Is it worth selling books into bookshops? Part 2
“One of the most exciting publishing events of 2009 was the emergence of the new imprint Zero Books. It publishes short, intelligent polemics on politics and culture, packing a lot of punch into about 80 pages and they are masterclasses in how supposedly tough theory can be made accessible and help us to understand society. The latest of these is Capitalist Realism by leading radical blogger Mark Fisher who has been blogging under the name k-punk for the past few years. It’s a sharp analysis of the post-ideological malaise that suggests that the economics and politics of neo-liberalism are givens rather than constructions. “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism”, Fisher spits, and his book takes in film, Baudrillard, Kurt Cobain, science fiction, mental health, bureacracy and economics. Zero Books are sadly absent from bookshops, but they are must reads.” Rowan Wilson, Verso Publishing and ReadySteadyBook blogger
This lovely and very gracious comment in “The Bookseller” (here’s hoping that lots of booksellers are reading it) on our new sister imprint, Zero books, prompted this second blog on the subject of bookshop sales.
Being sales manager (I think, have had no direct contact) of Verso, the leading political publisher from a left-wing perspective in the UK/USA, Rowan Wilson knows vastly more about bookshops than I do.
The books are never going to be in all bookshops though. And I do try and pin stuff down to what we can realistically do where. There are 20,000 bookshop accounts in the USA/UK etc. If we had one in each shop, and each copy sold through, being replaced by one more, our sales reports would show 40,000 of each sold, and Nielsen, which tracks bookshop sales, would show 20,000 of each.
But that’s quite unrealistic. From the info in “Our publishing process” on the website; Looking at the latest Bookseller analysis of sales in 2008; in the kind of non-fiction specialist areas that we mostly publish in, a sale of 3,000 copies in, for example, “popular philosophy” (rather than academic philosophy, where good sales are in the hundreds), would easily get you into the top 20 titles in the UK in 2008, into the company of authors like Julian Baggini, Alain de Botton and Bertrand Russell (yes, he still sells).
In comparison to this, the sales on the first two titles on Zero books (published late last Spring) are in the 1000-1500 bracket. Keep selling steadily. The more recent ones, more in the 500-1000 level.
Which is not all through bookshops in the UK. Roughly one third in the US, and amazon account for nearly half, on average.
Which is not getting them up into the top 20 in the UK, but then the authors aren’t writing to be popular, they’re not for everyone, and it doesn’t seem to me to be completely out of line with expectations for that kind of book. In fact, seems to be going well, given that it’s a new list.
The wholesalers have been kept in stock; the bookshops have had the info; which is not to say we shouldn’t be doing better – looking back, we seemed to have loosened up on Foyles, Blackwells, and not kept those sales going. On the other hand, they’re mostly in the Waterstones core stock list, or on their way there, and we’ve started to do more in the USA, and we haven’t had too many returns. The more recent “One Dimensional Woman” has sold more in the US than the UK, for some reason.
The more troubling questions are the broader ones. There are always going to be no more than 20 authors in the top 20, in any particular subject area. But if the sales in one major market like the UK are going to bring a few thousand copies at best, the vast majority are going to be in the hundreds, or dozens. So how do you publish good books in this area without pricing them at the academic £30-£100 range? And how many shops can you afford to ring/visit?
What more should we have done? There have been two major launches. Hundreds, thousands of emails/phone calls. Over 200 review copies sent so far. These have been in response to requests, rather than just blanket mailings of review copies, and the results have been;
Militant Modernist; 62 review copies sent, 4 reviews
Fear of Music; 74 review copies sent, 4 reviews
One Dimensional Woman; 33 review copies sent, 4 reviews
Cold World; 20 review copies sent, nil reviews
Capitalist Realism; 36 copies sent, 2 reviews
The reviews have all been great. But it’s an expensive way of getting them, about £10 a time by the time you add in warehouse charge, packing, post, paperwork, cost of book, arranging it.
We do need to strengthen ties with the most suitable bookshops, who specialise in political/literary/cultural theory, no doubt about that. But then, for that to work for both parties, you need a regular stream of good titles. So it’s pushing uphill on the sales while the cash is running downhill, with the investment in new, first time authors.
And the one thing I know, is that there is no necessary correlation between good books and sales. Doesn’t matter how hard you try you on the marketing, and on getting them into shops. Was just looking at our figures on a fiction title of last summer – good book, glowing endorsements from credible people, four articles related to the book on publication and one magazine extract, half a dozen book signings, two magazine reader competitions, twelve radio interviews, two TV ones, and we’ve sold 250 copies, with 155 extra going out as free for review
Squaring the circle of effort/time/cash/return with wanting to do the best for the author is what we wrestle with every day. On the first zero books, I’ld guess we’ve got the balance about right, though clearly can’t sustain quite the same level of effort across all new titles. But I post this up here in case anyone has any better answers.
John Hunt