Supply chain frustrations challenge publishers to become more self-reliant

Amazon’s reluctance to prioritise books has been pushing more independent publishers to consider how they can be less reliant on third-party routes to market by pursuing their own click-to-buy supplies.

Since the pandemic took hold, Amazon has been prioritising medical supplies and household essentials. Although some in-demand children’s and educational titles are being made a relative priority, this strategy has broadly resulted in slower delivery times of books and the sporadic removal of "buy buttons" on select titles to the exasperation of authors and publishers, particularly those launching new titles.

Sandstone Press has announced an online shop for UK readers “in response to demand from readers whose local bookshops have temporarily closed” due to Covid-19, with fellow indies Galley Beggar Press and Saraband also now selling online.

“It’s always been better for us and better for our authors if people buy direct,” Galley Beggar co-founder Sam Jordison said. “Hopefully in the long run people will get more used to buying from publishers.” He added: “I would encourage every publisher to try and do direct sales, or sell stock through other retailers, and not rely on Amazon so much because, as they’ve shown they really don’t care about us.

“For the last couple of years I’ve had the feeling they’ve deprioritised books anyway.”

Sara Hunt, founder of Salford-based publisher Saraband, said: “For me this is a dilemma. I would rather let booksellers sell books—I don't like to advertise our website in competition with them. But times are unusual, and as things stand, I am grateful to our supporters for buying direct.”

She added, however: “We have [collectively] allowed Amazon to have a near-monopoly, and they are able to operate with enormous market power combined with little or no transparency. Now we are in such strange times, the situation is more critical, and I am very concerned for high street shops of all sizes. The disruptions in the supply chain have really clobbered the small shops in particular.”

Juliet Mabey, publisher at Oneworld, said it “might need to look again” at the proposition of selling directly. Although she observed Amazon has started reordering its books in larger quantities, both for not-yet published titles and some backlist, she noted the numbers were “still comparatively modest”, with many of its titles still out of stock and supply "still much slower than pre-pandemic".

“We have noticed buy buttons come and go‚Ķ Disappointingly, one of our bestsellers, How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, has still not had its buy button restored despite being what Amazon themselves called ‘a high demand title’,” she said.

“We have been directing customers to individual brick and mortar stores,” she continued. “It would be difficult for us to sell directly, not least because our office is closed and our warehouse would struggle with large numbers of small orders, but this is something we might need to look at again.”

Literary agent Nelle Andrew said of the current situation: “For the long term this needs to be a huge wake-up call to publishers that relying on third-party routes to market is not sustainable. Their models either can’t or won’t support it in the same way.

“They [publishers] need to have their own click to buy supplies. Just because it hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it can’t be done. It’s insane to me that people cannot find their way to stock when the appetite is huge right now but the service simply isn’t there or as consistent as before. Amazon’s decision making shows that it is not a bookseller. It is merely a seller and books are not a priority whereas for us they are our life blood.”

Peter Cox of Hammerhead Management said: “People are at home in lockdown. What we ought to be doing is getting books right in their face, because it's a great, great time for people being able to read. There is, no doubt, a commercial opportunity there. I think a lot of publishers feel that but they also are at the mercy of Amazon to do the fulfilment and if Amazon are not going to do that, and just concentrate on up-selling their two essentially free offerings [Kindle and Audible subscriptions] they're crucifying the business."

Sheila Crowley at Curtis Brown weighed in: "It's something that agents have often asked c.e.o.s of leading publishing houses ... as they grow bigger, is there an opportunity? And the answer has always been that they love marketing direct-to-consumer but they felt that selling direct-to-consumer was not in their business interests. But they may be reviewing that now in light of what has happened over the last five, six weeks ...

"I don't know, I've not asked. But I think if I were in their position, having worked in major publishers before I became an agent 16 years ago, I'd certainly be looking at it."

Larger publishers have been mixed on the potential to move into D2C selling, in spite of increased efforts across the board in recent years in D2C marketing.

Penguin Random House UK, which does sell direct via the Penguin shop, only sells book gifts and merchandise directly, and this offering does not extend to books. While it has been active in driving consumers to purchase books via online retail, it doesn’t sell its titles directly, it confirmed.

A spokesperson for Bonnier Books UK meanwhile commented: “We don’t sell our books direct-to-consumer and this is not a strategy we are pursuing.”

Hachette UK however already does some direct-to-consumer selling within certain niches and it said it is looking at doing more.

A spokesperson for Hachette UK said: "The diversity and breadth of our publishing means there are many niche opportunities for us to connect our readers directly to the books they love. For example, Jessica Kingsley already has a very successful e-commerce presence and John Murray has enjoyed huge growth with its Michel Thomas language learning apps. We’re exploring other opportunities of this type to help readers to discover and enjoy other niches."

In response to the recent removal of buy buttons from lead titles, after supply shortages reported on last week, an Amazon UK spokesperson said then: "Books are very important to us and our customers, are we are working hard to offer books to customers in all formats. At the present time, we believe that the prioritisation of certain products is in our customers’ best interests. When print options are temporarily limited, customers will always have the option to purchase e-books and download audiobooks where available."