Scottish printer, bookseller, and publisher Thomas Nelson passed away in 1861, but the Nashville, Tennessee-based book enterprise bearing his name carries on his mission to “publish affordable and wholesome Christian and classic literature for the common man.” In a recent interview with Bargain Books News, Barry Baird talked about Christian book publishing and what prompted Thomas Nelson, Inc. to venture into bargain book sales.
1. How did you get started in the book business?
I started selling books in 1978. The company was the Benson Company and the imprint was Impact books. The biggest author was the late Bob Benson and the publisher was Ann Severance, mother-in-law of Christian music star Michael W. Smith.
2. What brought you to Thomas Nelson and how long have you been there?
I have been with Thomas Nelson for almost 14 years. I had a first cousin who was a sales person in one of the divisions.
3. Tell us about Thomas Nelson – How old is the company? Is it publicly traded? How large in terms of volume? How many employees?
Thomas Nelson is the leading publisher of inspirational books and Bibles. The company is the tenth largest publisher in the United States and was started in Edinburgh, Scotland over 200 years ago. Thomas Nelson stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The annual sales are around $250-million and we have approximately 350 employees.
4. What are all of the imprints Thomas Nelson publishes under?
Thomas Nelson imprints include: Thomas Nelson Bible and Reference, Thomas Nelson Books, W Books, Tommy Nelson Books, J. Countryman Gift Books,WND Books, Rutledge Hill Press, Cool Springs Press, Nelson Multi Media Group, and Editorial Caribe. I think that is all of them.
5. Can you tell us about the target audiences of each imprint and how many titles are published under each annually?
I am unsure how many titles we publish per year, but here is an overview of the target audiences for each imprint:
Nelson Books and W Books are general Christian; Countryman encompasses Christian gift books and general gift trade; Editorial Caribe is for Spanish Speaking Christians; WND Books is directed toward conservative political readers; Rutledge Hill Press publishes general trade books and niche books; Cool Springs Press is gardening books; and Thomas Nelson Bible and Reference is Christian and general market.
6. Who is Thomas Nelson’s competition? Amazon? CBD? Half.net? Zondervan?
Nelson has many competitors. In terms of Bibles, Zondervan with the NIV
would be the biggest. The best selling version of the Bible is the King
James which is public domain, the next is Zondervan's NIV, and the third is
the imprint we own – the New King James. There are many book companies that
we compete with but none can match our overall number of authors and titles.
7. Tell us about your job and your department. What do you do?
I am the Executive Director of Bargain Book Sales and over Corporate Donations. As director, I manage a group of seven to eight sales people who sell the remainders and returns/hurts from all of the Nelson Imprints. In terms of personal sales, I do "large deal" selling. I oversee sales people who handle national accounts down to mom-and-pop stores. I meet monthly with our CEO, Sam Moore, and go over every aspect of my business.
In terms of Corporate Donations, Thomas Nelson makes very large donations every few years to ministries like World Vision. We do not do small donations because of time and expense. You can only imagine how many requests we receive. We try to provide low cost product to ministries who do a great amount of donating.
8. How much product do you move?
We move from 500,000 to 1,000,000 units per month.
9. Is the bargain/remainder book end of the business fairly new territory for Christian publishers?
I believe Thomas Nelson is the first Christian publisher to have a sales division completely dedicated to the selling of the bargain and remainder books and Bibles.
10. Has selling to the chains and mass market stores increased returns and created a need to sell them?
Yes, the mass market more than the ABA market. An example would be Sam's Club. To have a title in their book section you have to ship something like 10,000 units and if the book does not sell you have a lot of stickered books coming back.
11. In your opinion, why have Christian books become so appealing to the non-traditional Christian market or mass market?
I believe for the most part it has to do with money and in some cases, the demographics are a big factor. I believe Sam's and Wal-Mart customers are often Christian and conservative, thus a good fit with most Nelson products.
12. Have you seen or do you anticipate an increase in sales to independent, general trade bookstores that are not traditionally seen as Christian? How about to the chains like Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-A-Million, etc.? Why or why not?
As the case is made that inspirational books sell and as the numbers prove it to be true, more books will be sold in general trade. It is the same for bargain books in the general trade. We make a pitch for the category and then pitch our large market share and let the sales prove what we say.
13. Is the South still the prime region for Christian book sales or are there other regions in the U.S. that are strong markets for Christian titles?
The south is still the Bible Belt, but there is demand for our product everywhere.
14. When you sell returns or hurts, do you look at a certain percentage that you want to recover? Is that close to cost?
We always look at what we want to recover. We believe that our recovery is as high as it is because we have fewer people between our bargain books and the consumer. At some point I believe most of the large publishers, both inspirational and general trade, will have in-house divisions like ours.
15. What is the cost of printing Bibles, for example, versus hardbacks and trade papers?
Bibles cost at least twice as much as a hardback book.
16. How large is your distribution center(s) and where is it located?
It is in Nashville and very large. I am not sure how big
17. Can you explain the process to us? How does your warehouse get filled with returns and then who do you sell those returns to?
In our return center, returns are processed daily and pallets of books and Bibles are always being built. We start selling pallets as soon as they become visible in our system.
18. When that customer buys the product, do they know what they are getting?
When customers buy mixed pallets they receive a manifest that tells them what is on the pallet. It lists each title and how many are on the pallet.
19. Is it difficult for the small bookstores to take mixed skids?
For some small stores, the pallets are too large and the cost is too high. We refer those customers to people like SAS Sales who offer smaller assortments.
20. Do you re-jacket some of your hardcover returns or is it too time consuming?
When a book is really selling we re-jacket.
21. You also sell remainders, correct? What is the biggest remainder deal that you have completed?
The largest deal was for 26 truck loads. A few weeks after the product arrived, the customer died. We did not know what was going to happen. I'm happy to say we were paid for all of the books and still do very good business with the company the customer had owned.
22. Do you send out a bid list for remainders?
We don't do bid lists.
23. Is there a formula for how many books you remainder or when (timing) you remainder a book?
Yes, but it is far too complex for me to try and explain.
24. Do you shred or pulp any books?
We have, but not often.
25. Are trade shows an important part of your sales? If so, which ones do you attend both nationally and internationally?
Trade shows are very important. We attend CIROBE, CBA, CBA Expo, BEA, The Spring Book Show, On Board Show, and CIANNA.
26. Is your sales staff in house or do you have a sales force “on the road”?
The sales staff is in-house.
27. Do you have a strong presence overseas? Does Thomas Nelson print in foreign languages? If so, how many different languages?
We print in many languages and have distribution all over the world.
28. Do you have a website for bargain book sales? Why or why not?
No, we can not sell bargain books one at a time. We only sell in case lots. Website selling is direct to consumer.
29. Does Thomas Nelson sell frontlist over the Internet and does the company operate any retail stores?
The company does not have a retail store and we do sell the front list over the Internet. Our website is www.thomasnelson.com.
30. In your opinion, how has the remainder/bargain book business changed over the years?
The market has gotten bigger. Overall I would say people in bargain books, from buyers to sellers, are doing a better job in every area.
31. What are some of this industry’s greatest challenges?
Unscrupulous people who, in a variety of ways, victimize small and large companies alike.
Maryellen Duckett is a Tennessee-based freelance writer for National Geographic Traveler, Family Fun, and On the Road with Hampton magazines. She and her husband, Randall, are co-authors of the family travel books 100 Secrets of the Smokies and 100 Secrets of the Carolina Coast (Rutledge Hill Press).