Yes, our books are available at many libraries. Although we don't know
what most of those are either, since almost all our sales go through one
of our library wholesalers--Baker & Taylor (the 800-pound-gorilla of
library wholesalers), Quality Books, or one of a dozen or so
special-order jobbers.
As for "obscure small press books" being available through libraries:
Only if it's a commercial book to begin with. In most cases you can
forget about libraries carrying photocopied pamphlets and such.
The book business relies heavily on middlemen. Only a very small portion
of sales are direct from publishers to consumers, with many publishers
not selling that way at all. What this means is that the wholesalers and
distributors act as "industry gatekeepers." They don't want to bother
carrying a book that is not commercially viable (that is, one that will
not make them a certain amount of money). They require certain standards
to be met, in terms of production and editorial quality. In some cases
they require a certain level of sales figures in addition. They are
influenced by reviews in certain book industry publications and by an
interest expressed by large chains.
We "got into" Ingram (which is not especially fond of small presses)
with our first book thanks to the interest of the head Barnes & Noble
buyer, who bugged Ingram till they gave us a contract. (And we've stayed
in for over 12 years because we meet Ingram's annual sales requirements;
if you don't they dump you.)
A publisher can forget about getting any reputable wholesaler to
commercially distribute a photocopied or home-bound book, a book with
any significant number of typos or obvious errors, or one on a topic
hardly anyone is interested in reading about. In short, any
unprofessional editing or production by industry standards.
There are actually a lot more wrinkles to this. They don't like covers
that are not four-color, but will occasionally accept them. They don't
like books that are not printed by offset lithography, but will
occasionally accept professional quality POD. (Which is not literally
print on demand but a short print run, usually under 500 copies, printed
by a special type of machine based on laser printing technology.) They
don’t care much for e-books. They are not fond of certain types of
bindings. They require ISBN bar codes done in a specific way and placed
in a limited number of specific positions on the cover. And on and on.
In short, there are a lot of standards you have to meet to be accepted
by these businesses. But once you meet them, you get the commercial
distribution that enables you to sell thousands of books. If you don't,
you're limited to selling a handful of books from venues like websites.
Very few publishers succeed as businesses by doing most of their sales
direct to consumers.
Fran
Lavolta Press
http://www.lavoltapress.com
_______________________________________________
h-costume mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
