I believe the LDS market is one of the most difficult in the U.S. because it lacks any independent market-wide advertising outlets and is driven by a single retail chain that is owned by the largest producer in the market. I believe this also makes the LDS market one of the slowest growing markets.

The whole point of anti-trust laws is to give business owners a chance to build their business (and, therefore, their markets) based on the quality of their products and services without the threat of competitor-restricted trade. This concept applies equally to authors, publishers, and bookstores. DB, especially now after their purchase of SBT & Covenant, affects all three.

1) Authors: By reducing the number of publishers in the market, authors have fewer opportunities to be published, both in terms of the number of books published each year, and in terms of culture. Fewer people to work with means fewer opportunities to find good working relationships.

2) Publishers: Publishers are affected by DB’s acquisition of SBT due to the increased effect of the publisher-and-retailer conflict of interest. DB’s choice to carry one book over another now impacts the vast majority of a book’s potential sales — and DB can make that choice to protect the products DB creates (an unfair trade advantage that we have already experienced).

3) Bookstores: If all publishers were equal, then removing one would not substantially change the influcence any other publisher has on a bookstore. However, DB’s acquisition of Covenant substantially increases the influence DB has over the independent bookstores. This leverage usually translates into insisting on store layout that favors DB’s products, or it can translate into larger minimum orders that reduce the bookstore’s ability to purchase other companies’ products.

Has DB reached a size that all this doom and gloom will come to pass? I don’t know. What I do know is that a nearly 14:1 ratio in size between DB retail and it’s next closest competitor does not bode well.

For this reason, I think any lawsuit against DB would be suicide for the alternative LDS publishers in general. They’d be branded as anti-church. Richard Dutcher threw up his hands and gave up after trying to break back into a market he created, but that got a bad reputation while he was out of action. Imagine trying to sell anything published anywhere BUT Deseret Book after some bright entrepreneur tried suing on behalf of the little guys, and the current barriers to reaching LDS readers will seem mild.

I think anti-trust laws are important, but trusting (no pun intended) in them is hazardous. Apple Computers languished largely because it stopped being innovative while it used the courts to try to win back the market stolen by Mircrosoft. But it lost its suit.

In the case of Deseret Book and its market dominance, there’d be no way for the little guys to win even if a lawsuit went against DB, and no matter who filed it and who could say they weren’t involved. They would be scorned and punished by the people who buy from DB.

DB’s biggest weakness — and the way it fails to serve the LDS consumer — is its lack of innovation. Hence it buys innovaters. But it changes in the process, too, and outside innovators can continue serving the LDS entertainment/literature consumer. The problem is, they have to be really good and really committed; they’d have to do something that DB doesn’t do, and doing it well.

It’s easier to worry about how DB is tilting the playing field. But I don’t think the courts are even capable of solving that problem, even if it were desirable.

Comment by Preston McConkie

1. This acquisiton should be reversed, if possible.

2. The Deseret Book stores should be sold off to another company or spun off into an independent entity, preferably one not owned by Deseret Management.

3. Deseret Book’s policies should be reviewed for how well they promote expanding the LDS market geographically and linguistically. Minimum order and account quantities should be small enough that independent bookstores can start easily. The bookstore chains that Deseret Book now owns should be encouraged to start stores that expand the market in these areas.

Other suggestions that I have can probably be gleaned from the three articles I wrote last year on the “Problem of Deseret Book”, which I referenced in the post above.

Unfortunately, the rest of your comments are again long on claims and short on evidence or logic.

You say there will be “Huge benefits to many authors.” Really? What benefits, or what kind of benefits? Why will they get these benefits now when they didn’t before?

You say, this merger gives authors “A great distribution arm.” A greater number of stores doesn’t necessarily make DB a “great distribution” system. In fact, one of the principal problems with this acquisition is that DB ends up with no direct competitor in the LDS market. No competition almost always means that a company doesn’t try as hard to figure out how to succeed. What about this acquisition makes DB a better “distribution arm” for authors?

You say this yields “a possible synergy bewteen the art and business of publishing that may astound all of us.” HUH? I don’t even know what this means! Perhaps I’m blinded by how much into the industry I am, but I don’t see any connection between the “art and business” of publishing and the combination of any two publishers. How exactly might DB’s acquisition of Covenant yield a synergy of any kind, let alone one between the “art and business” of publishing (of all things)?

You write “I suggest less ivory-tower talk” I’m really not sure what you mean by ‘ivory-tower talk’ — I’m not expecting anyone to have extensive knowledge of business theory or the publishing industry. I simply want to know the logic of how you get there. So far your logic seems to be something like ‘I like Deseret Book, so therefore this must be good.’

