Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children
That was the headline in the New York Times yesterday, and it's causing a hubbub on Twitter amongst the bookish folks (booksellers, authors, and bloggers mostly). There is much I agree and disagree with in this article... but mostly I thought about how indies really do do it better!
The article promotes the argument that parents are pushing their kids into chapter books and picture book sales are decreasing as a result. I disagree. We have a separate room for picture books at Aaron's and that room sees the most action, by kids of all ages. We purposely designed the book FOR the kids... the used books are in bins sorted by subject. We didn't have a corporate structure that chose our shelving and told us how to put out the books. The younger kids hit the door running to the playroom and just like being surrounded by all the books, the older ones like pulling out a book on their own and reading it in our rocking chair (sometimes aloud to a sibling or friend). Kids will read whatever we give them. Aaron still checks out picture books at his school library (as do many of his 2nd grade classmates). When we get new picture books at the store, it is Aaron who reads them first and gives us the thumbs up. At the same time he is deep into reading Harry Potter and The Hobbit.
The point I can agree with in the article, but is given just a glossing over, is that new picture books coming out in hardcover are too expensive. The classics and the tried and true author and illustrators can justify an $18 price tag (some do still sit on he shelves unlooked at), but an author with only a few mid-list books behind them is going to get overlooked not only by the customers but also the book buyers at that price. Personally, I think pricing for lots of children's books is out of hand. Aaron just read the arc for a book coming out in March...he started at 7:45 last night, and finished before getting on the bus this morning. The book is being released as a $15 hardcover - a book that took a 2nd grader less than a day to read. Compare that with the Katie Kazoos and A to Z mysteries that 2nd graders are also reading, which come out at $4 paperbacks. Which is a parent more likely to buy in this economy? Yep, the paperback. The same can be said for the picture books, even though those books will be read numerous times unlike many once and done chapter books.
When we meet with our sales reps we repeat over and over and over "too expensive in hardcover, we'll buy when it's in paperback" (same for adult books). In a world where we're constantly told that we need to spend less to have a good life (thanks to evil Mal-Wart), are we starting to de-value books? There are clamours everywhere about how e-books should be cheaper. Is this because a certain online e-tailer (Evil River Empire) has told the world that books should be cheap in any form? Yet a family has no problem spending $50 for movie tickets and popcorn for 2 hours of "entertainment". But this is a tangent for another day...
Picture book sales ARE NOT lagging. Sales of new overpriced hardcover picture books are. The publishers and many of the retailers live in a land of big cities and higher incomes that don't meet the realities here in small town main street. Yes we sell picture books, ones that we hand-select based on the interests of our youngest customers and their parents (and it's not always the ones on the best seller lists *cough*MoWillems*cough*) The chains look at sales reports from stores across the county, and not people or where the books ARE being sold when making stocking decisions. (Um, putting a $16 picture book on the same shelf as a $25 plush toy to help sell the book??? Adding Build-A-Bear into a store??? These are not decisions based on what kids are reading or even that fact that we need to teach kids to value books... oops another tangent.)
Used picture books have always been a bestselling section in our store, and I don't see new or used picture book sales (overall) lagging, even in the recession.... if nothing else books for kids are selling better.(maybe not the $18 hardcover from a new author, but the $13 one from Dr. Seuss is!). Our new picture book sales has tripled over the past year, due to our independent decision to focus on that section. If the chain stores are seeing less sales in that section, perhaps it is because the higher ups sitting in an office have decided to add more toys and take away shelf space dedicated to books. Funny that supposed bookstores are taking shelf space away from kids books while more and more places that are not booksellers are adding picture books (our local grocer and pharmacy are now carrying Golden Books). Perhaps if the NY Times wanted to cover what is really happening in children's books sales, they should talk to more indies outside of urban areas. We (the indies) are the ones that care about books and cater our shelf space and what is on that shelf based not on some distant sales figure, but on what the five year old standing in front of us is buying, talking about, and pointing out to mom.
So no, picture books are NOT "no longer a staple for children" and sales are not dropping significantly; at least as far as we can tell, not at indies that are taking the time to see what the customers want and catering to it.
Put a good picture book into the hands of a child of any age and you'll see a big smile.
Happy (picture book) Reading!
