Time Management & Efficiency

by Jarold Imes
August 2008

Black publishers: we have a problem!

Here's the scenario. A highly anticipated book is scheduled to be released in April. Because of a certain author's previously successful books and large following, there are a lot of expectations for this new release. The fans, knowing the book is supposed to come out in April, begin pre-paying and ordering the book in February. April comes and no book. About two weeks into April, we're told the book will be released in May. May comes and there is no book… and so does June. The fans are pissed when the end of July gets here and only people in a certain part of the country have the book when others are still waiting for their copy that may not come until September. The fans feel left out and deceived because they ordered the book in February and damn near six months later, they are just getting a book or in some parts of the country, still don't have the book…WTF?!

Can we say bad customer service? Not only is the answer a roaring and resounding YES, but a lot of it is the publisher's fault. If this was a one time problem, then we can dust it to the side and say "shit happens" and go on to the next problem. The issue here is that it is a re-occurring problem with more than one title and at more than one company that has the potential to cause validation issues for all black owned publishing houses. Disgruntled and upset fans will stop pre-paying and just wait until the book gets to the book store. Black book stores will continue to feel the rift as they are forced to refund money for books that should have been here a month or two ago. Authors are left to deal with upset fans and have to explain why the books they paid for are not here.

No offense to the offending publishers but it is not the author's job or responsibility to explain why the books aren't published yet. And how do you expect them to honor contracts that require them to market a book when their book is not out yet? Then we wonder why the authors are pissed with their publishers.

Part of the problem is that some of these publishers will wait until the book is at the printer or just came back from the printer to register their titles' ISBN. Amazon.com may go for that but this model does not currently work for Borders, Barnes and Noble, Wal-Mart and other large scale book retailers. These stores that many of us now frequent for lack of a black owned book store or a good black owned book store in our area, often want to know three to six months in advance of a publication so they can make sure they can adequately stock thousands of stores in North America and beyond. This puts the customer in a bind because as the fan base of street lit spread out from N.Y., N.J., Philly and D.C., the fewer options everyone else has to get books.

In a lot of cities in the south (with the exception of ATL, maybe), it is not feasible for anyone to set up a bookstand and vend in the streets. If it's not the city ordinances, it is the culture and way business is done here that makes it impossible. This would be a feeble argument if I were the only person here, but the fact is, I'm not the only person in the south that buys and markets these books and this is an area where urban/street fiction continues to grow.

I understand the logistics of the publisher wanting to make the first dollar on a book; wanting to make sure other black vendors get the hot titles first. As a publisher and a capitalist, I'm all for that. However, the evolution of street fiction is following the same fruition of rap music in the late '80s and early '90s. As more and more traditional publishers start picking up "street" authors, the higher the expectations that these major corporate venues place on their competitors (i.e., the independent black owned companies) to step their game up and upgrade as Beyonce would say. The difference between us and the earlier rap pioneers is that we understood business and learned quickly what we didn't know and enough of them didn't and are just learning now what they should have known a decade or two ago.

Point is, we have got to make our customers happy. They put our authors on the bestsellers lists (which in turn helps these authors sell more books and gives them bragging rights). They take a chance on a new author because our logo is the biggest thing on the cover after the author's name. And most importantly, they keep the elect few of us from working boring nine to five jobs elsewhere and allow us to do what we really love. It takes two hours for a significant number of our customers to earn the money for the book they've waited months for. We, the black publishers should make more of an effort to make sure that the release date is the date ALL of our customers are getting the books, not just an un-kept promise to our authors and consumers.

Jarold Imes is a contributing writer for The Urban Book Source and author of Hold on Be Strong; he is the creator of online soap opera: Hold on Be Strong (www.holdonbestrong.com), send emails to:jaroldimes@yahoo.com

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A.S.B :

Posted 565 days ago

I do agree that it isn't necessarily black publishers but smaller publishing companies as a whole. Here I was thinking I was loosing my mind because I'm going through this exact problem. My book was supposed to come out in August of 08 and well it's just now being promoted to come out in Feb. This sucks for me as a writer because I do have fans that pre-ordered back in August. I do receive emails every day from upset, angry, and disappointed fans who are starting to or already have lost interest in my book. however my publishers don't have to deal with any of this because fans don't look at the publishers, they look at the author.
It is something that needs to be worked on.
It is something that needs to be worked on.

