An open letter to Barnes & Noble and the CEO Mr. Ronald Boire:
Four years ago when I first started in the publishing industry I sent a submission to the small press department for my first novel. With it I sent reviews, newspaper articles, marketing, book specs and a beautiful hardback edition of the book.
I was with a small publisher, met all the requirements and I was hoping to be considered for shelf placement.
I was turned down with a form response that basically came down to “we don’t do self-pub”. While I was disappointed that it was clear no one really took the time to read the submission because it stated clearly my book was not self-published, I took it in stride.
I knew I had to earn my “stripes” in the industry. I had to work my way up and expecting anything such as shelf placement in BN stores for a first novel was basically just a hope.
Five years later, with nearly thirty novels under my belt, I sent another submission.
This submission was for #Nerd, the first book in my popular contemporary romance Hashtag Series. I’ll be frank, my ultimate dream when I first started in this business was to see my books on your shelves. I still remember the feeling of walking through your aisles, gazing at all the beautiful books with a coffee in my hand and being awed at all the possibilities.
Having worked in this business for about five years now I admit, this dream became chipped away at. I’ve seen, quite frankly, the snobbery that comes from your large corporate world. I told myself it was fine if I never made it to your shelves because my books were popular and doing very well.
Then something happened. I was tagged in a picture on social media. #Nerd was sitting on the shelves at a BN on an end cap along with several other popular Independently published books. This came courtesy of some really awesome managers at one of your stores. It was awesome. The original dream of seeing something like that came back to me, and in some regard I remembered why I started in this business to begin with.
I took a chance, a long shot and put together another package. Inside I slipped detailed information of my book including the type of binding, shelf life, wholesaler discount and distributor.
I’d like to note that when I began publishing on my own many years (after leaving the small press) ago I went to the extra hassle and expense of getting an account approved via Ingram (Lightning Source) so that my books were in your catalogues and viable for ordering on the chance someone might want them for your stores.
Also, in that packet I included reviews, average rating, marketing details, and every single format my book was available in. My book is professionally edited, award winning and has a standout cover designed by a designer who already has covers sitting on your shelves. I also included the information that #Nerd has a professionally produced live action book trailer with over fifteen thousand views and a lot of buzz.
I outlined the many signings I attend to promote myself and noted my social media accounts including my sizable Facebook page with almost seventy thousand likes.
With that I included a paperback of my novel and a print out of the photo of it sitting on one of your end caps.
Honestly, I never expected to be accepted. I never thought I would be considered but I hoped. I saw that image of my book on the end cap of a large BN and it felt good.
I got a form letter in the mail today. A rejection. I will say, it was a much friendlier rejection than the one I received four years ago.
But it was no less condescending.
Thank you for letting me know my book was available online for readers to purchase via your website www.BN.com (I surely wasn’t aware of that link). Also, thank you for pointing out that you have a relationship with Lightning Source so my title will be stocked in your distribution network. I’m well aware that my books are available for distribution and I’m also well aware you are able to order via Lightning Source.
The last line of your form refusal was letting me know if my title was available in eBook to visit www.nookpress.com for instructions on uploading content.
While I am WELL aware the small press department must be bombarded on a daily basis with hopeful submissions and your staff does not have the time nor man-power to reply personally to every submission, I find this letter insulting.
I outlined my EBook was available on your website. I obviously did my homework before submitting a proposal to the company. I knew you had a relationship with LSI.
The only actual response to my submission was one line. One. It read “The buyer responsible for romance has decided not to stock #Nerd on the shelves of our retail stores at this time.”
Okay, I can handle that.
But I want to know why. Even just one sentence more with a reason would have been succinct.
I got nothing but a bunch of helpful info presented to me like I was getting a great thing you were making my book available for special order in stores. Um, it is available to order. It always has been.
Do you think because I am an independently published author I have no knowledge of the business? Does your corporation assume that since I don’t have an agent approaching you on my behalf I couldn’t possibly understand any of the requirements needed for store placement?
Is that why I got no reason as to why you said no? Because the only thing my book doesn’t have in the positive column is that it’s not represented by an agent or large publishing house with lots of money?
