From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 06/17/01-07:03:02 PM Z
On Sat, 16 Jun 2001, Pam Niedermayer wrote:
> "give"? It may be that it's cheaper for an author to pay a reseller
> than to spend time at such boring tasks as packaging and shipping.
The book comes from the printer packed. "Shipping" consists of telling his
computer to print a label, which presumably he wants for his own records
anyway, and dropping in a mailbox. And he's paid. Or let me put that in
capital letters:
AND HE'S PAID !
As a veteran of 30 years in small press publishing I reveal an ugly
secret: Often it is difficult if not impossible for a small press to get
paid by the "reseller." Amazon.com is actually pretty good, but my
not-for-profit umbrella is owed THOUSANDS of dollars by such firms as
Borders.... in which nameless and faceless factotums tell you it's paid,
or they don't have that invoice, or they'll check on it, or it's in the
mail, or whatever the line is that day. Sometimes if you have a book their
customer has requested they'll pay a back bill to get it. But just as
often they'll tell the customer it's out of print.
Then there are bookstores which go into bankruptcy owing you for a year's
books. There are also distributors who go into bankruptcy. If the
distributor has been a slow payer in the past, but always paid, they might
owe for TWO years' books.
Presumably Burkholder has gotten pretty savvy & knows where he has to get
payment upfront. But generally speaking if a reseller (Barnes & Noble, et
al) order a bunch they get a 40% discount AND pay when they get around to
it, often after a year (or more!!) of dunning invoices. AND they'll often
ship all or much of an order back if it doesn't sell as fast as expected.
Again, Burkholder has a unique item in a niche market, and thus may not
have this problem (a lot), but the fact is that the bookstores NEED
Doubleday and Abrams and Random House, they don't need the small press.
Finally, as I recall, Dan's book sells for $24. Forty percent of that is
$9.60. The charge for shipping and handling is maybe $5 or $6, or more
than the actual bookrate postage. Most small press authors are willing to
stick on a label and drop a book in the mail for approximately $12. If you
do that, say, once a week, say for 5 books, even if it takes 5 minutes per
book, you're still "earning" at a rate of $120 an hour.
Which can bind a lot of boredom molecules.
Judy
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