~Sam
Showing posts with label Indies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indies. Show all posts
Friday, October 8, 2010
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Coming Clean About Romance....
I'm here to come out of the happily ever after closet. I don't read a lot of the same books as a majority of our store customers. I don't read Jodi Picoult, "Christian" fiction, memoirs, or anything dark and depressing... that's right folks- I'm a ROMANCE READER. I have a Masters Degree and then some, I grew up on another continent, so it's not because I'm small minded and can't handle larger more thought provoking tomes.... why did I say that? Because for some, it's easy to snub romance readers and look down at them as being someone that doesn't enjoy literature, can't tell a good story from bad. Yes, there is snobbery, even amongst bookish folks. Even at my own store when I suggest a romantic book (not even one technically classified as a romance) I get the "I don't do those". So I'm here to say proudly I do "do those". I enjoy a story with a happy ending. I enjoy a story that while I know the basic ending (HEA), I don' know how it's going to get there. I enjoy a story where 2 (or more) people discover a love so deep they can't be away from that other person. I enjoy a story that makes me smile and laugh. THAT is why I read romance!
Now that I'm out of the HEA closet... I do also want to address a question that circulated on the web after the Evil Empire's fiasco of de-listing a majority of erotica books. It was brought up that many romance and erotica readers wanted to get away from the Empire and support their local retailers... but alas they couldn't because a large number of indie bookstores don't carry the romance genre. It was generally perceived that we (Indies) don't because of snobbery (like mentioned above).... and I'll give it to them that in some cases that may be it (like I said, I've encountered book snobbery even in the bookish world)... but honestly it all really comes down to economics. And while I'm no math teacher (I taught world cultures), I'm going to attempt to break it down.
First- size and location: most Indies are in the 2000-4000 square foot range (some much smaller). Which means we need to fill about 10% of shelf space as a mega chain store, therefore we need to be a more selective on what to carry. So then why not dedicate at least one bookcase to romance you ask- again mostly economics.
A vast majority of romances are mass market paperbacks... the smallest margins in publishing. Mega retailers and online warehouses order them by the pallets (like 10,000 books at a time), whereas even the largest Indies out there would order in the low hundreds. Publishers give much deeper discounts the more you order... so the corporations that make millions do so cause they invest much less in their inventory than us little mom and pops. So let's take your average romance paperback at $6.99.
One Month at Mom and Pop vs. One Month at MegaSameEverywhereMart
MegaSameEverywhere Mart's #s
6.99 paperback
2.79 cost (at about 60% off.. making guess on the discount)
X10,000
27,900 cost
sell 50% at list price for $34950 gross
cost for sold bks: $13,950
Net for books sold: $21000 (enough to pay a salaried worker to do nothing but manage a romance section)
Mom & Pop's #s
6.99 paperback
3.99 our cost (at about 44% off, book dsicounts ranges from about 38 to 50% depending on getting from a distributor or direct from a pub that is running a backlist "special" extra discount)
X100 (what an average small to medium store's monthly new romance order might be)
$399 cost
sell 50% for $349 gross
So right there, we've had a loss and they've already made a profit.... but let’s continue through the return and only pay for the ones we sell
cost for sold is: $199.5
Net for sold: $149.50
BUT WAIT- returning.....
Indie returns the 50 that didn't sell, at 50% of cover price (that's right, we don't get full credit for returns) AND we pay shipping
So the 50 books we paid $199.50 for we get $174.75 in credit for... BUT we can only return 10% of our total purchases from said distributor in any given time frame... so we discount the more popular titles and sell 10 more at a net of a whopping $15. Then we box up what is left and ship them back... at the cost of that $15 we just made. So our actual net for carrying 100 new romance books was $149.50.... now let’s see it took us 20 days to sell that 50.... and we had 2 part-time employees in the store for 8 hours each day at $10 an hours.... so you see the numbers lead us to want to carry books that have a higher margin and that we can handsell quickly (more on the staff handselling in a minute)
So yes, I'm sorry it does come down to economics. We can't compete with a megachain that also sells $2000 flat screen TVs, or a conglomerate that can buy their books at half of what we can, or a warehouse that doesn't have to pay for space to display books.
But there is one more side to this story- education.
