The CLMP Newswire A Biweekly Email News Dispatch on Independent Literary Publishing A Project of the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (http://www.clmp.org)

ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN MAY PRESENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDIE PUBLISHERS

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, bookstore sales in July were up 4.5 percent to $1.17 billion. This number reflects the slowest growth for book sales all year. And while the increase is higher than the 3.4 percent recorded for all retail sales in general, it represents what publishers were fearing even before the September 11 terrorist attacks: the economic slowdown was well on its way to impacting publishing. In fact, the Book Study Industry Group (www.bisg.org) revealed figures showing a 3.3 percent decline in books sales overall in the year 2000. Trade paperbacks experienced the steepest drops (14.2 percent) while hardcovers fell nearly 13 percent.

As sales slowed in July, The New York Times reported on the dismal rate of returns, claiming the numbers were so great as to "cause a crisis in the industry and widespread cutbacks in the publication of new books." The closure of two of Ingram's warehouses took the industry by surprise and left publishers scrambling to lessen the impact on distribution and returns.

Finally, attendance at publishing industry events has plummeted since the September 11 attacks. On October 8, Reuters reported that literary agents from the United States "were staying away in droves this year" from the Frankfurt Book Fair. In addition, the article revealed that over 40 exhibitors had pulled out of the fair this year, mostly due to fear of traveling.

What does all this mean to independent presses and magazines? "I don't know that the industry will suffer too much," says Rita Mills, a book packager for small presses and indie publishers. "But I do know that people are scared right now." Mills says that one of the largest crises publishers face today is distribution. "As far as small presses are concerned it's very bad, especially now that Ingram doesn't want anyone who has less than 10 titles," she said.

Mills, who began her publishing career over twenty years ago with the Houston Post and later as Managing Editor at Arte Publico, believes that small presses can deal with downturns in the economy better than their larger counterparts. Noting that small presses have risen to capture as much as 30 percent of the fiction market, Mills says that with savvy marketing and intelligent use of Internet resources, they should remain relatively unscathed by the gloomy statistics in publishing sales and returns.

She recommends that if funds--especially for nonprofits--begin to ebb, small press publishers should start to think "outside the box." "Most small press books fill certain niches. Small presses should band together and start networking to find other ways to get their books out there." She suggests that partner publishers split the costs associated with designing and printing catalogues and developing websites.

Mary Westheimer, CEO of Bookzone (<http://www.bookzone.com>www.bookzone.com), also thinks publishers should take a proactive approach to the current situation. Westheimer heads one of the Intenet's largest Internet book sites, providing single-title listings for 3,500 publishers and authors. She suggests first that small presses look toward the Internet not just as a way of making money, but as a way of saving money.

"Simple things like posting writer's guidelines and asking readers for opinions on production choices like cover art save time and reduce costs," she says. Morevover, Westheimer believes that the 2-4 percent return and the expense involved in direct mail make it a cost-prohibitive technique for small presses. Instead, establishing list-serves, newsgroups and mail lists, and using them to market books and catalogues, can help deflect costs one would normally spend on direct mail.

She cites an example of one publisher who realized that his modest selling titles didn't need to go into his catalogue. Instead of printing blurbs, graphics and text, he posted his slower selling books on his website, cutting about eight expensive pages from his catalogue. In addition, the lighter weight of the catalogue reduced postage fees and he was still able to sell the titles from his website.

Westheimer also suggests taking advantage of links. This is especially advantageous for publishers because, as she says, "Content is king, and who has more content than a publisher?" With other sites desperate for content, publishers should research links that best fit the content of the books they publish. Hand over the content but insist the site you link to keeps the paragraph at the end that offers the link to your own site. "This is the electronic version of P.R." says Westheimer. "But it's faster, cheaper and has much more exposure."

While Westheimer sees the Internet as a barely tapped resource for publishers, she is not quite sure how to deal with the problem of returns. While she is careful to stay out of the debate over returns as a policy, she does believe that publishers need to begin making their own decisions about how to sell and guarantee books rather than have the decisions made for them. "Publishers will be forced to come up with creative approaches to selling their books," says Westheimer. "Perhaps it's a question of giving bigger discounts in exchange for a no-return policy."

However, she is a stronger proponent of direct sales, which she says "eliminates the distributor and the retailer and tells your audience, 'Buy my books from me.'" For Westheimer it's a question of making use of new technologies and innovative ideas to produce, market and sell your books. "Hard times can present opportunities and different ways of thinking about publishing," she says. "This might be one of those times."

In a larger sense, Rita Mills thinks that literature serves an important function during great difficulty. "In down times like this, people turn inward," she says. "That's why poetry and fiction are more popular than ever. People can't curl up with a television, so they are turning more and more to books for escape."