Life on the road ain’t what it used to be, and the easy money’s long gone. Such is the tale of most independent sales reps — but, on the other hand, “it’s a hell of a lot better than being in house!” attests New England’s Nanci McCrackin, who’s not alone in her sentiment. West Coast rep Howard Karel pointed to the predicted demise of this sector some 30 years ago, but notes it’s still going strong, and it will be 30 years from now. There’s no denying: It’s still a struggle; but that’s due more to the decline of the independent bookseller and the demise of regional chains than to the dearth of publisher accounts, or the re-entry into the distribution business of the largest publishers, who trumpet the use of their own in-house sales reps and telemarketing when pursuing new client publishers. Far from a disappearing breed, independent reps might even call what they’re going through a new Golden Age.
Well, not exactly. The regional chains and wholesalers, once the independent sales reps’ bread and butter, have all but disappeared from the landscape. There are some museum stores, but as Consolino & Watson’s Michael Watson stated, even in Boston — museum town par excellence — they have succumbed to sourcing their own exclusive “product,” which represents another lost source of revenue for the rep. Specialty stores, such as gay and lesbian and mystery shops, might account for some additional sales, but the gift market is pretty much off limits, says Stu Abraham of Abraham Associates. So nowadays their purview is limited to the ABA stores and some ID wholesalers. Indie reps increasingly play important roles in getting the major chains to take a gander at the burgeoning number of small presses. And many represent their medium-sized publishers to certain key accounts, such as Books-A-Million and AWBC. Others, such as Fujii’s Don Sturtz, sell BGI for certain mid-sized accounts.
Workman is probably the largest publisher which has shown the greatest loyalty to commission groups, and after 30-plus years, still has the same reps in place. Hugh Andrews, Andrews McMeel Director of Sales, says they too have had the same commission groups selling for them for over 20 years, and he asserts, “they have the finest representation in the business.” What really matters is the relationship of the rep with the account and the publisher, and some of these date from “time immemorial.” Terry Wybel sells B&N for Andrews McMeel, for instance and has done so since it was B Dalton in Minneapolis.
In addition to Workman and Andrews McMeel, several other larger publishers, like Sterling, only use commission reps. This means that Angie Smits of Southern Territory Associates, gets to sell Sterling titles to the lucrative Ingram and Books-A-Million accounts. She says the “blended” publishers have proved to be a real boon, even if they are only covering smaller accounts; having Harcourt, Chronicle or Abrams in your bag opens all doors. For an independent rep group, getting in to see accounts could pose a problem — given the number of active publishers out there, large and small — so a prestigious publishing account is a must.
In the past, when publishers or distributors reached a certain sales volume, the decision was made to switch to a more cost-effective house-rep. Today, a more likely practice would be that of Perseus, which, following its acquisition of Running Press, merged its house reps with RP’s commission groups, to great effect says Matty Goldberg, VP Sales and Marketing. Likewise, Abrams/STC a few years ago created their own house sales force, but discovered what many medium-sized publishers have already realized — the rep who’s already on the road can fill in secondary accounts much better than even the most professional telemarketing sales force — so they’ve rehired a number of the same sales groups. Others, such as Harcourt and Norton, have also created a blend of house and commission reps. Harcourt’s Paul von Drasek says the only way to sell children’s picture books is face-to-face, so this dictates the presence of a commission rep. Houghton’s Gary Gentel agrees, and both feel strongly that the groups shouldn’t just handle small accounts — there needs to be sufficient business and revenues for them to make it worth their while.
Accountability
On the distributor front, PGW recently went to all in-house field and telemarketing reps, while Consortium uses all indie reps; and NBN/Biblio has a mix of in-house and commissioned. The latter’s rep groups across the country complement house reps on secondary accounts, but it uses a commission group only to cover the Northeast. Julie Schaper, President & CEO of Consortium, cites the “great coverage and extraordinary depth” that indie reps provide, and others echo this. Consortium has 23 reps selling its distributed publishers, a number Schaper says she couldn’t possibly afford on staff. They travel great distances to put a body in front of the bookseller — something the majors are doing less and less, she says. It does become more challenging during selling seasons though, as the reps are often on the road and can’t drop everything to contact accounts when a title starts to track with the New York Times. And of course, as independent contractors, they won’t do call reports, and in the eyes of some, lack the “aura” that comes with representing a large publisher marshalling all its forces.
Sales conferences take up a lot of time, and the commission reps loyally attend from beginning to end — indistinguishable from the house reps. Some of the reps we talked to felt this time could be better spent on strategy, terms, customer service, etc. Technology has been a boon to these independent contractors: less paperwork, automated tracking of payments and orders, no physical inventories, no backlist orders. These improvements allow them to focus on digging for the increasingly elusive new account.
Territorial integrity has stayed pretty much the same with the US still divided into six to eight distinct selling zones. Pressures in New England and the mid-Atlantic, however, did lead to some “leakage.” With the closing of Crown, the Bibelot stores, and others, there has been an inclination to look north from the mid-Atlantic, and groups such as Chesapeake & Hudson and Parson Weems have gravitated up there.
Though 2003 was a universally rotten year for everyone, the consensus is that 2004 has to be better. Going forward, there’s some concern among publishers that they aren’t seeing many new faces amongst their sales groups — they love their reps but wonder if they might be getting a bit long in the tooth. But Stu Abraham disputes that — he’s got two (relatively) young’uns on his team — and Smits and her three colleagues are in the process of buying Southern Territories from Jim Shepherd and Ed Springer. … And then there’s the iconoclastic, ever-intrepid David Godine, who has completely dispensed with almost all his reps, and now sells every book himself!