A lot of Indies, especially in the more metropolitan areas don't have romance reading staff. Therefore they can't handsell a genre they don't read. Conglomerate bookstores have much larger staffs, many of whom are part-time HS or College age just working for a paycheck and not for the love of the bookstore a group more likely to pick up a $6.99 mmpb and the chances of meeting a romance reader on staff there are much higher. Indies may have 2-5 people on staff... many of whom have decided to opt for the lower pay because they love the store.
So what do us romance readers that are IN the industry need to do.... STOP HIDING. I hereby call all us booksellers that love the HEA to share that at our upcoming regional meetings. Make a b-line to the Harlequin table at the floor show and let them know that there is an indie owner or manager that reads their books. Is one of your favorite romance authors at the trade show? Make sure you introduce them to other indie bookstore people.
What can romance reader customers do? Shop indie, at least every once in a while. I know that us rmance readers all have our favorite authors, and we can tell you to the day when the next Eloisa James or Julia Quinn is going to hit the shelves.... don't wait, pre-order it from the indie (yes, indies can get all of the same books that the megas do, we order from the same publishers after all!). They will have it waiting for you at the store the day it comes out..... and some may even give you a discount for the pre-order (we do!).... no indie close enough to pop in to pre-order then pick-up?... shop online... go to IndieBound.org, search by zip code, order from one close to you and have it shipped. So now that you've placed an order or 2 with your local indie... buy an extra copy of that Lynsay Sands and hand it right back to them. Say "I know you carry the Charlaine Harris', but this writer also does vampires and does them well.... give it a try, I'd love to hear what you think". Cultivate a love of the HEA with your indie manager and buyer... if it's something the staff can put into the hands of customers and say "I loved this book and you will too" they are much more likely to carry it on the shelves.... but we don't have time to read a majority of what comes to us from the pubs, and many are reluctant to step out of their box of what they like to read. I guarantee you though.. if you buy a romance or 2 from the store, then give them to the owner/manager/buyer/seller and ask them to read, the chances of that new Tessa Dare being at the store the next time you come in is much higher than if you had come in looked around seeing no romances, assume they are snobs and huff out.
Romance readers are passionate readers and know their stuff.... lets band together and share that love and knowledge with our Indies!
-Sam
A Caveat..... we don't carry new romance books at Aaron's Books for the pure economic reasons (but I do order them for myself through my store & I’d be happy to do that for you too!)... there are 5 grocery and pharmacy chains/stores in a 3 mile radius that carry them, we just can't compete with their pricing. BUT we do have a large selection of slightly used romances... It does help that one owner and one staffer a romance buffs, so we keep those 5 bookcases full of great romantic reads!
PS- If anyone from Harlequin, Plume, Signet, or Berkley wants to send me romance swag (bags, t-shirts etc) I'd happily show off my romance pride at NAIBA the first weekend in Oct!
See you all at the Harlequin booths at regionals!
Now that I'm out of the HEA closet... I do also want to address a question that circulated on the web after the Evil Empire's fiasco of de-listing a majority of erotica books. It was brought up that many romance and erotica readers wanted to get away from the Empire and support their local retailers... but alas they couldn't because a large number of indie bookstores don't carry the romance genre. It was generally perceived that we (Indies) don't because of snobbery (like mentioned above).... and I'll give it to them that in some cases that may be it (like I said, I've encountered book snobbery even in the bookish world)... but honestly it all really comes down to economics. And while I'm no math teacher (I taught world cultures), I'm going to attempt to break it down.
First- size and location: most Indies are in the 2000-4000 square foot range (some much smaller). Which means we need to fill about 10% of shelf space as a mega chain store, therefore we need to be a more selective on what to carry. So then why not dedicate at least one bookcase to romance you ask- again mostly economics.
A vast majority of romances are mass market paperbacks... the smallest margins in publishing. Mega retailers and online warehouses order them by the pallets (like 10,000 books at a time), whereas even the largest Indies out there would order in the low hundreds. Publishers give much deeper discounts the more you order... so the corporations that make millions do so cause they invest much less in their inventory than us little mom and pops. So let's take your average romance paperback at $6.99.
