The Price Is Right

A Saturday Rant 4-17-2004

I must have yelled about this for the last one hundred and twenty eight
years. It is about time that we STOP pricing our books. That’s right, STOP.

We should establish a wholesale price and let the retailer (Amazon, B&N,
etc.) establish whatever price they want.

The point here is to finally, and definitively put an end to returns. While
I can’t prove it, I believe that the retail channel has been grateful to
publishers for creating a list price. In return for that, they exact a
return privilege. And as I’ve said for the past seven years in this space,
returns do not benefit the publisher…. but only the retailer… as we are
able to finance their inventory.

I believe it is in our best interest to sell at wholesale, non-returnable…
and not print a price on the back cover.

… BUT RETURNS HELP US SELL BOOKS

This is the biggest myth ever perpetrated in the book business world.
Everyone and their dog wants YOU, the publisher, to believe that if you
don’t sell with a return privilege that you will not be able to move your
inventory. I believe that this is class-A, USDA prime bullshit. Your average
B&N, Borders, or large independent has 30,000 sq. feet of space to fill.
They need 60,000 titles per store. Now if you and I and everyone else says
“OK, you want to fill your space, well then BUY the inventory,” what do you
think will happen?

I’ll tell you what will happen. All of a sudden, returns will be a thing of
the past. And the past should start “now”.

On Jan 1, 2000, our company no longer sold books to Ingram, B&T, or
anyone else on a return basis. Yes, that means that Ingram will dropped us.
Fine. So be it. I was just f***ing tired of getting 30 books back from Ingram
and the next day getting a PO for 40 more. It had to end, and we decided
to end it. I’d rather sell one book at a guaranteed wholesale price than
three books with a return privilege such that I know that two of them will
come back trashed…. and non-saleable.

We already sell to barnesandnoble.com and borders.com and amazon.com on a
non-returnable basis at 40% and I’m sick and tired of Ingram wanting to buy
at 55% with a return privilege. F**k Ingram. It’s a new era, a new age, and
time for publishers to say, “enough is enough… if you want our product,
than you have to BUY it… and not have us finance you.”

For the past twenty years we’ve been told that if we stopped the return
privilege that our orders would dry up. My take is that it is just a myth.
Where are the big chains going to get their inventory?

There was once talk about the PMA being the organization
that would facilitate this movement, but when it comes right down to it, how books
are sold is up to each individual publisher… and no organization is going
to make that much of a difference. Thus, I believe that what we need to do is
decide to tell Ingram and other middle people, as well as retailers that if
they want the inventory, they will have to buy it… just like blue jeans,
computers, soup, telephones, lamps, etc.

We decided do this. The rest of you can do what you want. And yes we
lost some business. I was just so &^%$ing sick and tired of being
pushed around, taken advantage of, and just plain old “lied to” by Ingram
and the rest of the publishing channel. My motto now is “If
you want it, you buy it… end of story.”

This was easy for us to do since we don’t sell much to the retail sector.

The big question is who will have the guts to do this as well? Do you? Maybe
you do. I don’t know. And while I thought it might be a good idea to get
an organization (PMA) to help persuade publishers to “do the best thing,”
my thinking of late is that those who have the brains and the guts will do
it, the rest won’t. In other words, if you want to continue to be &^%*ed
over by Ingram, well then that is your business… so enjoy it. It’s not my
problem.

Each publisher should send a letter to Ingram saying that their
inventory is FOR SALE, not for consignment. And if Ingram doesn’t like that,
well then so be it. The dot com sellers have no problem with it and in the
long run that is where the future lies anyway.

Will publishers finally see the light and decide to take action?
I’m not optimistic. I have come to the conclusion that
most publishers are just too stupid to do what is in their best interest,
that they are cowed and intimidated by the middle and retail channel into
selling at disadvantageous terms, and that no matter what I say, it would
just go in one ear and out the other.

So for the long run I expect returns to be around for a while. If you
want to continue being screwed by the middle and retail channel, than go
right ahead. Me? I no longer play by their rules. After ten years of
being screwed by Ingram and their damaged returns, their slow pay, their
fees, and their arrogance, I’m was glad to say “Hey assholes, I’ve had it with
you people. If you want our books (and they do sell pretty well) then in the
new era it will be on OUR terms, not yours.”

And that’s the truth.

A LITTLE HUMOR

These are somber times. We need a smile every once in a while.

 
Osama Bin Laden phoned President George W. Bush.

 ”Well, O-sama, did you call me up to turn yerself in?” says
 President Bush.
 
“Dog of an infidel! I have called you to tell you I had a 
dream, a dream of prophecy about your decadent United States”,
 says Bin Laden. “I could see the whole country, and over
 every home, every mosque, every building and home was a banner”,
 he boasts.
 
“Well, that’s interesting. What was on the banner?” asked Mr.
 Bush.
 
“ALLAH BE PRAISED, LONG LIVE OSAMA!” bellows the terrorist.
 
“Well, y’know, it’s a mighty handy thang that you called me up,
 O-sama”, says Bush, “because y’see I too had a dream just last 
night, and it might be prophetic. Now, in my dream, I saw Afghanistan
 and it was more beautiful than ever; it was totally restored
 to peaceful glory. There were fertile farms, and fruit groves,
 and every town had a beautiful park where the children were
 playing. There were schools, and libraries, people going about
 their business without fear, and over every building and home 
there was this real big, beautiful banner”, the President goes on.
 
“And just what did this banner say?” asks Osama.
 
“Well, heck, O-sama, I don’t know”, answers President Bush.
 
“Hah! Deceitful, cowardly infidel of a decadent country, you
 cannot READ?” interrupts the terrorist, “It is to laugh! Hah!
 Hah! Hah!”
 
“Oh, shucks, O-sama, I read English just fine, and Spanish 
tolerable well, but y’know I never did get around to learnin’
 how to read Hebrew”…
 

Alan N. Canton
Publisher, Author, Software Developer
Adams-Blake Publishing