Independent Booksellers 'Disheartened' with Chelsea Green
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 8/18/2008 8:41:00 AM
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. Today, Baldwin issued an open letter to the bookselling community telling independents, “I think a little perspective is in order.”
“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.” Baldwin told PW she was “surprised at the vehemence of the reaction,” especially in light of the success of Jerome R. Corsi’s The Obama Nation (Threshold Editions) but that Chelsea Green is not changing its sales strategy.
Hut Landon, executive director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, said he was “disheartened” with Chelsea Green’s “decision to exclude independent booksellers.” He said the BookSurge/Amazon option could be copied for independents who also take advance online orders and fulfill them through POD. Landon expressed disappointment that Chelsea Green “would give an exclusive to Amazon, which has, among other things, made purposeful decisions to avoid sales tax collection in most states, sells books at a loss when it suits their purposes, and markets used copies of new titles alongside the new title listings—a practice that costs authors royalties.”
Baldwin, however, explained that Chelsea Green “could not have survived and thrived without the innovations that Amazon has brought to the book marketplace.... I know it’s de rigueur to consider Amazon enemy #1, but it just ain’t so.” The open letter is posted on Chelsea Green's Web site.
