Smart Bitches Trashy Books | All of the romance, none of the bullshit.

And thanks to Morgan Doremus, here’s an outtake of some footage that she’s not using for her most recent video project regarding RT.

Me. Talking about how I discovered romance novels. A true story I’ve told more than once.

How Smart Bitch Sarah found romance novels from Morgan Doremus on Vimeo.

An author who asked to remain anonymous told me:

Walmart placed a HUGE order for my first book (68% of the print run). They returned 80% of their order almost immediately (aka 50% of my print run), meaning it’s likely those books never even saw the shelf (I lost my slot to a backlist title of a NYT best seller most likely). As far as I know they didn’t order book two at all (honestly, I just don’t want to know). Walmart basically trashed my career before I even had a chance. No amount of great reviews or awards is going to offset a 49% sell though (the book sold VERY WELL at book stores, for all the good that does me).

I asked her how she knew about the Wal Mart connection to her sales, and she replied that her info came straight from her editor:

My editor told me my numbers were “in the toilet”. Nice. I was surprised, since my agent had told me that my numbers were great (cue the lesson that Walmart doesn’t report to things like Bookscan, so your sales numbers can look fab when they’re not). I expressed this surprise and my editor said, “Let me poke around a bit and call you back. I remember something really wonky happening with your book and Walmart . . .”

Most authors check their sales figures by subscribing to Bookscan and calling the Ingrams’ number incessantly. These two sources get their info from actual sales (Ingrams from stores ordering from their warehouse and Bookscan from bookstores that report in their actual sales). These two numbers have historically been considered fairly reliable (kind of like polls). There are all sorts of formulas people use to get an idea of what those two numbers equate to in total sales (like triple your Bookscan total or multiple your Ingrams # by 6, etc.). But the idea was that if your Bookscan and Ingrams #s were healthy your book was doing well.

This is no longer the case. 

Book sales have begun to be heavily driven by big box stores (Walmart being the most important one apparently), and those stores don’t report to Bookscan. So if it’s true that something like 47% of all mass market fiction is sold ad big box stores (I think) and your book isn’t in said big box stores (because it wasn’t picked up, or like me, they trash you right out of the gate) you’re royally screwed. But you may not know you’re screwed until you get blindsided by your royalty statement and the fact that your publisher isn’t picking up your next contract.

Now, I know next to diddly about Bookscan and sales numbers, and how sales and success are quantified. So I asked an editor: What’s up with Wal Mart?

Does Wal Mart have that much power?

The answer: an unequivocal “Oh, holy shit, yes.”

Wal Mart is the single largest bookseller in the US. Period, full stop. Most books in this country for retail sales are sold to Wal Mart. And so they have the most power, according to my source.

The completely wonky part is that they don’t make as much money selling books as they do selling, say, tires or automotive supplies or groceries. Books are a very small part of their selection, and a small part of their profit margin.

But books at Wal Mart are a holy hopping damn huge part of of the profit margin of your average romance publishing establishment, because when Wal Mart orders a book, it is an order that often has many, many more zeroes in it than orders for all the other retailers combined. It is not far fetched for editors and marketing staff to ponder amongst themselves, ‘But how will this sell at Wal Mart?’ Selling to Wal Mart is crucial for any author, any publisher, and anyone who hopes to realize a profit in publishing romance, particularly as predictions of the financial future of publishing in general turn dire indeed. Wal Mart is the most powerful figure in romance publishing, bar none (after Dear Author and us, of course) (snort).

Some of the email I received regarding Gennita Low’s campaign thought that readers of romance should boycott Wal Mart in protest of their outrageous market power. This is not the first time I’ve heard anti Wal Mart sentiment. As the nations largest retailer, they have attracted more than one lawsuit for alleged discrimination against women.

In the Fall 08 issue of Bitch Magazine, there’s an article about Wal Mart’s latest marketing campaign, which asks if moms have “formed their ‘momtourage’ yet,” targeting female readers and television viewers as potential customers. This is troublesome to the article’s author, because

[t]he superstore is currently involved in the largest workplace gender-discrimination lawsuit in history, with more than 1.3 million female employees suing the retailer for failing to equally promote and pay women.... In one 2005 ruling, [Wal-Mart] was fined $188,000.00 by the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission for violating state law when it refused to reinstate a woman after she completed her maternity leave.

Now, personally, I don’t have a Wal Mart within driving distance, so I don’t shop there. I don’t know if I would had I the choice, given what I know colloquially of their labor practices from friends of mine who worked there while we were all in college.

But I also know that for a lot of people looking to mind their budgets and feed and clothe their families, Wal Mart is the only option in town. Literally.

And for those of us concerned with the health and continued viability of the romance book market? Wal Mart might as well be the only option in town as well. They are literally the most powerful, and books aren’t even their main source of income. How do you fight such a behemoth with that much power over an author’s career future? Is it even possible? Or do we have to play within that power structure to advance our cause - the continued availability of romance novels? According to those with whom I spoke, it’s not possible to circumvent Wal Mart and survive in the current market. They buy in such quantity and sell in such volume that it isn’t possible to go without them. There is simply no way to avoid them.