You then write that we should show “a little bit more blind, dumb, comman-man support and hope for the very best for a company that has served the LDS community fabulously for so many years.” I’m not sure I agree that Deseret Book has “served the LDS community fabulously,” but I will admit that it has done some very nice book, and that many of its inspirational titles have been a comfort to many, many LDS Church members. As for “blind, dumb, common-man support” I don’t have that for anyone. As Pres. John Taylor said, ” I would not be a slave to God! I’d be His servant, friend, His son. I’d go at His behest; but would not be His slave.” It is slaves that are “blind” and “dumb.” Servants see and talk.

Like a good servant, if I see something going awry, I say something. I’m not interested in controversy. I am interested in making the world a better place, and in seeing the gospel spread throughout the world. I am interested in spreading LDS culture as a support to that gospel.

AMV doesn’t do controversy for controversies sake. Nor do we court readers via controversy. We never have. This is a narrow interest blog with a small yet devoted readership.

What we are committed to is providing commentary and criticism on the world of LDS letters — including publishing and marketing.

Your point about the readership for literary fiction is well-taken.

I don’t have any strong theories about how this is going to play out, but I would like to see Mormon genre fiction continue to improve and I have to wonder if DB is going to accelarate or impede that process.

I think the reason many of us are distrustful is because of what happened with the Bookcraft acquisition.

You don’t need to build new shelves or expand your store to increase dedicated shelf space. All you have to do is stop giving so much space to Harry Potter, Chicken Soup for the Soul and the Golf Digest and replace them with Covenant-published books. A few window-dressing displays of Covenant products in Flag-ship DB stores are certainly in the works as well. At to that some end tables and story entry-stacks and Covenant enters a new marketing era in DB retail stores that hardly conceivable a month ago.

Literary LDS fiction? Come on guys, that stuff is absolutely astounding, insightful, creative, well-researched and destined to remain a small sliver of the LDS publishing market. Entertaining fiction that has a few modest elements of scholarliness and a modicum of literary quality will command the larger portion of the market for our lifetimes and possibly into the millenium given some unforseen shake-up in the reading sensibilities of the majority of LDS readers. Scholars simply don’t want to entertain and entertaining authors don’t rarely take the time to research boring details enough to transform them into entertaining fare.

Finally, Kent, my master’s degree in Psych, my BS degrees in Physiology and Chemistry and my Doctoral degree in Organizational Behavior inform me realitvely little about the LDS publishing industry. I wish I’d gotten an MBA from the English department. What I do know is that most people who view the DB/Covenant deal in a negative light tend to have a vested interest in making money in competing operations, have had their work rejected by DB or are former employees or contract employees for DB—essentially they have some competitive or emotional reason to angle this deal with a negatvie slant. So be happy. This is a great day for LDS publishing. Huge benefits to many authors. A great distribution arm and a possible synergy bewteen the art and business of publishing that may astound all of us. I suggest less ivory-tower talk and a little bit more blind, dumb, comman-man support and hope for the very best for a company that has served the LDS community fabulously for so many years. What does it take these days to get you guys to simply say have a go, good luck, we applaud what you’ve done and we’re hoping the best for you. I know, I know. Blog spots are fueled by the same thing that sells papers and increases viewership. Stir the pot, create a controversy and bingo, you have lots of bloggers blogging.

So I say again. Way to go DB. Good luck. Have a go. You’ll do wonderfully well. And so will the other fishes in the pond. All the best to all of you. And don’t forget this publishing business is a business…a terrestrial affair destined to remain just that. Be careful or you just may get sucked into the terrestrialness of it all.

Even if the impact is small, Mormon letters is still in such an infant state that one or two literary/academic titles a year can have a huge impact on the field.

Anything that dampens a title being published — or leads to some titles being published is felt. One great novel can fuel a flurry of additional creative and academic work.

This is why so many of us hope that Zarahemla and other small publishers can make a go of it for at least a few years. Already Zarahemla has published 3 major litrary fiction titles. That’s more than Signature this year, I believe. And more than Deseret Book.

Yes, genre fiction dominates the market. And unlike some of my colleagues, I’m not adverse to it. But literary fiction is what really gets my critical and creative juices flowing.

William is probably right that there isn’t an immediate threat to the scholarly and academic portion of the market. DB & Covenant didn’t really publish for that market anyway, and the books for that market aren’t found in DB and SBT stores.

But, if I’m right that this weakens the LDS market, then it will be difficult to see the geographic growth of the market for LDS books that we would all love to see — the growth that would also increase the market for scholarly and academic books — so perhaps fewer new titles than we might see otherwise.

I admit that this effect would be small and in the future. It may not be worth worrying over. Still, I’d like to see that portion of the market grow, and these titles show up in more LDS stores. Seems a little less likely now.