Rick Simonson

How Green Was My Ecosystem

I don't know what all the noise - lots of wind suddenly blowing across the country, much of it hot air - will result in for Chelsea Green and its forthcoming book by Robert Kuttner on Barack Obama. Yours truly was going through mild whiplash yesterday as reports of cancelled orders - including B&N - came along.

Through everything so far, Chelsea Green's Margo Baldwin has been adamant about her reasons for working a deal with Amazon to make copies of this book exclusively available through that entity in a special edition before the book's regular publication is available to all. She's been equally firm about following through with the plan, now saying that those retailers who've cancelled their orders are now effectively boycotting the book. (Perhaps, though some also have said they'll fill special orders. Isn't that rather the Amazon model? Not to sit around in some storefront with books heaped; no upfront support, in other words, but order from us and we'll order and get you one ...)

In her Open Letter to the bookselling community that went out yesterday, Margo Baldwin wrote, 'I think a little perspective is in order.'

That we would agree with, but the first problem is Ms. Baldwin's point of perspective. There is much wrapping herself/Chelsea Green in a flag of self-anointed exceptionalism in the language that follows, ie, the importance of this election. (This goes along with the self-anointed language of verdant virtue that goes with what Chelsea Green sees as its place in the world, but more on this in a bit.)

A few points of perspective, from this vantage point.

There is one particular anti-Obama book receiving lots of publicity - much of it debunking its contents, and much of it also debunking the means by which it's a 'bestseller.' (Sales hint to Chelsea Green: if what you're really trying to do with this book, which you say is the biggest you've ever gone out with, is make it a 'bestseller,' maybe you should tap into some of the Democrats' big money folk, who would do the bulk orders that would help get this book into the same bestseller purgatory as Mary Matalin's book is.) (Also, if it's gutter ball being played, ie, the contents of the S&S book, won't that game be played out at that lovely level, ie, with anti-McCain matter?)

There is also a lack of perspective on the field of 'pro-Obama' books, starting with books by the senator from Illinois, whose two books continue to sell mightily. Random House is doing a sudden publication of a book of speeches by Obama himself - without having to resort to any special deals to get it into people's hands. (Okay, Ms. Baldwin in her note says they're not one of the big boys, and can't compete on their terms ... but who invited who into this fray, if it's seen that way?). But there are pro-Obama books coming from other independent presses, too.

Also as our friends posting in Shelf Awareness this morning point out (it had occurred here, but they say it first), isn't doing all of this ostensibly for the Democrats in Denver a bit of preaching to the choir? Again, Ms. Baldwin's urgency about this election. Those going to Denver don't need reminding on this score, far from it. It's late in the game -and this whole business to me seems flawed -  but they'd have been doing the guttier thing by trying this up in St. Paul, when and where the Republicans gather, the following week.

One does wonder which eco-system is being served (to say nothing of some 'ego') by Chelsea Green - not that economics and ecology aren't related. They are ... and when we now think 'green values' we think ... wait, this is about the money? That green?

One doesn't wonder - or doubt - which eco-system is being served by Amazon.

That, again, is where some perspective might serve - though not as Ms. Baldwin might choose to see it.

No one would now doubt the importance of Amazon in the landscape - or ecosystem - of book sales in this country. They've carved (yes, sharp tools) their distinct place in the marketplace. In her open letter, Ms. Baldwin points out innovations and services Amazon has led the way with that have enabled smaller publishers such as Chelsea Green to thrive as they have. (A note: outside of a thanks for the order comment at the start of the letter, there is no acknowledgement of what any other booksellers do, or have done, for Chelsea Green, be they independent, or chain, only a kind of admonishment that the times are a-changing and you better get with it, as Chelsea Green has ...)

Let's step back a bit in time, and see if some useful longer-term memory might help here. It's odd to introduce that in this day and time, perhaps - when the presumptive Republican nominee for president can say with a straight face that in the 21st-century nations don't invade other nations, and not be ridiculed out of the runnning - one wonders what 'perspective' of the sort is.

