Nothing Kills the Edginess of a Product Like Curriculum
Regular readers of both this blog and Thinking Out Loud know that I’m a rather rabid fan of all three fiction titles by James Rubart. But I was rather distressed to see that B&H Fiction sister company Lifeway has mined the first title, Rooms for a small group curriculum. At first glance, one would think this can only be a good thing, since it encourages people to read the book; but I know in our market, people can’t afford to buy the book and purchase a study guide; and I also know in this market people won’t support the use of a fiction title for small group study, with the exception of one or two fringe “reading groups.”
For me, the presence of a Bible study and DVD kit from Lifeway only serves as a reminder of two things. First, despite the edginess of the book — this is the first B&H fiction title I’ve ever carried — we are again confronting the fact that B&H is, after all Broadman and Holman, the same conservative Baptist publishing company representing, among their constituency, some people who probably consider the reading of Christian fiction on the borderline of sinful, if not already over the line.
Second, it’s a reminder that there is no resource out there that Lifeway is not prepared to exploit. Another product where they reap the revenues and booksellers are left with next to nothing. But as I’ve said before, somebody has to underwrite that large Nashville office and staff, and spinoff luxuries like Lifeway Research. That somebody is you, and your customers.
Did Rubart have a choice? Maybe not. Or maybe someone convinced him that this was a good idea. I don’t agree with any suggestion that this will sell more copies of the book. Rather, I think it confines it to a category of merchandise more suited to Sunday School class material instead of the “hot” fiction it was. Or for that matter, “cool” fiction. Too bad.
Treasures Media’s Jerry Bloom Talks Shop
Treasures Media of Racine, Wisconsin is self-described by owner Jerry Bloom as the world’s largest distributor of discount Christian books. In this 27-minute local access television program, he talks with The Journal Times business reporter Michael Burke. Treasures must be a big deal in Racine and Kenosha, because they chose Jerry as the very first guest for their video launch.
Click here to watch the program.
Footnote: Like so many of us, Jerry Bloom’s life today is an example of ‘grace in progress.’ An archived article in the Racine Post says that he “was convicted 21 years ago of shooting into an occupied church in Kenosha;” and “served time in prison from 1988-90 for firing a rifle into Kenosha’s Friendship Baptist Church.” You don’t need to read that story today, except as an example that God changes people.
Another Apologetic For Christian Bookstores
This one comes to us from the other side of the Atlantic c/o Phil Groom’s blog, UK Christian Bookshops Blog; and since the author, Roger Pearse, was kind enough to allow Phil to reprint it, we’re going to commit the sin of presumption and share it with you here. Of course, we strongly encourage you to read it at source, and Phil has urged readers to leave comments at the author’s page which you can locate by clicking on the title. (For that reason, I’ve closed comments here.)
First, Phil’s introduction:
MY THANKS to Roger Pearse for kind permission to reproduce this thought provoking and challenging post from his blog, all the more challenging given the number of bookshop closures we’ve seen over the last year or so. Roger’s observations echo many of the conversations we’ve had here over the years, going right back to my Christian Bookshops — who needs them? (2008) and The Future Shape of Christian Bookselling (2009) amongst others; but it’s a conversation that is far from over and, if we’re to find a way through the present crisis, it needs to continue — with even more urgency than we’ve pursued it before. ~ Phil Groom
Christian bookshops – the key part of the local church?
I did something unusual today. I didn’t buy a book from Amazon.
Not that I buy a book every day from Amazon: I mean that I decided to buy a book, but to order it in from my local Christian bookshop.
Almost certainly it will cost more. But the Christian bookshop is a funny thing. That’s because it isn’t really just a bookshop.
A friend gave me the name of the manager of my local one at Christmas, and I’ve popped in and introduced myself. Suddenly I find myself connected to a network of people who know people, or know of someone. Today I wanted to learn of someone connected to me who was working in the church in a town in the south of England, in order to help someone. The lady knew of someone. For the managers of these places effectively function as an information exchange.
