Archive: Five Myths About Bookselling

Here is an article I wrote for The Author magazine back in 2005 when I was still Buying Manager at Waterstone's. It is interesting to note how much has, and has not, changed in that time.

Five Myths About Bookselling

I feel somewhat conspicuous as a retailer within the pages of The Author, but I am here on a mission. I have been tasked with debunking some of the myths that surround bookselling in this country. These are too numerous to tackle them all here but I will attempt to shed some light on the more common questions and misconceptions, in no particular order.

A good review will help to sell my book

In a recent Bookseller column I claimed that newspaper reviews don’t sell books. It caused a bit of a stir. I was being slightly mischievous with my comments but they were based on fact.

Around two years ago we introduced New & Recently Reviewed displays across the chain. A table at the front of each of our stores was given over to books that featured in press reviews, most notably the broadsheets. After six months we scrapped the whole thing. The books just didn’t sell. It remains the least successful activity we have ever run.

But why should this be? We have all been prompted to buy a book after reading a good review. Surely a promotion as described above would be a sure fire winner? That’s what I thought, but how wrong I was. One of the reasons for the apparent lack of interest, in my opinion, is the nature of the titles that the broadsheets review.

A full page review of a book on the history of wolves in America doesn’t appear to whip the reading public into a frenzy. What a surprise. Too many column inches are given over to books that very few people want to read.

I was criticised following the article for daring to suggest that literary editors should review books solely so that I can sell more copies. That wasn’t what I was saying. My point was that if a newspaper reviews a book which then doesn’t sell they have clearly reviewed a book that was of little interest to their readers. Judging by my email inbox immediately afterwards quite a few people agree, and two-thirds of the people mailing support were authors.

Since that article (and completely unprompted by it I hasten to add) Erica Wagner has revamped the The Times Books section and come up with a lively and inspiring supplement which I am sure will prompt many people to check out a range of new books, whether that be through bookshops, the internet, or libraries. It is a pleasure to read and I can already see its influence on what we are selling.

Bookshops are only interested in bestsellers

I have a confession to make. I love bestsellers. The clue is in the name really. They are the bestselling books in the country and without them most bookshops, from the smallest independent to the largest chain, would be very quiet places indeed (if they managed to stay in business that is).

We all need bestsellers. The fact that my company sells tens of thousands of The Da Vinci Code every month means that we can afford to stock a great book of poetry that only sells one copy in the same period of time. It is all a question of balance. It may look like all we sell are the stacks of paperbacks from the front of the shops but in reality these are only a small part of our business.

If you add together all the 3 for 2s, all the piles FOS and all the books we discount they represent less than a quarter of our total sales. The vast majority of the books we sell are backlist from the A-Zs, and we like it that way. The offers and promotions can lure customers in, but once they are browsing they seem more than happy to explore even the farthest corners of our displays.

The buyers in the big chains know a great deal about retail but not so much about books

If we were really only experts in one and not the other then we wouldn’t last very long. The truth is that we have to be good at both. All of the people I have worked with in my buying team are passionate about books and feel privileged to be able to work with them. We understand the influence we can have on the book buying public and try to use that wisely. That’s not to say we don’t occasionally sneak in one of our favourites though, something I am sure the authors of those books don’t mind at all.

Publishers can bribe their way front of store

Perhaps ‘bribe’ is too strong a word. ‘Buy their way front of store’ may sum up the perception more accurately. Most retailers ask for a marketing contribution when they put a book into a campaign or promotion. This money is used to help promote the campaign, and the book itself, through point-of-sale material, window displays and/or press advertising. Publishers have specific budgets for this activity. The important point to note is that this money is spent on books that have already been selected for promotion. The money itself doesn’t buy you space, the books have to make it into the offer on their own merit first. It is vital that the decision making process is always focussed on the book itself.

Believe it or not we read a decent chunk of most of books that come our way. It can be a real task, and doesn’t always prove popular with our loved ones when we keep the bedside lamp burning into the wee small hours, but it does ensure that we get behind the books we truly believe are the best in their field. These are the books that get front of store and no amount of money will make us put a book into a promotion if we do not think our customers will like it.

The 3 for 2 has become too powerful

Getting your book in to our 3 for 2 campaign can boost sales by as much as 5000%. It is a staggering statistic and one that highlights the strength of such an offer. Great news if your book is selected. Not so great if you are left out. Does that make it too powerful? I guess it depends on who you ask.

One major benefit to the 3 for 2s which often gets ignored is the ‘third choice factor’. Many readers use the third choice, which they consider their freebie, to take a bit of a risk. They buy books they have never heard of before just because they like the cover. They finally invest in a title they have been meaning to read for years. Some delve into backlist. Others try a genre that they have previously avoided. It is an invitation to experiment and, as with all experiments, some will fail but many go on to spark wonderful discoveries and this is why I think the considerable power of the 3 for 2s can be a good thing for us all.

