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Post by Frank Creed on Apr 23, 2008 20:09:32 GMT -5
Layoffs Hit Thomas Nelson By Lynn Garrett -- Publishers Weekly, 4/22/2008 5:45:00 PM A round of layoffs hit Thomas Nelson staffers Tuesday. Lindsey Nobles, director of corporate communications, confirmed that there had been “a modest reduction in our workforce,” though she would not release a number, calling it “a small percentage of our workforce—a single digit percentage.” The last “significant” reduction was in 2001, when as CEO Michael Hyatt recalled “it was about 65 people. This is less than that. At that time it was economically driven, while this is strategy-driven.” Hyatt explained that the layoffs were a result of Nelson’s recently announced plans to reduce title output by 50% in order to focus its resources on fewer, better-selling books. “When you do that, it doesn’t require the same infrastructure,” he said. “Each title, whether big or small, requires about the same level of effort.” Asked whether employees may have had some inkling that staffing cuts would follow that move, Hyatt said, “They certainly know that the marketplace is changing, and fairly dramatically, and that really requires us to think outside of business as usual. I don’t think most people were surprised by it." The rest of the article at PW.
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cyn
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Post by cyn on Apr 23, 2008 20:19:25 GMT -5
Michael Hyatt alluded to this last May when he was interviewed at PW about Thomas Nelson leaving the fold of the ICRS (the CBA's retail show).
He said then that TN's vision didn't mesh with that of the CBA. The CBA wants to develop channels of retail where TN wants to concentrate on their most successful products only.
I wonder what this will mean for the Christian fiction industry as a whole?
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Post by Frank Creed on Apr 23, 2008 20:33:39 GMT -5
It's already relagated itself to a romance subgenre. I'm cheering the free-market here. All the creative fiction genres that have been pent up are being released into the genres to which they really belong. *end-zone-dance* Faith, f
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Post by Sue Dent on Apr 23, 2008 21:06:15 GMT -5
I like it where he implies that this way they can concentrate on producing "better quality" books. What? *scratches head* So it's either put out a whole bunch of books that aren't good quality and don't sell well or lay people off so they can write just a few books with better quality that might sell better.
Oh, yes! That's fine logic.
Abandon ship! Abandon ship! ;D
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cyn
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Post by cyn on Apr 23, 2008 21:12:57 GMT -5
Now, now!
But, that is a good point, Frank. Romance is the ECPA publishers big moneymaker.
Bad news for those authors hoping to market their spec-fic books to TN.
Maybe good news for the independent publishers who find themselves constantly in the shadow of TN's publicity.
c
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Post by Caprice on Apr 24, 2008 0:58:08 GMT -5
From another article in "The Tennessean" (Thomas Nelson is in Nashville): Chief Executive Michael Hyatt said that the company, which released 700 titles last year, would now publish half as many. "We don't need more books, we need better books," he said. "We're going to spend even more time to make sure that the products are right before they go out."
Lindsey Nobles, Nelson's director of corporate communications said Tuesday, "since we're cutting the number of titles we're publishing, we're adjusting our overall business model and reducing our overhead." Read the rest of the article. I don't think it's good at all for any new author when any big publisher cuts the number of titles they plan to release by 50%. For one thing, it's all too easy to start a trend. TN does it this week, then Zondervan next week, and pretty soon, you've lost 1200 titles that would have been published otherwise. Forget taking a chance on anything new. It sounds like even the published authors are going to be vying for the top few spaces left. Only the big name authors selling the very most books are going to make it. Now, like Cyn said, this may be good for smaller independent publishers, but they are going to get inundated with those authors who would have been published by TN, and, if this is a trend, by the "cut" authors from other big pubs too. What does that mean? The unpublished authors who thought the independents would be wide open to them are going to have to compete with those who are "cut" for budget reasons. If the big guys won't take a chance, why should the smaller ones be any different? They'll have all the cast-off talent (many of them with publishing credits and experience) knocking at their doors. Anytime the number of books a publisher is going to print goes down this dramatically, it hurts authors and readers across the board, unless you're the type who only reads the NY Times bestsellers anyhow.
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Post by debkinnard on Apr 24, 2008 8:01:13 GMT -5
It almost read as though Hyatt is saying, "Hey, we're sorry--we were doing too many books, and now we want to do fewer books of higher quality." Sounds like they weren't happy with the quality of the books they were doing, and want to concentrate on the ones they thought were GOOD BOOKS. Well, DUHH. Anyone going into the bookstores will agree that quite a bit of what's out there, across publishers, is dreck.
As a romance writer, I don't think Christian fic is quite as romance-friendly as you suppose. Granted, a lot of the fic out there is romance or one of the variants thereof, but the bulk of what you see on any bookstore shelf is dominated by 4 or 5 authors who basically write the same book over & over. Go into the local Borders or B&N and try to find a book by one of the more obscure romance authors. They're as scarce as Christian spec-fic titles.
My opinion.
