The way in which books are sold through book
clubs and direct mail has a direct impact on authors’ income from these
sources. Fierce competition for sales and heavy discounting has undermined
the clubs’ core low-price selling proposition.
How the clubs operate
Book club sales used to be quite carefully regulated in the UK as part
of the Net Book Agreement and in many countries this is still the case. In
particular, clubs are often not allowed to offer books to their members
until several months after publication, giving the bookshops a clear
run at full price sales. The big German and French book clubs have found
this such a problem that they have successfully developed their own
programme of special titles which are published first in the club. The
success of some of these books shows just how much selling muscle the
clubs have, if they choose to use it. But they would much rather benefit
from the publishers’ publication promotions and capitalise on the sales
opportunities as early as possible. Clubs now advertise their major new
titles to members before publication. They can be ordered in advance and
delivered on publication, just like Amazon.
Specialist clubs
The specialist clubs have a very much lower profile and many of them do
a good job at keeping a particular interest group or set of enthusiasts
up to date with all the latest books on their subject. It is easy to
see the value of this, both to the book-buyer and the publisher (and
therefore also to the author) in passing along information about new books
and stimulating sales.
The introductory offer
But it is the use of books as an introductory offer which has caused
the most irritation in the book trade. Most book clubs internationally
have developed lists of books which ‘work’ in recruitment, bringing in the
new members, and these are not necessarily newly published. But the big
general book clubs need the latest bestsellers for this purpose,
especially the blockbusting fiction from big-name authors. So there is
always tension relating to when these books can go into the clubs’
recruitment. You can’t altogether blame the bookshops for resenting the
idea that the big new book of the season is being widely ‘sold’ for 25p or
25 cents as a means of persuading people to join the club.
Free promotion?
The clubs argue that the books used in their recruitment drives are
getting free promotion, in that they are widely advertised to a large
audience, only a tiny proportion of which will actually take up the club
offer. The implication is that everyone else will go and buy them in a
bookstore. There is some truth in this, but the low prices do also have an
impact on the perceived value of books, which affects how people feel
about buying them.
What about the author?
Book club, direct marketing rights and mail order rights are always
handled by the publisher (see Subsidiary Rights). The standard
royalty to be paid to the author on club rights is 10% of net receipts,
i.e.
the amount which the book club pays the publisher for the books. On rights
deals, the club buys the rights, prints the books and pays a royalty on
the club price of the book. This royalty is then split with the publisher,
usually 50/50. The result of all this is that authors only get a small
income from club sales, although these may amount to thousands of
copies, particularly on the ‘choices’ which are automatically sent to
members.
Mail order
Mail order is seldom as contentious as book clubs, mainly because big
mail order titles and ‘continuity’ series (which are sent out as a series
every few weeks) are created by and for large mail order organisations
such as Reader’s Digest and Time-Life. The books are usually also sold in
the shops, but it is the mail order sales which are of prime importance.
Often these books are not produced by authors working on a royalty
basis, but by writers who are contracted to write specific parts of the
text, usually for a flat fee and no copyright.
The big clubs
Although not all book clubs and mail order operations are large, the
investment required to set up in these areas is such that only the big
corporations can afford it. Bertelsmann has a chain of giant book clubs
and is particularly strong in Europe, including the UK, where it owns BCA.
It also owns the Doubleday Book Club in Australia. Their giant French
club, France Loisirs, used to have a membership of 4.5 million, which
represented a staggeringly high percentage of all the households in
France. The two huge book club groups combined a few years ago in the
US to maximise their purchasing power and remove the competition between
them, which had hugely benefited publishers.
Where next?
The glory days of book clubs are long past, as they struggle to
counter the threats posed by discounting on a massive scale, including the
use of books as ‘loss leaders’ in supermarkets and price warehouses. They
have also been affected by the growth of Amazon and the consumer’s
increasing unwillingness to be restricted in their choice. Books which
arrive without being ordered, the so-called ‘negative option’ are
especially unpopular. Clubs have had some success with establishing
themselves on the Internet and repositioning themselves as organisations
offering recommended lists of titles, saving time for busy book-buyers.
The book trade
Since browsing in bookshops is regarded by many readers as part of the
pleasure of buying books, the heavy book-buyers are probably the hardest
to convince about the value of saving their time. Elsewhere the chains
have competed aggressively to develop superstores which make
book-buying both glamorous and accessible. It’s also cheap, given the
heavy discounts on many bestsellers and the continuous price promotions –
just like the book clubs in fact.
Chris Holifield