When I asked my editorial source what readers could do, the answer was immediate: shop there. “We should all get down on our knees and thank God for Wal Mart. They buy romance, we have jobs, you have books to read.” It might leave a sour taste in one’s mouth, but we should go out of our way to shop there, according to this editor, because if more people shop for romance there, and it becomes more of a profitable enterprise for them, then they’ll buy more. If they buy more, there’s room to publish more, and there’s more for us to read. Turning-page economics, if you will.

I’m not pretending I know the answer to this one, and for the time being shopping at Wal Mart or deciding not to isn’t a question I face. But I know a lot of our readers look to Wal Mart for their book needs. GrowlyCub mentioned recently in a comment to my review of Lori Borrill’s Unleashed that:

I went and read the excerpt at Amazon and holy smokes, I want to read that book now! Our local Walmart does not carry Blazes any longer, so that means either a trip 80 miles down the road or waiting till Bamm.com can deliver.

No Blazes in the Wal Mart means one reader waits for shipping, or goes without. Even in the isolated cases, that’s a lot of power for one store to wield.

What’s your take? Do you shop at Wal Mart for books? Or do you avoid it? And if the biggest of the big box stores has that much market power and control over the genre, will that ever change? And how?

Teh Winnah of the Videomo Contest will receive:

An Amazon Kindle
A $100 Gift Certificate to Amazon or the bookstore of Teh Winnah’s choice
A Laptop skin featuring The Ladies, the glamorous icon of Smart Bitches Trashy Books
The people’s ovation and fame forever.

Second place will win:

$50 at Amazon or the bookstore of choice
An iPod skin featuring The Ladies, the glamorous icon of Smart Bitches Trashy Books
A smaller but still sizable portion of the people’s ovation and fame forever

Contest Stuff:

All entries must be uploaded to You Tube by Thursday, January 1, 2009, midnight EST. If you make a Videomo for us while hung over from New Year’s Eve? Super Awesome!

Please use whatever you’d like to create your Videomo, from live action to visual puns to really, really bad poetry. BUT PLEASE: do not use anything that’s copyrighted or the property of someone else because, dude. Not Cool. If your Videomo features items that are not free for your, and therefore our, usage, your entry will be disqualified.

Videos will be showcased on Smart Bitches as Friday Videos, and visitors to the site and our YouTube channel are more than welcome to vote on the videos themselves using YouTube’s rating and comment system.

Winner will be chosen the week of 9 February 2009, and the winners will be announced on or within 48 hours after 14 February 2009. Happy Valentine’s Day - you can make love to a Kindle (ow).

International entries are welcome. We ship anywhere, except the space station. Sorry, folks on Mir.

Other Stuff:

Whichever video we select as Teh Winner becomes property of Smart Bitches Trashy Books LLC for use all up and down the internet. We may tattoo it on our buxom selves, even. Who knows? But please do feel free to place a credit for yourself at the end of the Videomo. Srsly.

The winning Videomo might be featured on the web site of our publisher, bookstores, who knows. So go wild. You don’t know where this thing will end up.

Need help? We’ll make book promotional materials available to anyone who asks for them, and we can answer questions and provide a big honking high-res version of our cover as well. Just email us at or , and put “Videomo” in the subject line.

We’re still finalizing the judging panel, but we’re looking to television and film production professionals, random people of awesomeness, and, of course, yours truly, the Smart Bitches, to select Teh Winnah. Our panel presently includes Jane from Dear Author, The Dynamic Duo behind RomanceNovel.tv, Marisa and Maria O’Neill, and Morgan Doremus from Miss Match Productions.

Any questions? Let us know. Have fun!

The Kohl’s House provides living space for families of transplant families, who frequently spend months away from home during their child’s surgery, recovery, and follow-up care. When I was there this last time, they had quite a few kids’ books, but their selection of books for adults had dwindled to just one small bookcase. The Kohl’s House encourages families to take the books home if they haven’t yet finished (or if they just fell in love with it), so it’s not surprising that the collection has shrunk. In fact, it’s a good thing.

You don’t have to send a giant box full of books, but if you feel like dropping a few into the mail here is the address:

Kohl’s House
2422 N. Orchard
Chicago, Illinois 60614

I also checked with Michelle (manager) about any other wishes they might have, and she said that they are short on DVDs (kids or adult), and would also like VCRs as they just received a huge donation of VHS tapes, but only have one VCR for the house (each floor has a community TV, and a few rooms also have their own TVs).

Moreena, my biggest and strongest Smart Bitch wishes for your daughter and her new liver (Hi, new liver!) and my deepest thanks for a great opportunity. If you have ideas of places looking for fine, fabulous romances where they’ll do the greatest good, let me know. Or, fill a box and ship it over to Kohl’s. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.

ETA: Moreena asked me to give folks the heads up that, while this may be an obvious thing, books should be as clean as possible because the folks undergoing care are being suppressed - in the immunological sense, not the Monty Python sense. So be conscious of the condition of the books as pertains to hair, mold, dust, etc. And as always, thank you for your generosity.