Less turns out to be a good thing at times in today’s corporatist economic and political scene, and especially in the publishing arena, where seven very big fish own almost everything, having devoured nearly every other fish in the water.
Publishers Group West, a distributor of books for many small independent publishers, faced bankruptcy recently. New York-based Perseus Book Group offered 70 cents of each dollar owed to the small publishers left in the lurch, as well as continuation of service, while the National Book Network offered first 85 cents on the dollar, and later full value. The judge listened to the publishers themselves, 85% of which stated they were willing to take the lesser offer in order to continue service with staff who knew their products, which I take to mean people wouldn’t lose their jobs.
Washington Post - Lanham Firm Loses Book Deal
Perseus chief executive David Steinberger said that the decision showed that the independent publishing world is looking beyond tomorrow’s sales to ensure solid financial footing. (read article)
Independent publishing is on the rise, with a greater concern for quality, for the writer, and for the reader. I’m involved, as an aspiring writer, in one end of the publishing spectrum, and as a self-published writer I quickly came up against the immense and immovable boulder of distribution channels at the other end. I’m also unspeakably weary of everything in our world coming down to profit in the short term, and size and power meaning more than people and quality. So I felt great relief to read about this development in the past month’s scramble over the bankruptcy of one of indie publishing’s distributors. My hat’s off to the publishers who chose to sacrifice hard-earned money in order to keep some people in their current jobs and keep independent publishing focused on what matters — getting high quality books into readers’ hands.
I look forward to supporting more independent publishers with my book purchases.
More on today’s development:
San Francisco Chronicle —
Small presses will get money
The New York Times —
Perseus to Take Over Publishers’ Contracts
Some background:
Monday, January 22, 2007 — International Herald Tribune —
Deal announced for Perseus Books to acquire imperiled distributor
Saturday, January 27, 2007 — San Francisco Chronicle —
A financial thriller in the publishing world
Sunday, January 28, 2007— Market Day —
Bankruptcy hurts small publishers
Saturday, February 10, 2007 — Los Angeles Times CalendarLive.com —
The next chapter may be 13
Thursday, February 15, 2007 — The Book Standard —
The Battle Continues for PGW’s Clients
Friday, February 16, 2007 — The Daily Californian —
Book Distributor Waits On Ownership Decision
Interesting. Thanks for pointing this out. I don’t think Poisoned Pen Press actually deals with a distributor but rather with wholesalers. (The entire distribution network is hard for me to understand.) However, as you say, any choice to look beyond immediate profit is to be applauded. God forbid any of us suggest it isn’t all about money all the time. That’s enough to get you commited.
Eric — The distribution network is a mystery to me, too, and that is fed by the fact that distributors are mostly so secretive about who their clients even are. It’s difficult to tell, visiting the website for National Book Network, whether they’re a small one-man operation, as PGW started out (see a little about its history here), or a huge conglomerate. It appears you don’t get behind the front page of most book distributor websites without being a publisher willing to first disclose who you are along with lots of other information.
The company that PGW is being dragged through this mess with, their recent parent company Advanced Marketing Services (AMS), has an office in San Diego (Sorrento Mesa). They’re under investigation by the feds for fraud, which started all this. I used to attend computer classes in the same building sometimes, for my job as a technical writer, and (I assume it was AMS since it was the same street address, on the same floor) had a floor all to themselves, to which one only gained access by using a card key on the elevator. At some point in each class I attended someone always asked what they did on that floor, so I knew it was a book distribution company. The reason I was given (second or third hand) for the secrecy was that if people knew where they were, they’d be hounded all day by people wanting them to sell their books. I’m not sure I believe that, but who knows? They were the ones who got books into places like Costco. In any case, I still consider book distribution a huge mystery, and I think it’s a shame that it’s that way. I’m a little suspicious of any business that requires that much secrecy. But since I know nothing about it . . . what do I know?
I did notice, in researching this blog post, that PGW in contrast is quite open about who its publisher clients are. Which makes me happy as a reader because I like to support good small publishers — just as I prefer to support good independent businesses of any kind when I can. (Poison Pen Press is also a terrific one to support.)
In any case, it appears AMS sold out to Baker & Taylor, and its San Diego employees look about to lose their jobs, if they haven’t already. The PGW employees are hopefully better off with this decision.
AMS-related news items:
Inside Bay Area — Berkeley bankruptcy jolts indie publishers
SignOnSanDiego — Auction ordered for division of company
San Diego Business Journal — Sale of Assets Could Close the Books on Lengthy AMS Scandal
The New York Times — Perseus to Take Over Publishers’ Contracts
When I had Lit Pot Press, we tried (unsuccessfully) to get distribution from all the literary distributors. It was an ARDUOUS task to even approach them, they required copies of of our books ($$$)(not returned of course), catalogs, marketing plans, reviews, bios of the officers, etc etc. The bottom line, when all was said and done, was that we didn’t have enough of our OWN marketing money to make it worth their while since poetry and literary fiction were not big sellers. (THIS from LITERARY distributors). In other words, if we had had an advertising budget that would get our titles in the media, then they would fill the orders for us. It was most disheartening to go through this process time after time after time. These were not mainstream distributors either, but those supposedly dedicated to the small press. Feh.
I love it that there are small, independent companies out there. I used to work for Timber Press, which is local and publishes gardening books…
I’m afraid I’m sorta, kinda, a lot unsophisticated on this subject… but because of your post, I will now be paying more attention to small presses. Thanks!
I should add that I might represent many readers. I choose books to read by reviews and word-of-mouth. I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to publishers. Mea culpa.:) It’s kinda like, when I watch a TV program, I don’t give a whit about what station it’s being aired on.
In addition to Indie publishers, I am a huge huge supporter of Indie bookseller’s – a struggling breed if there ever was one.