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Post by Frank Creed on Apr 24, 2008 14:25:38 GMT -5
The big publishers have lost a lot of market share to small more competitive indies in the last decade. The big guys let the indies risk publishing new authors, then they steal the artist away with a big contract, or buy up small successful imprints and the authors who've signed with them. There are more niche publishers than ever before, which means more places to submit manuscripts for authors of all genres. There's a ton of competition in romance though, isn't there Deb?
Faith, f
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Post by debkinnard on Apr 24, 2008 17:44:15 GMT -5
You bet your clinch-cover there is. To complicate matters further, the romance sub-genres come & go in spurts--for a while one type of book is all the rage, like chick-lit was a few years ago. Then it was romantic suspense. Now I'm told both of these are dead, for the most part, so don't bother writing & submitting those. Since the "dead" verdict is put out by the publishers who made money on these books whilst they were hot, some of us are trying to provoke the pubs into declaring that historicals (non-bonnet-book historicals, that is) are the next hot thing and why aren't they buying OURS? LOL
As far as niche publishers, I assume you mean small presses. I've been that route, done that, got the small royalty checks and the T-shirt. I'm aiming at bigger fish now, and with God's grace I'll sell this next book to a house with a real, live distribution system.
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cyn
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Post by cyn on Apr 25, 2008 9:40:44 GMT -5
As far as niche publishers, I assume you mean small presses. I've been that route, done that, got the small royalty checks and the T-shirt. I'm aiming at bigger fish now, and with God's grace I'll sell this next book to a house with a real, live distribution system. True independent houses act as traditional publishers without the affliations to large conglomerates, e.g. in the Christian publishing industry, those not affliated with the ECPA/ CBA. Small press doesn't have to equal total ineptness Authors need to ensure that the publisher has distribution; ask if they have a distributor and who it is. Do some research by checking out the distributor. One easy way is to find a list of publishers for that distributor. Do you recognize any companies they work for? do they work for any major university presses?
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Post by Sue Dent on Apr 25, 2008 10:23:51 GMT -5
Yeah! What Cyn said. So many authors get burned by a few small presses who really aren't "traditional" and then write the all off. A small press is how Grisham got started and so many others. Large houses are NEVER going to take on an author who hasn't come up through the ranks unless you know someone reeeeeaallly well.
Check the publishers distributors and make sure they have a great relationship with Ingram and Baker & Taylor.
Yes, all of this to come in soon to be published, "The turth about Christian publishing--so help us God!"
;D ;D ;D
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Post by debkinnard on Apr 25, 2008 16:00:43 GMT -5
I feel a tad bit miffed by assumptions I didn't do my homework on the small presses with whom I was affiliated. I did. I went into the first book sale knowing the pub was affiliated with Baker & Taylor. What I didn't know was that affiliation didn't mean the books were going to be placed at the big chain bookstores, or that the major Christian stores around here all go through Ingram's.
With the second pub, I knew up-front that it was primarily an e-publisher. I went into both relationships with my eyes open, though of course I have learned quite a bit since I first sold.
Neither of my small presses can be described as anything approximating a subsidy or vanity publisher. Neither has cheated me or burned me in any way.
Now I feel as though I've paid my small press dues, and I want, in God's timing, to move on a bit. I don't feel there's anything about that decision that needs defense.
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cyn
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Post by cyn on Apr 25, 2008 16:37:14 GMT -5
Oh, please don't be miffed! I was speaking in generalities about small press assumptions . . . and I apologize for making the assumption that you were blind-sided by an ineffective publisher. A publisher that is only able to access Baker & Taylor won't do an author much good for chain stores, HOWEVER, it is an excellent choice for books that are primarily destined for libraries and schools (don't I wish I had more books that were headed in bulk to that market). My distributer works with both B&T and Ingram. However, that still doesn't guarantee any nation-wide placement in chain stores. What gets books in a store is one thing; what keeps them shelved without paying the cost of returns is demand. And, therein lies the problem for spec-fic novels. We still have yet to find the key to letting potential buyers, in large numbers, know that Christian spec-fic exists. Until that occurs, large numbers won't clamour for the books and chain-stores won't order them for nation-wide placement.
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Post by debkinnard on Apr 26, 2008 8:11:58 GMT -5
Unmiffed now. I don't hold a miff very long.
Yeah, it's not a small-press OR spec-fic friendly world out there. Time & again I cyber-chat with authors who think THEIR start-up small press will be different. There is a group of authors who've recently published with a start-up whose name rhymes with Bright Horde, who basically verbally beat me up in a chat when I said that small-press sales weren't normally stellar, and the key to the whole thing is distribution. This press's main sales/promo effort seemed to be 1) having the authors send order forms to their family & friends and 2) local signings. So experience told me it wouldn't do the entire job.
Man! You shoulda seen the fur fly!
Six months later now, and these authors (when they mention it at all), confess that their sales are not stellar. Some things you have to learn on your own.
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cyn
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Post by cyn on Apr 26, 2008 11:28:10 GMT -5
Phew! me neither. I have to agree. Besides the crucial distribution, publicity is key. But, unless one is a special kind of person, publicity is expensive. The one thing big houses have going for them is the fact that they are established gives them clout with book stores. Of course, an exception to this is small presses with niche markets -- the companies who don't have to rely on bookstore sales. c
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