Golda Who?

Booksellers are getting younger (or is it that we are getting older?). This will increasingly have implications on how publishers publish and promote books but isn't something I have seen addressed before. 

As most people with a passing knowledge of the book trade will be aware, one of the big hurdles to get over with any new book is persuading booksellers to stock it.  It doesn't really matter how great your cover is, how wonderful the writing may be or how much promotion you are planning.  If the buyer in the bookshop (or at head office) doesn't actually buy any copies then you are going to struggle to find any readers for it.

Buyers' decisions are influenced by many things, and most of the time they get it about right, but age is becoming an important factor.

Take this example.  Gibson Square, publisher of current affairs, politics and cutting edge non-fiction, are about to launch a new biography of Golda Meir.  It is the first major biography of her in decades and it reveals, supposedly for the first time, quite how much she planned to work with and concede to the Palestinians had she stayed in power. 

So here we have a big new political biography of the first female leader of a Western nation.  One which, and perhaps I am going out on a limb here, will also prove quite popular with a Jewish readership.  It is bound to get some decent review coverage and also feature in the broadsheets.

You'd have thought it would be quite an easy sell.  OK, so it isn't going to be a top ten bestseller and you won't find Asda stocking it but surely this is the sort of book most shops will stock for 1 or 2, perhaps investing in more if they are in a Jewish area or have a good market in politics or biography?

But no.  Depsite all of its pedigree, an enthusiatic sales force and high hopes from the publisher this book has been a struggle to sell in to bookshops.

And the reason?  You can probably guess from the title of this post.  The majority - not some, not a few, but the majority - of buyers presented the book didn't know who Golda Meir was.  Not a clue.  As a result, many of them did not buy it and numerous bookshops up and down the land will be without this book when it is published next month.

This isn't good news for those shops, assuming the demand for the book is anywhere approaching reasonable, and is naturally a worry for the publisher.  Amazon will probably be chuckling away to themselves though.  The book is, as I write, #1,723 in their bestseller charts and #7 in Women's Biography.  And it isn't out till the 17th July.

Publishers come in all ages but most of the ones I have met are in their 30s, 40s and 50s.  Booksellers also vary but more of them are in their 20s and many are in their teens.  Gone are the days when Waterstone's would only employ university graduates (although they would have been spared me if they'd kept it up).  And if the age gap between booksellers and publishers is growing, does it mean that we will face more examples like the Golda Meir biography?

Perhaps it isn't such an issue, maybe it is nothing to worry about, but if there is something in it then it will be interesting to see how our industry addresses it in the years to come.

Comments

[mr bourne]

wise words dear chap,but isn't this going to be the way things go if the age gap between publishers and sellers becomes wider. when i sold books (and ordered them), back in the 90's most of the publishers were in their 20's/30's, and the people who sold the books in the shops were, on the whole, interested in the items they were selling. on the occasions i have purchased books in a shop recently the sellers were often more interested in selling other things, and the passion of books appears to be diminishing. i remember golda meir well enough because i'm an old fart, but if the publishers issue a title they should take on the responsibility to inform the book buyer why they should part with their hard earned cash for it, and accept that they are playing their part in the angular shift in the way books are developed and sold.

[Helen]

Isn't this also a reflection, Scott, of the dramatically different standards of history teaching in our schools and the fact that more and more of today's under 25s have less and less awareness of even fairly recent modern history? When I did O level history we covered the Crimean War, but most young people give me a blank look if I mention it now. I say this because in conversation with my own youngest daughter, 22 this year and second year at uni, I was talking to her about my book on the Romanovs, explaining the role of Lenin etc. 'Mum,' she asked, 'who's Lenin?' Horrified silence from me!

But from what I've been hearing, a lot of similar aged young people even in Russia are asking the same question. I think the younger generation today - god sound like an old fogey don't I - are much more grounded in the present and the very recent past - it's a cultural/generational difference I've noticed in many other areas. the same thing is happening in literature. My daughter's not red a line of any of the classics - oh no tell a lie, she managed about ten pages of Sense and Sensibility.

[Scott Pack]

Good point old chap. Particularly keen on 'angular shift'. Very nice.

In this case the publisher had, in my opinion, done as good a job as it could to outline the importance of the book and its subject. It seems that they couldn't get over that hurdle of the buyer saying 'never heard of her'.

To be completely fair I really don't know a great deal about Golda Meir. I could have told you she was a leader of Israel but that would be about it. Nonetheless, the first new major biography of an important international figure cannot be dismissed out of hand.

All the signs are that the book will sell quite well in the stores that have taken it and particularly online.

[Scott Pack]

Helen, I tend to agree.

One question is whether history at secondary schools should whiz students through the history of the world so that everyone has a reasonable grounding on all the subjects or should it pick out key moments and explore them in more detail?

As I have mentioned before, the Glorious Revolution wasn't even mentioned in my school and I had an excellent history teacher. I am guessing it wasn't on the curriculum at the time. We did loads on the Tudors and WWI and WWII and quite a bit on Russia.

My kids are both at first school and have studied chunks of history - Greeks, Romans, Victorian etc - which is probably about right for their age. It will be interesting to see what they cover when they move up a school.

