Should we give up on Christian book stores?

[cyn]

In his interview with Frank, Jeff Gerke of Marcher Lord Press makes the following statement:

"Will a coalition of Christian speculative fiction sites give us a business advantage in the Christian publishing industry? I don't think so. I think the Christian publishing industry isn't where we should be looking to expand. The CBA has their core demographic and the core demographic has the CBA. They're happy together and have no interest in inviting others to the party, in my opinion. Why try to force them to embrace something they clearly dislike?"

Jeff is very politic about the CBA, but does he go too far when dismissing this venue for Christian speculative fiction?

On the other hand, Rebecca Miller has repeatedly encouraged lovers of SF to advocate for the inclusion of this genre at one's favourite bookstore (while I don't think she means Christian bookstores alone, she is a proponent of getting SF into CBA stores). Is this more wishful thinking than a practical suggestion?

c

[Caprice]

1) **IF** the CBA stores ever really showed a commitment to BOOKS and less attention to Jesus Snow Globes, Veggie Tales videos, and "Honk if you love your church" bumper stickers...
AND **IF**
2) said stores ever carried the types of books I wanted to read without me having to BEG for them and/or wait for them to be special-ordered

...then I guess I would give them a chance. However, as it is now, neither of those things are true. We do not even HAVE a Christian Bookstore in my town. We have a Family Chirstian Store. At least they don't pretend to be a bookstore. They are a glorified Hallmark with a Bible section in the back and a shelf or two of bonnet romances.

They wouldn't let me hold a booksigning, not because my book was published by Xulon (a POD company) but because they would have to backorder it and backorders were absolutely taboo. Xulon allows returns, so there was no financial risk. Xulon's backorders take no loger than anyone else's regular orders. But doesn't matter. Company policy. Cannot backorder.

They didn't support me as an author, the few fiction titles they carry are not at all interesting, and the other "gifts" they have are just not anything I need or want, so I simply do not shop there at all. And, actually, I just do not care about the CBA anymore. Any of you who care, have at it. More power to ya. Authors, I hope you'll also let me buy your book at B&N, because I probably won't ever be in a CBA store again.

[Frank Creed]

Cap--don't want to steal your thunder--this would be a good time for that Randy Rooney link.


Faith,
f

[Caprice]

Okie dokie. Here it is: www.christianfictiononlinemagazine.com/biz_rooney.html
The August 2008 article is about how the CBA is "pink". Very relevant to this thread.

However, I do not think Randy's articles are catalogued and archived. So if you're clicking this link later in the year, decade, or century, it could be about something else. Always cracks me up, regardless.

[whymz]

...being a fan of Caprice, though not an author, but a friend in the past of a Christian bookseller; I wanted to jump in to comment.
This is quite a few years ago, but from my understanding that Christian book stores have to buy what is produced from the big labels, even if they don't want it. They will ship what they want and charge the same. If a bookseller doesn't want a title, they have to pay to send it back. Waaaay socialist type stuff if you ask me.
I think that many Christian book sellers start out starry eyed and want to serve their faith community, but find the rules slanted against them.
Concerning "back orders": That is bunk! What generates interest and "whetting the appetite" should be something anticipated. Though I don't work for a publishing type company, we encourage back orders. A sale is a sale and money is in the future till. How long would it be till your back orders were fulfilled? Sometimes we are getting pre-orders up to 2 months in advance. A lot of stuff is actually based on request only and someone will have to wait 2 to 3 weeks for it. Of course it doesn't encompass the majority of our sales, but it is the frequently the infrequent item. (We carry an easy 6,000 items on our basic list.)
If you are as capricious as maybe I am; you want to want to basically say, "Up yours!" and make head way on your own. It is hard to "market" your own works and convince them about the money they will make, and I understand that.
I hope for next time, let them know all the pre-sales are money in the pot! They can't lose! Plus, everyone loves a local published author. You sound like a go-getter. I came home in tears a few times, but kept going back. Silly of me... ;D

[debkinnard]

The bookstores may "love a local published author" but in my experience, love is about all you can get. They're hamstrung by the ordering decisions made at the corporate level, and you're right--they cannot carry a given book, no matter how local the author, if corporate decides not to stock it.

I have nothing but respect for both librarians and book store staff. It's a shame when new authors are told "go to your local Christian bookstore and have them order your book!" when in many cases they cannot do so.

[Caprice]

Aug 26, 2008 21:03:21 GMT -5 whymz said:

How long would it be till your back orders were fulfilled?

Anywhere from 5-10 days, depending on how close they are to Lightning Source (the printer). It's called Print-on-Demand because it is printed ON DEMAND. That means they wait until someone orders it first before they print it. The order can be from a store or an individual or a distributor. Takes about the same time regardless.

The problem lies in the fact that bookstores order from Spring Arbor (the distributor). Most CBA titles have a goodly number in the distributor wherehouse. The bookstores look up the book on the computer and they see only 1-2 copies of my book "in stock". This is not enough to do a booksigning. To order more than the distributor has is considered a "back order". If they did do the backorder, Spring Arbor would notify Lightning Source and the books would be printed in under 48 hours and then sent along.

