Living Among The Potato Chips
June 4, 2010 by T.E.Watson
It has been a phenomenal last year. I just finished two of my first audio books, for my children’s titles of Glen Robbie and Mom Can I Have A Dragon? I am about to start (hopefully) two more. Finished five, yes five new children’s books. To be released when the publishers get to it. And I am starting a series of 6 new books having to do with a marvelous group which I must keep secret at the moment. Oh and I cannot forget I and my children’s book entitled The Man Who Spoke With Cats were just awarded The Golden Quill Award for The Best Children’s Book of the Year for 2009 from The American Authors Association.
But the one thing I have discovered that I have been wondering about for a very long time , is that while living among the potato chips of this industry we call publishing it has become blatantly interesting that the entire industry needs to grow up and catch up and how it refuses to do so.
Now what I mean is this. Ever since the great depression ,which a strange thing to call something that wasn’t really all that great, books have been sold via ,not just one middle man but two, Yes TWO. Now if that is not a dumb way to sell something I do not know what is.
It goes something like this ,and in this order… author publisher wholesaler distributor, retailer. We need authors, we need publishers and we need retailers, and maybe we need distributors, but where the hell did the wholesaler come from. As far as I am concerned there is not enough pie in the pie for a wholesaler . Why do we need wholesalers for books?Isn’t the job of the wholesaler the Publishers job? Books have been and are always being considered too expensive. There are a lot of other factors making books pricey. I won’t get into that now. I’ll take that one on later.
To catch you up… Authors have this great stigma that rides along with where ever they go. Everyone loves authors, we are afterall authors and we are generally very nice and very cool people to know, and if the readers like our work, all the better.We write and write until we like and feel our work is worthy to send off into the world. Similar to that of a parent sending a youngster to kindergarten for the first time. Our works are our children.
In this case they go the publisher, where, if accepted, are shaped and molded into a more than sellable book for everyone to read and enjoy.
But wait! Now the books are printed and waiting in a warehouse somewhere to be sold in a store. Why doesn’t the store just order the books from the publisher? This is where thing one and thing two come in. For over 70 years it has been the custom to make more money than the publisher and the author and the retailer, and it is because the wholesaler s and distributors( which remember are a needed,sort of entity) get in the way. I can see where the distributor, the one who ship and get the books to the stores, are important for the most part, but really? The entire system is backward and the author is considered last in line.
If the stores and the publishers just came to some kind of profitable custom and agreement they would both make money and the industry would not be so screwed up. In the days of old it was expected that the store owner needed product and that product was shipped by the manufacturer, visa vet’ the publisher. Not the wholesaler, not the distributor. I am not picking on distributors, although it seems so. I have several very good distributors for my books but wholesalers,come on! There is no need for this part of the equation to be sticking their fingers in the pie. No wonder why books are expensive, Everyone except the author in the end,or maybe that’s where they do get it, are the only ones that get any substantial portion of the profit pie. It isn’t much believe me. I am barking about the wholesaler. This so called needed evil twin of the industry.
I am complaining! Yes I am. But why have so many fingers in an already thinned industry pie. Take the wholesalers out of the formula. They are not needed.
There is a simple and quick solution to this. Let bookstores purchase directly from publishers and they can deal in a proper and fair way with one another. If you need to have a distributor because you feel your books are not getting to where they need to be, then jump out of the wagon and hope you hit the ground running. Take a chance, risk is what business is about right!
Recently I was introduced to a new business model and it is about time someone did this. It is called wubbit. Funny name but great concept. Very cool thing this. They have decide that yes,bookstores, publishers and authors can indeed work together in harmony. It sounds good in its introductory stages as it is. And who knows if it will work, but it is here now and worth giving a shot.
I personally am tired of fighting to get paid from wholesalers and distributors and publishers who have to wait their turn in line to be paid as well. Or to always deal with the shipments that come back after just being shipped out.. NO MORE CONSIGNMENTS BOOK STORES.Did you know they are the only industry in the world that does not pay for their product, and when and if they do is up to two years before anyone ,especially the author, who sees any monetary return.
But that is another chapter in the Potato Chips saga.
