That might be a simplistic explanation, and perhaps doesn’t cover all aspects of the problem. I’ve tried to discuss the problems with Deseret Book in the past (see The problem of Deseret Book Part 1: A Question of Size, The Problem of Deseret Book Part 2: A Question of Focus, The Problem of Deseret Book Part 3: Unresolvable? and Bad Move, Deseret Book). Let’s come up with some ideas for other ways to get LDS books to LDS consumers, especially those in areas not served by LDS stores.

Alternative distribution has, of course, a significant hurdle to overcome, simply because the first idea on how to find an LDS book is to go to an LDS store, although searching an online site like Amazon.com is becoming a strong second place.

The alternatives below are mostly things that publishers could implement to sell their own books, but they would be better implemented by independent companies that sold the books of all publishers. They could also be implemented simultaneously. Some don’t even exist at the moment, even in the U.S. national market. This is probably true for a reason–bookstores are probably more efficient than those that don’t exist. But even these might be right for the LDS market because bookstores are often far apart or don’t even exist in many markets. Some alternative need to be used in those cases.

Here are some alternatives:

• Amazon and other online retailers: Already Amazon carries the vast majority of LDS books, and many other  online retailers are not far behind.
  Pros:
  • Online retailers usually have very large audiences, much larger than Deseret Book and all LDS stores together.
  • It is relatively easy to get books listed on most of these retailers.

  Cons:

  • LDS Books are often hard to find because the books aren’t labeled as LDS in any way. While Amazon does have an LDS or Mormon category, it is only for books whose subject is Mormonism.
  • Each title is one among as many as 5 million or more.
  • Authors and publishers still have a significant amount of promotion work to do to let consumers know that the book even exists.
  • Only 10% of sales end occur on line.
• An Independent LDS Online Retailer: By this, I mean a retailer independent of Deseret Book.
  Pros:
  • Depending on how the retailers policies are set up, it should be easy to get books included in its catalog.
  • As an LDS store, its organization would be more like that of brick and mortar online stores, and the items it carried would all be identified as LDS.
  • The store’s selection would probably be better than brick and mortar LDS stores.

  Cons:

  • Since no such store exists, sourcing LDS books might be a problem, especially if major LDS publishers choose not to sell to the store.
• Book Clubs:
  Pros:
  • Sales are mostly easier-to-handle bulk sales.
  • Book Club consumers are often quite loyal and sophisticated.

  Cons:

  • There are probably not many clubs, so the sales they represent are marginal.
  • The require a lot of organization and interest by consumers.
  • Authors or publishers need lists of clubs to market to or ways of identifying the clubs.
• Book Fairs/Event Sales:
  Pros:
  • Its easy to meet large groups of people at events, and often many sales can be made in a short period of time.
  • Book fairs can be very attractive to groups wanting to use them as fundraisers.

  Cons:

  • Book Fairs can’t really be done in Wards and Stakes anymore, given Church restrictions on fundraising.
  • The number of regular events each year isn’t very large–it is difficult to build a business just on that.
• Direct Marketing (aka catalog sales):
  Pros:
  • Relatively easy to set up and administer.
  • Effort needed is in growing and maintaining mailing list and pesenting materials.

  Cons:

  • Requires building a mailing list of 10,000 names or more to make significant sales.
• Person to Person Marketing (representatives in each ward/stake):
  Pros:
  • Would probably give the best coverage of the market.

  Cons:

  • Just to cover all LDS stakes would require more than 1,000 representative.
  • Sales in a single stake may not be enough to support a full-time representative.
  • Turnover and getting reps to do what is needed would be a significant management headache.
• Multi-level Marketing:
  Pros:
  • Allows growing a network of representatives quickly.
  • Also brings in sales quickly and maybe at a higher rate than other things.

  Cons:

  • The margins available to pay representatives may not be high enough to support a MLM network.
  • Many people consider this sales model to be ethically questionable.

I don’t know if the above will help authors or publishers directly. I hope it will. It could also give publishers, authors and others ideas for what to do to build their sales. Better yet would be if this led to an idea to improve and strengthen the independence of the LDS market.

Book cover via Amazon

Like all things involving texts of some kind or another, the Internet has become a force in the most basic of language tools, the dictionary. Even Mormon use of language has spawned a number of glossaries, dictionaries, lists of terms and jargon, etc., all in an attempt to either further understanding or poke fun. But none of the attempts at a Mormon lexicon have tried to be comprehensive and serious. So I set up Mormon Terms.

I’d been tossing around the idea in my mind since before last May, when I first posted about Mormon jargon in New Words of Mormon (where else but A Motley Vision would you expect posts about Mormon language?) And last month I finally got the site set up and announced it on Times & Seasons.

Mormon Terms is in its infancy still. At the moment, the heart of the site is a list of 1,300 potential terms that may or may not be ‘Mormon’ in some way. [I'm plugging away at defining terms (I try to do 5 a weekday, so if its left to me, it will take a year to finish), and I'm looking for new terms as well. Even though 1,300 is more than any other list of Mormon terms, I don't think its a very large percentage of what would be included in a comprehensive list.]

But this issue of whether a term is ‘Mormon’ in some way is probably the thorniest problem the site will face. Mormons frequently use a lot of terms in a religious context, most of which are common to all religions. Words like spirituality, God, Christ, worship, revelation, anoint, etc. are used in a lot of religious contexts, and if the meaning of the word is the same, should it be included?

For example, we’ve defined the word apologetics, mostly because it was on one of the lists of Mormon words I used as a source. But I’m not sure it should be included because I don’t think the definition is any different than what you would find in any dictionary. When Mormons use the word apologetics, do we mean anything different than what non-Mormons mean when they use it?

Like all writing, this probably comes down to a question of audience. Perhaps the right answer to this issue is simply who is the audience (or who are the audiences) for this lexicon and what will that audience (or those audiences) expect?

I don’t think I know the answer to this question. But one of the strengths of using a wiki like Mormon Terms on the Internet is that the audience or audiences can help decide this issue. Because the audience can edit the dictionary, the audience will determine what is, or isn’t a Mormon word.

It will be interesting to see the result.

The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!… I’m somebody now!