In book publishing and bookselling, though: go back maybe 20 years. A fairly diverse retail scene was the way of the day. Independent bookstores, many growing from tiny start-ups, were organically growing, buying and selling deeper from publishers' list, comprised something around 30% of the market. The rest came from a mix of chains (mostly smaller stores), department stores and other multi-purpose retailers, and book clubs. I think that's about how it was.

Then, ballpark, fifteen years ago, fueled by a U.S. tax system which fosters fast, 'artificial' growth (which Amazon would also employ) through means of taxpayer-subsidized writeoffs against losses for expansion and 'growth,' the two big national chains embarked on opening a whole lot of very big bookstores all over the place, long-term sustainability (we would say) be damned. Publishers - many more and more in the hands of short-term focused, growth-driven conglomerate excecutives - aided and abetted this growth. They decided they needed the upfront orders, the books going out. Never mind that that this 'throwing the books' out there would ultimately serve that many titles that well. Exposure counted for much, having them somewhere.

The proliferation of chainstores, some of them in markets not that much served by independents, but many aimed square at them, did much to weaken and drive many independents from the field.

The big publishers, working in the monoculture way of faster, 'more efficient,' more focus, less options (diversity) did the aiding and abetting.

But, o lessons, this wasn't sustainable. Which is where things have gotten to now, where the chains have been passed in many ways by other entities. They're caught up in everything from the present price of gas situation to real estate issues to the dawned-upon realization that the U.S. is overbuilt for retail. And they're reacting. I've seen the numbers for some smaller independent presses. Where the national chains were once the best customers - not so long ago - they now for some constitute negative cash flow. Returns have been massive, if not killing. (One political press, South End, made a public plea for financial support to get it through these returns.)

So now? 

Margo Baldwin is right, to a degree, about what an Amazon can mean to the smaller publishers, and how they can't, in some ways, compete with the big publishers. I think what she might mean is they can't go, upfront, into the big clubs and mass retailers with a limited number of projected (stack up) bestsellers.

In the realm of ironies, Chelsea Green, which puts forth a whole lot of language about sustainable values, has made this pact with a company whose values, socially, can be called to question. There may be a less socially- or community-attuned profitable major corporation in the U.S. than Amazon, but I can't think of it (and I can think of some odious companies.).  No corporate giving on any level. As Hut Landon of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association points out in yesterday's PW online, Amazon has done whatever it can to avoid paying taxes that support communities. He also points out other practices of luring and enticement - seductive they can be to both publisher and customer ... at least for now. 

What's more, Amazon's means of delivering reading material, isn't exactly environmentally virtuous. Do we know where the dead e-book devices will go? The landfills? Overseas dumping grounds? ? And the means by which these POD (print-on-demand) special early editions (and Amazon's general sales and delivery of books and merchandise) will be made available: what is so environmentally wise about the fuel and packaging used to deliver one book?   

But I think the lessons (all said here too quickly, too breezily, too off the cuff, I know) that should be most apparent to those publishing and talking about 'systems,' eco- and otherwise, should be more aware than others about keeping the whole of the diversity of systems supported and sustained - in order to be sustained themselves. It's mutual interdependence, yes?

Whether it's really about getting whiffs of that 'other' green (yes, the mentioned big print run) or self-inflated hubris about one's place in the scheme of things, the bigger, larger, older issues around this - including the amount of time this is taking - all speak to perspective. Not the one that Margo Baldwin necessarily argues for, however.

This is as much a call of support to Chelsea Green to remember its own preached principles as anything. It's saying, Keep an eye on where this is leading. Watch who you get in that one big boat with. Its ride might look high and dry, but who's to say?

When one of those mighty rivers has had its way with you, it's not always a pretty sight.

Posted by Rick Simonson on August 19, 2008 | Comments (2)