Library Girl and Book Boy explain how you can support indie publishers!

We love this brilliant, insightful blog post from fab book blogger Library Girl and Book Boy! They’ve taken an in-depth look at the issues facing small, independent publishers like Tiny Owl and how readers can help to support them. Read the amazing post below!

SUPPORT OUR SMALL INDEPENDENT AND BAME PUBLISHERS – HOW YOU CAN HELP!

It was chatting to Karim and the team from Tiny Owl at the CLiPPA awards which gave me the inspiration for this blog post. There they were, a small award-winning independent publisher with a fantastic and diverse catalogue of titles, yet they still found it very difficult to get their books into the larger retailers. Why was this? Would winning a national poetry award for their title ‘Thinker: My Puppy Poet and Me,’ by Eloise Greenfield, illustrated by Ehsan Abdollahi change things? They weren’t so sure.

I was interested to know what barriers there were to the smaller publishers and what we (the book-buying public) and them (as the publishers) could do to try and change this. The response was very interesting….

Let’s start with the perspective of Karim himself from Tiny Owl:

There’s a real desire amongst reader for high quality diverse and inclusive children’s books, but if you go into a big high street retailer, they’re very difficult to find. Larger bookshops often have an unconscious bias against diverse books. They see them as financially risky, so don’t put them in a prominent place where customers can find them easily, if they stock them at all. Tiny Owl started our campaign ‘Diversity Now!’ to address this issue. If you want to see diverse books represented in shops, the best way to help is to go in and request them. When retailers recognise the demand, they’ll start to give these books the attention they deserve. You can also shout out on social media about diverse books you love to help spread the word!

And here’s Charlotte Hacking from CLPE who was one of the organisers of the CLiPPA Awards:

I’d agree with Karim though that it’s all about demand and sales, so I see our role as making sure we highlight books that reflect a range of realities as we see them and make sure teachers, librarians and university providers know about these books.

In that way, these get passed on to children to enjoy and in turn to parents and these two key demographics are the ones who need to ask for the books as they are the key sales market. It’s not that teachers and parents won’t buy these books, it’s that they can’t if they aren’t widely available and don’t know about them to ask for them if they can’t see them in stores.

A prominent display as Karim also says is helpful. Waterstones in Bromley, where I live, did this recently with a great selection of YA books but it needs to filter across MG, Early Readers and Picturebooks too. And also needs to be across branches, not just in selected stores.

Now let’s hear from Sonya McGilchrist at Dino Books :

About Dinosaur Books Ltd: we’re a small, start-up publisher of fiction for children aged 5 – 12. Our focus is on quality fiction – stories that are exciting – but also thoughtful, imaginative and, we hope, that will encourage our readers to think. I set up the company up and I edit all our titles which are naturally inclusive, reflecting my background (BAME, working class) and the fact that we publish authors from a range of backgrounds.

We’ve had titles in a couple of large bookshops – our sales reps have persuaded the buyers at those shops to take them because they have a relationship with the buyers. However the quantities taken are quite small and getting re-orders has been difficult – even though the titles sold well. The advice we have had, from the reps who sell to the bookshops, is that the book buyers (the people making the decisions about which books to stock) need to develop relationships with publishers, and if you’re a small publisher, like ourselves, that’s difficult for them because we produce fewer titles per year than the medium sized/larger publishers, so they’ve less opportunity to get to know us and our titles.

It would be fantastic if the larger chains such as Foyles, Daunts and Waterstones, could commit to supporting fiction from small, start up and micro presses. Perhaps they could hold an occasional event where small publishers get the chance to chat to book buyers and show them some titles, (and the often great reviews those titles are getting from readers and respected bloggers like you). This could be commercially productive for bookshops too, in getting the chance to consider a wider range of publishers and because I think that readers want the opportunity to choose from a diverse range of book suppliers. The shops could then capitalise on being “small, independent/diverse publisher friendly” in their marketing. Many of the small publishers are producing inclusive and diverse fiction and by including them in their offering to readers, shops would naturally be expanding their range of BAME produced, authored and illustrated titles.

Katrina Gutierrez, Head of Communications at Lantana Publishing:

Small publishers have found it difficult to break into big retail chains because they have a commercial and promotional preference towards the mainstream houses. As a small publisher whose catalogue mostly consists of books by BAME authors and illustrators where children of colour are the stars, we have an extra hurdle to clear. Diverse books are still considered “niche” by many big retailers because they still do not believe there is a demand for books like ours.

Independent bookshops and libraries have led the way in championing a diverse bookshelf. But it seems that the only way for small publishers to make it onto the bookshelves of big retailers is if customers demand it from them. So we need you to be our heroes. Go to your favourite big bookshop and request for diverse titles from your favourite small publisher. Tell your friends, family – everyone! – to ask for these books, too. Do it over and over again. And maybe one day your favourite big retailer won’t even think twice about stocking books from small publishers. For this miracle, and for everything you do for small publishers, the Lantana team gives our thanks.

