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As Salaamu Alaikum,
I have been in the publishing game for 10 years. I have
learned a lot. I do business with the established distributors
I don't care about color, etc. I am a publisher not just a black or female
publisher. Patience is key. Networking is key. I am all for us
organizing and going public if A and B does not stop what it is attempting to do
today!
Foul! It may take longer to get the money but I can wait
for Ingram, Baker and Taylor and a few sales companies to get the my titles out
there for me. Plus I can always sell my own that is how I started selling
my titles from the back of my husband's van.
Please visit www.spencer-majeed.com and buy our
books. Don't let anyone ask you for more than 40% to sell your book in a
store and 55% for online. Don't panic because sales are slow. Get a
part-time job if you have to keep your publishing business going for a
while.
If you are an author with a publisher call me at (404)
366-6610. We will treat you right and we have worked hard and smart to get
our titles in the mainstream. Visit www.bn.com, www.amazon.com for the titles Joy of Islam and
Nigga Sam I Am: Presidential Campaign Pieces.
A&B Distributors shame on you!
ma salaam
Hadayai Majeed
1000 Peace Women 2005
*************************************************************************** {Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy Quran-16:125) {And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33) The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim] The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all." [Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- All views expressed herein belong to the individuals concerned and do not in any way reflect the official views of IslamCity unless sanctioned or approved otherwise. If your mailbox clogged with mails from IslamCity, you may wish to get a daily digest of emails by logging-on to http://www.yahoogroups.com to change your mail delivery settings or email the moderators at [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the title "change to daily digest". YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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--- Begin Message -------Original Message Follows---- From: Denise Campbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [UrbanBlackThinkTank] A&B Exploits Authors - PLEASE READ!!! Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 21:17:07 -0500Sent: Friday, December 30, 2005 5:02 PM Subject: A&B Exploits Authors - PLEASE READ!!! Greetings, The name of the game is longevity. As authors/publishers we are facing hard times and as you probably know by now, Culture Plus Books is no longer in business. We cannot afford to lose another distributor, but at the same token, we cannot allow them to exploit our businesses. By now, you may have received a call from A&B Book Distributors requesting that you increase their share from 60% to nearly 80%. Let's do the math-if your price point is $15.00, you will receive $6.00 per unit. NOW , they want to give us $4.00 (20%) per copy in cash if you sell a certain quantity to them upfront. However, we are the authors/publishers putting our hearts and souls into these titles and WE take the risk with the book manufacturer. Distributors are only responsible for getting the title from their warehouse to the stores/street vendors. Remember, you still have to promote the book (printing bookmarks, posters, flyers, etc.) and pay for the printing as well as storing your title(s). You may even have the responsibility of paying authors out of that money. This request is an INSULT!!! It's not as if A&B is forwarding the discount to the stores or the street vendors. They have actually raised their percentage requiring the bookstores/vendors pay a 5% increase. This means A&B gets to pocket more of YOUR money if we take the $4.00 offer. However, if we maintain the discount of 60% we'll remain in the positive instead of the negative. Nevertheless, this increase to the stores is beneficial to authors/publishers if we stand firm and do not give in to the $4.00 offer, because consumers will have to pay the cover price. If you were to receive distribution from Ingram, Amazon.com, Biblio, Baker & Taylor, Bookazine, etc. they do not exploit us in this manner. The above mentioned distributors receive 55%, which is standard. We already allowed the African-American distributors (Culture Plus and A&B) to take 60%, which is greater than the major distributors. Do we continue to lower our standards and end up seeing our titles on the $5.00 and $7.00 tables? We understand that the above distributors don't get the numbers that A&B does, but A&B is not taking advantage of the open market that Culture Plus left wide open. Why are we selling ourselves short? Think about this. It is detrimental if we are to survive this cold storm. The consumers are now corrupted because of the authors/publishers taking a quick buck. Consumers no longer want to pay the face value of the book; they want to receive the NEW titles for $7.00. This is ridiculous!!! We have to take responsibility for what is taking place before our eyes. Individual authors/publishers have been selling books to street vendors for $4.00-$5.00 when the normal is $8-$9.00. There was a time when stores and street vendors only received 40% off of the cover, but now the game has been reversed and it doesn't make sense. Why should they get more money when it's your product? Why should they reap the benefits when we are the authors/publishers toiling to make this happen? If we want to consider ourselves shrewd business people, then we need to behave as such. There is a code of ethics among major publishers (Random House, Kensington, Simon & Schuster, St. Martins, etc.). Under no circumstance do they bend or comprise their business and under value their titles. They sell them at a set price and the distributors are bound to this figure. There is no haggling. We are taking a lucrative business and making it a dollar hustle. We should really come full circle, stick together and bring the game where it used to be. If we continue to sell our titles to the street vendors for $4-$6 the only titles that will continue to sell consistently are the titles distributed by major publishers (S&S, St. Martin's, etc), because vendors no longer feel the need to visit A&B Book Distributors making them extinct as well. We cannot afford to lose another distributor, particularly A&B Book Distributors . Let's help A&B grow, but not while placing our livelihoods at stake. Stop peddling titles to vendors/stores for pennies and allow A&B to do their jobs. This message is not meant to discredit or deface A&B or any other African-American distributor. However, if things don't change soon, we (authors/publishers) face extinction. If you don't have a deal with a major publisher, it's a wrap! Nothing happens overnight, but patience is definitely a virtue. Let's develop a code of ethics amongst each other and stop selling ourselves short. We all gotta eat, but at what price? Please think about all that has been said and pass this message along to your fellow author/publisher friends and chat boards. Authors Helping Authors [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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