Comments on: Bookstores Now, More than Ever

By: Samantha Wood

Samantha Wood — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 00:04:03 +0000

Ever since online or e-books have started, I’ve been a full supporter of holding real paper in my hand. As much as the bookstore industry may dwindle, I know there will always be supporters that will keep it going.

By: Digital publishing | Pearltrees

Digital publishing | Pearltrees — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:48:23 +0000

[…] Bookstores Now, More than Ever | Booksquare At next week’s Tools of Change for Publishing conference, I am moderating a panel on the future of bookstores (Tuesday, 2/15, 1:40 pm, be there!). I proposed this topic because, despite today’s challenges, booksellers are critical to the publishing food chain. The loss of booksellers — traditional and innovative — is a huge blow to book discovery. My panel features Jenn Northrington of WORD Brooklyn , Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo of Greenlight Bookstore , Lori James of All Romance eBooks , Kevin Smokler of Booktour.com , and Malle Vallik of Harlequin . I’m excited about moderating this panel, particularly because it contains a mix of innovative and enthusiastic booksellers, forward-thinking publishers (yes, Kevin, you are a publisher), and, most importantly, readers who truly love reading. […]

By: Wine to go

Wine to go — Mon, 16 May 2011 07:42:58 +0000

Personally, I spend all day online and I can tell you there is nothing better than curling up with a bricks and mortar (simile) book that you can hold up to the light and lose yourself in whilst your tea goes cold. There should never be a reason not to have book shops there for the perusing.

By: Socializing in the Age of Social Networking | For the love of bookshops

Socializing in the Age of Social Networking | For the love of bookshops — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:26:43 +0000

[…] Kassia Krozser had a funny store highlighting the differences between Barnes & Noble and her local bookstores when it came to […]

By: sigh

*sigh* — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:23:28 +0000

Actually, Jeff Bezos once said he wanted to see the end of paper books in favor of e-ones.

By: Shelley

Shelley — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:08:52 +0000

Book-buyers should be the most intelligent people on the planet, and if there’s a way to tweak the system so it doesn’t become more mega-corporate, we ought to be able to figure it out, pass it on, and act on it.

By: Il futuro delle librerie (se le librerie hanno un futuro) | Certi racconti sono un tiro mancino

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 07:02:41 +0000

[…] articolo (in inglese), sul futuro delle librerie (via la newsletter di Simplicissimus). Moriranno le […]

By: Sean Cranbury

Sean Cranbury — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:50:32 +0000

Hi Kassia

Great piece. A few thoughts:

1) Predictions are futile, you’re right.

But… The future of bookselling is going to be a guerilla operation the shape of which we can barely imagine right now. It may be heavily localized with small run POD, hand-pressed and e-sales augmented by traditional mass market and trade. The traditional sales channels that produce the big profits will likely be the Costcos/WalMarts of the world.

The level of dedication and quality work being done by an increasing number of independent publishers reassures me that regardless of statements made by the denizens of the professional lecture circuit – ahem, Negroponte et al – we’ll have very good books for a long time to come.

2) Publishers cannot think/act as one. If they didn’t lift a finger to ‘save’ independent booksellers in the late 90’s why would they suddenly act now? It’s nice to think this could happen but there’s no evidence to support it in reality.

3) The pricing system will change, the practice of indicating prices on the covers of books will disappear for the independents – tho traditionals will still do it. Pricing will be more flexible, esp as POD gets more economical.

Thanks for writing this, Kassia. I’m speaking on this with John Maxwell’s Masters of Publishing class at SFU next month.

By: willem

willem — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 10:25:29 +0000

While I’m at it let me punt a brilliant 5 part series on rethinking bookstores by Matt Blind. He ends it at http://www.rocketbomber.com/2011/01/31/rethinking-the-box-the-unique-experience-case-study-5-of-5

The wealth of links at the bottom of that piece alone leads to a plethora of ideas on the past, present and possible future of bookstores and bookselling. A must read!

By: Theresa M. Moore

Theresa M. Moore — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 19:22:53 +0000

Your experience with the B&N is among the reasons why I don’t frequent the chain stores anymore. As an independent publisher and bookseller, I can only say that it is very nice to know there are physical bookstores out there, but until they start carrying my books their decline is not of importance to me. I have approached independent stores before and been turned away because they “only use our distributor” or won’t pay up front for the deliveries, despite the fact that I have to pay up front to produce the books. I have even caught them sneering about “self-published books” as if they are infected with the plague. With this attitude it is no wonder more books are being sold online. When booksellers remember that they are in the business of selling books and stop passing judgment on the book suppliers, they will do better.
In my recent experience, the big internet retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble have not done me any favors, either. I sell my books in a variety of formats direct from my own site, but when I promote them on other sites, the first question put to me is usually, “yeah, but are they available on Amazon?” even though I sell my books for exactly the same price. I even offer free shipping, which is something Amazon does not do unless the sale is over a minimum amount. And lately, Amazon has taken some pretty anti-promotional measures like removing reviews and cross-promotion features from book listings. The catch-22 here is that a book does not get sold without customer reviews, and one cannot get a customer review until the book is sold. This is why I sell independently from all major online retailers and have even removed the Amazon buy links from my site. If that does not encourage anyone visiting to buy from me, then I might as well stop trying.
I am squeezed by both worlds, and the friction is getting me real mad.