The pastoral role of the Christian bookshop is invisible unless you know that it is there. Yet this too is critical — you can go in, and find people to talk to. The churches themselves — I mean real churches — are lamentably bad at working together in a single small town, and the common need of their members for books means that the bookshop acts as a centre, a place where notices are displayed and people congregate.
Some bookshops take it a step further and add on a coffee shop. St Aldates bookshop in Oxford ca. 1980 did just that. It was very cramped, but then students don’t mind that at all. I often went there as a convenient place to meet.
Christian bookshops came into being in the 60′s and 70′s because bookshops and news agents would not stock popular Christian paperback books or publications. You could order them, but this involved a long wait, no chance of browsing and often was frankly a faff.
Consequently the publishers started to set up retail outlets where their wares could be displayed. Since Christians always wanted the books of Michael Green or David Watson, they naturally became information exchanges.
The convenience of internet shopping means that it will usually be quicker and cheaper to buy a book at Amazon. That was not the case back in the day, since the Net Book Agreement standardised book prices anyway.
So the problem is that the modern Christian bookshop has no real economic basis. The publishers are finding them unviable. They can now sell their books through Amazon.
Yet the bookshop is needed. Indeed if you want some advice on books to buy — as I did today — what use is Amazon?
I don’t know what the answer is, I admit. Let us pray that God finds a way around this. Change is inevitable; but not at the price of wiping out the bookshop.
~Roger Pearse
Offer Your Customers a Unique Alternative
The Baxter Family: The Epilogue
The Leaving / Learning / Longing / Loving series by Karen Kingsbury won’t be the last we hear from the Baxter Family after all. An epilogue is planned for early summer release under the title Coming Home. Here’s the 411 from publisher Zondervan:
Coming Home is a novel about tremendous victory and unprecedented loss, a story of faith and a forever kind of love, love that will stay with you long after the last page. This stand-alone novel will serve as either a grand introduction or a beautiful conclusion in the saga of the Baxter Family. The Baxters make plans to come together for a summer lakeside reunion, a celebration like they haven’t had in years. But before the big day, the unthinkable happens. As the Baxter Family rallies together, memories come to light in the grief-stricken hours of waiting and praying, memories that bring healing and hope during a time when otherwise darkness might have the final word. In a season that changes all of them, the brilliance of family love overshadows even the valley of heartache as the Baxters draw closer to God and each other. Along the way, secrets are revealed and the truth about the Baxter Family history is finally made known. Ultimately, in this portrait of family love, the Baxters cling to each other and to God’s promise of forever.
Frustrated Customers
Ever wonder what happens when the product leaves the store?
Rose Pamphlets: Ideal for an Information Age
I’m sitting at my computer trying to assemble a January restock order for David C. Cook Canada, and I’ve decided to bet about half of the order on those little laminated pamphlets from Rose Publishing.
In a world of bullet point communication and 140-character Tweets; and in a world where increasingly I’m hearing, “I’m not a reader;” or more often, “My husband’s not a reader;” I’ve decided that these little $3.99 (U.S.) items are currently my best inventory investment.
Is each one a book I won’t sell? Not necessarily. I’m betting on them whetting the appetite of people interested in certain subjects who will come back when they’re ready to dig deeper. My order is a composite of the Top 20 provided by Cook Canada and data from a large online retailer who shall remain nameless. You can buy them individually or in ten-packs.
Click the comments section to see a sample of available titles.
HarperCollins to Re-issue Rob Bell Backlist
Not sure how these things get decided, but apparently Rob Bell’s backlist titles will reissue in late July under HarperCollins imprints, probably HarperOne. Don’t know if this is a co-publish deal promoting the backlist or making it easier for ABA stores to access the back catalog; or if perhaps Zondervan is effectively handing off the titles to distance itself from Bell since the publication of Love Wins.
| 9780062125828 | Jesus Wants to Save Christians |
| 9780062049650 | Love Wins |
| 9780062197214 | Velvet Elvis |
| 9780062197238 | Sex God |
| 9780062197283 | Drops Like Stars |
Zonder Nelson: A Blogger Peeks into the Future
Couldn’t resist posting this logo concept from a November post by book industry blogger Robert Treskillard. (He’s got four more if you’re into logos.) You might also enjoy reading his eight predictions about the merger. But then again, some of you might enjoy reading anything since all is fairly quiet on the western front with respect to the merger.