Helen and Abiola from Hashtag Press:

At Hashtag press we have a dedicated sales team and great distribution with all the major distributors. Our sales team pitch out our titles at least 6 months before publication date to the big stores like Waterstones/ Foyles and to the indies. In house, we pitch directly to independent bookstores as well. For the public to know more about our titles, it would be good if the indie bookshops supported the smaller publishing houses more by taking a chance on their titles. Totally understand that you need the bestsellers to make money but if Waterstones are selling the same books and have a 241 offer, would you not just go to them or Amazon?

If the public can see different titles, they’ll support the smaller pub houses more. We can’t compete against the large publishers of the world so we need all support we can get. It’s all good telling the public to shop at more indie stores but if they only have the same titles as the big chains – what’s the point?

Greet Pauwelijn from Book Island:

At Book Island I’ve been very fortunate to have the support of many small, independent bookshops. Without them we probably wouldn’t be here anymore. I don’t get much support from the biggest bookshop chains at all. That’s probably because I’m rather stubborn when it comes to the format of our books. I’m convinced that a beautiful picture book should come as a hardback and I know that many of our customers agree with me on that. The hardback editions have become part of our brand. One of the chains only orders very small quantities of our titles, simply because they’re in hardback.

Fortunately, most of the independents are more open-minded and adventurous in their taste. The bigger shops are also wary of titles with a RRP above 9.99, while those are the Book Island titles that have done much better for us than the cheaper ones. When I look at the feedback from our customers and our sales figures, I know we’re making the right choices. Another reason why some of our books can be hard to find in the big shops is that they might be dealing with topics that are conceived by some of their buyers as difficult. I’m thinking of books dealing with grief, depression or titles that don’t have a happy ending, such as Mum’s Jumper, Virginia Wolf and Fox&Goldfish. As a publisher I’m on a mission to normalise those topics and introduce picture books from around the world to English-language readers. I can tell from our daily sales reports that many of our followers respond to our social media posts by going straight into their local independent and ordering the book we’ve been talking about.

I’m a strong supporter of the brick and mortar bookshops and will do everything I can to point our followers to their local independents. Very soon we will start a campaign which will reward every customer who buys our books from a real person. I invite all our followers to check out our titles in their local independents to find out more about this special campaign. If they don’t stock our titles yet, we’d love you to introduce them to our list. 6812BD21-F546-42F1-AF32-EDE87B8DC8D7 Fay Erek from AlannaMax:

At AlannaMax we’ve had tremendous support from many Independent bookshops and some on-line retailers like Letterbox Library. We also sell LOADS when we organise events. We regularly hear people say “these books are amazing, but I’ve never seen them in my local bookshop)”. It’s often a big chain.

As small publishers, it is hard for us to compete with the marketing budgets and sales clout of bigger publishers. We would invite people who like our books to bring them to the attention of buyers by ordering them in specially. If our books are in high demand they will have no choice but to supply. One other effective way of supporting us is to use the power of social media. If they mention their local large chain or independent bookshop when they post on social media, it will bring our books to their attention.

Bella Pearson from Guppy Books:

As a fledgling independent publisher of children’s books, I have so far received only enthusiasm and encouragement from both independent bookshops and also many of the larger independents and chains; having been in the business for many years has no doubt helped, but I think that publishing an unusual and contemporary novel as Guppy’s launch title has also been a huge advantage (GLOVES OFF is a powerful YA novel in verse about body-image, bullying and boxing). There is a sense that new is bold and exciting; independent publishers are an innovative and more open-minded prospect at a time when the bigger publishers are getting larger and larger and the smaller more bespoke/unusual projects are not given the space they need. Books and authors of high quality can get caught in the gaps and disappear without trace in those giant behemoths that dominate the market. So that’s where the nimble and more open indie publishers can step in, in both the adult and children’s book world. And readers can help them by buying their books and supporting small publishers on social media – and looking out for their books in the future! And purchasing as much as possible from shops on the high street too.

A thought-provoking set of responses with some common themes and struggles coming through. But why do we need greater representation for these publishers?

Well, books are the windows into worlds other than your own. A diverse and varied reading diet can open children’s eyes to experiences and cultures outside of their own. They can help start conversations and develop empathy. They can allow readers and their families to see themselves and those of others represented in a book. Surely all these things are invaluable in a society which seems to be closing doors and narrowing spheres of representation on a daily basis?

Should children only be able to access the more mainstream and commercialised titles, or would they also benefit from something a little different? This is where the independents can come into their own – offering titles from other cultures in translation and championing less well-known authors and illustrators.

If you’d like to see greater representation of small independent and BAME publishers in your local bookshops, here’s what you could do to help:

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I’d like to finish by saying a huge thank you to all the wonderful people above for taking the time to compose their piece for this blog post – you have given us all a lot of very valuable insights.

It’s also important at this point to urge anybody reading to click on the website links above, look at some gorgeous and diverse titles, buy some and tell all your friends. Loudly!

#SmallIsBeautiful #DiversityNow

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