nicole098 :

Posted 705 days ago

@Jarold.I agree 100% on the 2nd/3rd paragraph and that is why I do NOT do pre-orders.My friends and I do keep up with new releases all the time and we were discussing how everytime a book is due to get released,it ends up getting pushed back.We know it's not the author's fault but what we try to figure out is when that date is getting closer and closer and they know it's not gonna meet that deadline,they should go ahead and change that release date ahead of time.I think readers will be more understanding at the change of date ahead of time rather than the last minute.As far as buying from the publishers,all I will say is it depends on who the publisher is for me to buy books them but the publisher I tried to contact,I will probaly just get their books out the stores.

Jarold Imes :

Posted 707 days ago

I have always encouraged readers to buy directly from publishers... which is a valid point of my article. I get a lot of my sales from readers who buy directly from me. I inturn buy a lot of books directly from publishers or black booksellers.
When readers (and store managers and book buyers) preorder books from a publisher... we don't want the book 3 - 6 months AFTER the original release date of the book. It's not fun anticipating a February release of a book only to receive the book in July or August or in some cases never. It is also a bad look for all publishers (especially the black ones) when a customer who has paid for their book calls to inquire about their order and the "publisher" has a stank ass attitude. And what about those who never receive their refunds for books that aren't coming out??? There is no excuse for that.
I deal with major and independent distributors so I know about receiving pay 3 to 6 months after the book sales, again that is not the issue nor the point I'm making in this article.
The issue is communication and the ability to stick to a release date. Hence the title "Time Management and Efficiency". If the release date can't be ahered to, then at least let those of us who paid for orders know in advance that the book is going to be late. You have some stores that plan their marketing plans around the release dates of titles and do a lot of ground work to presale 20 - 100 (or more) copies of a book and then that store looks bad when the book is not released as promised. A lot of book readers are savvy and use the internet to find out about their favorite authors and upcoming readers, so it is not just those of us who are in the industry that know about a book's release.
There are authors who bust their ass off on the net and off promoting their books and then they are the ones dealing with their publisher's mess ups. That is not fair to the author, who most likely is anticipating the release of their book themselves. Most authors have in their contracts that they are expected to help promote a book... how can they adequately promote a book that don't come out on time?
The inability to get books in the south is a LOGISTICS issue. Everyone knows that how things are done in New York and DC will not always work in the south. A lot of municipalities have laws that restrict if entrepreneurs can vend on the streets and what can be sold on street corners. It is also a culture issue particularly in the south where every place but ATL does not look highly upon street vendors. I never said that I liked it, but I can't change it by myself... but that is another article that would have to address a bigger issue besides books.

nicole098 :

Posted 708 days ago

@Therone you made a good point on the part where you mentioned readers need to start buying books from the publisher as opposed to mainstream books but what happens when you contact that publisher about the book you want,that you couldn't find in your local stores or on the net and they tell you they have it in stock and you email back on how to go about getting it and they never respond back??? This happened to me about a week or so ago.I went to the site and got the publisher's email address and they told me it was in stock but never got back to me but I went to the site and the book was a pre-order item.I eventually gave up on them for never responding but I did find a seller on amazon selling what I had been looking for.I was glad the publisher contacted me the first time but after the second time,I felt that was a bad look for them where a customer had a question about their product.Not all publishing companies are like this but an experience like that kinda leaves the customer unsure on dealing with these publishling companies.I still buy from publishing companies I had good experiences with but that one company,I don't think I will deal with them again.I'd just get there books out the bookstore.

