The costs of promoting books in the bookshop chains bring ever more water to the eyes. According to the Times, a premium spot in Waterstone's stores and advertising campaigns this Christmas will cost publishers £45,000. For a display alone, without the advertising, the fee is £25,000.
There are various ways of putting these figures into context. One is to reason that Random House, for example, has already committed to pay more than $4m worldwide for Eric Clapton's memoirs, so what is another 45 grand? But Random House will have at least 20 titles, and possibly more, that it wants to get into a prominent position in Waterstone's: that, even at the lower rate, would add up to half a million pounds. And of course Waterstone's is not the only bookseller: Amazon, Borders and WH Smith will want contributions as well. Then there are the independents, who must not be neglected. They take the Booksellers Association Christmas catalogue, which charges for entries. Despite the millions of pounds big publishers will spend pushing their lead titles, some of them will not sell. The promotional fees will not come back, but the unsold books will.
It's worth remembering that most authors earn advances of between £5,000 and £10,000. A publisher rarely spends more on promoting a book than they spent on acquiring it, so the big Christmas books tend to be the ones that have already commanded large sums. The chains' Christmas promotions are hard to distinguish from each other, and offer few surprises. Expect to see, again, Michael Palin, Nigella Lawson and Alan Titchmarsh, plus a sprinkling of celebs and reality TV stars.
The outcry over promotional fees is nothing new. Every year Waterstone's or one of the other chains offers its promotional "packages", and an outraged publisher leaks them to the press. Dark talk of "bungs" ensues. That is a caricature. Booksellers will not promote any old book simply because the publisher will pay: they cannot afford to take up space with duff titles during the most important selling season of the year. They select. Nevertheless, what they select under these conditions is predictable.
Waterstone's has every reason to make hefty demands: it has about 25% of the market, or more on many titles, so it is in a strong negotiating position; and it needs the money. The chain has reported falling sales, and it is closing shops. Throughout book retailing, sales and profits are hard to come by.
Publishers, meanwhile, are not doing too badly. The conglomerates are all filing decent results, with higher profit margins than booksellers achieve. It is hardly a shock that the booksellers try to get some of these profits redistributed in their direction.
