Clint Gaige

Printers and Distributors...state of the industry

Man, this business is going to give me a heart attack. One more reason to keep at the diet, my job is trying to kill me.

We utilize print on demand as a technology. Pretty simple, right? Well, it gets more complicated. You see, Ingram, our distributor also owns our printer. Easy enough, you might think, you'd be wrong. You see, our distributor sends back returns that are supposed to come back to us so that these returns can be resold. Apparently, our last batch of returns were destroyed but they are still charging us for them. Mind you, I have no proof there ever were returns without getting them back in my hands.

It seems a little shady that the distributor could simply send back phantom books and charge the small press for the books to boost their affiliate's bottom line. I have no way of knowing if the books actually were returned. It does strike me as odd that according to our report Ingram returned books at the same time they ordered new copies????

And, the book industry big wigs wonder why this business is failing...its simple, mismanagement. When the larger publishers can consider a 50% sell through a success, it sets a very tough standard for small presses. Then, when those larger houses buy space pushing small presses right off the shelves they essentially strangle the industry at its roots and then wonder why the industry is getting stagnant. Where is all the new talent?

Unless building readers becomes the focus of the book industry (and I mean from the publisher right through to the bookseller), I fear that we're going to push ourselves out of business all the while blaming everyone else.

I shake my head whenever I hear one writer claim their genre is better. What the hell does that matter when the readers are disappearing? That's like jumping out of a plane claiming your parachute is better despite it not opening. Writers are NOT in competition with each other...we are in competition with video games, or new DVD releases, or the also stagnant music business. We are in competition with alternate forms of entertainment, it is that simple.

We have to get a hell of a lot smarter if this industry is going to survive.

posted by Clint Gaige @ 10:28 PM