One Month at Mom and Pop vs. One Month at MegaSameEverywhereMart
MegaSameEverywhere Mart's #s
6.99 paperback
2.79 cost (at about 60% off.. making guess on the discount)
X10,000
27,900 cost
sell 50% at list price for $34950 gross
cost for sold bks: $13,950
Net for books sold: $21000 (enough to pay a salaried worker to do nothing but manage a romance section)
Mom & Pop's #s
6.99 paperback
3.99 our cost (at about 44% off, book dsicounts ranges from about 38 to 50% depending on getting from a distributor or direct from a pub that is running a backlist "special" extra discount)
X100 (what an average small to medium store's monthly new romance order might be)
$399 cost
sell 50% for $349 gross
So right there, we've had a loss and they've already made a profit.... but let’s continue through the return and only pay for the ones we sell
cost for sold is: $199.5
Net for sold: $149.50
BUT WAIT- returning.....
Indie returns the 50 that didn't sell, at 50% of cover price (that's right, we don't get full credit for returns) AND we pay shipping
So the 50 books we paid $199.50 for we get $174.75 in credit for... BUT we can only return 10% of our total purchases from said distributor in any given time frame... so we discount the more popular titles and sell 10 more at a net of a whopping $15. Then we box up what is left and ship them back... at the cost of that $15 we just made. So our actual net for carrying 100 new romance books was $149.50.... now let’s see it took us 20 days to sell that 50.... and we had 2 part-time employees in the store for 8 hours each day at $10 an hours.... so you see the numbers lead us to want to carry books that have a higher margin and that we can handsell quickly (more on the staff handselling in a minute)
So yes, I'm sorry it does come down to economics. We can't compete with a megachain that also sells $2000 flat screen TVs, or a conglomerate that can buy their books at half of what we can, or a warehouse that doesn't have to pay for space to display books.
But there is one more side to this story- education.
A lot of Indies, especially in the more metropolitan areas don't have romance reading staff. Therefore they can't handsell a genre they don't read. Conglomerate bookstores have much larger staffs, many of whom are part-time HS or College age just working for a paycheck and not for the love of the bookstore a group more likely to pick up a $6.99 mmpb and the chances of meeting a romance reader on staff there are much higher. Indies may have 2-5 people on staff... many of whom have decided to opt for the lower pay because they love the store.
So what do us romance readers that are IN the industry need to do.... STOP HIDING. I hereby call all us booksellers that love the HEA to share that at our upcoming regional meetings. Make a b-line to the Harlequin table at the floor show and let them know that there is an indie owner or manager that reads their books. Is one of your favorite romance authors at the trade show? Make sure you introduce them to other indie bookstore people.
What can romance reader customers do? Shop indie, at least every once in a while. I know that us rmance readers all have our favorite authors, and we can tell you to the day when the next Eloisa James or Julia Quinn is going to hit the shelves.... don't wait, pre-order it from the indie (yes, indies can get all of the same books that the megas do, we order from the same publishers after all!). They will have it waiting for you at the store the day it comes out..... and some may even give you a discount for the pre-order (we do!).... no indie close enough to pop in to pre-order then pick-up?... shop online... go to IndieBound.org, search by zip code, order from one close to you and have it shipped. So now that you've placed an order or 2 with your local indie... buy an extra copy of that Lynsay Sands and hand it right back to them. Say "I know you carry the Charlaine Harris', but this writer also does vampires and does them well.... give it a try, I'd love to hear what you think". Cultivate a love of the HEA with your indie manager and buyer... if it's something the staff can put into the hands of customers and say "I loved this book and you will too" they are much more likely to carry it on the shelves.... but we don't have time to read a majority of what comes to us from the pubs, and many are reluctant to step out of their box of what they like to read. I guarantee you though.. if you buy a romance or 2 from the store, then give them to the owner/manager/buyer/seller and ask them to read, the chances of that new Tessa Dare being at the store the next time you come in is much higher than if you had come in looked around seeing no romances, assume they are snobs and huff out.
Romance readers are passionate readers and know their stuff.... lets band together and share that love and knowledge with our Indies!
-Sam
A Caveat..... we don't carry new romance books at Aaron's Books for the pure economic reasons (but I do order them for myself through my store & I’d be happy to do that for you too!)... there are 5 grocery and pharmacy chains/stores in a 3 mile radius that carry them, we just can't compete with their pricing. BUT we do have a large selection of slightly used romances... It does help that one owner and one staffer a romance buffs, so we keep those 5 bookcases full of great romantic reads!