Until then
Be Well
T.E.Watson
Advertisement
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
T.E.Watson
Living Among The Potato Chips
June 4, 2010 by T.E.Watson
It has been a phenomenal last year. I just finished two of my first audio books, for my children’s titles of Glen Robbie and Mom Can I Have A Dragon? I am about to start (hopefully) two more. Finished five, yes five new children’s books. To be released when the publishers get to it. And I am starting a series of 6 new books having to do with a marvelous group which I must keep secret at the moment. Oh and I cannot forget I and my children’s book entitled The Man Who Spoke With Cats were just awarded The Golden Quill Award for The Best Children’s Book of the Year for 2009 from The American Authors Association.
But the one thing I have discovered that I have been wondering about for a very long time , is that while living among the potato chips of this industry we call publishing it has become blatantly interesting that the entire industry needs to grow up and catch up and how it refuses to do so.
Now what I mean is this. Ever since the great depression ,which a strange thing to call something that wasn’t really all that great, books have been sold via ,not just one middle man but two, Yes TWO. Now if that is not a dumb way to sell something I do not know what is.
It goes something like this ,and in this order… author publisher wholesaler distributor, retailer. We need authors, we need publishers and we need retailers, and maybe we need distributors, but where the hell did the wholesaler come from. As far as I am concerned there is not enough pie in the pie for a wholesaler . Why do we need wholesalers for books?Isn’t the job of the wholesaler the Publishers job? Books have been and are always being considered too expensive. There are a lot of other factors making books pricey. I won’t get into that now. I’ll take that one on later.
To catch you up… Authors have this great stigma that rides along with where ever they go. Everyone loves authors, we are afterall authors and we are generally very nice and very cool people to know, and if the readers like our work, all the better.We write and write until we like and feel our work is worthy to send off into the world. Similar to that of a parent sending a youngster to kindergarten for the first time. Our works are our children.
In this case they go the publisher, where, if accepted, are shaped and molded into a more than sellable book for everyone to read and enjoy.
But wait! Now the books are printed and waiting in a warehouse somewhere to be sold in a store. Why doesn’t the store just order the books from the publisher? This is where thing one and thing two come in. For over 70 years it has been the custom to make more money than the publisher and the author and the retailer, and it is because the wholesaler s and distributors( which remember are a needed,sort of entity) get in the way. I can see where the distributor, the one who ship and get the books to the stores, are important for the most part, but really? The entire system is backward and the author is considered last in line.
If the stores and the publishers just came to some kind of profitable custom and agreement they would both make money and the industry would not be so screwed up. In the days of old it was expected that the store owner needed product and that product was shipped by the manufacturer, visa vet’ the publisher. Not the wholesaler, not the distributor. I am not picking on distributors, although it seems so. I have several very good distributors for my books but wholesalers,come on! There is no need for this part of the equation to be sticking their fingers in the pie. No wonder why books are expensive, Everyone except the author in the end,or maybe that’s where they do get it, are the only ones that get any substantial portion of the profit pie. It isn’t much believe me. I am barking about the wholesaler. This so called needed evil twin of the industry.
I am complaining! Yes I am. But why have so many fingers in an already thinned industry pie. Take the wholesalers out of the formula. They are not needed.
There is a simple and quick solution to this. Let bookstores purchase directly from publishers and they can deal in a proper and fair way with one another. If you need to have a distributor because you feel your books are not getting to where they need to be, then jump out of the wagon and hope you hit the ground running. Take a chance, risk is what business is about right!
Recently I was introduced to a new business model and it is about time someone did this. It is called wubbit. Funny name but great concept. Very cool thing this. They have decide that yes,bookstores, publishers and authors can indeed work together in harmony. It sounds good in its introductory stages as it is. And who knows if it will work, but it is here now and worth giving a shot.
I personally am tired of fighting to get paid from wholesalers and distributors and publishers who have to wait their turn in line to be paid as well. Or to always deal with the shipments that come back after just being shipped out.. NO MORE CONSIGNMENTS BOOK STORES.Did you know they are the only industry in the world that does not pay for their product, and when and if they do is up to two years before anyone ,especially the author, who sees any monetary return.
But that is another chapter in the Potato Chips saga.
Until then
Be Well
T.E.Watson
Share this:
Like this:
Posted in Commentary, Industry, Writing | Leave a Comment
Comments RSS