There’s a rumble down under – in the publishing community. If the big chain bookstore gets its way, shoppers looking for small press books will have a hard time finding them, even award winning best-sellers.
Seems Angus & Robertson, one of Australia’s larger chain bookstores, has informed small publishers that they must now pay between $1500AU and $45000AU per year to have books stocked in the A&R stores. On top of that, A&R expects a discounted price on the books themselves. In a letter from Charlie Rimmer, ARW Group Commercial manager, A&R asks for payment of an attached invoice and outlines new proposed terms of trade, and closes by inviting the recipient to a 10-minute meeting on Friday, 17 of August. That’s a lot of talking to be done in 10 minutes.
One independent bookseller, Michael Rukusin, a director at Tower Books, has penned a most delicious and asskicking reply to the Angus & Robertson letter, citing A&R’s “arrogance” and potentially unethical business practices.
Both letters can be read in their entirety online.
Other news outlets in Australia cover the story at length, quoting reactions from various small presses who are shocked and outraged at the demands and the manner in which they were expressed.
Spokespeople from A&R are attempting to smooth over the letter’s content, saying that “the deadlines and payment requests were not non-negotiable.” Reading that original letter? I didn’t see any room for negotiation beyond that 10 minute meeting.
An Australian blog, Crikey, has published a letter from the COO of Angus & Robertson, which backtracks a good bit from the original correspondence (and teaches me a marvelous word: “stoush”):
I understand that Crikey and its readers are alarmed by the negotiations that Angus & Robertson is currently seeking with a number of its suppliers. I also understand that the correspondence sent to some of our suppliers has caused offence.
I completely acknowledge that the tone of this correspondence was inappropriate, and I appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight on our intentions.
Firstly, I would like to assure you that the negotiations that are taking place between Angus & Robertson and our suppliers are not intended to have any impact on Australian authors and are purely about reaching a commercial arrangement with publishers.
*Note: Crikey is subscriber only and this link may go dead by tomorrow.
I am curious how a decision between a bookstore and a publishing house would not affect authors. It would seem that the ripple effect would be somewhat direct. According to the source who emailed me, this has the publishing community in Australia up in arms – which is not a surprise at all! – and it remains to be seen what the outcome of A&R’s ultimatums will be.
Perhaps I should be helpful. Let me see if I have that recipe for slow-cooked crow, with a side order of hat.
WOW…that is shockingly offensive! Can’t even think of words big enough to express how large that garbage pile is!
Even before I read that very entertaining reply from Tower Books, I wondered if A&R was reacting to the fact that it’s virtually out of the competition (and I say this without facts, just based on my and my friends’ buying habits…and the fact that most of the time I see A&R, they’re peddling discounted books). There are only four bookstores I buy from: Dymocks (often), Borders (sometimes), Kinokuniya (if the others don’t have the book), Co-op (uni textbooks). For the newest romance releases, unless it’s by Nora Roberts, I’m better off buying from a romance specialist—thank goodness they seem to be increasing in number! If Dymocks and Borders can’t even get JR Ward’s latest releases on time (or even within a week of release) then there’s no hope for them.
BTW, the link to the ABC site points to the SMH, not the ABC.
(And off-topic, did you notice the top blog entries in the Brisbane Times article? My husband is a big fan of their most viewed articles daily. *g*)
Oh, for the love of the sweet, wailing baby Jesus.
I don’t live in Australia, and I’m offended by this.
Between this and the giant mess over at Livejournal, I am losing what little faith I had left in customer service and corporate…well, integrity. (I know. It’s not like I even had much left to begin with.)
“Rimmer” is an unfortunate last name. Particularly in light of this reaming.
Small publishing houses in Oz, bend over and grab your ankles. The community tube of KY is being passed around and will eventually make its way to you.
I LOVED the response letter from Mr. Rakusin at Tower Books. I’m still laughing. 😀
That sounds like pay to play, sort of like payola?
What a beautifully crafted response letter!
I’m imagining A&R as something on the level with Waldenbooks. A ton of them around, always running “buy X books, get one free” but never quite seeming to have the one you’re looking for. Can anyone tell me if that’s accurate?
Lol “Rimmer”. Wonder what he does in his free time.
“Stoush” seems to be similar in both sound and meaning to the Scottish “stushie”.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall of Rimmer’s office on Aug. 17th.
Seems to me that if you’re stuck with the last name Rimmer, the last thing you want to make yourself look like is a smeghead.
Kat, I would totally agree with you on the competitive position of A&R! I can’t remember the last time I went into one of their stores let alone bought anything from them, because basically they are too expensive all the time! If I am going to buy books, it will be from a a romance specialist shop, Borders or the department stores who are far more reasonably priced!
And yet another distributor does the same thing!
Hee!
shhhh… you’ll give ideas to you-know-who here in the USA.
I was listening to one of the small publishers in on ABC SA radio, and they were saying something like this might put them out of business.
