Indie bookstores redux
a quick update and response to last week's newsletter
Last week’s newsletter led to lots of comments and debates, so I took down the subscribers paywall. If you want to follow this week’s newsletter, probably best to read that post before this one.
In response, and privately, many people wrote to me expressing frustrations with indie bookstores who don’t carry the types of books they read, and some felt their reluctance to stock more horror, manga, sci-fi, etc. was elitist.
Other independent publishers — my cohort—commented on my points about many indies stocking primarily Big 4/5 titles, becoming corporate storefronts of a sort, and often displaying the same 25-30 ‘buzzy’ big 4/5 titles each season, rendering them not that dissimilar from each other.
Indie booksellers I heard from agreed they rely heavily on corporate publishers; however, they were vocal in denying they depress prices. In my example, I said sales representatives tell me too high a sticker price discourages indies from ordering our books, and thus (sometimes) they recommend I lower prices of forthcoming titles. The sellers I heard from say they never do that. I believe them! But that does not explain why reps tell me what they do.
Regardless, I’m raising the prices of our books in line with rising costs, because if I don’t, we risk going underwater, paying, say, $4 to print a book that we would only see $3 from once sold, a truly dumb way to run a business! One publisher has been quoted a 100% increase by a printer for a reprint of a title published in 2021. So, if in 2021 it cost them $2,000 to print 1000 copies, that same book now costs $4000 to print 1000 copies. As the cost for Belt books rises, I will cross my fingers indies still order them if they think them right for their store, despite the price, and, given that they have been telling me price is not an issue, feel hopeful they will.
Indie booksellers I heard from also were upset that I overgeneralized —each indie is different, they said. Indeed! True! Allow me to add an asterix to that post, then, in response, clarifying that I was, in fact, overgeneralizing—in order to be more rhetorically effective in describing some aspects of the indie bookseller/indie publisher relationship—at the cost of being misleading. No, not all indies are the same. Many do work to find and bring to their readers independent press titles, stock tons of manga and romance, support and encourage raising prices, and/or lobby to educate consumers about and change Ingram as well as Amazon.
I also want to take the time to name check the independent bookstores who championed us when we were an itty bitty press as well as those who have particularly helped us succeed into the less bitty press we are today: Loganberry Books, Mac’s Backs, Source Booksellers, Pages, Book Beat, Talking Leaves, Women and Children First, City Lit, Left Bank Books, Downbound Books, Community Bookstore, White Whale, Raven Bookstores, City of Asylum. I’m sure I’m forgetting some and I’ll add to this list in forthcoming newsletters. Meanwhile, please copy/paste into your google bar and order from them ;) And thanks you guys. I do see you! There’s a big difference between wanted to call attention to structural issues (these newsletters) and my appreciation for individual relationships we have nurtured over the years together (you guys).
I expected pushback from my newsletter, so all’s fair! Keep it coming; I’m listening and learning. But I still hope for more questions, comments, and ideas about how independent bookstores and independent presses could better work together (as distinct from pushback focused on the indie sellers perspective—let’s have both). I heard a lot of “we’re just trying to keep the lights on open despite huge odds” from sellers. Sure! I get that! But, I want to say: I am trying to keep the lights on despite huge odds as well. My inclination right now, as I look to how to improve my bottom line, is to spend less energy devoted to how to get Belt books into independent bookstores and more energy working on the other various channels we have to get our books found. I’d still like structural ideas for how indie presses and indie stores could become better partners. (Oh! And! For sellers and anyone who would like to buy Belt books at wholesale cost: thanks to a seller suggestion, I came up with a very easy trick for ‘frictionless’ direct wholesale orders. Please just shoot me a reply you are interested and I’ll tell you the secret!)
Comments are open.
My Book Proposal Course starts May 9. No zoom! 5 spaces remaining. If people are interested, I might teach it again in June or July. Shoot me an email if that’s you.
I so appreciate ALL of your newsletters and teachings. And folks may not always like hearing truths that you know and experience at Belt, but it's important to tell it- for other Indie presses, for my university students I teach who have this rainbow vision of what publishing is, and for writers out there. Bravo- keep up the good fight!
I wonder where customer expectations fit into all this, including the pressure on indie bookstores not to raise prices too much. I'm a case in point: I buy a fair number of books but find myself balking above a certain price point, especially if I'm taking a chance on a book by an author I don't know. If it's, say, an indie press book, I can sometimes buy it directly from the press at a cheaper price than I would pay at my local indie (which tries to be supportive of indie presses and authors, and which I support as much as I can). Having written a short, indie-press book, I well know that quantity does not equal quality, but even so, it can feel weird to shell out $30+ for a slender book, even though I understand (from reading this newsletter, among other things!) that books probably should cost more. Not sure where I'm going with this, just feeling sympathy for booksellers and publishers caught in the middle.