Am I Missing Something Totally Obvious?
Okay, the problem must be me, because there’s no way that a book like Billy Graham’s Nearing Home – which is so obviously targeting an older readership — wouldn’t be available in large print, right?
A Print-on-Demand Publisher’s View of eBooks
We asked Rob Clements of Clements Publishing the following question, because we honestly don’t know anyone in Christian publishing in Canada who is more aware of what’s happening as technology is changing the publishing industry.
Q: ‘Christian bookstores are finding an increasing number of people experimenting with eBooks as opposed to print. Would you say that the impact that this is having on publishers using Print on Demand is greater than, equal to, or the same as what is being experienced by mass-print publishers?’
A: “I am not convinced that ebooks have cut into POD sales . Many genres, particularly academic books, are not easily converted to the current ebook formats. If anything, the onset of ebooks is driving more business into the print on demand model because conventional publishers cannot count on the kinds of hardcopy sales they used to. Whereas ten years ago a publisher would move into print on demand if a title was selling less than 500 units annually, a lot of publishers are doing this with titles that sell 1500 units or less. Other publishers are using POD as an export solution — laying down their front list titles in international markets so that they don’t have to physically ship books to places like Australia.
“In both cases, print on demand takes the risk out of printing decisions. Inevitably ebook sales will grow and print sales decrease in the coming years, but there will always be people who for various reasons wish to purchase the print copy.”
Image: Mike2.com
Does the Physical Form of a Bible Affect Spirituality?
Interesting discussion starting yesterday at Christianity Today, beginning with a history lesson…
The physical form of the Bible matters because it influences the way Christians use their sacred book. In the counter cultural 1960s, for example, publishers shucked the black leather uniform in favor of more contemporary dress. The aim was to reach those who might not otherwise pick up the Scriptures. The American Bible Society’s Good News for Modern Man resembled a mass market paperback, and Tyndale House’s Reach Out: The Living New Testament looked just plain “groovy.”
Three centuries before Luther’s New Testament first came off the press in 1522, workshops in Paris produced one-volume Bibles called pandects. Unlike the large multivolume Bibles that sat in churches, monasteries, and rich men’s libraries, these could be conveniently carried by Sor-bonne students and mendicant preachers. Thus began the revolutionary shift from communal reading of Scripture to its private, individual consumption.
In 1735, the Bible emerged in another physical form—the family Bible. An English publisher named William Rayner produced The Compleat History of the Old and New Testament or a Family Bible. This was the first time that phrase was used, according to Liana Lupas, curator of the American Bible Society’s collection of rare Bibles.
…and then, after a discussion about “family Bibles,” leading to this concluding paragraph:
Today, many of us use Bibles with no physical properties of their own. They borrow their frame from computers, iPads, and smartphones—also markers of middle class existence—but created for individual use. Will this digital revolution cement the decline of family spirituality that was once fostered by the family Bible? God knows.
Read the whole article by David Neff at CT Online. Sadly, the piece ends by asking the question many hoped it would answer.
Be part of the community! When you read articles like this at CT, and on blogs, consider taking a few minutes to type out a comment. As a worker in this industry, you have opinions, and your views can contribute to the broader discussion taking place.
Determined to Kick the Amazon Habit
At the Salon website, Writer Laura Miller responds to Amazon’s pre-Christmas use of your store to help them sell their product.
I suspect I’m not the only person starting 2012 with a resolution to buy fewer books from Amazon. Resistance to the e-commerce giant and its crypto-monopolistic ways crystallized just before Christmas, when it offered customers a 5 percent credit to use its price-checking app in brick-and-mortar stores, thereby undercutting local businesses.
