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Troy
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 12:16 am: | 
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Selling books is a tough business. I started this thread because of comments made by Brian Egeston & Tee C. Royal near the end of the “GREED in the Publishing Industry” http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/1/141.html?1046054999 My hope is that reading this post will give a useful perceptive about this aspect of the book business and some of the challenges in running a web site like AALBC.com
Tee C.: I’ve experienced the same things you have when buying books directly from self published authors. But look at it this way: Selling books and making money is a tough business, especially for independent book sellers, online retailers, and self published authors.
A lot of mistakes are made up front when a book’s price is set. It is possible to set a book’s price too low. Even though the price provides a margin to cover production costs, it may not be enough margin to also cover the distributor’s and retailer’s needs.
Here are a couple of examples:
Please note: I respect all of the publishers and authors I might mention. I point out these examples just to help anyone who is interested on understanding this aspect of the business. I mention specific books, because it will make the example more meaningful.
One of the top selling books for 2000 and 2001 was the book "The Words Don't Fit In My Mouth" http://authors.aalbc.com/jessica.htm. If a person buys the book from me by clicking the Amazon link on the above link 6.5% commission. Since the book was selling so well, I wanted to sell it directly so that I could make a share in of the profits on a book I was selling. The discount offered on their web site was 10% for volume orders. The next time I ran into the publisher, in person, I offered a 50% discount and she looked at me like I had two heads. So we could not do business. She was not being greedy she just would not do 50%. Why sell a book to AALBC.com for 50% off when they had sufficient demand to sell the book at full retail and keep more of the profits. (Of course one could argue the additional promotion on AALBC.com would have increase demand for future orders, but that is the subject of another post).
Looking at the issues from another angle: The price for “The Words Don't Fit In My Mouth” is $15. By simply selling it as a B&N or Amazon affiliate I make .75 cents to a dollar – with no additional effort, or risk -- for every book sold. Now if I accepted the 10% terms the difference in profit to me does not even cover my postage costs. So I can not do 10%.
Even if I got the typical 40% discount it would be tight. Because after you factor in storage, postage, interest lost on prepaying for the books, loss allowance (someone always says they never got the book), the time to package, and mail books, etc – it is simply not worth the additional effort. Now if Amazon throws in one of their famous 30% or 40% off deals; I’m dead in the water – stuck with a book I can’t move. Rare is the person who would pay full retail for a book, when they can get it from Amazon at 40% off.
Let’s do the math: Take for example Brian Egeston’s latest book “Granddaddy's Dirt”, not to pick on Brian (I like Brian), but I need a concrete example and his is typical.
Here are the gory details:
Brian’s latest book retails for $13.00. Amazon is selling it for $11.70 with free shipping within 24 hours.
Lets say Brian or a distributor gave me the typical 40% off the $13 list. The book costs me $7.80. I now have $5.20 to work with. To compete with Amazon I have to sell the book at $11.70 maximum (Current Amazon price with 10% discount). That leaves $3.90. If I ship the book at priority first class with delivery confirmation, to get it to the customer the next day, I will spend $4.30 So to even approach Amazon’s service level I’m already 40 cents in the hole.
OK so I compromise. And ship the book media mail with return receipt. The shipping cost has been reduced to $1.97 and I now have $1.93 left. Lets estimate the cost of the packing materials at 50 cents now I’m down to $1.43 cents in profit per book. AALBC.com uses PayPal to process credit card orders; for this transaction the commission would be 62 cents. That bring my total profit of the sale of this book to a whooping $0.81.
Notice I’m shipping the book media mail; so I can not match Amazon’s shipping terms and turn a profit selling this book. I will loose sales based upon the shipping terms alone alone. Which make it even harder to sell the book. I have also ignored the fact that about 1 out of 25 orders the customer say they never received the shipment and I have to eat the cost of that book and ship another loosing, effectively another 4% of sales.
If you factor the value of my time and additional expense related to web hosting, communications costs, construction of the web page to sell the book (http://www.aalbc.com/reviews/brian.htm) and all the other related overhead; AALBC.com would be loosing money if all we did was sell books directly. I’m far better off giving up 5 cents and making $0.76 as an Amazon affiliate without the headaches of fulfilling orders directly.
Often I’m asked why don’t I sell more books directly or buy from Black wholesaler exclusively. The above math will give you some insight why I don’t. People can get quite self-righteous about the evils of giving my business to the white man by selling books as an Amazon affiliate, however these folks are typically not trying to run a business and are not giving me money to compensate me for implementing their proposed money losing propositions. In today’s environment, unless I’m getting 50% off list I can not afford to sell the book directly especially when there is an option to make 6.5% as an Amazon without risk and much less effort.
Having said all of that; I do go through the effort to sell some books directly. Some authors are generous, or savvy enough to supply books at substantial discount – even for free. Perhaps they look at this as a promotional or advertising expense. They can be certain, in this case, that AALBC.com will help promote the book. Also, I typically request that authors, whose books I sell, autograph the books. This is something that B&N and Amazon don’t do. I also sell book that are not widely available from other sources (out of print, no ISBN, or distributor), that I feel would or should have a demand. These are some ways that I can compete with B&N and Amazon
While the expenses are different, the issues are the same for physical book stores as well. Despite the cries for supporting black businesses most people go with the best deal, service etc. It would be irrational for me to sell books at list and then complain because people are running to Amazon to buy their books at 30 to 40% off list instead of directly from AALBC.com.