I respectfully object. When will the stigma of independent books ever fade with your company? When will it stop becoming an exclusive club and allow for good books to be recognized?
Frankly, I’m offended and angry on behalf of not only myself but all independent authors.
Yes, there are millions of books published every year. Not all of them are good. The easy use and accessibility of publishing online today makes lots of people think they can write a book.
However. There are a lot of independent authors out there who are damn good at what they do. There are professionals. There are people that work and work hard for their name and career. What is it about us that makes you look away?
Are you afraid you’ll make the big six with all their money angry if you clear off even one shelf for some independent books? Are you certain that your exclusive choice of titles in your stores are the absolute cream of the crop?
The publishing industry is changing. It changes so fast and so much it’s nearly impossible to keep up. But it is beyond confusing to me as to why a company who is almost wholly focused on books and the publishing industry why you don’t acknowledge this. It’s like baking a really great pie and then only eating a quarter of it.
As I pointed out in my submission letter, adding just a few select independently published novels widens your potential. It not only introduces new and exciting content to readers who love to browse your shelves, but it also is a huge step in showing that you as a company are willing to be at the helm of this changing industry. It shows support in the written word and authors with talent.
Why are you suppressing indies?
At your company you have the resources and the capability to pick and choose those quality independent novels. You can screen and make sure the books only add to your environment. What will you lose?
From where I’m standing, there are a lot of gains. For your company and for the entire publishing community.
Even if it’s not one of my novels (though I think they deserve honest consideration) I implore you, give independent authors a chance to shine on shelves. Give them a voice, an equal chance to sell a book beside their peers, because that’s exactly what the books on your shelves are. They are written by my peers.
In fact, I would wager some of my books probably outsell some of the ones you stock on your shelves. That doesn’t mean by any means those books don’t deserve to be where they are, they do.
But mine do too.
I’m tired of the indie stigma. I’m tired of being looked at as “not good enough” because I don’t have a NYT, USA Today or Wall Street Journal bestseller tag before my name.
No, my books aren’t screened through agents and publishers.
You know who screens my books? You know who deems them worthy? YOUR customers, the readers. I have average ratings, sales and demand to back it up.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had a reader ask me why they can’t get my book on your shelves. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard readers say they wished they could pick up their favorite indie authors book off your shelves.
You limit yourself. You limit us. You, a corporation who is dedicated to books are being outdone by other businesses who are not wholly about literature.
No, you as a corporation don’t need to risk anything on indie authors. And yes, maybe it would take a little work to choose a few titles for an “independently published” shelf. Good things are rarely easy, something I have well learned in this business.
Some might even be reading this and asking why do I even care so much if my book is on your shelves? Does it really matter?
Yes. It does.
I recognize you, Barnes and Noble.
I recognize you as a book store in a market of fading book stores. I recognize you as an established business where book lovers go and look to you to point them in the direction of good reads.
Why won’t you recognize me? Why won’t you recognize the indie authors who all recognize you?
This isn’t just an angry letter because I got another form rejection. I’ve had many. I’ve also had many successes and my career doesn’t hinge on store placement. This is about change, and about asking for a chance to be equal.
I’ve been in this business a while now, I don’t know everything, but I do know some things. I know you have the capability of helping to lift up the talented writers who do ALL their own marketing, publishing and branding.
It’s time, Barnes and Noble. It’s time you step into the new era of publishing. It’s time you acknowledge there are good books out there that don’t just come out of big six publishers.
It’s time you recognize us.
Sincerely,
Cambria Hebert
A Successful Independent Author
I can’t remember the last time I read a book by someone other than an Indie author. They’re out there, they’re awesome, and they deserve to be treated equally.
