Waterstone’s: WestEnders episode 3,000
Gerry Johnson, new m.d. of Waterstone’s, is quoted in the Telegraph saying he was surprised by the ferocity of the reaction from authors and publishers to the chain’s bid for Ottakar’s. It is unusual, he said. Get with the program Gerry! The relationship between the two has long been more EastEnders than The Apprentice.
While Waterstone’s took shedloads of books publishers couldn’t place elsewhere (and sold a lot), the chain was Frank Butcher to publishers’ Pat. Trouble is a lot didn’t sell in the quantities managers hoped, and so the chain was forced to reorganise its buying strategy to something more efficient and profitable – or centralised. Result: Frank grew restless, leaving poor Pat feeling betrayed. How will she ever believe Frank’s platitudes?
The chain is on a charm offensive (though hopefully this will not involve turning up at the Society of Authors dressed only in a bow tie). Johnson and Fox love reading we’re told. No doubt publishers and authors are happy both prefer a paperback to a PlayStation, but it will take more to revitalise this relationship. In my role as matchmaker, I suggest answers to the following will help:
1. How will Waterstone’s 22 per cent market share (far, far higher for certain categories) affect terms?
2. Will Waterstone’s do anything to reverse the (real or perceived) shift from backlist to frontlist and away from literary to massmarket?
3. Given Amazon has a 10-year lead on the chain, can Waterstone’s really compete against the internet megalith?
4. Who is the Waterstone’s customer? (Sales and marketing people complain to me that they don’t know anymore).
The interview with Fox does little to address these questions. He reiterates Waterstone’s claim that it sells 200,000 titles a month and that most sales are not bestsellers. Without seeing their data, how can I question that? I would say that among the large publishers I have yet to find one whose experience reflects it. Instead they complain their backlist is dying and midlist is dead because they can’t get it in store, at least not in sufficient quantities to make an impact on consumers stuck at the front of shops in the BOGOF section.
This contradiction is in part because Waterstone’s talks about the macrocosm, but publishers the microcosm (their little slice of the market). I do have a sense that nationally the chain is taking books from a bigger range of publishers – including tiny operations like Snow Books and White Ladder Press. Expanding their range of indies means less room for major publishers.
Large publishers have cut their lists, but still publish too many Me Toos. This autumn 60 celebrity titles will flood the market, all hoping to get in the top 10. As any “fule kno” 60 into 10 don’t go. It puts a lot of power into the hands retailers, who will choose the ones they think will make the most money – and that must include the best terms. Let’s face it, one G-list celeb is pretty much the same as the next, so how else do you differentiate them to the buyers at head office?
If large publishers were more original in their publishing, they might find more of their books chosen for promotions.
It is a big if, I know, because it depends on buyers having imagination, balls and knowing exactly who forms their customer base. That leaves the most important question publishers and authors will want Gerry Johnson to answer: who is the Waterstone’s customer? Watersone’s remains adamant it is heavy book buyers and it has expanded (as opposed to abandoned) that base. I don’t hear the same sense of certainty from publishers. Addressing that contradiction should be top of Johnson’s priorities when he starts the job, not least because it will make for better publicity.
As for its plans to take on Amazon, “Bring it on,” will be the cry of publishers increasingly uneasy at the internet retailer’s hold on cyber market, especially in backlist, sales. Valid big brand competition will be welcomed, especially if it revitalises Waterstone’s reputation as a range bookseller. But that doesn’t come cheap, so how the chain plans to raise the money to pay for it will be taxing many publishers, large and small.
2 Responses to “Waterstone’s: WestEnders episode 3,000”
When I was working full time in children’s publishing a decade ago Waterstone’s were always hit and miss. Some stores (eg Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle) had wonderful children’s sections, brilliantly displayed, others (like the Camden branch next to where I worked were shambolic and disorganised).
Ottakars on the other hand has always seemed to me to be a vibrant outlet, offering good quality of choice sold by people who actually know what they are talking about.
The difference couldn’t be more marked in the town where I live, where Ottakars is thriving and lively, and offers a great selection of books. Waterstones on the other hand seems static and stale. There are whole sections of books upstairs that no one bothers to go to, because no one knows they are there.
As a local self published author, Ottakars have also been incredibly supportive, hosting a succesful launch party for my book, Running on Empty: Diary of a Marathon Mum, and offering me back up afterwards. Waterstone’s on the other hand is a lot less approachable.
I am therefore very dismayed about the Wottakers buyout,which I think can only be bad news for the book industry as a whole.
Well done for a brilliant article!
Best wishes
Julia Moffatt
Thanks Julia. I think the children’s bookselling issue is very important. I have nieces and lots of friends with kids, so over the years have done the classic thing of asking booksellers what they recommend that the darling mites won’t have read. The response varies enormously from a lazy wave of the arm towards a shabby display in a dark corner to really great advice. You can bet who gets my dollar. Ottakar’s has been universally good, Waterstone’s very mixed (that said the best service I ever received in a bookshop was in Watersone’s Croydon, when the book assistant could not do enough to help). Independents, sadly, have also been very mixed. One of the best is my local, the Bookseller Crow on the Hill, who seem very happy to let kids sit down and read in store, rather than standing over them ready to pounce in case they make a mess. I can see why so many parents go there. If the new management at Waterstone’s is serious, your points are ones they absolutely need to address.
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