June 22, 2006
Over on Lee Goldberg's blog, he talks about a post Barry Eisler had about an independent bookseller who didn't like that he did a signing at their store, then went to a local Barnes & Noble to sign stock there. I highly recommend both these blogs to read about this situation, which for me leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. I've had a lot of support from chain stores, at least Barnes & Noble, and not much from indies, although those indies that have been supportive have been quite wonderful. Honestly, I don't buy into this "us versus them" arguments any more. There's a prominent indie mystery bookseller in Ann Arbor, and I've tried with both previous books to get a toe in the door without much success, and was more or less told, and this is almost a direct quote: "There's no point in hosting a signing for you because nobody will come."

Well, so much for building relationships.

Anyway, here is what I wrote on Lee's blog:

I agree with Barry. Yes, I understand the indie bookseller's point, but I find the "if you don't do it my way I won't sell your book" response to be the sort of attitude that only alienates authors, publishers and, possibly, readers.

I've watched this indie versus chain store battle for a long time and definitely understand the argument on both sides. There was a small bookstore in nearby Lake Orion that went out of business. She said people could buy the same book cheaper at Kmart next door than she could order them through the publishers, and when a Borders opened up 10 miles away, she claimed it was what put her out of business.

Maybe it did. But there's always been this argument that the indies treat their customers better than the chains. And this lady eventually alienated me by snarling at my children, being rude to me and ignoring the fact that I was a very regular customer. Her staff even apologized to me with a, "she's not very comfortable around children." Yeah? Tough shit. Don't alienate your customers.

I've heard indies complain about Janet Evanovitch not doing signings at their stores any more and I can only shake my head and wonder how an independent could handle the crowds.

But really, it's this--" Some in particular that we know would simply stop carrying your books without comment"-- that troubles me about that bookseller's comments.

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This bookseller also goes on to say: "Put another way, bookselling is a very small club. Independents talk to one another regularly. We love to make people stars, it’s why we do what we do. The chains are always late to the party, the wholesale outlets even later. Independents may not do the volume, but we definitely pick the people when we want to. Conversely, much like John Rain, when we want to kill an author we can always make it look like natural causes. There’s always a different book to push."

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I can only hope he's being facetious, but I don't think he was. This creeps me out, frankly. It's like the movie director saying he loves making movies except working with actors. A real old-fashioned: You can't quit, son, you're fired!


This is not a simple argument. But I've heard independent booksellers say, "If the author has a link to Amazon on their Website, I won't carry their books." This, frankly, pisses me off. One, the bookseller shouldn't be dictating terms to the author about marketing. And an indie that sells a dozen copies of your book really shouldn't be telling you not to advertise for another retailer.

Now, I don't want to alienate ANY booksellers. I love what they do--sell books, something that is near and dear to my heart. But... talk about shooting yourself in the foot? These same authors buy books, recommend signing locales to other authors, network, review books, and communicate with editors, publishers and wholesalers, as well as the trade journals for the industry, from Publishers Weekly to Mystery Scene Magazine and a whole variety of newspapers. Authors are occasionally counseled to be careful about alienating people--booksellers should, too.

Best,
Mark Terry