HOW TO DESTROY THE PUBLISHING INDUSTRY…
Has Walmart, along with Target and Amazon (and now Sears), crossed a line in their rush to steal business from each other, are they about to kill a little goose that still produces a few golden eggs? The American Booksellers Association thinks so.
I wrote earlier about the price war between Walmart and Amazon (and now Target) over the sale price of the hot books for the upcoming holiday season. Neither Walmart nor Target nor Sears make much money from selling books. Amazon, although it has greatly diversified in recent years into areas where Walmart and Target do make money, still counts on book sales for a serious chunk of its annual revenue.
Before media companies started buying them up in the ’90s, book publishers were considered to be respectable businesses with solid financials. Now they’re the poor step child next to their much more robust broadcast, music and movie siblings in mega conglomerate.
Their margins are thin and they depend greatly on the income from the big sellers — Stephen King, John Grisham, etc. — to pay the bills so that they can publish much less popular but still worthy authors. They can afford to take losses or break even on some books, knowing that the heavies will carry the load.
This price war could end that. If the big sellers are reduced to commodity status, then the publishers will have to reject valuable authors simply because they can’t attract a mass audience for their books.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have a dog in this hunt and perhaps for the first time since I started writing about Walmart, the battle has gotten personal. I often describe myself as a starving novelist, unpublished but still writing and looking for that break. Walmart is effectively slamming the door on first-time novelists like myself because publishing houses will not be able to take a risk on a new writer.
That sucks.
Jeff:
Your frustrations are completely understandable. It may not be any comfort to you, but your concerns are shared by many independent booksellers across the nation.
A case in point would be Lanora Hurley, owner of the Next Chapter Book Shop in Mequon, Wisconsin. She would love to buy books at a lower price than she is now getting from her suppliers, but she can’t bring herself to deal with Amazon.com or Walmart.
This is not the first time that Walmart has engaged in “predatory and damaging pricing practices” that have damaged an industry. Indeed, this is the Walmart Way.
I hope the American Booksellers Association’s request to the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate these practices does not fall by the wayside.
Shalom Screwed,
First, thank you for stopping in, for reading and, most importantly, for taking the time to write a comment. We build our community through our conversations.
I do my book shopping through my two local independents: Mac’s Backs on Coventry in Cleveland Heights and Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lyndhurst.
Local is as local does.
B’shalom,
Jeff