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The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Economics » Page 2

Economics

Retail is Dead! Or is it?

By Steve Laubeon November 6, 2017
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You’ve read the news. This calendar year bankruptcies or total closures were announced by Toys R Us, Gymboree, Bebe, American Apparel, Guess, Rue 21, The Limited, Gander Mountain, Vitamin World, and Family Christian Stores.

Sears and Kmart announced last Friday that they were closing another 63 stores in January, on top of the 358 they closed already this year. And the watchful vultures are proverbially placing bets on when the entity will finally die.

This is on top of dozens of other retail operations closing their operations in the past few years, shuttering thousands of locations.

Meanwhile, Amazon’s corporate sales grew by 28 billion dollars from 2015 to 2016 (see their financial statement here).

Is Retail Dead?

Shall we stick a fork in it? Is it done? Is the world of retail kaput?

Dare I be contrary and say “No, it is not dead”?

Like most people I can be guilty of grazing the headlines and the first few sentences of a news article. And then I claim to have an “informed opinion.” We can easily forget the news adage “If it bleeds it leads.” Bad news is shouted from the rooftops. Good news is left unreported.

I suggest we need to look beyond the gruesome headlines.

For example, last week the entire bookselling industry ran the story in their newsfeeds that Eerdmans Publishing was closing their in-house store. (The original article is here.) The article made this statement:

“The closing, which affects two persons, follows a retailing trend established earlier this year, when the nation’s largest chain of Christian retail stores, Family Christian Stores of Grand Rapids, closed all 240 of its stores in 36 states.”

Wait. What? Notice how many employees were affected. Two. And yet there is a jump to claim it follows the “retail trend” and compares it to the bankruptcy of the largest Christian bookstore chain.

If there are only two people running the store it could not have been a very large operation. It should not be compared to a chain of 240 stores with 3,000 employees (an average of over 12 people per store).

Yet the headline proclaimed or at least suggested more “bad news” for bookstore retail.

The State of Retail

In the November 2017 issue of “Internet Retailer” magazine, editor Zak Stambor wrote:

“Fundamentally, retail is healthy. Overall retail sales rose 4.4% in the second quarter and e-commerce sales jumped 12.1%. And stores aren’t going anywhere. In fact, there will be 1,326 net new U.S. stores opening this year across a range of categories-from supermarkets to specialty merchants to mass merchandisers-according to retail research and advisory firm IHL Group.”

You can get your own copy of the free study by the IHL Group titled “Debunking the Retail Apocalypse” by signing up at this link. (I highly recommend reading this well crafted 34 page PDF document.)

The difference however is that it is no longer “business as usual.” There are some very smart people trying different ways to appeal to the changing way people shop. There are strong efforts being made to integrate the online experience with the physical store experience. Less fear of a customer whipping out their cell phone in the store to check things out, but instead encouraging it

Isn’t it fascinating that Amazon.com is opening physical bookstores across the country and invested $13.7 billion to buy a grocery store chain…with 460 physical locations? Immediately upon taking ownership the set up in those grocery stores changed.

What About Books?

There are many questions and worries about the health, or lack of it, in book retailing. We scan the constant (breathless) headlines of the flat sales or declining sales at Barnes & Noble. We watched as Hastings closed and Family Christian Stores closed. We hear, “Everyone buys their books on Amazon. Bookstores are dead. Retail may have a heartbeat but bookstores need a post-mortem.”

Then why is the Canadian bookstore chain, Indigo, expanding into the U.S. in 2018? They will be opening their first U.S. stores next summer in New Jersey.

What about the October 27th article in Publishers Weekly? They wrote about dozens of new Christian bookstores opening in places where Family Christian Stores closed! This suggests that those communities can still support a quality Christian bookstore. The problem for Family Christian Stores was their financial debt. I wrote about this multiple times in the past. Their financial debt stressed their ability to stay viable.

What About You, the Author?

Should we say the following?

Amazon is the villain. Your favorite store or Mall are the victims. No one reads anymore. Books aren’t selling. The industry is dead. Therefore you should quit.

Emphatically, “No!”

Are things different? Yes. The shifting nature of online retail and shopping patterns and the opportunity for Indie authors have changed the landscape. The way we experienced it even 15 years ago has changed. We can resist it or we can watch and learn and adapt to it.

However, the bottom line is that content is still king. People still want, even need, content. They want to be inspired, entertained, or informed. Your job is to find a way to do that with your writing.

Think beyond the book. Consider periodical writing (both online and physical magazines). Think specialty writing (greeting cards, curriculum, drama). There are many ways to write for publication, not just the book. (Please take a look at The Christian Writers Market Guide for hundreds of places where your work can find a home.)

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Category: Book Business, Book Sales, Economics, Publishing History, Publishing News, TrendsTag: Book Business, Book Sales, Publishing News

Show Me the Money!