I hope I don’t get this ridiculous run-around as I am about to pitch my debut novel, Masks of Morality, to Barnes and Noble corporate. I just had the local Barnes and Noble agree to order 7 copies of my self-published novel on its shelves (yay!). But may have caught a lucky break having known the Community Manager there through volunteering as bookfair chairperson for my sons’ schools, whereby I worked directly with her and we had hit it off. I intend to leverage this in my letter to corporate, and also take photos of my indie book on the local store’s shelf. I purposely never wrote to any agents or tried for one of the “big six” as it took me 8 years, $8,000 of editing/marketing/other expenses and FAR too much effort to get my 5-star rated novel out there to wait around for some snobby agent or publisher to decide not to carry my hard earned title. I think we all have seen many crappy written books with a “bestseller” tag slapped onto it, that has been represented by top publishers. E.L. James comes to mind with this, her Fifty Shades series is known in the literary world to be poorly written, yet she went on as bestseller mainly due to people wanting the distraction of an erotic thriller, not because her writing was good. Thank you for this letter, as it will help me write my own note to corporate! I think I’ll come right own and say I went the self-published route simply because I COULD. It’s the digital age!Time for Barnes and Noble to get with the times.
Well said, I don’t know how many times I have gone in to that store looking for my indies!!! And, my indies so deserve to be on the shelves! That corporation is truly misssing out on some amazing talent.
There’s a lot to be said for the snobbery in the publishing world. I live in the Indie world and it’s a hard place to be. Awesome words from Cambria Hebert. I hope Barnes and Noble sit up and take notice because they’re throwing a lot of money away. Bookstores are antiquated in their thought process and because of that, it limits them.
This is a very heartfelt letter. I too contacted my local B&N regarding getting my books in their shelves, the lady I spoke with was incharge of marketing and promoting local businesses. As self published authors we are local businesses. I, like you and many others do it all ourselves. However, I was told by her (she was very nice) that B&N only take books from publishers that PAY to put them in stores.
I was shocked and a little disturbed at the thought of working hard and then having to pay even more money out of my pocket to be considered for a shelf placement. Needless to say I’m still disappointed to this day that, that’s how the system works. I wish you the best.
Elizabeth
Honestly, it behooves b&n to work WITH us instead of against us, or choosing to ignore us. Their business is in a downfall, closing stores left and right.
Nook press is a whole other can of worms that they are neglecting instead of growing and I can only assume that they DON’T WANT TO SUCCEED. That can’t possibly be the truth, but it’s how they come off. I don’t understand their mentality at all and I’ve stopped trying to make sense of the things they do that literally make NONE.
If B&N got smart, they’d team up with us. There’s so much that Indie authors would be willing to do with them, but they just don’t see it. Or they don’t care.
Don’t hold your breath. And don’t put your value in companies like them who can’t see the future clearly and aren’t willing to adapt. Our success isn’t measured by shelf space or paperback sales anymore…. and personally, I couldn’t be more thankful for that fact. 🙂
I used a publisher for my first two books. The thing with BN is that the books have to be returnable. If it’s you bought it, now it’s yours, they won’t stock it.
My books are returnable to the distributor.
Well said, Cambria! You would hope that BN would see there’s a pot of gold waiting for them to enjoy by including indie authors on their shelves. They’ve done a great job, however, whittling their shelves down to a handful of traditionally published authors. They want you to ask THEM to order you a book, like we’re not smart enough to do it ourselves.
I applaud you at taking the time to be the ultimate professional. You took time to present a prize-winning package. You even went out of your way and came up with a well-written letter to the CEO. There was no malice (although you may have kicked the sofa a few times) on your part. You’re not just an amazing author. You’re a consumer. You simply let BN know they’re alienating readers. Readers who don’t care who published the book as long as it’s good.
So continue what you do. Maybe one day BN will wake up. Or maybe they did, but it’s in an alternate universe.
I used to dream of being on their shelves once too, but gave up that dream after I receive a very rude ‘NO’ from one of the managers to my FACE! She told me that since my books are returnable that they will not stock them, like ever! So after such a nice meeting with this young lady, I said, “F it.” I don’t want to be on their shelves. Their missing out on our great books. Their customers are missing out on our books. And that saddens me the most, I think. You keep doing what you are doing and they can watch you pass them on by. But promise me when you do pass them by, that you flip them off on your way. xoxo
Hi Cambria, I really loved your letter. I, too, have been a writer whose main ‘dream-big-baby’ inspiration has been to walk into a B&N and see my titles laid out so beautifully and neatly on their ‘new books’ table. Just thinking about it makes me sigh with happiness. It would be a dream come true that I would earned, too. I’ve put in the work, I’ve written the wonderful novels, I’ve gotten the reviews. Heck, I even started my own indie press to offset the stigma of being self-published. “Who, me? No, I publish through Black Rose Press.” It would have sounded legit. I could have written your letter myself.
