Multi award-winning children’s independent publisher Barefoot Books has terminated its relationship with Amazon in the UK and US in order to focus on extending its offer via its flagship Studios, website and rapidly growing Ambassador network of home-based social sellers. The year Barefoot Books pulled out of the chains in the US, its sales increased by 40%. Barefoot Books also confirmed that its Ambassador social selling community is now hundreds strong and is growing at a rate of 16% a month across the UK, continental Europe and North America. www.barefootbooks.com
Our recent decision to stop trading with Amazon caused quite a media stir. The Los Angeles Times called us ‘The mouse that roared’ and, in the UK, both The Times and The Guardian featured our story.
Why did we make this decision? At Barefoot Books, we believe that small is beautiful. From small, home-based beginnings twenty years ago, we have grown into an international, award-winning children’s book publisher. We are committed to cultural and economic diversity; and this is reflected in both our publishing program and in our business model. With this philosophy at the heart of our company, it became clear that we needed to end our relationship with Amazon.
As entrepreneurs, we admire Amazon and its ground-breaking accomplishments. However, living Barefoot is about creating a sustainable model which enables individuals to build small-scale businesses; it’s about the vitality of intimate relationships and the power of connection. We believe our future lies in supporting other small businesses – book shops and gift shops on the high street – and in growing our network of home-based sellers (our Ambassadors). We want to develop a community where personal connections matter, where we can bring our books to life for children, and where we can stay true to our values.
The challenges we have faced doing business with Amazon over the years are similar to those we experienced selling to the big box retail chains. Personal relationships with buyers are rare, particularly when you’re a small publisher. Our books became commodities that tended to only get promoted if they were heavily discounted and Amazon often started selling them before we had even received our advance copies from the printer. This way of trading often drives small-scale businesses to the wall.
Since announcing this news we have seen an outpouring of support, not only from our Barefoot Books community, but from other publishers and people around the world. See some examples below.
What does the post-Amazon future hold for us? Watch this space. Whatever is around the corner, you can be sure that we will be remaining proudly independent.
‘Added to today’s To-Do List: Place large order of @BarefootBooks for huge window display. http://www.thebookseller.com/
‘@BarefootBooks that was me waving my virtual pompoms in your direction! Hope that others follow suit’ —@VoicesLibrary
‘This feels like a landmark decision in the publishing world and we are so proud of Barefoot Books for stepping up and being a role model. We can’t wait to see more major publishers do the same. Before you buy books from Amazon, make sure you really do your research and understand their model.’
—Book People, via Facebook
‘Well done @BarefootBooks for pinning your flag to the local and independent masts & ceasing to trade with Amazon’ —@ mrbsemporium
‘Thank you for your support to your Ambassadors and your principles’! —@thebarefootgigi
by Nancy Traversy, Co-Founder and CEO of Barefoot Books
Nancy Traversy spent her childhood in Canada and moved to London in her early twenties to work for Price Waterhouse. In 1985 she was told by a male partner to go home and change because she was wearing trousers. This was the day she decided to leave the corporate world. Nancy worked in the design industry, travelled the world and, in 1993, founded Barefoot Books with business partner Tessa Strickland. In the past twenty years the publisher has won multiple awards and published 500 children’s books. www.barefootbooks.com
About
BritMums is the UK’s original collective of lifestyle bloggers and digital influencers, fueling the country’s most influential social content. We lead the online conversation with members who are parent social influencers creating content on topics ranging from food, parenting, travel, politics, style and more.
emma T
Tuesday 2nd of July 2013
To be applauded and hope success continues for independents.
On an aside - I'm not sure how Book People work, but given they heavily discount even newly launched books, I wouldn't have said they were really advocating potentially small publishers/new authors.