By Karen Ballon June 7, 2017
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I’ll never forget the Sunday I was getting ready to leave church, and the pastor’s wife came up to me and touched my arm. “Karen, my son can’t find a job, so he’s decided to make some fast money by writing a book and having it published. Do you have any counsel for him?” I’m so proud of myself that I didn’t guffaw in her face. Not so proud that I fixed her with a hard look and replied, “Do me a …

Read moreShow Me the Money!
Category: Economics, Money, The Writing LifeTag: Economics, Faith, Money, The Writing Life

Family Christian Stores Closes All Locations

By Steve Laubeon February 27, 2017
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Last Thursday Family Christian Stores (FCS) announced they will be closing all 240 locations in 36 states, liquidating their inventory, and laying off over 3,000 employees. It is a sad day for Christian retail. In this case, the only surprise is that it came so soon after their previous bankruptcy reorganization. In February 2015 FCS suddenly declared bankruptcy and it was not until June of that …

Read moreFamily Christian Stores Closes All Locations
Category: Book Business, Economics, Legal Issues, Publishing History, Publishing NewsTag: Book Business, Economics, Family Christian, Publishing News

How Self-Publishing Has Changed Authors

By Dan Balowon January 24, 2017
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As a literary agent, not a day goes by when I don’t encounter the changes in thinking from authors caused by the expansion and availability of self-publishing. It’s understandable, because there are over twice as many books self-published every year in the United States than are published by traditional publishers. Traditional and self-publishing generate over one million new books every …

Read moreHow Self-Publishing Has Changed Authors
Category: Agents, Book Business, Book Proposals, Book Sales, Career, Economics, Get Published, Marketing, Self-Publishing, The Publishing LifeTag: Book Business, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publishing

Who are the Major Retail Outlets for CBA Books?

By Steve Laubeon November 28, 2016
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[This post had to be updated and revised in March 2017 and again in August 2019 due to numerous changes in the industry.] The question came up recently asking which retail store is the most important to a CBA publisher for selling print editions of their books? And to which store are the most books sold? CBA is a label to describe the Christian book market. It used to be an acronym for Christian …

Read moreWho are the Major Retail Outlets for CBA Books?
Category: Book Business, Book Business, Book Sales, Economics, Marketing, Publishing History, The Publishing Life, The Writing Life

When Your Book Doesn’t Sell

By Steve Laubeon November 14, 2016
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You have spent years writing your book and now it has been published by a traditional publisher. It took a while for the publisher to bring it to market. But it is finally out there. Dreams have been realized. You. Are. A. Published. Author. But then the sales reports begin to appear. Sales have floundered. There isn’t any buzz. No one is even commenting on your Facebook page. It’s a …

Read moreWhen Your Book Doesn’t Sell
Category: Agents, Book Business, Book Sales, Career, Economics, Editing, PlatformTag: Book Marketing, Book Sales, Failure

Confusing Industry News in Bookselling

By Steve Laubeon June 20, 2016
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Last week the Hastings, a chain of 126 retail stores, declared bankruptcy. Approximately half of their sales are from books (the other half are movies, music, games, etc). They claim “a decline in the market for physical media properties like music, movies, books, games and media rentals.” They had losses of $16 million on sales of $400 million. Among their largest unsecured creditors …

Read moreConfusing Industry News in Bookselling
Category: Book Business, Economics, TrendsTag: Book Business, Book Sales, Trends

Limitations Inherent to Non-Fiction Publishing

By Dan Balowon May 31, 2016
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Some categories of books in the Christian market have very limited potential for publication. A publisher may do just one every year or every ten years on a particular topic or category. When you send your proposal to an agent or ask your agent to pitch a title in one of these categories, our first reaction would be how limited the potential is to sell. I am not writing about the potential for …

Read moreLimitations Inherent to Non-Fiction Publishing
Category: Book Proposals, Branding, Career, Economics, Get Published, PlatformTag: Bet Published, book proposals

Zip It Mr. Galilei

By Dan Balowon February 16, 2016
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Did you ever tell someone, “Don’t feel that way” and not get the best reaction? In the same vein is “Don’t be that way.” Honestly, I could never figure that one out. Feels like a philosophical conundrum of the highest order. Telling someone not to be. Four hundred years ago this week in 1616, Cardinal Bellarmine, representing the Catholic Church, issued an order to astronomer Galileo Galilei that …

Read moreZip It Mr. Galilei
Category: Book Business, Branding, Contracts, Economics, Get Published, Humor, Indie, Marketing, The Publishing LifeTag: Book Business, The Publishing Life

Ned Ryerson and the Startled Rodent

By Dan Balowon February 2, 2016
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Much has been discussed about the growth (or shrinking) of digital book content delivery. I figured today was the perfect day to put in my two cents. Here is what happened in the last few years, explaining why digital sales have slowed, as told through a little story I conjured up. Avid book reader Barbara got up early one morning, made coffee and sat down to read with her e-reader. She noticed …

Read moreNed Ryerson and the Startled Rodent
Category: Book Business, Economics, TrendsTag: Book Business, E-Books, Economics, Trends
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