| Who Owns Your Books: The PGW Dilemma |
| Why is it that judges and courts think that distributors own the books of their publishing clients? It just doesn't make sense. Now it seems that even with a contract stating that the books remain the property of the publishers, the AMS bankruptcy is resulting in AMS and Wells Fargo making a claim on the books stored in Publishers Group West's warehouse. So, the publishers -- who will already lose much or all of the proceeds from holiday book sales made via bookstores -- might now also lose their entire remaining inventory to the sordid hands of banks and creditors. Now, I love banks and have a Wells Fargo credit card. But, if they go through with this forced sale of publishers's books, I will no longer do business with Wells Fargo. And I will call them scum-suckers, to boot. Many of the publishers with PGW are good friends of mine and incredible publishers. I would hate to see them brought down by the incompetence and malfeasance of the AMS leadership -- which has nothing to do with the competence and capabilities of the PGW leadership and the incredible publishers who have been long-time clients of PGW. I've been caught in a distributor bankruptcy myself -- and lost about $10,000 in receiveables and some inventory. I knew it was coming, however, and protected myself by switching distribution companies before the bankruptcy actually occurred. So I simply never got paid for my remaining receiveables (which I had already limited). Personally, as a publisher, I would have left PGW ten months ago. AMS has been having a series of business issues over the past few years and, even for a perpetual optimist like myself, I couldn't see them making their way out of it, as much as I had hoped they would. Perhaps I should have questioned my friends more closely much sooner. What you should do if you have a distributor is to begin asking the tough questions, especially if payments start getting slower or other questions start popping up. It takes quite a great businessperson or persons to make a success of any distribution business. To my mind, it's not an easy business model, so I admire the people who carry out such a business successfully -- including the original owners and executives of PGW. Labels: book distribution, PGW, Publishers Group West, publishing law |
posted by John Kremer @
8:12 PM
2 comments |
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Open Horizons, P.O. Box 2887, Taos NM 87571 Phone: 575-751-3398 Email: John Kremer Copyright © 2008 by John Kremer. All Rights Reserved |
2 Comments:
Hmmm, food for thought.
Not only has my publisher been having serious troubles (book out 10 weeks, media copies just shipping for example), but distribution has some issues (which I honestly do not remotely fully understand).
Maybe it's not paranoia?
(Love my publisher, but .. ?)
Wow. I never once considered the scenario you discussed. I self-publish, and self-sell at the moment, so I don't have any distributors to worry about. BUT, I have considered using one, since I have been told I could get much more exposure to retailers that target gluten-free diets. Certainly I could get more exposure than I currently get just by selling my recipe book through my own Gluten-Free Cookbook website.
I have to rethink considering a distributor now, unless I can somehow get one with verifiable solid finances. And, after reading the comment from another reader above, I'm thinking even less of using distributors. argghhh.
Good blog btw! love it.
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