[A friend of Rachel Worth]

I'm ashamed to say I'm in my 40s (just) and my knowledge comes from the film "munich". however ask me about the Tudors.....
I guess my point is it isnt an age thing it is which drop of the vast ocean that is history you did at school and how far you took it (A level for me) ie the youth of today (great title for a ntwork 7 reinvention) almost certainly know alot more thanme on other pockets of history , science etc.

[Joseph Devon]

The book isn't selling well because Golda looks like Alan Rickman in that photo.
If the title was: "Golda Meir: Die Hard," then you'd have something.
I think I agree with the post just above me on this one. There's SO much more information out there now, it's hard for me to think of anything as a mainstream work of non-fiction anymore. And I'm not sure age is that big of a factor...or maybe it's a cyclical thing. Anyway, Scott, and you've touched on this, but you aren't 320 years old and yet are reading up on the Glorious Revolution (how did that get sparked again?) so...what was the question? It's hard for me to see this as an age thing instead of more of a shift in how much choice we now have in which little bits of history we pick over. I'm still trying to get Rome straight for Pete's sake.

[Paul Henderson]

I'm not sure I agree with your thesis. I don't know where your evidence is that publishers are getting older and booksellers relatively younger, and I'd doubt it's true, or if they're less well educated. My history education (to O level) included nothing from 20th Century. I think if a bookseller in the 1980s was presented with a book about, say, Ben Gurion then they would have as little clue as many seem to about Meir.
Possibly the difference is that in the 80s booksellers had control of a higher proportion of their purchasing budget to select stock, and would have been happier to take a punt.
The Amazon 'evidence' is also misleading. The fact that they have it listed has no bearing on how many booksellers have ordered it, as it's not published yet.

[haarland phillipps]

Interesting post - but I'm not sure I entirely agree it's an age thing. Political biographies are always tricky to sell aren't they? I think perhaps the problem with selling Golda Meir is that she was not evil, mad, bad (e.g.Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Saddam, Mugabe, Amin, Napoleon?)or, conversely, saintly, angelic or self-sacrificing (e.g Gandhi, Mandela,Martin Luther-King, Che) enough to interest general readers. General readers, with an average history education, are more interested to know what made the deranged or inspired tick and how entire populations were hoodwinked, bullied, or otherwise conned into indulging and following them. From this perspective maybe Golda Meir is on a par with Harold Wilson or Woodrow Wilson - worthy but dull.

[Steerforth]

I was going to make a similar point to Paul Henderson. I know that when I started buying stock in 1989, I'd never heard of people like 'Chips' Channon who would have been familiar names to an older generation.. However, the publisher's sales rep would, if they were doing their job properly, give me enough information to make a sound judgement about a book's sales potential and likely review coverage. Also - and I think this is very important - I'd know whether the omission of a title would undermine our credibility as a specialist bookseller.

Booksellers can still buy from reps today (except at Borders), but reps are so overworked and shops understaffed that it's difficult to find the time for a productive meeting. The result is that more titles slip through the net.

Interestingly (although slightly off the point), Waterstone's MD Gerry Johnson decided to devolve more buying power back to the shops last year (not nearly enough, but it's a start) and was reported as saying that he was losing sleep thinking about the risk. Waterstone's went on to have one of its best Christmases for years and ended up with fewer returns, so what does that tell you?

[Lance]

Awareness is not the reserved for the middle aged, young padawan.
At least it's being published - and as an aside - most of my mates are graduates and rarely do they pick up a book.

[Lance]

Golda Meir:Die Hard!
nice.

[Steerforth]

She also looks a bit like Davros in Doctor Who.

[Scott Pack]

She's not a looker is she?

This post has sparked some interesting debate and some excellent responses. Thanks for taking the time to thrash it out, so to speak.

My age comment is not based on any studies and is put out there as a possible theory only.

The reality on this book is that the buying decisions will have been made on many criteria but I still think there is a link between the amount of buyers saying 'Golda who?' and the low orders. Anecdotal feedback was that older buyers bought it consistently and younger buyers were a real struggle.

I just think it is an interesting discussion point.

[Jeannine]

When I first started in bookselling (many years ago) I ended up with the biography section because I had A Levels (I had the classics section for the same reason - lucky me!) At the time I was travelling to and from work with my Dad and the agreement was that we would listen to Radio 1 on the way in and Radio 2 on the way home. At the time Radio 2 covered a lot of new books and especially biographies so I was able to sound much more knowledgeable than I really was.
But I don't think buyers have any excuse really in these days of Google and Wikipedia. It's obviously a big book and the information about why is just a few clicks away.

[dovegreyreader]

I blame the cover entirely, it's terrible and would give people nightmares, sort that and I bet the book would fare so much better which is a sad indictment in itself. I think the history thing is a plus ca change situation, as time goes on there's just more and more of it and too much to know, they didn't know how lucky they were in the 1400's!

[TJ]

I only stocked the book after reading this and have sold 2 in 3 days,so thanks. The cover though.... a cross of Alan Sugar with a little sprinle of Patrick Troughton

[Curzon Tussaud]

Get on........that's Sid James, innit?

[Curzon Tussaud]

Get on........that's Sid James, innit?