I assume this policy is in place because it takes much longer with a traditional publisher to get a backorder and the customer loses interest or finds it elsewhere and then the sale is lost. It's also very possible that this is a good excuse to discriminate against the self-published without making it apparent why. Thus, it is against company policy to initiate an order which is more than what the computer shows in stock, even if the author is standing right there and assuring you that the books will be in hand in less than two weeks.

This is what I have been told at both Family Christian Stores (the only Christian bookstore in town) and B&N also (only they looked it up in Ingram instead of Spring Arbor--same story).

If you are as capricious as maybe I am; you want to basically say, "Up yours!" and make head way on your own.

I guess I basically HAVE said "forget it". I did do one signing at an independent bookstore (not a chain, so no corporate policies) where I just brought my own books. But this multiple-author signing was only done with the understanding that each book sold would generate one dollar for them (quite fair) and one dollar for charity.

This meant that I would either have to raise the price to make any profit myself, and probably not sell any at all, or I had to donate all my profit to charity. I chose to keep the price low and make no money myself, but even so, I think I only sold 1 or 2 books. I wore my rather weighty costume all day in the sun (it was outside) and so I never sat and I couldn't go to the bathroom. All to sell 2 measly books without getting a royalty.

Thanks, but I'll pass on doing that again. I do much better at Renaissance Faires anyway. Plus, their privies are big enough to get in and out while wearing a hoop-skirt! Not that I even wear the hoops anymore, but I could.

I doubt any signings are getting me anywhere at all, to tell the truth. Sure, the 16 books I sold at the Arizona RenFaire represents about 80% of my entires sales for the year, but that's still pretty paltry.

[Frank Creed]

Cap--
That get-up of yours sounds better saved for AC events and Halloween. ;D

This thread demonstrates why it's a good idea to carry a taser or pepper-spray. As Deb noted, be nice to the clerks and librarians: ask for a manager before venting frustrations with non-lethal toys. Jeff avoids 'em, and Becky patiently endures, but I think it's quite refreshing to hold down that taser's trigger while a deserving suit convulses.

Faith,
f

[whymz]

As much as the bustle behooves you..... it would be maybe misunderstood at a Christian book signing. I think it was cool for you to have a booth at a renfaire! Now that is thinkin' out of the box (or stretching beyond the rack ) The reason that Christian bookstores stay in existence could be because of the trinkets and not actually books. It would be interesting to find out.

[Caprice]

Here's the costume:
www.latoph.com/costume.html
First time I wore it was to a CBA convention. In Florida. In August. Or was it July? Middle of very hot summer. And I walked from the hotel to the convention center, because it was "only" 2 blocks. None of the Christians had any problem with it. It got me a personal comment from Frank Perretti. Unfortunately, I still lost money big time on that venture, and that's not even counting the cost of materials for the dress.

Here's the little slideshow of the RenFaire trip:
www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=574fc8a8bc056800dda828&skin_id=701&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url
But I didn't wear that heavy costume to that. It doesn't fit anymore. And I learned my lesson in Florida. No way I was going to repeat that mistake when I KNEW I was going to be outside in the desert! Plus, I couldn't play the part of a street-hawker if I was dressed like nobility.

[debkinnard]

Your costume rocks. Much snazzier than my partially home-made 12th century garb.

Believe me, if/when I sell my medieval time travel story, I am so going to get a mid-14th century 'stume with all the trimmings. If it'll help sell books, I'll wear the puppy on the corner of State & Madison in a Chicago August...

[Caprice]

I have no proof whatsoever that the costume helps sell books at all. In fact, if I really thought it did help, I probably would have altered it or made a new one to fit.

I did a lot better dressed as a peasant/merchant and hawking loudly with lots of humor (Can't read? Buy my book anyhow because it makes a great doorstop!)

By the way, I do custom-made dresses if you're interested. Or if you wear a size 18-20, that dress is for sale, cheap. Only worn about 5 times.

[whymz]

The costume is amazingly made and not scary. It looks like it would be pretty toasty though. I did check out the AZ ren booth. Nice chronology! About the booth.... hind sight is 50/50 at best ;D When we plan stuff I'm always amazed anything anyone promises comes out the way they make it sound.
I wish there was a wand you could wave for someone to taste the book before buying, kinda like samples at Cosco. Who knows? put your books in back of the booth and clear the front for skits from your writings? Just brain drizzling (not enough to be called a storm by any means!)

[Caprice]

As far as samples, I give away the first three chapters FREE on my website. I have really long chapters so this amounts to 36 pages in the paperback. That's like Costco giving you a whole steak dinner!

The Faire supplied me with cast members in costume like the one in my video. They would stand out in the traffic and tell people about the booth and even escort them over to me. My husband did this for a while as well. To see his costume, check photos-f.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v251/249/124/608203445/n608203445_504861_1931.jpg (I hope that works.) No, I am NOT the woman in the picture. The young girl is our daughter, but the woman is one of his friends.

I don't know anyone whom I could con into starring in a possible skit (I'd never be able to tear my husband or my daughter away from their haunts for very long), nor if the Faire would take kindly to their guest author upstaging the paid performers (or trying to). But it's a good idea.

[whymz]

Wow what regalia! I started to read the first book on line, but was kinda dissuaded by the intro. ( I did read a page or two of the first actual chapter) I'm not much for reading a lot on line, but since I'm not a fantasy buff, I'm not into learning about a different reality such as solar systems etc. Just not my leg of mutton I suppose.