I hope this short piece has managed to touch on a few of the issues that are important to authors and answered some questions and queries. In truth, the agenda of author and bookseller are not that different, we both want to get the widest readership possible for the books we are involved in and long may that continue.

Comments

[Sue Guiney]

I remember reading this in 2005 and it still makes good reading now. I don't think much has changed with the huge exception of the rise of ebooks. How bookshops are going to deal with those will be interesting to see. Since I publish with the new small press, Ward Wood, I'm always interested in the ways publishers without the money to get into 3-for-2's and other such promotions (like competitions as well) need to be creative in finding ways to promote their titles. I know you don't work for Waterstones any more, but a front-of-house table devoted to new releases by small presses would be terrific, don't you think? They could easily start with "A Clash of Innocents" by Sue Guiney :-)

[Tom Vowler]

I totally agree, Sue. ;)

It will be fascinating to see a similar article in, say, ten years, once e-books have found their audience.

[Ned Barry]

Good stuff. I think there’s a lot of unpublished authors and frustrated readers who complain about the quality of books that get the spotlight as if all that were required would be for them to take over at Waterstones or the TLS.

It’s like William Goldman says, when writing about which great movie failed, why some films that sucked made money and whether certain films would’ve done better with different stars: ‘no one knows anything’.

People in the entertainment business broadly try to do their best and to cater to most audiences, recognising that some mediocre stuff has to pay for the quality and that there’s nothing wrong with pushing stuff that is undemandingly enjoyable.

That said, my heart sank this morning when I got off the Tube to be confronted with a poster advertising Tara Palmer-Tomkinson’s ‘debut novel’ (you expect me to believe a cultural figure of her standing hasn’t published before? What, not even a collection of poetry?).

[Chris]

Scott - can you explain what happens when Waterstones select a book for promotion and the book's publisher declines to make a 'marketing contribution'. How do we know that the criteria for selecting such books isn't tainted by an expectation of which publishers have the budget to support these promotions and which don't? It certainly seems that this may a possibility.

[Scott Pack]

A very good question Chris and one I cannot answer with 100% confidence as I haven't had anything to with Waterstone's for some years.

In my experience though, most publisher knew what the charges were going to be before submitting so the situation you describe rarely happened and I suspect that is still the case.

Sometimes a publisher would allocate a certain amount of money and then find that Waterstone's had selected far more books than they had expected so would knock a few books out as a result.

And certainly I have know for a small publisher to decide not to take part once they have totted up the costs.

These were very much the exception though.

[Simon]

Are the centre page extracts that frequently appear in newspapers also paid for by the publisher?

Just curious.

[Chas Griffin, www.thirdeafbooks.co.uk]

Hi Scott...

Interesting stuff.
As a bit of a writer, I'm more concerned with the virtual monopoly that Waterstone's now has. Once this monopoly is combined with a central stocking policy every shop stocks the same stuff, like Boots or Jewsons, and minority books thus become completely invisible to the public.
My own titles seem to have been recently wiped from the computerised stock list, presumably for not hitting their sales targets. Now they will have no chance of making a come-back or even of selling at a tick-over level as no shop or reader will even know about them.

What are your views on this issue?
Obviously all shops can not stock all titles. I do appreciate the problems buyers face, but I'm sure the answer to this problem must be found by The Big W. If no answer is found, then I think POD will soon begin to render the monolith obsolete.

Best wishes Chas Griffin

[Cathy Macleod]

The most effective reviews come from readers who have paid for the book. Many online sites now make this possible, and what excellent honest feedback it is for author and publisher.

[Liz Hurley]

We have a bookshop but we don't do 3 for 2s. I find your point of view really interesting, especially the 5000% increase in sales. My take on it as a buyer is somewhat different,

http://hurleybookss.blogspot.com/2010/04/do-3-for-2s-work.html

I find 3 for 2s a barrier to shopping which almost seems counter intuitive.

[Scott Pack]

You make an interesting point on your blog Liz but I can only speak for my time at Waterstone's and there we tried dozens of other mechanics - money off, 2 for £10, BOGOF, sales, clearouts, 2 for £20, etc. - and nothing worked anywhere near as well as a 3 for 2 in terms of units sold, market share, margin and revenue.

It may not be to your personal taste, and having been around for so long it may seem a bit dull and uninspired, but if Waterstone's stopped doing it they'd probably see a big hit in their sales.

Whether it would work for you is another matter entirely.

[Pauline]

It's not at all surprising that my buying habits are so easily predictable, as I use the 3 for 2 in exactly the way you describe - using my 'free' book to try something different. I probably fall into another well-known sub-group, that of people who usually end up buying 6 for 4...