Wednesday, June 13, 2007
PaperBooks

Comment number 16 on a recent posting came from Keirsten Clark of the publishers PaperBooks which, to be honest, I'd never heard of. She writes:

We are attempting an unusual and innovative way of marketing each of our titles on pub day - even if it means we are keeping the number of our titles down. We want to give our first time authors the best chance we can so are trying to look beyond (but not ignore) in-store promotions and huge discounting. Our first campaign - a Book Drop around central London - for The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson seems to have got off to a good start.


I think many publishers, large and small, are trying to do this and it's great to see that this experiment seems to be working. All  power to PaperBooks. The problem is that, even if it is a mega-success the quantities sold are unlikely to exceed a few thousand. In order to attract and reward competitively the very best-selling authors it is necessary to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and 'guerrilla' tactics just won't succeed on a consistent enough basis. We have to work out, as Keirsten implies, how to knit together the very different and sometimes conflicting business models of the supermarkets, high street chains, Internet and traditional independents.

Why hasn't it happened? Is it beause publishers are simply stupid? Or might it just be that it's a really tricky problem?

#    |  Comments [10]  | 
6/13/2007 9:00:23 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
"We have to work out, as Keirsten implies, how to knit together the very different and sometimes conflicting business models of the supermarkets, high street chains, Internet and traditional independents."

At the risk of sounding too reactionary why the heck aren't small publishers like PaperBooks prepared to complete their own mail order transactions from their website, but instead wish to be cash-cow affiliates to Amazon ???

"Buy yours from Amazon"

"Pre-order your copy from Amazon"

Yuck !!!!!
Clive Keeble
6/13/2007 10:06:16 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Unfortunately we face the problem of many other publishers in that if we sell direct through our website, Nielsen will not record our sales figures – they cannot record figures from a single publisher (at least that’s what they tell us!) at which point you have to weigh up the importance of sales figures to a company like ourselves (very important for exposure and for credibility of our titles with traditional bookshops) and passing our business through Amazon. We don’t like it, but we are taking steps to avoid it. As Richard has said, it is important to try to knit every aspect of the industry together and that is exactly what we are all trying to do. We have just begun to develop our own bookshop which sells all kinds of titles but gives us exposure, a vehicle for payment and sales figs – still a work in progress but believe me we aren’t just sitting there. We are seizing opportunities in every possible place we can.
Keirsten Clark
6/13/2007 10:07:59 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
(Just for reference! www.anotherbookshop.com - as I say a work in progress - but hopefully a small step to covering all basis - who knows if we aren't careful booksellers like Borders may beat us to it and start publishing their own books...)
Keirsten Clark
6/13/2007 10:09:46 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
bases (sorry!) God and i'm a publisher!
Keirsten Clark
6/13/2007 11:56:24 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Richard,

I'd like to think that the reason is because it's a tricky problem!

Eoin
Eoin Purcell
6/13/2007 12:19:31 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Keirsten

It always astonishes me that the booktrade (worldwide) collectively were, until comparatively recently, fully prepared to pass their customers to Amazon.

Waterstone's, Border's, and many publishers just wanted sales without wishing to retain the buyer as a long-term customer.

Internet selling is no different to any other form of mail order, and I feel that many giants from the past would be gobsmacked at the lack of foresight shown when customer details were willingly surrendered to Amazon.

Where the booktrade goes now, and how it manages to contain Amazon will give executives many headaches in the years ahead.
Clive Keeble
6/13/2007 12:41:20 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Unfortunately coming in to things at this stage we are unable to 'fix' the problem. Mail order or traditional bookshops - our main aim is to sell books and it would be foolish for us to ignore any medium through which to do this. If book buying behaviour is changing and continuing to change, then we want to be tapped into the direction it is going - ideally ahead of it and if that means mail order, through mobile phones/pda devices, small wi-fi gadgets that attach to our ears and are tuned into our brains(!) then we need to capitalise on this. The giants from the past that we keep looking back to are well and truly in the past and I believe that is for a reason.
Keirsten Clark
6/13/2007 1:09:34 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
"The giants from the past that we keep looking back to are well and truly in the past and I believe that is for a reason."

If Sir Isaac Wolfson was in business and trading mail order today he would probably adapt very productively without needing to get into bed with Amazon.

Amazon has sucked the lifeblood from many of its (once associated) rivals, and only released them as and when it was assured that they were no longer likely to pose a long-term danger to the Basin's future.

Clive Keeble
6/13/2007 9:44:22 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Do stop whingeing Clive.
SUSAN HILL
6/14/2007 5:56:09 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Susan

How I love publishers who link their websites to Amazon - welcome to those who have sold themselves for the corporate dole.

Is it too much trouble for independent publishers like yourself to have a cottage industry supplying their own customers and retaining their customers rather than giving them on a plate to Amazon.

Give that lady a lollipop.
Clive Keeble