Comments on: Author alert! What you don’t know about BookScan can hurt you

By: Les Edgerton

Les Edgerton — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:14:29 +0000

Great post, Alan. I talked about Bookscan in my book Hooked a few years ago and your post is right on the money. The problem with it is like you stated–it only covers POS numbers. This can really hurt authors. For instance, my own Writer’s Digest books have both earned out their advances within six weeks of publication, but their sales aren’t reported as many sales were through the book club, Amaazon, B&N online, etc., which aren’t reflected. As I understand it, mainly sales from brick and mortar box stores are recorded. It’s a problem with many agents. I was sitting in an agent’s office one day when he got a call from a publisher on a client’s new book proposal offering (not mine), that they were turning it down as their accounting dept. had seen the Bookscan figures for his last book and they weren’t good enough. The agent just happened to have that client’s last royalty statement in his hand when the publisher called and the figures on that statement were over three times more than what Bookscan reported. He was furious and told the editor what he had in his hand. The editor said he completely understood and sympathized and said he knew they underreported true sales all the time… but his hands were tied. It was his publishing company’s (a Big Six pub) ironclad policy to always go by Bookscan when deciding on a new book, even though he was well aware of how flawed they were. The agent told me this happened all the time and he didn’t know how to combat it. He said everyone in the industry was aware of their incomplete and inaccurate reports as to actual sales, but accounting ran everything and they always went by Bookscan. He fights it sometimes, by showing them other, truer figures, but he admitted he didn’t have the time nor resources to do it for everyone and even when he did, he often lost the argument.

What’s a writer (and an agent) to do? Actually, this might be an opportunity for someone to start up a new company that takes ALL legitimate sales numbers to create a true picture of sales… Entrepreneurs…?

By: Things You Need To Know About BookScan « Writing and Illustrating

Things You Need To Know About BookScan « Writing and Illustrating — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:18:30 +0000

[...] Click this link to read Alan advice to writers. [...]

By: Nielsen BookScan To Track Ebook Sales by the End of 2010? | Moses and Dionysus Walk Into a Bar ...

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 23:37:02 +0000

[...] Rinzler writes: BookScan numbers are like an author’s credit [...]

By: Patricia V. Davis

Patricia V. Davis — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 03:33:56 +0000

Alan, this is excellent information and the added comments by Steve equally helpful. Would you consider adding a ‘tweet button’ to your blog, so that we can more easily pass the info onto others?

Thanks for the post!

Best wishes,
Patricia

By: John Wiswell

John Wiswell — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:07:21 +0000

As a balance against the claims of publishers Bookscan could be very useful. It’s naturally scary to authors with unimpressive numbers, but if it’s to exist then it’s good we know about it and find ways to utilize it. Thanks for the post!

By: Jason Gilmore

Jason Gilmore — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:19:28 +0000

@m s,

I think you’re missing the point. Bookscan exists because it is an unbiased aggregator of book sales. If bookscan contacted the publisher, there’s a possibility the publisher could provide inflated sales numbers for a variety of strategical reasons.

As for enacting YAL (Yet Another Law), I’d rather continue to rely upon the efficient self-policing rules already built into the publishing market instead of looking to of all organizational bodies the federal government. Fraud of the sort you’re referring to is nonexistent within reputable circles of the publishing industry.

Jason

By: A Challenge for my Fellow Authors (Sharing Royalty/Earning Statements) « Kimberly Pauley

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:00:00 +0000

[...] also just found this article on Bookscan. Definitely worth a read. I had no idea! I’m learning every [...]

By: m s

m s — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:40:08 +0000

Hi, I believe you could be 100% accurate by simply contacting the publisher of any published book. Keep in mind who produces the book, and has to record total number of books sold at the years end! If I wanted accurate numbers, all bookscan has to do is contact the publisher. I cant see why it’s more important that bookscan has the facts on sales, but not the author who wrote the book? Instead of auditing publishers, I think a law should be set in place that all publishers have to provide the IRS, reports on all sales of every title, so authors aren’t cheated royalties due them, where’s their protection?

By: michelle

michelle — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:47:44 +0000

Publishers are the only source of Bookscan numbers for an author, other than paying Bookscan the reasonable one-time fee of $85? For authors who dispute their royalty statements, this is a problem.

By: Jordan Dane

Jordan Dane — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:08:16 +0000

This article was very enlightening and I thank you for sharing the information and doing such a thorough job.

I was fortunate enough to become lead title for my publisher as a debut author in mass market paperback and had 3 books released back to back in 2008. I learned a lot from the experience. And with a new series starting in 2009, I’m hoping to expand my knowledge base. And your single ISBN report is a great idea. Thanks.

In 2008, I subscribed to the discounted RWA Bookscan for the top 100 romances and looked at it religiously after my 2008 releases, but have reconsidered renewing my subscription because Bookscan only represents 25-30% of my total sales. I had 3 books released in 2008 and had painstakingly gone over these numbers until I got my first royalty stmt. My publisher had also provided sales to me by contacting their 10-12 key accts and they also got Walmart numbers in their totals (which is 35-45% of my total sales). (And the smaller wholesale markets–airports, drug & grocery stores, etc–are harder to get on a timely basis.) Getting reliable sales numbers in a timely manner is next to impossible, from my experience, without Wal-mart reporting.

And with regard to selling at workshops without a bookstore transacting sales. Because I do speaking engagements where they request I sell books on my own, I’ve negotiated a special rate (40% discount) from a local indy store that I love. It allows them to make a little money on my wholesale transactions and I get official sales off the books I buy from them. I can purchase through my publisher at a steeper discount – 50% – but those sales don’t go against my official numbers. So I’ve chosen to handle my own sales this way to support my local indy store as well as have my purchases become a part of my official sales numbers. This might be a helpful tip for your readers.

Thanks again for your great article.