However …..
I have worked in retail and corporate culture for many years. It’s given me an insight into why a company does (or doesn’t) make decisions. It’s hard to make massive decisions on such a large scale. B&N is basically too big to change quickly. There are 689 B&N stores in the US. So, if they were to bring in indie publishing and offer, say, just one shelf for it, that’s an enormous amount of costs involved. Costs to change the shelves, costs to implement a system (like hiring employees to screen indie novels for that shelf), costs to integrate into their own accounting, etc. It’s not that they don’t support indie publishing. I’ve had my books on their Nook and website for years. It’s that when it comes to bricks-and-mortar, the costs quickly (especially with nearly 700 locations) become astronomical. This whole BS about books being returnable is just what the ground-level employees have been told. Believe me! It’s really the corporate honchos who are so indoctrinated into their existing business model who are to blame.
Plus, they’ve got indie books selling on their website, where it doesn’t cost money to put on a physical display. So, they’re having their cake (taking part in the indie revolution) and eating it, too.
I say, and I say this to myself, too, is change the dream. Change the ‘books in B&N dream’ to ‘books in every other store’ dream. That way, when a reader asks, you can say, “They’re not in B&N, but you can get them at Annie’s Bookstore three blocks away.” That’s what I’m going to do.
So, it’s got nothing to do with us as indie publishers, and everything to do with how astronomically expensive it is for a corporation to make even one small change. That’s the truth.
Happy writing, and I, as a happy nerd, can’t wait to read your book. Don’t worry – I’ll find it. 🙂
Meg
Barnes and Noble’s refusal to change in the changing marketplace is the reason their stores are closing left and right and their marketshare is diminishing. Barnes & Noble is going to go the way of Blockbuster if they can’t find ways to entice people into their stores, they won’t win in the marketplace. And the readers of romance books, in particular people who read independent authors are the most voracious readers in the book world. Someday I’ll be telling my grandkids about how there used to be stores filled with books where you could go in and actually look at them before you purchased.
I don’t even enter into a Barnes and Noble’s anymore. Absolutely LOVE your letter Cambria – well said.
Well said. Indie authors are the minority group of the publishing world. Keep fighting for what you want.
Amen!! I’m a reader and just last weekend I was in B&N browsing around and was disappointed to not find any of my favorite Authors. I walked out without buying anything.
You know what though? I’ve kinda stopped buying from the stores. ALL of them. I want the indie flavor, and not just because I publish indie.
There’s a difference in quality indie books and the pub house cookie cutters, especially in romance. Indie authors are more inclined to take a risk. They’re more likely to give a run at something a house published novel wouldn’t dare.
I read and write scifi romance, and, frankly, book stores follow certain patterns. I want all the books, not just fourteen books that could have been written by the same person about the same people.
there issue isn’t that we’re writing indie. I think it’s that we’re buying indie, and they still see themselves as the gatekeeper.
Their, not there. I apologize. It’s 1 AM as I write this.
I’ve hit this wall too, and not even at B&N. I’ve run into this trying to get books into the local indie store down the street.
Bookstore owners are curators of a marketplace they simply don’t understand any more. It’s depressing.
Your local indie place wouldn’t take you, Gene? That blows my mind.
I went in to my local B&N. So not only did I get the condescending, form rejection, I was lucky enough to get the facial expressions to go with it.
Hey, at least you sold a book from this blog post. I came via link from Lindsay Buroker to the Passive Voice.
p.s. I ordered it on Kindle.
Cambria,
Did you say that you had placed your book with a wholesaler? Which one?
Thanks!
While I loved Ms. Hebert’s hashtag series and thought it was incredibly well-written, that doesn’t seem to be a theme with a lot of the indie author’s I’ve read over the past couple years- and I’ve read A LOT.