In the final analysis AALBC.com is more than just a business. I’m interested in promoting the work of Black authors, making sure our legacy is not forgotten and helping new people to discover it. My biggest reward is not financial; it is in knowing that AALBC.com is contributing to the above goal in a meaningful way. This is not purely subjective; AALBC.com consistently ranks among the top site of ANY kind for the last couple of years. Do a search on Google for any of our profiled authors; we consistently rank in the top 20 often #1 for many authors, subject, or book. We are in this for the long haul: Internet bubbles have no effect on us. We were here before the spate of new black imprints; and one could argue we helped contribute to the trend. Amazon and B&N could go away tomorrow and we will need just a slight adjustment. Heck the internet could disappear and we can revert to paper. We are really talking about institution building and each one of you, who support the site in large ways and small, are helping to build the foundation.
AALBC.com is much more that a site that sells books.
Peace,
Troy
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Rosary
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, February 24, 2003 - 04:34 am: |
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Thank you for taking the time to explain why you choose to operate as you do. The site is a welcome part of my internet regimine. The support for AA literature and the opportunity to discuss it with other like minded individuals is most appreciated. |
Troy
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 26, 2003 - 12:46 pm: |
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Hi Rosary:
Thanks Rosary. I'm also pleased you enjoy the web site.
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Soul Sister
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 27, 2003 - 01:05 pm: |
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Troy,
You know I love the work you are doing. Could you give me -- a newly appointed book reviwer -- tips on how to contact publisher to obtain review copies?? Peace and Thanks |
Tee C. Royal
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, March 10, 2003 - 05:02 pm: |
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Hey Troy, thanks so much for your insightful post. I've been stuck in email land, but it was great coming back to the boards and reading your response. It gives quite a perspective...and I agree with your sentiments on helping authors.
Kudos to you on a job well done with AALBC.com. I passed your information on to a forum at Romance Slam Jam when someone asked where they could find self-published authors. :-)
-Tee |
Troy
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2003 - 10:21 am: |
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Soul Sister: Conatct Thumper, if you have not already done so, at thumper@aalbc.com he can help you with contacting published for books for review.
Tee C. Thanks for forwarding the information, we can use all the help we can get. I've been REAL busy lately and was stuck in email land myself. I just went through 1,300 emails (over 1,100 complete junk) from about three days.
Peace,
troy |
Karen E. Quinones Miller
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - 01:32 am: |
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I've always wondered why self-published authors would be willing to give Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com a 55 percent discount on their books, but want to give it to African-American Internet booksellers for only a 40 percent discount.
My philosophy was that if Amazon could make that much money off my labor, than so could my brothers and sisters. So I gave them all the same discount, and I would continue to do so if I were still self-published.
And yep, yep, yep, . . . I would encourage all African-American self-published authors to do the same. We can't just encourage readers to support African-American sellers, we've got to put our money where our mouth is.
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Nneka McGee
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 11:50 pm: |
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I have to agree, book-selling is a tough business. I have been in the book-selling business for almost 2 years. It has been a growing process. I've made my mistakes, but my company is growing. I'm glad to see quality sights such as this one. I totally understand why alot of entrepreneurs go the Amazon route. I thought about it myself. Being on my own is tough but rewarding. The first couple of months, I had legitimacy problems (when am I going to get my book?). Then, I went to website issues when I tried to expand. Now, authors and companies contact me to visit my city and to list their books on my website.
I mainly go through publishers because they offer the best discounts. The self-published authors I've dealt with have been generous. However, some self-published authors wonder why their books don't always sell. I ask them, do you tell potential customers to go to my site?
The self-published authors who've told people to use the site have decent sales.
In order to survive, authors, publishers, and entrepreneurs have to support each other. There is enough money being spent for everyone to benefit.
Have a happy new year! |
Troy
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, December 31, 2003 - 02:56 pm: |
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Hi Nneka:
You should have mentioned your web site. I gather from your email address it is http://www.kisobooks.com (forgive me if this is incorrect). I must commend you on your ablity to sell books online.
I always purchased (or otherwise obtained) my books directly from the publisher or author. If I went through a distributor there would not be enough margin left to reap a profit. But recovering that 15% or so of margin comes with a price increased risk and reduced economies of scale. Getting rid of the distributors forces you to deal with mutiple enties and differing terms - and that overhead has a cost.
A more recent example -- look at Morrison's latest book Love B&N and Amazon are charging 40% off and free shipping! Now that Amazon is serving as a conduit for other retailers you can even buy a new copy for 11 bucks.
I've limited my direct books sales to book fairs and signings -- online is a different story.
The "when am I going to get my book" will never go away, but I'm happy to have Amazon or B&N deal with those issues, so I can spend more time promoting the work or enjoyiing these discusison boards.
Happy New Year!
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Penknife_press
First Time Poster
Username: Penknife_press
Post Number: 1
Registered: 02-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, February 12, 2004 - 01:22 pm: |
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No one here has discussed the notion of selling books returnable or non-returnable. What are the feelings of the folks here? |
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