You Couldn't Pay Me Enough

Marilyn Thiele

I sat down this evening to write my planned post on children’s books. I began, as usual, by going to Dead Guy to catch up on posts from my colleagues this week. It usually gets me in a writing frame of mind, and sometimes triggers an idea if I have not yet decided what to write. I guess Erin thought I might need an idea! After I read her post, I decided to comment there and go on to my planned topic. My comment got rather lengthy, and then Typepad decided to go back to its mode of a few months ago, not letting me post a comment. It just goes nowhere. Well, I can take a hint. I’ll respond here instead.

The most troubling part of Erin’s post to me was not her defense of Amazon but the observation, backed up in comments by others,  that some booksellers are judgmental about what their customers read. They must be doing very well with their approved clientele to be able to afford to alienate readers who have different tastes.  I don’t know many booksellers who can afford to make readers feel  uncomfortable asking for what they want.  Some stores, of course, limit themselves to specific categories where the bookseller has expertise, such as military history. A customer is not likely to go there for Fifty Shades of Grey.  A shop that markets itself as a general interest establishment is doing all of us a disservice by  sneeringly (or even subtly) passing judgment on what someone else reads. I have spent too much of my life defending crime fiction to those lofty literary souls who wouldn’t touch “genre” writing to condemn anyone else’s taste. I would love to sell nothing but mysteries; but I also love to stay in business. So I bite my tongue and smile even when the lofty ones sneer at my own preference. The customers get to express their opinions on politics, religion, and what is worth reading; the bookseller doesn’t. So by all means avoid those booksellers who judge what you read; they obviously don’t want your business. But don’t judge the rest of us either. Just like readers, we are all individuals. And most of us want to make you happy, whatever you read.

I was also a bit taken aback that Erin seems to be able to get books published abroad only from Amazon. I frequently order books for customers which are published abroad and in the original language. I have one customer who often orders books published in Spain. Granted, there is some lag time, but it is not impossible, and this loyal customer is patient, knowing I can usually get what he wants. Perhaps some booksellers just don’t want to take the time, not realizing that the time spent will yield a faithful  purchaser of your regularly stocked books also. It reminds me of the days when Borders was my competition in town. Readers would come to me saying that Borders “can’t order” this book. When I checked, I found that of course they could. They wouldn’t. Why not? Generally because it was a Print on Demand book and the discount to the bookseller was 5%. For a regular customer, I would do it and lose profit for loyalty. For others, I would explain that I would order but charge more than the “cover” price, and why. Either way, the word got out that my shop provides service. So why can’t Erin’s independent get the books she wants? Don’t they want to do it? Or are they expected to stock volumes with a very limited audience? Maybe the problem is not lack of availability, but lack of huge warehouses around the country to store the stuff. I regularly stock mysteries published only in the UK and unavailable from US publishers (my customers read Jo Nesbo’s Redeemer three years ago!), but there is a demand for them. The Spanish books, I special order.  I can’t always give instant gratification. My space is limited, and stocking is based on what is likely to sell. So, yes, you can let Amazon do what they do best, provide everything salable in the world with immediate delivery. But don’t blame the bookseller who has to order with limited space and budget for not having it all at her fingertips.

So why would I not want to partner with Amazon to sell their Kindle? After all, I could make a commission, it’s the most popular device (the name has become a generic for electronic readers),  and they’re just another player in the game, kindly offering to let me benefit  from the popularity of their technology and marketing. Well, in the business world there’s still a strong factor called “trust.” And Amazon has played not by rules of trust with those they now want as partners, but by rules of exploitation.  There are other independent book shops in towns close to mine. When a customer needs a book in a hurry and I don’t have it, I call around and try to find it, sending the customer to another store if they have what is needed.  The effort is reciprocated. This even happened with Borders when they were in town; they actually sent me their customers, and vice versa. If I were this holiday season to advertise that if a customer found a book at the shop in the next town that they wanted, took a picture of it, and brought me the picture, I would sell them the book at $5 less, what would happen to my trust relationship with my bookselling colleague? Two years ago Amazon did exactly this with all types of merchandise. And they want to partner with the little guy now? They just want another outlet for their device, and I am sure it will be on their terms.  A company that encourages “showrooming” (taking advantage of the expertise of the sales people in book, toy, electronics, or any other bricks-and-mortar establishment and then purchasing from a cheaper online source) by offering a bounty for the practice is not going to be a trustworthy business partner.

One service I provide my customers is ordering out-of-print books from other booksellers. There are still many people who do not have computers, do not want to do the searching, or do not want their credit card information online. Amazon is one of those sources, and if the book in the best condition at the best price is from Amazon, I will order it for my customer. And maybe I will get it. And maybe not. The word is, although I have no proof, that the books are offered, but not purchased for resale until an order is placed. I can testify that there are an inordinate number of cancellations of orders for used books from Amazon.  The word is also out that stores like mine who use Amazon as an outlet for their inventory get the worst deal as far as commissions and service. This I can confirm from my own research into selling online. Why people use them, when the reliability of AbeBooks, Alibris, and Biblio.com is so far superior, must have to do with their dominance of the market rather than any practical considerations.  This knowledge is enough to convince me that partnering with Amazon is not a productive use of my time or my shop’s display space. They will have to find other outlets for their product, not “just because they’re Amazon,” but because they are untrustworthy.

I’m a little confused about Erin’s comment that her local store doesn’t allow her to give books as gifts. Really? I don’t care what my customers do with the books they buy, and hope they often give them as gifts. If the problem is that the store will not wrap and ship the book, then that shop is not providing the service it should. I often take orders and ship books to others. I have one customer, whom I have never met, who calls monthly and orders books to be sent to a shut-in friend who lives far from her. I am glad to help. Again, don’t judge every bookshop by one that is appearing more and more to me to be lacking in service and tact. There are alternatives besides Amazon, and the lazy, judgmental shop owner deserves to lose customers. Try another independent. Most of us would be glad to help.

So no, I don’t reject the idea of selling Amazon’s product for them just because they are big and offer cheaper prices. I reject it because they are unethical, exploitive, predatory and untrustworthy. And 10% is not near enough money for me to compromise my values. In fact, I like to believe, no amount is.

 

Comments

[Laura K Curtis]

I am so glad you posted this. My own independent book store does all of this, too, and I was beginning to wonder whether maybe I'd just totally lucked out in the indie department. I've bought everything in there from the super intellectual to the super silly and no one has ever looked askance at me. I've become good friends with their romance buyer--because, yes, they have a big romance section, along with an erotica section, a sci-fi section and and thriller section--and I know that her goal is to please customers, to find the books they'll want to read, regardless of what *others* think of those books.

They've wrapped books for me, shipped books for me...they are not Amazon, but they provide a completely different service and it's one I value. It's not that I don't think Amazon is a good retailer, I do. And I don't hate them on principle--I love my kindle--but I don't trust them further than I could throw them.

[Jeff Cohen]

I continue to think and hope that there's enough room in the book market for both,but given my choice, I'll go to the bookstore whenever I can. Unfortunately, Marilyn's store is about 45 minutes from where I live, and that's a hike to pick up a book.