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The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Publishing History » Page 4

Publishing History

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

The Challenge for American Christian Authors

By Dan Balowon September 26, 2017
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The majority of Christian books published every year are written in English by authors in the United States. U.S. Christian publishers in a billion dollar industry publish many thousands of new titles every year. Still, I am not sure all American authors who desire to have their books spread across the globe and translated into various languages have the credentials nor the global insight to be …

Read moreThe Challenge for American Christian Authors
Category: Communication, Publishing History, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Christian, Communication, Culture, Faith, The Writing Life

Revolutionary Books

By Dan Balowon July 4, 2017
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Today is Independence Day in the United States. Much of the inspiration for the American Revolution and eventual structure for the new country came from a book, Common Sense by Thomas Paine, first published January 10, 1776. It is the best selling book in the history of the United States, other than the Bible. Certainly there were rumblings of rebellion before the book was published, but as is …

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Category: Historical, Publishing HistoryTag: Publishing History, Revolutionary Books

Bestsellers in 1982

By Dan Balowon June 27, 2017
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Continuing my twice-yearly focus on bestsellers from years gone by, today we stop the “way-back” machine thirty-five years ago. The New York Times Bestseller lists from June 27, 1982: Fiction The Parsifal Mosaic, by Robert Ludlum. (Spy novel with possible film being recently discussed, thirty-five years later!) The Man From St. Petersburg, by Ken Follett. (A pre-WWI thriller.) The Prodigal …

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Category: Book Business, Book Review, Publishing HistoryTag: Bestsellers, Book Business, Publishing History

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

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

The Year 1908 and Being a Cubs Fan

By Steve Laubeon November 7, 2016
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As you may know, last Wednesday saw the Chicago Cubs baseball team win the World Series, their first time since 1908. To put it in historical perspective, in 1908 Teddy Roosevelt was president of the U.S. (Taft was elected in November of that year). The Summer Olympics were moved to London because Rome was financially ruined by the eruption of Mt. Vesuius a couple years earlier. The first Model-T …

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Category: Personal, Publishing HistoryTag: Cubs, Publishing History, Steve Laube

Book Publishing Before the Internet

By Dan Balowon October 11, 2016
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When I first started working in book publishing, Amazon was a river in Brazil and social media was a radio DJ holding a dance party at the local mall. The word “internet” either didn’t exist or was possibly some sort of technical term known only to commercial fishermen. Did the publishing industry actually exist in any meaningful form before 1995? Cringe. Certainly, the publishing landscape has …

Read moreBook Publishing Before the Internet
Category: Book Business, Platform, Publishing History, Technology, The Publishing LifeTag: Platform, Technology, The Publishing Life

The Best Selling Christian Books of all Time

By Dan Balowon June 28, 2016
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I realize attempting to compile a list like this could ruffle some feathers from both publishing and literature purists, not to mention the theological issues raised in the process of determining a “Christian” book. But I thought I would take a stab at it anyway. The list of the best-selling Christian books of all time almost demands every single title carry some sort of disclaimer, but that …

Read moreThe Best Selling Christian Books of all Time
Category: Book Business, Publishing History, TrendsTag: Bestsellers, Book Business, Trends

Days The Writing Stopped

By Dan Balowon April 19, 2016
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Four hundred years ago this week, it was a sad time in the history of literature. April 22-23, 1616 the two most important writers in Spanish and English history died. First, Miguel de Cervantes, best known for Don Quixote passed away. He had a substantial and lasting imprint on the Spanish language. He wrote novels, plays and poetry, making Spanish one of the “romance” languages of the world. The …

Read moreDays The Writing Stopped
Category: Book Business, Publishing HistoryTag: Publishing History
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