$$$ for book events?

[gordonzola]

smallstages forwarded me this last week, but I just got a chance to read it. Any thoughts? Is charging for readings ok? Shouldn't the authors get a share of the door if they do? How will this change the dynamic of indie bookstore events?

It's funny. Over the course of my 40 events, the bookstore ones were usually the best. People were organized, they did promotions effectively, their experience clearly paid off for me and everyone in attendance.

If places charge and attendees can get the price off the book, I can kind of see it. But economically, it's still odd. I mean, a bookstore sells my book at full price and they gross about $9. I get $2. At my readings I brought and prepped cheese. I got the cheese donated but did the labor myself. That's of course after doing the labor over three years to write and edit the damn thing. Then I give a one hour performance. These things are (hopefully) compensated in $2 chunks that I (hopefully) will receive (hopefully) no longer than 9 months down the line.

Clearly the bookstores aren't getting rich off me. But it also seems like putting another barrier between an unknown authors and their potential readers. However, I can also attest to the fact that -- certainly at this point -- many attendees have already bought the book somewhere, and probably not at the store I'm appearing at. Committing resources to an event where they only sell 5 books is probably a money loser for them as well.

I refused to do one reading, way back when (and not at a bookstore), when they asked me to do an uncompensated cheese class as a book promotion. They would supply the cheese but a class (that because the cheese world is very small I happen to know) they usually were paying someone else $250 to do, they wanted me to do for free. They were charging people too! I suggested they add $15 to the price and include a book with the purchase and they weren't interested.

Publishing/book selling is a mess right now, eh?

Comments

[lnghnds.livejournal.com]

It seems to me that this trend would shift the role of readings. The bookstores may not be selling tons of books at reading events but I assume that if they start charging admission then it is more likely that only people who already have the book will come.

I wonder what the typical demographic of those who go to readings are. I may be unusual but I have been to more readings where I don't know the author. When I walk by my local bookshop and someone interesting is on the schedule, I'll walk in. I'd be far less likely to do that if they were charging. OTOH, maybe a good compromise would be giving store credit for anything in the store, not just the books of the reader. I'd probably still go in that case.

I know this doesn't address your question of whether the authors should be compensated. It seems like they should get a cut. They're like any other performers in this case.

But just to restate for emphasis something that you and the article both mention, I find it pretty dismaying how many people I've talked to who see no moral complication around going to a reading and buying the book on Amazon.

I like this quote from the article:
“I think it makes it more fun,” said [author] Mr. Gessen, adding that he believed all events should charge admission. “I don’t think you should be able to walk into a Barnes & Noble and get to look at Joan Didion.”

I have an image of this having something to do with brown bagging her books.

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

OTOH, maybe a good compromise would be giving store credit for anything in the store, not just the books of the reader.

I think this is a really good idea.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings. They go like this:

On the one hand:

* Most readings aren't big events. They're almost no overhead (other than staffing, maybe).

* The way the marketing should work is not just that folks come in to buy that one book that's being flogged at the reading, but related books, and unrelated browsing purchases, too.

On the other hand:

* It's a marketing truism that people value something they have to pay money for more than something they get for free. It totally sucks and makes me want to punch people but it appears to work in practice. And so I am willing to entertain the idea that indie bookstores need to do *something* to show that they are, as they put it in the article, not just Amazon showrooms. And it's better than a tip jar :P

So, OK, maybe if it was made into an event, a party (e.g. book release party), a 'big name' reading, I might be OK with it. Maybe. As an author, it makes me feel a little exploited, yes. And as someone who drops a chunk of money every time I walk into a bookstore reading, though, I feel like I, the loyal customer, am being dissed in favor of flakes and dilettantes and that's not a real sustainable business model either.

So I guess I come down on the side of "I see the problem here, but I don't know if this is the solution."

[gordonzola.livejournal.com]

Definitely a work in progress.

and I wish this wasn't true, but it is: It's a marketing truism that people value something they have to pay money for more than something they get for free. It's like all those fake kickstarter projects that are really there for customer buy-in.