Policies for Books on Consignment

We have the following policies for accepting books on consignment:

•    They cannot be print-on-demand or from subsidy publishers such as Authorhouse, iUniverse, XLibris, and PublishAmerica.  Books must be available from Ingram or Baker & Taylor at a regular discount, which is 40% to 42%; these wholesalers do not charge freight.  Books must be listed by Ingram and/or Baker & Taylor as being returnable
•    Books must be listed on Books in Print.  This gives us lots of information on the book: a synopsis, physical details, number of books that the wholesalers carry (if they only carry two or three, sales are much less likely than those of which they carry hundreds).
•    Books must be price competitive.  Trade paperbacks must have a cover price of $16 or under, preferably $13 or $14.  Hardbound prices depend on size and number of photographs or plates - fiction maximum is $28, preferably $25 or less.
•    Books must be appealing to our customers.  We are a coastal community in Orange County, California with an upscale demographic.

Latitude 33 has found that almost all books taken on consignment register their sales within the first four months.  Only books considered perennials and/or with great local interest seem to be exceptions.  Unless Latitude 33 staff communicate to the author that it falls into one of those categories, four months after putting a book on sale, Latitude 33 will provide to its author or the author’s agent a check for sixty percent of actual sales of the book with the remaining unsold books.  Unsold books left for more than eight months without further follow-up by the author or agent will be considered abandoned and will be removed from the shelves, to be donated to charitable organizations.

Like most bookstores, Latitude 33 receives hundreds of requests each year from authors who want us to carry their books.  We suggest to potential authors that independent and chain bookstores have had very, very little success with self-published books and books from vanity presses.  According to the New York Times, AuthorHouse reported selling more than 2.5 million books in 2008, which sounds like a lot, but averages out to around fifty-four sales per title.  In a 2008 article in the Times, iUniverse VP Susan Driscoll admitted that most iUniverse authors sell fewer than 200 books. The general rule seems to be that if the author paid to have a book published, bookstores will not touch it.

The exception is for local authors: we will stock their books for four months and host signings.

Policies for Author Events

Latitude 33 encourages book signings and readings by local authors and authors of books meeting the above criteria. We will submit notification of the event to all relevant newspapers, which typically include the events in their calendar sections. We publicize the events in our newsletters, as well as on our website. We have found that the most successful author events are those where there is a great deal of publicity generated by the author and/or agents, such as feature articles in newspapers and coverage by television. Authors should direct the publicity department of their publisher to assist in publicity.

Local authors do best when they have Latitude 33 provide the venue for an event, to which they invite everyone they know within driving distance, and when they get feature stories done on them in the local newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, and the Orange County Register, with the articles mentioning the author event at Latitude 33. We schedule author events not less than ten days before the beginning of the month of the event - the earlier the better. Because of parking difficulty in July and August, we rarely schedule events during those months, and we almost never schedule author events for Saturdays or during the month of December.