I’ve had about a dozen trade books published over the last 15 years by John Wiley and Sons (a few in their “For Dummies” series) and a couple other smaller publishers, and only recently have I started pursuing my own small publishing company. During those 15 years of working as both a writer and editor, I’ve learned a great deal about how the publishing world works. And the problem of returns is a fact of life, unfortunately, and I’m glad you’re sharing this with readers who, without much experience in the industry, are thinking of starting their own publishing business. I learned early on that when a book is said to have sold millions of copies, that is, in fact, a sale to the bookstore. When I get my royalty statements from Wiley, I’m well aware that the numbers are sales to bookstores, and they may be sitting on the shelf–and, unfortunately, eventually returned. (In fact, the royalty statements always have a “reserve against returns” where the publisher holds a certain percentage of your royalties to hopefully guard against returns.)

They say that before you open a business, you should have spent time working in the business so you understand it. Although I’ve had ideas for some cool restaurants, I would never do it because I’ve never worked in a restaurant and therefore don’t know the business.

Now I would never suggest that somebody not start their own publishing company. But this is a business like any other business, and you really need to know the ropes. Fortunately, sites like this one can teach you hopefully what you need to know. But please, everybody, make sure you study and learn as much as possible before opening a business, whatever it may be.

And as such, I’ve made the business decision that the books I’m self-publishing won’t be in bookstores. Period. It just won’t happen. I’ve had a few readers showing interest in the books (which aren’t finished yet, incidentally) ask me about bookstores, and each time they ask, I reconsider. But it always comes back to the problem of risk. And I decide it’s not worth it. I’ve had a few younger people (high school, college students) ask about my book because they don’t have credit cards and can’t order the book. They want to pay in cash at a bookstore. But I can’t do it. But that’s business; if I lose a sale or two, that’s just the way it goes. It just isn’t worth the huge, huge financial risk. (But for those few people who ask me about it, I’ll offer to let them send me a personal check and I’ll ship out the book, even before the check clears. I can afford that small risk if the check bounces, and then I’ll have one more happy reader.)

Good luck to everyone and thanks to the Bob and the others here for having this blog to help teach the ropes,
Jeff

Your story is exactly why I haven’t sold to B&N and use only specialized distributors who pay after the return period has expired. Book returns are unprofitable for big publishers so I knew returns would kill my self-publishing business. No matter how tempting, I always tell self-publishers to stay away from the big box retailers unless they get a no returns contract.

I’ve frequently wished that B&N and Borders would have a different supplier process for it’s online stores so it could represent self-publishers the way Amazon does (though with better terms). This would be fairly safe for self-publishers and make the big box stores able to compete better with Amazon’s vast inventory of titles.

This industry is so crazy and I think stories like yours need to be published so that the industry will change in the future. Why the major publishers don’t enter the distribution game and ultimately form a coop-retail option is beyond me. They would make so much more money. Until then, I’ll keep selling my books to small bookstores and gift stores who are so refreshing to deal with. I go out of my way to provide superior customer service, marketing aids and autographed copies to all my retailers and it leads to many repeat orders and zero returns.

I wish you luck in resolving the distribution mess that could have befallen anyone in our industry. Best to put this mess behind you and get cracking on marketing to the Christian market—it sounds like that could be your book’s salvation.

Ellen Reid Smith
author, Cowgirl Smarts: How to Rope a Kick-Ass Life

Terminology is not uniform even among experts/insiders (self-publishing being a huge culprit), the concept of “you don’t know what you don’t know” is extremely prevelent, and often the deeper you dig, the more overwhelming and confusing it gets.

I’m also fully aware that many authors skip doing the proper homework, however, even for those who do their best to do so, it is extremely easy to miss or misunderstand something.

I too thank Bob for posting this so others can learn, and I agree with Speedball, if I wanted to open a consignment shop, I’d do so, I plan to sell books.

My self-published novel CORDITE WINE was nominated for the Private Eye Writers of American Shamus Award in June 2006. This was my third nomination, but the first one I had received since my company (Back Alley Books) had been approved for stocking by Barnes and Noble. I was thrilled to receive another nomination, but I also cringed because I knew that B&N would be ordering this title by the truckload.

I also knew that Barnes and Noble is staffed mostly by glorified WalMart clerks who know virtually nothing about literature, and for certain have never heard of either me or the Shamus Award. I knew that not one clerk in a Barnes and Noble anywhere was going to lift a finger to hand-sell my books, because they don’t hand-sell ANYONE’S books.

Because of all this, I also knew that I was going to get slaughtered on returns. What was I supposed to do, though? Pull my book from distribution?

I got hammered early in 2007, exactly as I expected. Boxes upon boxes of returned books began to accumulate in my home office. Thankfully, a large percentage of them were still salable. Those that weren’t were put aside for donations to charities, etc. When all was said and done, I owed my distributor (Ingram), an amount in four figures. Took me months to pay off, even after I had put aside the money I had received from the initial sales, sure in my knowledge that I’d be seeing those books again.

Small Press Month was, as you stated, a farce, but it really wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because – as I’ve already stated – B&N doesn’t hand-sell books under any circumstances. They could have put up a dozen displays in each store, but if nobody makes an effort to tout your work nobody is going to buy it.

The so-called “unlimited consignment” in the retail bookselling business has been an industry standard for decades, at least since the Great Depression. In most cases, the chains do pay for books they buy, but only after 60-90 days. Even after that, they retain a permanent right to return those copies for refunds or credits on future orders. The publisher will always owe more for returns (per unit) than they received for the sale of the book, because the distributor offers the bookseller a smaller percentage discount than it charges the publisher.

Until the major publishing houses put their collective feet down and refuse to honor those returns, this will continue. Nothing ever changes in this industry without the major houses’ permission. It wasn’t Biblio’s responsibility to spell all this out for any of their customers – it’s simply understood that this is the way American booksellers do business, and distributors assume that anyone who approaches them requesting their services understands this.

It’s a real shame you got stung, and I sympathize with you, brother, but it sounds very much as if you didn’t completely understand the rules going in, or how major chain bookselling operates in this country. I hope I am wrong, but I strongly suspect that you will not find Mr. Lyons very interested in offering you any consolation or – for that matter – compensation. As I understand the bookselling biz, you’re on the hook for the 34k.

Hi Richard. I sympathize with your bad experience with Barnes & Noble, but mine was a bit different.
The Biblio representative presented to me as a fact that my book, THE PARTHENON CODE, would be on display with four other books at the entrance to 2,000 Barnes & Noble bookstores for the entire month of March. Had Barnes & Noble actually “celebrated” Small Press Month as the Biblio rep had told me they were going to, I’d have sold somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000 books based on the location of the display alone. THE PARTHENON CODE is an important book, dealing with a universally recognized subject. The Greek translation is in its second printing. The recently published first French printing is selling well.

Bob Johnson