Booksellers Wield the Big Stick
By Jerry D. Simmons | January 6th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)

Large booksellers, online as well as brick and mortar, have always used their strength and dominance in the marketplace to force the biggest publishers into creative ways of making up for the lack of single copy sales. This “recommended” compliance means that if publishers don’t pay the price for placement then the retailers will seek other sources of funding, namely from smaller publishers. The rule of thumb in New York has always been if you lose the space you will never regain the position. In the past it has always been subtle requests for more advertising allowances, placement fees, money for newsletters or in store promotions, you name it and they seemed to always find a way to tap into the pockets of publishers.

This is the biggest reason why the marketplace is not now and never will be a level playing field for publishers outside the big six in New York. The same holds true for the independent bookstore and their competitive fight against the big box retailers. Even though it is illegal to offer larger discounts based on volume, it doesn’t eliminate the loopholes that all publishers use to get around this issue. When it comes to the market for book sales the best way to compete is to exploit the weakness of the major companies and utilize the strength of a combined independent bookselling community.

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