Mandy Baggot

Bestselling and award-winning author of romantic fiction

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Bookstores feel the pinch and authors suffer!

Posted by mandybaggot on August 2, 2012 at 5:45 AM

Not such a bright blog today I'm afraid! I've just had a phone call from the lovely Helen at Waterstones Camberley cancelling my event with them in September. Apparently all Waterstones stores have been issued with a new directive concerning book signings and all authors have to meet a strict criteria before they will be considered for a signing. If you aren't at the very top of the writing tree or extremely local (your house has to be within two miles of the store as the crow flies or something like that - my words not Helen's by the way) you won't be invited to sell books. Helen was extremely apologetic and I really feel for the managers of the stores because their hands are tied. The result  for me though is crushing!

As you know I have travelled the breadth of the South since January this year signing books at lots of Waterstones stores and meeting so many readers who were thrilled to meet a new author and discover something different at their local bookstore. To think that you can only introduce your books to your local store is scary to say the least. If I can't get out and promote my books in stores then it might mean the death of the paperback for me. There is no point spending on print copies if I can't get them into stores as the number of paper copies I sell over the internet is nothing compared to e-books.

This news is a complete blow for variety. I went into my local Waterstones yesterday to get books for my girls and I had to fight my way past the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of copies of Fifty Shades of Grey to get to the children's section. Narrowing down a reader's choice might save money but how do you know what readers want? Oh yes, I forgot,  the media tells them!

Okay, climbing off my soap box now and going to email my other stores to see if they still want me!


Mandy xx

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10 Comments

Reply mandybaggot
01:49 PM on August 08, 2012 
I feel for you Shalini - my times have been cut too - need to update my website! 2 hours is never going to be enough to sell enough copies to be invited back again! Sometimes I've sold nothing in an hour so we will see how it goes! Just try and make the best of it - we can't do anything else :)
Reply Shalini Boland
09:56 AM on August 08, 2012 
I feel for you Mandy. And I'm in exactly the same situation. I'm a teen author doing a book signing at Bournemouth Arcade on Aug 15th from 10-4. I've just had an email to say all book signings cannot not exceed 2 hours, so it will have to be from 10-12. This would have been fine had I not had an article in the local paper and radio and had posters and bookmarks printed with the time on *sigh*
Reply D.J.Kirkby
01:49 AM on August 03, 2012 
Times they are a changing....you can do signings everywhere! Libraries, writer's groups, after giving talk to volunteers, some people have started doing signings as a collective and sharing the cost of setting up a stall in a shopping precinct, writer's groups etc. You could do a tour of all the RNA Chapters :) xo
Reply Terry Tyler
02:56 PM on August 02, 2012 
This is awful - a real bummer for people like your good self who are used to selling print copies. Thank goodness for ebooks, eh - give it five years, Mandy, and perhaps things like Waterstones' directive from on high won't matter so much...!
Reply mandybaggot
11:43 AM on August 02, 2012 
Thanks for your comment Judy! I've done loads of signings at Waterstones stores this year from Cardiff to Worthing and everywhere in between. Most of the stores bought in the stock but some smaller stores ordered some copies in and I brought along additional copies. If I sold 'my' copies I would be reimbursed by the store. I think this was mainly because this title was a self-published title and therefore they couldn't get it on a sale or return basis.
When I did my signings I didn't see a heap of books by anyone apart from the Top Ten (most of which have been heavily promoted in the press and social media - Fifty Shades, The Hunger Games, The Help etc.). But apart from one or two dates, I was the best selling book of the day - outselling all those well publicised books. This was because I was in store, meeting the readers and they were 'finding' me and liking what they found.
I will still be signing at Waterstones Portsmouth in October but my time there has been limited to two hours :(. I think it is a shame that less authors will get invited to do a book signing - it limits choice for the readers or pushes them towards e-books. It could either signal the death of the paperback or everyone reading exactly the same well-promoted Katie Price title on their sun-lounger. Now there's a horrible thought!

Mandy
Reply Judy Astley
11:28 AM on August 02, 2012 
Mandy - when you go and do events, are you actually taking your own books along to Waterstones, rather than signing the stock they already have of them? I know they've cut back enormously on what we'd call popular commercial fiction, but having to supply bookshops with stock seems a bit.. peculiar!
As for the cutting back I just mentioned - I was amazed that I can no longer find nice big heaps of books by, say, Jill Mansell any more. Shouldn't Waterstones understand the meaning of the words 'popular' and 'commercial'? They've gone way off-course since the Daunt takeover. And yet they'll happily pile up and flog 50 Sodding Shades. Not that I'm bitter or anything. And certainly not because my books are also now rarely stocked by
them whereas they used to be a major outlet for me.. No. Not bitter at all. xxx
Reply mandybaggot
07:59 AM on August 02, 2012 
The latest update from one of the store managers is that they have been asked for authors to meet a certain criteria and if they meet that criteria they can then come for a signing BUT the time allowed is a lot less than usual - between 1-2 hours. The stores have also been asked to be more creative about their approach to events. They want more charity events/book launches/ group signings - so this isn't such bad news, you just have to find your angle.
I must emphasise that the store managers/event coordinators are not in charge of this decision - it has come from head office and their hands are tied because of it. They are sad about inviting less authors to their stores.

Mandy
Reply Linn B Halton
07:48 AM on August 02, 2012 
Mandy this is quite shocking! There are so many really good books out there that just don't get the exposure and this can't be good for readers if their choices are restricted. Book signings are a good way of new authors 'introducing themselves' and you are such a brilliant example - you have sold a huge number of books over the last year or two by being in-store and promoting. Sad, sad news!
Reply Emma Calin
07:04 AM on August 02, 2012 
This is such a shame for both authors and the public I am sure that many folk are drawn to a book shop if there is a signing advertised and some folk undoubtedly buy books as a result. It seems a really backwards step, you would have thought book stores would be looking for any method they could to get footfall in their shops. Have they given any reasoning behind the decision?
Reply Kit Domino
06:02 AM on August 02, 2012 
Yes, this is certainly a big blow to indie authors and small publishers and I believe a BIG mistake on Waterstones' part. Let's hope they have a change of heart. Kit X