My change of heart about independent bookstores continues; sort of -- you be the judge.

I think I got tired of all the 'happy, happy' blogs of young bookstore owners who have created oh, so cute stores followed by 'sad, sad' blogs about the store not making enough money to keep them in 'lattes' and vacations to the coast. An amazing amount of naivete, but then I have to remember that I too was once so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

I also got tired of the news stories about old, mainline bookstores with out-of-touch owners grumbling about how the world has changed. There was a lot of 'lord of the manner' sentiment expressed, along the lines of, "Gee, when I check in with my hordes of minion booksellers once a week there isn't a stack of money waiting for me."

Anyway, that was the way I read it.

On the other hand, all that is beside the point. Independent bookstores are facing a dysfunctional distribution system. Which I'm going to talk about today.

1.) Books returned rose from 28% in 1993 to 34% in 2003. I wish I had more up to date numbers, but we can assume those numbers have probably gone up from there. More than a third of all books are returned.

2.) The amount of time a book is given to sell has dropped from months, to a week or two.

3.) More and more books are being published and produced, while less and less books are actually selling.

4.) The industry has become dependent on the mega-seller, the Da Vinci Codes, to pay for everything. So ever more books are produced looking for a hit.

5.) Because of the massive return rate, book prices are going up, which causes less sales, which cause higher returns which cause prices to go up, which causes less sales, which cause higher returns.....slap. You get the picture.

Even the CEO's of the two giant chains are getting alarmed. The CEO of Borders is quoted as saying, being able to order all the books they want and return what they don't sell, "gives us too much confidence."

The CEO of Barnes & Noble wants to change the paradigm -- oh, not the massive printings and wasted books, he wants to be able to "discount the books in place." Not return them, just discount them to below cost in the store. And I think if you look at the bargain tables at B & N he has succeeded.

There ARE some solutions: that have absolutely ZERO chance of happening. The same solutions would work for toys, games, almost anything.

1.) No returnability. You buy, you keep. That would instill some sanity to the process.

2.) Everyone pays the same price. Period. No volume discounts, no kickbacks, no sweetheart deals.

2.) No exclusive product, no early shipments, no special treatment of any kind.

IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN! But I can dream, can't I?