Unfortunately, that “stigma” that surrounds indie authors came about for a reason. I only read NA and Contemporary, which have a large number of indie authors, and more than not, the quality isn’t there. Too many authors bypass editing and proofreading in order to get their book out there. I think if indie authors as a whole want the respect the deserve, then they need to raise the bar on quality and live up to the standards set by their more widely available peers.
This is not an attack on Ms. Hebert or her writing (I’m obviously a fan if I’m here), but a reader’s observation on the indie sub-industry.
thank you to everyone for reading and joining in on the discussion! As I posted on my facebook page, I don’t expect this letter to change the way a large corporation does business.
however, its nice to be able to pen down my opinion and frustrations as an author (that I have heard many others also discuss) and get some open feedback going. Its also okay if you don’t agree with me. Everyone has their own viewpoint which is great.
Thank you all for your feedback and support <3
Hi Cambria:
I read about your letter on Facebook when the fabulous Rysa Walker (originally self-published, now published by an Amazon imprint) shared it. I forwarded the link to The Passive Voice, where it was excerpted and is attracting a lot of discussion in the comments. Check it out and chime in if you have a chance.
Your Hashtag Series looks great–and was a brilliant idea. I’ve just picked up the first book in the series.
Thanks for speaking out about the challenges facing indie authors!
Patrice
I’m an indie author and publishing coach, but though I sympathize, I disagree with much of your premise. Big publishers aren’t ignoring or stigmatizing us or refusing to acknowledge the validity of self-published work. They’re retailers who make smart business decisions.
Most indie publishers, especially POD publishers, are not prepared to print and distribute thousands of books and then accept returns when some of them don’t sell. Retail space is expensive, and booksellers have the luxury of returning or destroying books that hang around too long. Big publishers are positioned to take those risks because even though a majority of their books don’t succeed, they’re able to rotate 90-120 new books into circulation every quarter. Over time, they build a collection of blockbusters, perennial favorites, reissued classics, and stories based on licensing the latest Disney princess that add up to profit. Indie self-publishers who feel shut out should consider the cost of entry that big publishing houses pay—and consider the risk you ask them to take on your first novel.
Bookstore merchandise usually wholesales for 50% off cover price. If you want grocery store and airport distribution, be prepared to wholesale your books at 62.5% off cover price to a distributor. Now consider what you pay for POD-printing one book, or even 100. Unless you are prepared to invest in thousands of books produced via offset printing, and unless you own the storage facilities, your chances of producing a quality product at a competitive cost are about nil. Big publishers leverage volume. Indies don’t have that luxury.
As for the stigma surrounding self-published books, Walt Kelly famously said, \We have met the enemy and he is us.\ Despite the fact that most trade books are only produced to \pretty good\ standards, the majority of self-published books fall well short of mediocre. Self-edited, self-designed books are almost universally junk, and those authors who invest the time and money required to exceed big publishers’ standards are routinely drowned by the flood of DIY books, many of which are written by the same authors who bemoan the fact that they can’t get table space at Barnes & Noble.
I see many advantages to self-publishing. It’s not a consolation prize to me, and it’s not a route that Penguin has forced me to take. I use the same editors the big houses do to produce books of equal literary merit. I typeset books to much higher standards, and because my books are printed on demand, I don’t have to pack tiny type into tight margins to save on massive print runs. I get complete creative control, and I own 100% of my rights and royalties.
Authors should do their homework and choose the publishing path that best suits their work and their goals—there is no one best way to publish—but whining about being shut out is a waste of time. Self-publishers are not a community of victims. Considering the business pressures publishers face, including the rise of Amazon (which draws little distinction between you and the big houses), they get my respect and admiration and a heartfelt “no thank you.”
Big publishers aren’t good at articulating why they turn up their noses at self-published books, and the offense that results is justifiable. However, as publishers (just like them), it is our responsibility to understand how the business works both on the traditional side and on the indie side. Considering the scale of their operations and the tight profit margins and the risks, it’s difficult to imagine being included.
Cheers,
Dave Bricker