Signature News: May 2022, The New Normal for Small Publishers

May 26

Written By Guest User

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Vol. 3 | No. 3

May 2022

THE NEW NORMAL FOR SMALL PUBLISHERS

In the last decade, the publishing industry has faced many challenges. When online booksellers and ebooks became popular with readers, Signature Books had to adapt. We contracted with a distributor that could negotiate better terms for us with major retailers, and help us reach more readers. We began releasing our ebooks at the same time as our print editions, and found that this was also a great format to extend the availability of titles that were out of print. In 2019 we entered the audiobook space, and are moving forward with a goal to increase our offerings there.

Pricing has been a major challenge for small publishers in this transition, and it has taken a major toll on independent bookstores as well. The deep discounts offered by high-volume booksellers changed the perceived cost of books to many customers, and the ordering and return processes of these stores create unpredictable fluctuations in our inventory. In the last few years we looked at ways to make many of our new titles more affordable to readers. Then the pandemic hit.

With our distributor and printers shut down for several weeks, we weren’t sure how deeply Signature would be impacted. Things began to open up again with limited staff and we found that the flexibility of short-run digital printing allowed us to get new paperback releases into the hands of our customers faster because less labor was involved in producing the books. With our new hardback releases we began seeing minor delays, but major increases in shipping costs. As 2020 came to a close, it seemed that things were starting to return to normal. Then the labor shortage hit.

Before the pandemic, it would take four-to-six-weeks to get a book printed and delivered to our distributor. A digitally printed paperback would take three to four weeks to get the first run stocked, and just a few days to reprint an order. In 2021, our suppliers were running on skeleton crews and the turnaround times doubled—orders were taking about a month to ship to stores. The New York Times ran a story about how the delays were affecting the industry. It was the perfect storm … then the paper shortage hit.

We had typeset most of our titles for 2022 with three months of lead time, more than enough time to have books in stores before release dates. But now printers couldn’t get enough paper to fill orders. Our hardback supplier notified us of price increases, paper substitutions, and increased turnaround times. In a matter of months, our printing costs have increased about 20 percent, it’s taking eighteen-to-twenty-four weeks to get fine hardback books produced, and digital printings are taking up to six weeks to produce. Publishers Weekly recently reported that some printers are projecting turnaround times of one-to-three years if paper production doesn’t increase.

As a result, Signature Books is using every tool in our toolbox to adapt to these changes. We’re working to find ways to keep releasing titles while keeping our prices reasonable for all readers. There will be times when books are delayed or out of stock in stores. Please know that we are also frustrated with this situation, but we are dedicated to making the best of an unbelievably bad set of circumstances. Thank you for being patient with us.

Jason Francis
Production Manager
Signature Books

Talk by Romney Burke Available

On May 12, 2022, Romney Burke spoke at Benchmark Books in Salt Lake City about his new book, Susa Young Gates: Daughter of Mormonism. It was a successful event attended by many, and Benchmark nearly sold out of all their copies. In case you missed it, a video of the event is available on YouTube, which you can see by clicking here. You can call Benchmark at 801-486-3111 to purchase a copy.

This is the first published biography of Gates, one of the most important figures in Utah during the second half of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth. A daughter of Brigham Young and Lucy Bigelow, she was involved in the national suffrage movement and, closer to home, founded important women's periodicals in the LDS Church.

Update on Signature's Ebooks

Since 2011 Signature has been building its ebook library. All new titles are released in ebook format, and many older titles are available as well, thanks to the dedicated work of staff member Greg Jones.

Listing them all here is not possible (there are several dozen!), but some of our latest from our backlist include Women and Authority: Re-Emerging Mormon Feminism, edited by Maxine Hanks, American Apocrypha: Essays on the Book of Mormon, edited by Dan Vogel and Brent Lee Metcalfe, and The Search for Harmony: Essays on Science and Mormonism, edited by Gene A. Sessions and Craig J. Oberg.

The Latest in Audiobooks

Do you like to listen to books when you drive, garden, or just while relaxing? If so, check out our current offerings. So far, our audiobooks include:

Two works by Levi Peterson, one being his classic novel, The Backslider, and his latest, Losing a Bit of Eden: Recent Stories, available for $24.95 each.

Jack Harrell's thoughtful and powerful novel Caldera Ridge, for $19.95. Read by the author.

Robert Hodgson Van Wagoner's recent psychological thriller, The Contortionists, available for $24.95. Read by the author.

Will Bagley's final book, a memoir called River Fever: Adventures on the Mississippi, 1969–1972. Available for $19.95. Read by the author.

Michael Hicks's Spencer Kimball's Record Collection, also available for $19.95. Read by the author.

There are more forthcoming, so keep an eye out. Never tried Audible? Give it a chance. You just might get hooked!

The Latest Podcast News

Episode four of the Signature Books Podcast is now live! This one features a discussion with Michael Fillerup about his new collection, The Year They Gave Women the Priesthood and Other Stories. Click here to listen to all four. Also, follow this podcast so that you can be alerted to new episodes as they come out. The podcast is available at Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Spotify. Wherever you get your podcasts, give ours a listen, and please follow!

Free Signature Titles Online at Archive.org; Signature Library Site to Phase Out

Have you checked out the free Signature titles at archive.org? What about the large collection of Mormon newspapers and periodicals? If not, you may want to be sitting down before you click on the link. Are you ready? OK, click here.

These items are all downloadable and searchable images of the actual printed books and papers. You will find all five volumes of Early Mormon Documents, edited by Dan Vogel; Vogel's eight-volume History of Joseph Smith and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; all thirteen volumes of our Significant Diary series; Women and Authority, edited by Maxine Hanks; Lucy's Book, edited by Lavina Fielding Anderson; historic newspapers such as The Evening and Morning Star, Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, Elders Journal, and Times and Seasons, to name just a few. This free offering is a dream come true for any Mormon historian and history buff.

Our old Signature Books Library, which for the past decade has featured many of our out-of-print titles, is being phased out and will be taken offline, due to the increased costs of updating, maintaining, and hosting the site. We know many of you have come to rely on this resource, but eventually you will find all of these titles as ebooks or on archive.org. Thank you for understanding.