I don’t buy from A&R as they tend to be overpriced and in Perth and Adelaide, understocked, or not stocking the authors I want to buy (mind you the Borders in Perth wasn’t much better when I was there at Christmas).
Unlike Kat, I never see discounted books there, or if there are, they aren’t any books I (or anyone else) is/are interested in!
It is terrible. I am glad that there are decent online bookshops for Australia that are independent, and I hope that all the publishers leave A&R.
Great smackdown & well written letter.
I’m a big fan of free market, I HATE anyone who attempts to artificially manipulate the relationship between producers & buyers. I HATE anyone who tries to tell me what to read, what to wear, what to like. Personally, I find myself purchasing more and more small press publications.
Clearly, a desperate retailer…probably because they appear more interested in what they want to sell to buyers, than providing what buyers wish to purchase.
See, the sad thing for the authors is that the book trade in Australia is a “closed market”. Basically – if an Australian publisher can supply booksellers with the book within a certain period of time (3 weeks, I think) then it’s illegal for the booksellers to get it from overseas. So for A&R to suggest that this decision won’t affect authors… well if they WON’T get the books from the publishers, and they CAN’T get the books from overseas, then the author simply isn’t sold in a chain that makes up 20% of the local market!
The Australian Society of Authors has responded the A&R’s demands by calling for a boycott of all A&R company stores:
The Australian Society of Authors today [Wednesday] condemned Angus & Robertson booksellers for its proposed imposition of a ‘pay to display’ fee on over 70% of the membership of the Australian Publishers Association.
“This is an outrageous insult to Australian authors,” Executive Director Dr Jeremy Fisher said. “Only yesterday the Australia Council highlighted the parlous state of Australian literature in education. Now, the private-equity owners of Angus & Robertson, Pacific Equity Partners, are trying to bully their smaller suppliers into paying for the ‘privilege’ of shelf space in Angus & Robertson-owned stores. They are hurting not only these publishers but also their authors. Angus & Robertson is stealing money from Australian authors, whose average income is only $11,000. Why, that’s an amount which is probably even less than the daily income of the directors of Pacific Equity Partners.
In a proforma letter to its suppliers, Angus & Robertson makes the extraordinary statement that “over 40% of our supplier agreements fall below our requirements in terms of profit earned”. It seems they only want to stock books from publishers (and authors) with guaranteed saleability. If this is their attitude, the ASA calls on all bookbuyers to boycott Angus & Robertson-owned stores because their proposed policy is such an insult to Australian authors.”
I’m from Australia, and I won’t be buying from A&R anymore. (Echoing the other Aussies in this thread, I don’t much anyway. These days they have a TON of $2 discount table crap and not much else besides the top 10…)
But this is an outrage, and I hope as many people as possible DO boycott them. I won’t be going back there, not after hearing that this isn’t the first time they’ve tried this.
I live in Melbourne Australia.
I used to buy books at A&R but found they did not stock anything very much. I have not bought one book from them in the last five years, I also tried Readers Feast (their other bookstore) and it was crappy too. I have discovered the delights of Rendezvous Romance bookstore, the superb buying skills of the staff in the Collins street Dymocks bookstore, and Rosemarys online bookstore, as well as the glories of ebay.
I think A&R are outraegous, and deserve boycotting.
Books are already very expensive here. For instance JR Ward’s latest was about $19 and a TSP is about $32 or more. On average we pay $16 per paperback.
Enough is enough, the cost of ooks will skyrocket if they get away with this, the buyer always ends up the loser.
Hurrah for Rendevous! Mirna’s the bomb!
I figure if we point people in the direction of other good bookstores out here, we will give them alternatives to A&R.
You’re right, Mirna http://www.rendezvousbooks.com/
is the best source of Romance books ever!
Also we must not forget the joys of ebooks, that we get from the global village.
Mirna is pretty awesome. Aside from Rendezvous and Rosemary’s, there’s Intrigue in Canberra and online bookstores, Romance Reflections (based in Hurstville, NSW) and Siren Books (based in Victoria). Also, Galaxy Bookstores in Sydney, which specialises in sf/f stock paranormal romances, and the staff are more than happy to chat books all day.
Oh, and I can’t believe I forgot Ever After at Wollongong!
Talk about short sighted. A retailer not interested in helping to develop up and coming authors into best selling authors…“We only want them AFTER they are mega successful?”
Spam word “size49” That’s what I feel like after getting weighed at the doctor office yesterday.
Galaxy Bookstore had the last JR Ward on the US day of release. And Mirna (Rendezvous) and Dymocks had it within the week. A&R didn’t have it in until 3 weeks after release date (if that, I didn’t enquire any further).
I think A&R has their head stuck where the sun don’t shine.
Just back from the RWAustralia National conference (where much wine, champagne and margaritas were consumed – but channeling Jenny Crusie to declare WE ARE GREAT WRITERS!- sorry just a little over enthusiasm there), A&R is in deep trouble and have been for a few years. But what a bizarre way to dig themselves out of a hole. I never go there and like the other Aussies have mentioned, there are much better places to go to.