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An Open Letter to Publishers from NAIBA
We are
alarmed with what appears to be a trend in the sales
division of publishers - the removal of field sales
reps to independent bookstores. This draconian move
against our bookselling segment will be responsible for
the disappearance of book culture.
Field
sales reps are a crucial part of our business. Each
regional independent booksellers association and
Publishers Weekly honors an outstanding field
rep each year. We can't think of another publisher
position that gets this recognition. We devote countless
hours at conferences refining the sales rep/bookseller
relationship. They are that crucial to us.
Restricting field reps to large stores
will give publishers a skewed view of what is a very
diverse world --independent bookselling. Sales reps take
the time to know our stores, what our customers like,
and what is on our shelves. They are the industry
worker-bees, travelling the region, taking ideas and
trends and pollinating other stores. We learn
about other stores from them, what others are reading
and loving; what is selling; marketing tips; event
ideas; what the publisher is doing; and what authors
have books coming out in the next season. They make fans
for authors out of our frontline booksellers. They cut
through the catalogs to make sure we carry what we'll be
able to sell, and their endorsements are why we buy what
we might have ignored.
These reasons are
why cuts in field sales reps devastate us. Have
you really thought about what this stricture will mean
to you? Fewer books sales. Without a doubt, we are not
ordering as much through telemarketing. We are
definitely not focusing on your backlist through
tele-sales, and we definitely miss titles from the
frontlist. We also don't buy as much direct, which
makes independent bookselling a less profitable
business. The vicious cycle is that we buy less because
we don't have sales reps, and then you devalue our
business because we aren't buying as much as we used
to.
We understand the corporate need
to save money. There are more efficacious and less
exclusionary ways to cut your budgets. You know
what they are because independent bookstores have been
telling you what they are for years. Cut multiple
ARC mailings. Do away with promotional gimmicks that go
from mailbox to garbage can. Consider publishing
fewer titles, fewer hard covers, fewer copies.
Take a hard look at celebrity advances.
We exist to sell your books, those unique
and hard to place titles, not just the established
authors. Field sales reps are the tools we need to do
that for you. As much as you would like to think a
tele-salesperson is doing the same job, you are sadly
mistaken. A field sales rep is far more than a person
filling in an order form.
Don't cut our
lifeline to your books.
Sincerely,
The
NAIBA Board of Directors
Joe Drabyak, Chester County
Book Company, West Chester, PA
Lucy Kogler, Talking
Leaves Inc., Buffalo, NY
Harvey Finkel, Clinton
Bookshop, Clinton, NJ
Pat Kutz, Lift Bridge Book
Shop, Brockport, NY
Mark LaFramboise, Politics &
Prose, Washington, DC
Margot Sage-EL, Watchung
Booksellers, Montclair, NJ
Jessica Stockton Bagnulo,
Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY
Susan L. Weis,
breathe books, Baltimore, MD
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