” Tucker said. “We went from 60% distributor/40% publisher to a flip of 60% publisher/40% distributor.”
The departure of B&T from the retail side leaves Ingram as the lone national wholesaler, a situation that worries many independent bookstores. “I believe removing that competition in the retail wholesale market is a huge detriment to the independent bookselling industry,” said Larry Law, executive director of the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association. Michael Tucker, owner of Books Inc., which has 10 stores in California, noted that “B&T was doing a very good job servicing us, we had better discounts than from Ingram, and they always had an indies reserve. That said, Books Inc. has always had a good relationship with Ingram, and we hope they will prove to be a good partner.” Tucker also pointed to one of the reasons B&T got out of the retail business: the move to more direct ordering by stores. “In recent years, we have seen a shift in the way we order books,” Tucker said. “We went from 60% distributor/40% publisher to a flip of 60% publisher/40% distributor.”
Link to the rest at Publishers Weekly
Baker and Taylor is currently my distributor for a hardcover children’s book I wrote, illustrated, and printed myself. This is news to me. They didn’t notify me at all. They keep sending me purchase orders. I wrap the books carefully in bubble wrap, package them and send them off to the warehouse. Then they get returned to me as defective. I think they get thrown around in the warehouse. When I go on Glassdoor to check out employee reviews, I read that a lot of workers drink and get high on the job. I guess I have to sever my relationship with them. Or maybe it’s been done for me? The only reason I got a distributor is because libraries require it to buy your book. The children’s market is very different from the adult market BTW.
Is it just my exhausted brain (yay anxiety-driven insomnia), or are there two of the same paragraph in this excerpt?
To comment on the article:
Looks like indie booksellers are going to have to find other methods of putting books on their shelves. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ones who’ll survive B&T’s withdrawal from the retail market already have.
They wouldn’t be so reliant on wholesalers if the BPHs hadn’t killed their direct sales capabilities decades ago. They used to sell direct to consumers as well as retailers.
Their ecosystem has been “optimized” unto near uselessness. Or as we used to say about centralized IT on the day job: “they’ll keep improving the system until they break it”.
Signature quote from Publishers Weekly:
“Reilly noted that even though he has increased his direct business, he does depend on wholesalers to fill orders from a not-small part of his customer base who want a book immediately”
Ah, I missed that in the article. Bad exhausted brain, no cookie for you.
Publisher direct sales aren’t particularly noticeable. Almost invisible, actually. 😉
The whole thing is a kick in the teeth to indie booksellers. It’s B&T basically saying that that market isn’t worth the effort.
Yes. And it isn’t.
Not at their scale; not B&T’s and not the ABA Indies.
For all the establishment talk of the importance of the ABA bookstores they barely move a few percentage points of all trade books. They could all vanish overnight and the only impact would be the handwringing. Borders vanished and the publishers’ bottom line barely noticed. And that was 17% of sales.
By now so much of the market is digital or online (plus costco and B&N) that all that remains is table scraps. The stores themselves are barely hanging on. As Follet said, the return isn’t worth the investment.
“I believe removing that competition in the retail wholesale market is a huge detriment to the independent bookselling industry,”
But it wasn’t a bad thing when B&N ran a lot of other bookstores out of business? I smell double standards here …
Adapt to a changing world or die.