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Re: A Thought
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From: Norma Jean Sawicki <nsawicki_at_nyc.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 10:31:23 -0500
Claudia….
Please take good care with assumptions…CBC does not…does not….…. collect sales data for reports…including this one.
Publishers Weekly released this as a sales report…… an industry sales report…based on books sold…NOT READ . For a report on books read, the data would be collected very differently…which would certainly include the list of books circulated in every library in this country over a certain period of time, and how many times each of those books circulated.
Of course a publisher is concerned with sales…the very definition of a publisher makes that a prime responsibility. Publishers make books from material created by writers and illustrators, and SELL IT!
There are laws in this country against collusion and other business matters…what kind of information publishers release has to do with the laws as well as competition.
As for sales…the "market"…. "we" are the market…our families, our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors, the strangers we pass on the street….how we spend our money, our time, what we buy/do not buy represents the whole. If one says, money is tight right now, I cannot afford to buy books…assume there are thousands of people like you. If one says, I don't buy children's books because there are not any children in my life, assume there are thousands like you, or, the kids I know do not like to read..assume there are thousands like you…. etc. etc, etc…
Sales in publishing is not some abstract attachment to money…it means readers….X number of people and institutions bought X book. If one likes/loves a book, or a writer…buy his/her book…if one cannot afford to buy books, borrow it from the library…if there is enough demand for a certain book, the library may order more copies….In other words…for people on this list…if you love Tim Tingle and /or… Eric Gansworth….buy their books for the kids in your life, .or, read them for yourself….or, borrow them from the library…
Terrific sales of a book make a writer and /or illustrator happy…a writer and /or illustrator wants his/her book to be read…and it enables that person to earn a living doing what he/she loves. Terrific sales makes publishers, as well as booksellers, and wholesalers happy too…No one is happy when a book sits in a warehouse unsold, or when booksellers and wholesalers return books to publishers that did not sell…books that are returned for full credit…it may have changed but the last I knew..the book business and the fur industry were the only two businesses in this entire country where goods can be returned for full credit….Publishing is a risky business…and not for the fainted hearted….
The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan was fond of saying…" Everyone is entitled to his own opinions but not his own facts." Norma Jean
On Feb 28, 2014, at 9:21 AM, Claudia Pearson wrote:
>
> Katelyn wrote: "Particularly if we're talking about youth who don't have a lot of spare dollars, defining them by purchasing power alone seems dangerous. (And this might be somewhere that libraries as a publicly-funded service and publishing as an industry have very different perspectives!) I'd love to hear more about where these numbers come from and how non-purchasing readers are counted."
>
> - Ah, but there is the rub! Publishers don't make money on the number of readers who read a book, they make money on the number copies they sell, and publishers are in the business to make money. As Jason pointed out, any potential solutions to the lack of diversity in what is published must translate into sales numbers, so "purchasing power" is an important aspect of a publisher's model.
>
> As I understand it, the CBC and major distributors (like Amazon) collect these statistics using ISBN numbers, which are inventory identifiers for publishers and distributors even if alternatively used by libraries as index codes. I also understand that publishers are rather unwilling to distribute their methodologies and detailed analysis because of the sensitivity of topics like those being discussed here. For example, some might interpret the lack of purchases by one group or another as a result of publishers not publishing what that group wants to buy while others might suggest the data support the conclusion that members of that group don't read or don't value books as objects to be acquired, or argue that they don't have purchasing power in the marketplace. Data are always subject to interpretation, and it is the interpretation of data that drives acquisition, production and marketing decisions in all businesses, not just publishing.
>
> Claudia Pearson
>
> ---
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2014 10:31:23 -0500
Claudia….
Please take good care with assumptions…CBC does not…does not….…. collect sales data for reports…including this one.
Publishers Weekly released this as a sales report…… an industry sales report…based on books sold…NOT READ . For a report on books read, the data would be collected very differently…which would certainly include the list of books circulated in every library in this country over a certain period of time, and how many times each of those books circulated.
Of course a publisher is concerned with sales…the very definition of a publisher makes that a prime responsibility. Publishers make books from material created by writers and illustrators, and SELL IT!
There are laws in this country against collusion and other business matters…what kind of information publishers release has to do with the laws as well as competition.
As for sales…the "market"…. "we" are the market…our families, our friends, our colleagues, our neighbors, the strangers we pass on the street….how we spend our money, our time, what we buy/do not buy represents the whole. If one says, money is tight right now, I cannot afford to buy books…assume there are thousands of people like you. If one says, I don't buy children's books because there are not any children in my life, assume there are thousands like you, or, the kids I know do not like to read..assume there are thousands like you…. etc. etc, etc…
Sales in publishing is not some abstract attachment to money…it means readers….X number of people and institutions bought X book. If one likes/loves a book, or a writer…buy his/her book…if one cannot afford to buy books, borrow it from the library…if there is enough demand for a certain book, the library may order more copies….In other words…for people on this list…if you love Tim Tingle and /or… Eric Gansworth….buy their books for the kids in your life, .or, read them for yourself….or, borrow them from the library…
Terrific sales of a book make a writer and /or illustrator happy…a writer and /or illustrator wants his/her book to be read…and it enables that person to earn a living doing what he/she loves. Terrific sales makes publishers, as well as booksellers, and wholesalers happy too…No one is happy when a book sits in a warehouse unsold, or when booksellers and wholesalers return books to publishers that did not sell…books that are returned for full credit…it may have changed but the last I knew..the book business and the fur industry were the only two businesses in this entire country where goods can be returned for full credit….Publishing is a risky business…and not for the fainted hearted….
The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan was fond of saying…" Everyone is entitled to his own opinions but not his own facts." Norma Jean
On Feb 28, 2014, at 9:21 AM, Claudia Pearson wrote:
>
> Katelyn wrote: "Particularly if we're talking about youth who don't have a lot of spare dollars, defining them by purchasing power alone seems dangerous. (And this might be somewhere that libraries as a publicly-funded service and publishing as an industry have very different perspectives!) I'd love to hear more about where these numbers come from and how non-purchasing readers are counted."
>
> - Ah, but there is the rub! Publishers don't make money on the number of readers who read a book, they make money on the number copies they sell, and publishers are in the business to make money. As Jason pointed out, any potential solutions to the lack of diversity in what is published must translate into sales numbers, so "purchasing power" is an important aspect of a publisher's model.
>
> As I understand it, the CBC and major distributors (like Amazon) collect these statistics using ISBN numbers, which are inventory identifiers for publishers and distributors even if alternatively used by libraries as index codes. I also understand that publishers are rather unwilling to distribute their methodologies and detailed analysis because of the sensitivity of topics like those being discussed here. For example, some might interpret the lack of purchases by one group or another as a result of publishers not publishing what that group wants to buy while others might suggest the data support the conclusion that members of that group don't read or don't value books as objects to be acquired, or argue that they don't have purchasing power in the marketplace. Data are always subject to interpretation, and it is the interpretation of data that drives acquisition, production and marketing decisions in all businesses, not just publishing.
>
> Claudia Pearson
>
> ---
---
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Received on Fri 28 Feb 2014 09:31:43 AM CST
