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I Have a Dream

A Saturday Rant 12-15-01



I'm up to yellow.

That's after green.

What' I'm talking about is the color of the mailings that PMA sends out when it
is time to renew. They start with white paper, then move to green, and then to
yellow.

I just don't know what to do.

I am asking myself just exactly WHAT is the role that PMA plays in the industry,
such that I should send them $99.

I'm not happy with PMA, and to be honest, I have never been happy with PMA.

We members can't vote for our own board or executive officers (and you can thank
Pat Bell for that.)  What it comes down to is that PMA is not really "of" us, or
"with" us, or "for" us, but simply an organization that seems to "use" us.

So should I send in the $99. I just don't know.

I was asked by a list member what I would do if I were ever to become President
of PMA. Since that can never happen, due to the structure that PMA employs to
keep the reigns of power in "friendly" hands, I thought I'd outline my 9 point
platform (somewhat in order of importance) as sort of a "fun and darling"
exercise. Perhaps it will engender some thoughts and comments. (I know number 5
will probably get me tarred and feathered but it wouldn't be the first time!):

1. Hire an outside consulting firm to do a thorough audit of PMA's marketing
activities to determine which are effective and which should be abandoned: I
believe that many of the mailings are not the best use of limited financial
resources. We need to determine what works and what does not. The same is true
with the foreign trade fairs. Are these activities really working for the
majority of the members, or is it just a select few that get the benefits? These
are expensive and time consuming activities and we should really take a close
look to see if they are really worthwhile.

2. Abolish the Ben Franklin Awards: This is a huge waste of time and effort that
benefits very few members. It is basically a vanity award. If it is to be a true
award, it should not require an entry fee. Let's call it what it is: a
fundraising project. Let's end it. We have more important things to do. There
are plenty of other award programs for those who like that sort of thing.

3. Move PMA to the New York City area (New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester,
etc): New York is the center of publishing, like it or not. Manhattan Beach is
not where the center of publishing is, but where the director lives. New York is
where the director and staff should be so that they can be  more active
participants with the movers and shakers in the industry.

4. Through a bidding process, retain a professional association management
company  with experience in the publishing industry: This will free up the
executive director from day-to-day oversight of the organization so that he/she
can focus on resolving the most important problems of members: distribution and
returns.

5. Embark on a nationwide search for an executive director to be based in New
York: The current director will be invited to compete. It is time for PMA to
look at all the possibilities for leadership. From time to time, every
association and trade group does this. It is good and is healthy.

6. Make a concerted effort to increase membership to 10,000 firms: By taking a
more activist role in the industry, perhaps more publishers will see PMA less as
a closed "old boy network" and as more than just a co-op mailing opportunity.

7.  Cease holding PMA University at BEA and instead hold it at another time and
at a cheaper location: Perhaps it could be held twice a year instead of once.
Those who most need PMA U., can't afford to attend at BEA time, especially in
high-priced New York or Chicago.

8.  Establish a "Policy of No-Returns for PMA Members": Put the industry on
notice that after a certain date, PMA members will no longer accept returns. It
is time to take a leadership position on this vital issue.

9.  Require a that a strict conflict of interest policy be followed such that
only those who are primarily engaged in publishing be allowed to serve on the
board or as officers: Those who are primarily vendors will be encouraged to
remain as members, but not as decision makers. As nice as they are, how can Mary
Westheimer of Bookzone or Curt Mathews or IPG, both who are primarily
non-publishers and who have other business interests larger and more important
to them than publishing, know FIRST HAND the pain and suffering small publishers
are feeling and the problems we are going through. Unless you are trying to do
the budget for next year, unless you are shaking your head at the returns from
this year, and unless you have to make the production decisions for the spring
list, just saying that you "understand" does not cut it with me.

Well don't get all bent out of shape. The only one who has less chance of being
PMA president than I do is Jeffrey Heard! In a way it is too bad because I think
I could really help make this organization an industry leader. But there are
others with better political skills than I and who would do just as good a job
if not better. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is not personal.
It is strictly business. I personally like both the director and the president.
I am the loyal opposition. In my humble opinion, I think the position of the
current administration toward the distribution and returns problems is absurd
and the ambivalence of the current director with respect to Amazon is equally
absurd. Who is PMA anyway. Is it the Nathan family? Is it a small clique of
hand-picked board members? Is it you and I? I wish the answer to that question
was easy, but it's not. Unfortunately, you have to give it some thought before
you can come to a definitive answer.

 IT'S THE SYNDICATE, AND EVERYONE HAS A SHARE
 (I challenge any of you to tell me where this line comes from!)

