Publishers, Readers And The End Of Booksellers

Forbes 

Comment Now

Follow Comments Following Comments Unfollow Comments

Right - Philip Jones, editor- The Bookseller

If publishers finally begin treating readers as their end customers, it will mean cutting booksellers out of the equation, said The Bookseller’s editor Philip Jones in last week’s editorial, Embracing Complexity (online as A Complex Trade). Jones wrote:

It has become fashionable recently to take booksellers out of the bookselling equation, to argue that publishers need to treat consumers, not booksellers, as their customer. The US author Hugh Howey said it recently in a characteristically forthright blog: “It’s the Reader, Stupid”, and Orna Ross, founder of the Alliance of Independent Authors, says it in the profile on page 18 of this week’s magazine.
I don’t argue with the logic. In basic terms focusing on the end-consumer can only be right. If every Thursday book buyers flocked to Vauxhall Bridge Road or the Strand to acquire the latest offerings, life would truly be sweet (for publishers). Think about it: no sales reps, no sales teams, no need for special sales, no distributors, no hub, no wholesalers. Simples.

Except neither Howey nor Ross argue that booksellers aren’t important, nor do they argue that they are expendable and should be sidelined. And they certainly don’t say that publishers should fire their sales reps or circumvent distributors and wholesalers. That ‘logic’ is one entirely of Jones’ invention.
What Howey says is that the current ecosystem is a mess, with readers at the bottom of almost everyone’s list. He says (emphasis as original):

Publishers treat bookstores as their customers, not the reader. That means high e-book prices to protect print; releasing hardbacks and withholding paperbacks; needlessly high audiobook prices; and not working with libraries on e-book prices and lending practices. […]
Large bookstore chains treat publishers as customers by charging for merchandising rather than stocking and shelving what the reader wants. […]
Traditional authors treat publishers as their customers, because that’s who pays them for manuscripts, rather than focusing on the reader, who wants to pay for the book. […]

In fact, says Howey, the only people who really put some effort into catering to readers are independent bookstores, indie authors and Amazon. Furthermore, he says, “the indie shops are seeing growth because they largely concentrate on the reader.”
More