PS- If anyone from Harlequin, Plume, Signet, or Berkley wants to send me romance swag (bags, t-shirts etc) I'd happily show off my romance pride at NAIBA the first weekend in Oct!
See you all at the Harlequin booths at regionals!
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thoughts from a BookSELLER not LEASOR
So this Amazon (here-by referred to as the Evil Empire) stealing back their books has me thinking... and for a few days trying wrap my brain around it... so yes I'm a day late and probably quite a few dollars short. I wasn't going to write about it and didn't think I had time or anything to add... but then I heard this NPR summary of E-readers taking back books they had sold .. and it got me thinking...
When you download a book from the Evil Empire to the device they "sold" you.. you are in fact paying to borrow said e-book on a machine you are leasing from them... think about it this way, if they were a real retailer and you a real customer (to them you are data and a source of money... they really don't give a rat's patuey) they could not have taken back the Orwells. Last winter we (Aaron's Books and indies across the country) were selling a picture book called "Angel Girl"... the publisher and the bookstores had been duped to believe it was a true story, when in fact is was loosely based on some events. The publisher pulled the book and asked us to remove it from our shelves... we did. What we did not do was go into the homes of the people that bought the book and take it away from them... we didn't even contact them and ask them to return it... they had bought a book that we rightfully sold them. Maybe the publisher should have checked facts before getting the book out there, but they thought they had a hit on their hands, so who could blame them. They understood that books had already been sold and there was nothing they could do about it. They took responsibility for the mistake and it was done. The Evil Empire could/should have done the same... pulled the Orwells from their "shelves" and be done. What they REALLY should have done was check to make sure they weren't selling illegal copies like they were, but since it is the Evil Empire and bottom line means everything to them, we couldn't expect that.
To take it out of the book realm... think back to when all those plastic toy baubles were recalled last year. You bought said necklace for your darling niece... the store announces it's a hazard and if you return it you get a refund. I don't recall hearing one story about the other evil empire of retail (wal-mart) going into grandma's home at night and taking the presents out from under her bed... nope she bought them, they were hers, and she could return them is she wanted to...
So let's face it. Evil Empire will continue to be Evil Empire and not care about customer rights... but us real stores, we understand that when you walk out that door with the product in your hand and the cash in ours, it's yours... we promise not to come after you and snatch it back... not matter the circumstances
When you download a book from the Evil Empire to the device they "sold" you.. you are in fact paying to borrow said e-book on a machine you are leasing from them... think about it this way, if they were a real retailer and you a real customer (to them you are data and a source of money... they really don't give a rat's patuey) they could not have taken back the Orwells. Last winter we (Aaron's Books and indies across the country) were selling a picture book called "Angel Girl"... the publisher and the bookstores had been duped to believe it was a true story, when in fact is was loosely based on some events. The publisher pulled the book and asked us to remove it from our shelves... we did. What we did not do was go into the homes of the people that bought the book and take it away from them... we didn't even contact them and ask them to return it... they had bought a book that we rightfully sold them. Maybe the publisher should have checked facts before getting the book out there, but they thought they had a hit on their hands, so who could blame them. They understood that books had already been sold and there was nothing they could do about it. They took responsibility for the mistake and it was done. The Evil Empire could/should have done the same... pulled the Orwells from their "shelves" and be done. What they REALLY should have done was check to make sure they weren't selling illegal copies like they were, but since it is the Evil Empire and bottom line means everything to them, we couldn't expect that.
To take it out of the book realm... think back to when all those plastic toy baubles were recalled last year. You bought said necklace for your darling niece... the store announces it's a hazard and if you return it you get a refund. I don't recall hearing one story about the other evil empire of retail (wal-mart) going into grandma's home at night and taking the presents out from under her bed... nope she bought them, they were hers, and she could return them is she wanted to...
So let's face it. Evil Empire will continue to be Evil Empire and not care about customer rights... but us real stores, we understand that when you walk out that door with the product in your hand and the cash in ours, it's yours... we promise not to come after you and snatch it back... not matter the circumstances
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