The high cost of promotion

[Cathy C]

::begin rant:: Thought you guys might be interested in a recent article in the UK Times that shows how much the major booksellers, like WH Smith, Borders and Waterstone charge publishers PER WEEK to feature books on things like Recommended Reading lists and other promotional literature leading up to Christmas. The going price is presently 50,000 pounds (about $96,000). Again, that's PER WEEK!

Now, before you say "Oh, but that's Christmas!" keep in mind that this is an everyday occurrence. Every chain in the US and abroad charges publishers for things like facing-out titles, end-capping, front table promotion, etc.

So, the next time you hear someone tell you that "publishers don't spend advertising dollars." tell them they're full of it!

::end rant::

Here's the link for those who want to read it:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2200275_1,00.html

[aruna]

Cathy, that's disgraceful and I would even say unethical. Book buyers trust that if a book is recommended it's because someone in authority has read it and loved it, not because the pubisher has paid a small fortune to get it on a list.
I know I was shocked a few years ago when I first learned that publishers have to pay for prime positions, but this is even worse. It means that if you are pubolished by a small publisher, or by a big pubisher but not conisdered worthy of pormotion, you sink into oblivion at the book shops.

Do you have similar schemes in the US?

[Joanna_S]

I don't know much about the retail end of things, but my nonfiction books were all published by small publishers. My book "The Wisdom of Yo Meow Ma" was originally published in England by Carroll & Brown and then copublished in the U.S. by Ulysses Press. This means that C&B did all the work of publishing the book and Ulysses bought X amount of copies, printed with their name on the spine, for distribution in the U.S.. Ulysses' order went way up when they found out Borders had decided to make Yo Meow Ma a featured book in their stores in the months leading up to Christmas. It was a Borders decision, not a payout kind of thing (neither publisher has the means to pay that kind of money per week). So although I know that publishers do pay for good shelf space, the individual stores and the chains can decide what to feature as well. My book is an illustrated gift book so Christmas is the primary time for it to be front and center, so that may have played into Borders' decision. Obviously, the book benefitted from this extra attention.

Small publisher doesn't have to mean no shelf space. It can depend on the book, the season, the genre, etc.

-- Joanna