I am constantly amazed by the number of manuscripts I get that I believe will
never sell more than 10 copies. I wish I could have a dollar for every doctor
who sent me a proposal about his "killer" book about some disease or another.
The same goes for financial planners and to a lesser degree, new-age devotees.
Everyone seems to have an answer to a question than hardly anyone seems to ask!
I'm am equally amazed at the number of publishers who whine and moan about not
being to sell their book when the fact of the matter is that their book has been
done 10 times before. And it didn't sell any of those times either!

I don't think many publishers realize a sad fact about this industry. It is an
easy one to enter. Anyone with $10K can be a publisher... and probably lose that
$10K. The basic facts about this business are this:

1.  The supply of books exceeds the demand by a huge margin.

2.  The distribution and retail channels are inefficient and made more so by the
huge numbers of entrants.

3.  Books cannot compete with the Internet as a means for providing quick,
up-to-date, general information.

4.  Books are under priced compared to their production costs and the risk taken
by the publisher.

5.  Large publishers have just as difficult a time making profits as do small
ones. 6.  The only consistent winners are well managed middle-people (Ingrams,
PGW, IPG, etc.)

But people seem to flock to this industry. There is a cachet about being about
to tell people that you are a "publisher." It evokes an image of a highbrow,
educated person, dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and not that of the evil
dollar. (And for the most part this is a true image, as there are damn few
"evil" dollars to be made in publishing."

So what is my point? If you are serious about making money, it would be
advisable for you not to quit your day job. Unless you get very lucky,
publishing as it is practiced by most small one/two book publishers, will
eventually turn out to be more of a hobby than a business. Why? Because most
publishers bring out books that they "like" and not which are likely to sell
enough printings to make a profit from.

The truth is that while the world may not need your book, there is some
population out there that will find in interesting enough to buy. However, for
the majority of books published by small publishers, that market is just not
large enough to sustain and encourage most publishers to break out from the
one-book pack. To be honest, it would be better for many would-be publishers to
not start their own publishing company, but to enter into a co-op arrangement
with an established publisher. While they will spend about the same amount of
money, they will get the benefit of not making the kinds of mistakes most
first-timers do. They will also have access to the distribution channel. While
they might not have the satisfaction of saying "I'm a publisher" they can say
that they are doing a joint venture with "Amalgamated Publishers, Inc." in the
same way that small movie production companies partner with the large houses to
bring a project to market. I think there is a lot to be said for co-publishing,
so long as it is done in an open, honest manner, and with full disclosure for
all parties. I think co-publishing is a going to be, as they say in computers,
TNBT - The Next Big Thing.  I think small publishers will join in syndicates
with largerer houses, as well as take part in joint co-pub ventures where the
risks are spread along with the rewards. I'll talk more about this in a later
Rant.

THE TRAFFIC IS TERRIFIC

The traffic on the list is huge. It is not that we have all that many new faces,
it is that so many of you have this overwhelming urge to tell us what you think
on every single issue. What I'm saying is that while there are no rules to
determine when, and how many posts one should make, I think many people do not
exercise proper editorial restraint. I notice that even if they don't know the
first thing about a topic, many list members join in giving their half-baked
opinions or they clutter up the list with "Right On", "I Agree", or "You're an
Idiot" postings.

I'm going to let all of you in on a secret, but not a big secret. It was posted
by someone a few years ago that I am the most influential person on the list.
Well I don't know about that, but I think I am up there with Pat Bell, Shell
Horowitz, Eric Anderson, Mayapriya Long, Jim Cox, Dan Poynter, Peter Goodman,
and a few others. We are listened to because when we speak, we speak as
experts...on subjects we have detailed knowledge on. Or, we pose questions that
have not been asked a thousand times earlier. Basically, we don't answer every
post on every topic. Think about this. Who are the people on the list that you
make sure you read? I'll bet it is not someone who posts every day. It will be
someone who posts once or twice a week. How many times do you see  the same name
attached to a long laundry list of posts, one right after the other? Do you read
all of these? The better question is "Should they have been posted in the first
place."

The bottom line is that many of you have diarrhea of the keyboard and you have
this deep seated need to respond to every post, no matter if you know what you
are talking about or not. Well that is your privilege. I'm not telling anyone
when and how often to post anything. There are going to be issues that will so
involve you that you might post something every hour. But by and large, the
quantity of messages is growing, but the quality is not. Jokes and funny
anecdotes were fine when we were at 25 messages a day. But as we approach the
100 per day volume, I think it is time for many people to exercise some kind of
editorial restraint and only post when they have something "important" to say. I
know one thing. If it cost 50 cents every time the send button was clicked, the
quality of the content of this list would increase along with a decrease in
cyber-tripe. I remember Peter, Paul and Mary would introduce a song by saying
"You will all know this song and you will have a great urge to first silently
join us in the tune. Then you will want to hum it under your breadth. Finally
you will have this great urge to burst out in song. Well PLEASE DON'T!"  (Now,
can anyone tell me the name of the song?)

Alan Canton
Adams-Blake Company



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