Tarting up the bookstore.

After reading interviews with independent bookstores (on Shelf Awareness), it appears that many of them are imbibing the kool-aid of e-books. They seem to be totally buying into the notion that it "puts them in the game."

Well, maybe not totally. There is an air of desperation to it.

You know what it reminds me of? Those piles of books that show up at the BookMark occasionally about how to "Save your Marriage."

"Meet him at the door wearing lingerie."

"Cook him gourmet meals."

"Kiss his feet...."

Well, maybe not that last one. But it always seems kind of demeaning.

I still maintain that we're bookstores, not coffee shops, not internet cafes, not performance centers.

Have some pride.


I'm not saying you shouldn't diversify or try new things. I mean -- look at my store.
But I think it should be an organic, from the inside process, bringing on elements you're comfortable with, and can support.

Too much of what I'm hearing sounds like grasping at straws.

Yesterday's example of Time/Warner buying AOL. You can almost imagine the thought process behind it.

"Hey, I hear this internet tuby thingie is going to be really big. Let's buy an internet company!!

Whether it makes sense or not, whether they even understood it....

I've also seen this process in my own business several times over the years -- the sports card shops thinking they could reverse the decline by having "interactive" events. Game stores, the same thing -- in fact, the manufacturers have almost made it difficult to run a game store unless you have tournaments and game space and so on.

But if the fundamentals are weak -- no amount of activity will make up for it.

The fundamentals of bookstores are selecting, displaying and selling physical books. Let's encourage that.


I also believe that these types of change should be planned far in advance. That both intended and unintended consequences should be explored. That they should be instituted slowly, and examined every step of the way, and walked back if they don't work.

They should most importantly, be built on the walls of success, not thrown into the breach of failure.

Jumping on a bandwagon is dangerous -- you're taking other people's advice a little too much, the learning curse is incredibly steep, and the costs are high.



You have to wonder if booksellers have thought out the logic of such a strategy. Or have really examined the long-term consequences.

Let's imagine that they are actually successful at selling e-books (as you know, I think this is doubtful, but lets imagine...). I would ask the question; "Which is more likely? That publishers will see e-books selling at independent bookstores?

"Or that publishers will see e-books selling."

Will that impression rebound to the indy's benefit, or just encourage a trend that will be its longterm downfall?

It reminds me of when the sport card market started turning to the mass market -- suddenly some brands were only available in the mass market, and other brands were cheaper there than anywhere else.

I think just about every cardshop in the country except me started buying their cards at the mass market. When I would question this, most of them would replay, "We can't afford not to have what the customer wants..."

Yeah -- except, in the end the card manufacturers saw the sales numbers from the mass market, and compared them to the sales to the indy's and came to the wrong conclusion -- that most cards, (or more cards than in reality) were selling in the mass market.

Which only encouraged them to spend even more of their efforts toward that market.