We're all hybrids, now.

“I think in the next three to five years, you’ll see half the bookstores in this country close,” says the president of Joseph Beth Booksellers. (ICv2).

I kind of doubt this, at least in terms of net numbers. Unless you count Borders.

But I was talking to another bookstore owner who felt the Kindle and such were already having an effect on his business -- so, who knows?

I did some googling around, and -- and I may be completely wrong here -- I came up with roughly 18 billion in brick and mortar bookstore sales last year. Something like 8 billion of that were in Barnes and Nobles and Borders chains.

So -- if we could weed out how much the Walmarts and Costco's of the world sell, we'd know how much independent bookstores sell.

I know the comic industry sells something like 600 million per year, but I'm not totally sure if that includes graphic novels. I think it does.

There are maybe slightly less independent comic stores than independent bookstores.

Anyway you slice it, it looks to me like comics stores have a much lower overall sales level than bookstores, and yet -- seem just about as stable. I have a feeling that the surviving comic shops are one hell of a lot more efficient than the surviving bookstores.

Especially since bookstores tend to pop up to replace the failing ones on a regular basis since it's so sexy to own a bookstore.

Of course, your average bookstore probably expends much more money on looks and style than your average comic shop. Then again, that may be part of the problem. (500.00 bookcases can be a real drag on earnings, I'll bet, and so can a cappuccino machine.)

The expectation of book customers is probably much higher, but that doesn't mean you can't do a credibly nice job on comic store looks, and a credibly cheaper job on bookstore looks.

I suspect that most comic stores come about from the bottom up -- that is, they are created with limited funds and built upon. Scramblers, survivors.

The average bookstore come about from the top down -- that is, they are created by people who are already living a middle class life, and sink funds into the dream, and then see it dissipate. Both these scenarios play to a stereotype, but I'd be willing to stand by them.

Overall bookstore sales were down 7.1 in September, and 6.5 in August. Down 2.6% for the year.

Hasting reported about a 9% drop in New books, though they were down less overall because of used books -- and, well, according to them, comics and graphic novels...

What will continue to fog up the picture of what's happening is -- well, almost no one is JUST a comic shop anymore, or JUST a bookstore. We got coffees and crumpets and toys and games and books and graphic novels and dvd's and stationary and...well, on and on....

Everyone's a hybrid, now.