Booksellers have been complaining about “showrooming” — the practice of using a bookstore to browse and learn about new titles while buying the actual books online — for a while now. Amazon’s holiday-season gambit, and a New York Times op-ed denouncing it written by novelist Richard Russo, alerted readers who value their local bookstores to the possibility that those stores will vanish if we don’t make a point of patronizing them.
…continue reading here… (the rest of the article discusses how some New York booksellers are involved in eBook sales.)
An op-ed piece in the New York Times disagreed with the Richard Russo piece Miller refers to:
Regarding Richard Russo’s “Amazon’s jungle logic” (Views, Dec. 14): Who wouldn’t take advantage of Amazon’s guerrilla price-check application? Shopping is all about getting the most bang for your buck. And since brick-and-mortar store prices typically include the cost of shipping and handling, Amazon purchases will almost always be at least $5 cheaper.
But fear not, local bookseller. The whole point of a physical location is so that readers can try before they buy in a comfortable setting. Even though Amazon saves its customers a couple of bucks here and there, they’ll never be able to match the atmosphere of a sit-down bookstore.
People will always need places to meet and exchange ideas, and at the end of the day Amazon’s price-check app will have the same effect as offering free Wi-Fi: increased foot traffic in your store.
Here’s a New York Times business section take on the Amazon “showrooming” maneuver.
Here’s the original Richard Russo piece on that fateful Saturday in December.
How to Develop a Bad Taste for a Publisher
Working in a smaller market means not working in an environment that uses Bookstore Manager, so most title look-ups are done on STL and Ingram. When STL is used, the short discount on products from Tyndale and Baker Book Group — now in its second year — is rather glaring. We tend to use independent distributors for publishers who don’t have entrenched Canadian distribution, so any Baker orders, for example, would go automatically to David C. Cook Canada unless the need was rather urgent and Cook was out of stock.
But I’m willing to bet that if you did some analysis on this, my purchasing of Tyndale and Baker products from any and all sources is way down from a year ago. I just have this reflexive frown on my face as soon as I see either publisher name. (And, I should add, a similar reaction to the 35% short discount on Moody Press products at Ingram; which I believe applies to all Ingram customers, not just Canadians.)
Even though I know some of the reasoning behind the STL situation, I find I still feel resentment against those publishers. Why won’t they play the game? Why don’t they want to be helpful? How can they be content to let their product sit there looking like some backwater publisher who can’t afford to give the distributors a meaningful margin?
The bottom line is that when you’re closing off your year end, and you find you had a net profit on sales of 6%; that means that if you were to get as little as an extra 2% on everything you purchased, your net profit would be 8%, which is 33% higher. Extra discounts matter, but so also do short discounts. If every publisher gave you 5% less — and I say this with apologies to our UK friends who I know work on much shorter margins than we do in North American — that 6% return at the end of the year might end up being a 1% return.
In other words, the key is in the buying, as well as the pricing, and the effective selling. But I have, alas, digressed from my main point; namely that the whole situation is just bad public relations for the two supplier concerned, and at least one buyer — this one — is noticing that affecting his purchasing.
Last Day of Classes: Evaluation Form
Remember those survey forms you had to do in the last five minutes of college and university classes and/or seminars you took? Well, we’re leaving Brockville somewhat mystified as to where it all went wrong. Yes, I know, I write this blog, so if anyone is aware of the challenges that face our stores, it’s me. But we still don’t feel we’ve pinpointed the problem in this particular city, so we’re asking church leaders and church administrative staff there to help us understand the situation; and we’ll report back to you hear in about a week if we learned anything significant.
In the meantime, you might want to have a peek at our survey. Remember, we’re not expecting turnaround in this market, so we felt we had nothing to lose by asking these questions. It’s here mostly in the event you’ve wondered about doing something similar. Click the more button after this sentence to continue reading. Read more…