Therone Shellman :

Posted 711 days ago

If book readers are so concerned about black lit, an author or publishing company then they need to start buying the books from the publisher as opposed to mainstream bookstores which have their hands in publishers pockets as well as the mainstream distributors. Most companies have websites where you can order the books off the site. People ask me where they can get my company books and I tell them off the comany site www.thirdeyepublishing.org They place an order off amazon.com or borders.com so I get an order from them. Can you imagine the look on my face...Are these people slow or do they not get the big picture? As far as dealing with Borders/Waldenbooks and any other mainstream book retailer if you know the managers of the stores you do not have to submit the books to the buyors 6 months before the release. The managers have the ability to order books at will. I try to release titles to the street market before the books release date so I can recoup my losses. Jarold, maybe you have not dealt with a mainstream distributor so you would not know that you are not seeing money from sales until 3-6 months after the books release. With what I just mentioned why would a person wonder why publishers strive to deal with vendors when they see their money immediately? And there are other factors which I'm not going to go into. Have a good one. I have three titles coming out in 7 days, so I have work to do. I will not be around for a few months www.thirdeyepublishing.org

Therone Shellman :

Posted 711 days ago

Jarold, at the end of the day it's business. And any publisher whether white, black spanish or green is concerned with making good on their investment, and profit margin. If white mainstream publishers could find a way to get more sales out of a market other than the stores they would -trust that. I was contacted by one of them 2 years ago when I was selling my first book. They wanted to give me a loan, make my company an imprint under the pretense I help them in the street market. I turned them down b/c once we let them in the streets it will really be a done deal for black indpendent lit. It makes sense for publishers to find every avenue they can to reach consumers and if this means that readers on the east coast (north east) may see some titles before other areas thats the way the chips fall. Folks from the north east are grinders and about it--so the market is built more than other areas of the country. Who's fault is this? Cats down south, mid west and west coast need to step it up-seriously. NY cats have showed folks all the way down to Dc how to get it. If black book consumers are really concerned about getting books as soon as they release they need to order off the publishing companies websites as opposed to going to Borders/Waldenbooks etc Publishers are not building 2-3 thousand dollar websites to give our money to the mainstream market. I personally have gotten to the point where I strive to use them when it benefits me, b/c at the end of the day they are in our pockets. Having your book in every area within the mainstream market does not consitiute more sales. For black publishers it just makes us more vunerable and at the mercy of the main stream market. They would like to get a piece of everything we do. Furthermore as far as release dates are concerned mainstream publishers have pushed back book dates. At the end of the day consumers should be worried about whether they have gotten their monies worth when they spent their money

Jarold Imes :

Posted 715 days ago

Thanks for the responses. My goal in writing this article was to challenge all of our publishers (myself included) to be better than the status quo and to step our game up. Im on the literary message boards and this topic was inspired by an issue a lot of readers have spoken out about black publishers. My goal was not to put any publisher down... notice I didn't name one publisher or any situation by name. We should all challenge ourselves to learn about the business and make it better.

Calvin :

Posted 715 days ago

Too many people are treating this like a hustle or a come up, they are not doing their research, and they lack professionalism and it just snowballs into what we are seeing today. That applies to authors as well as publishers. A lot of them need to start back at one.

Aisha :

Posted 715 days ago

Well written post - since many black publishers are smaller and still building a loyal fan base we need to be BETTER than mainstream publishers and MORE AWARE of the disastrous effects poor customer service will have on our business and future interactions with our consumers.
This is not saying that black business is trifling, rather black publishers have to be on their A game to continue to compete effectively in this overcrowded and competitive market

Marie Antionette :

Posted 715 days ago

The issue is not about color, black publisher or white publisher, it's about knowing your business! If you are an author, you need to know how to write and more so how to write for your audience. Same if you are a doctor, you need to know your profession and if you are a pediatrician, please don't try to operate on someone's toe! Publishers should take the time to learn the publishing aspect of the business before they put the word out that a book will be available. And on a whole, we need to help one another and pass on useful information instead of shooting each other in the foot!
As far as Niggas not being shit, well that may be but a Nigga don't necessarly have to be a black person. I know some whip cracking crackers who define the word Nigger!

Promo :

Posted 716 days ago

So in other words, we should use "publishers" instead of "black publishers"?

F. A. Goodwin :

Posted 716 days ago

Who's idea was it to say BLACK publishers as if white publishers and business people don't screw the American public on a constant and daily basis., and have been doing so since they took this country from the American Indians. Need I remind you of ENRON. Let's stop putting our race on notice in such a public and demeaning way. It only adds fuel to the already racial discontent that whites feel towards us.
F. A. Goodwin
Author of Youy Reap What You Sow

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