There's a bit of a hissy fit going on in the bookselling world over the imminent release of Robert Kuttner's book "Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency". The book is touted as an exciting vision of Barack Obama's opportunity to create a truly transformative moment in American political life,
Publishing house Chelsea Green is very excited about the book. They've ordered an initial press run of 75,000 copies, their largest ever. But they are also promoting a pre=publication marketing strategy that has both independent bookstores and the big chains feeling very peeved.
Barnes & Noble, however has taken their peevishness a major step forward: they have canceled their in-store order for the book, and will only offer it to customers as a special order on their web site or in stores. This is likely to seriously diminish the distribution of this important book.
Follow me below the fold for details...
The book's official publication date is not until September. But publisher Chelsea Green believes the book is so important that they wanted it to be available in time for the Democratic National Convention next week. The adopted a two-fold strategy to make sure the book can to have a strong impact on delegates:
We will be distributing several thousand advance reading copies at Democratic National Convention events throughout the week, as well as coupons for a special early discount in welcome packets to 15,000 convention-goers. The coupons are redeemable on Amazon.com and the book will be printed on-demand by BookSurge, part of the Amazon group of companies. The title will be available to order on Amazon.com as soon as coupons are distributed on the first day of the convention, August 25.
In other words, in order to get the book into delegates' hands, and to be able to get the book into people's hands while the buzz is generated during the convention, Chelsea Green has forged an exclusive deal with Amazon.com to push out early printings of the book through Amazon's print-on-demand publisher BookSurge. An order is placed, a copy is printed, bound and shipped out the same day.
Understand, this is in addition to the 75,000 first print run that Chelsea Green plans to offer as a traditional release just a couple weeks later.
Well, a lot of independent booksellers around the country are crying foul. According to Publishers Weekly:
Many independent booksellers are outraged with Chelsea Green’s decision to sell Robert Kuttner’s new book, Obama’s Challenge, by offering a discount coupon at the Democratic National Convention redeemable exclusively on Amazon.com via POD until the regular print run is available for national distribution. Since the announcement last Friday, Chelsea Green’s sales team has received e-mails calling the move "a money-grubbing sellout," a "slap in the face," and "another blow to independent bookstores." Comments on PW’s web site include this one by Carol B. Chittenden of Eight Cousins, a bookstore in Falmouth, Mass.: "the decision to favor one outlet is puzzling, and appears to be prejudicial." Chelsea Green president and publisher Margo Baldwin said several stores have cancelled their orders and others have told the publisher that they will never order from Chelsea Green again.
Margo Baldwin of Chelsea Green defended their decision:
This is about a publisher’s commitment to its author to get one of a very few pro-Obama books out into the marketplace in the shortest amount of time," Baldwin wrote. The house is printing 75,000 copies, its largest first printing ever. But, Baldwin pointed out, that number "pales in comparison to anti-Obama books flooding the market." She continued, "I wonder how many booksellers are happy to sell another few thousand ‘abomination’ books while being ‘outraged’ by Chelsea Green’s decision to make its book available as fast as possible.
This squabble is unfortunate, as I hold both independent booksellers and Chelsea Green Publishing in high esteem. But now the squabble has taken a more serious turn:
Barnes & Noble has cancelled its 10,000-copy order of Obama’s Challenge, a book by Robert Kuttner that Chelsea Green is making available early exclusively through Amazon.com. Chelsea Green president and publisher Margo Baldwin said the chain will make the book available on BN.com and will special order it, but that it will not stock it in its stores. "In effect, they have made a decision to boycott this book in order to punish Chelsea Green," said Baldwin.....
B&N spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating said Chelsea Green's move "effectively takes away sales from all booksellers in the period when the predominate sales of such media related titles typically occur. Our initial order was based on the book being available to all booksellers simultaneously—an even playing field—which is common practice in book publishing."
Well, I call bullshit when I see it. The majority of books are still bought in brick-and-mortar bookstores, and these advance sales to the political operatives and most rabid of political junkies that Chelsea Green's pre-publication distribution is aimed at will have little impact on sales of the book to the general public.
Barnes & Noble's lofty paean to the ideal of "an even playing field" is laughable, given deals they make with publishers, the exclusive distribution rights they have gained for some music and book releases, and their attempt, some years ago, to gain control of Ingram, one of the country's largest book distributers.
No, this is a punitive measure, pure and simple. Any lost sales to Barnes & Noble will be negligible. The step they are taking will mean it will be much harder for the average book buyer to get their hands on this book.
If you care to make your opinion known, spokesperson Mary Ellen Keating can be reached at mkeating@bn.com.