I hate to say it, but Chris Ware's Building Stories was the last straw. For ten years now I've tried to carry every significant independent title that is put out there. There are dozens per month, of which a few are super important. So I've always tried.
And they rarely sell. At all. Month after month.
Building Stories won just about every award. It was sold out in most places during the Christmas season.
My one copy sat there all season and then on into this year and it sits there still. Lonely. Untouched. Not even looked at.
So -- like a movie theater admitting that art films don't pay, I've got to give it up. I have to stick to proven sellers.
I'll be very very open to special ordering. If someone so much as mentions a title, I'll probably order it. But pursuing an art book policy when there is no art book clientele is just stupid.
How disappointing.
Well, I'll probably still get the most significant titles -- I'd probably still order Building Stories today, but I just won't do it as much or as often.
Part of it is that graphic novels have matured so much that no one bookstore can carry them all anymore. Just like no one bookstore can carry all the books published. For years, it was relatively easy to get just about every significant graphic novel that came out, but not anymore.
There was a period early on when a comic shop could order every comic, but those days are long gone -- at least for me.
So in some ways this is just a sign that graphic novels have become so viable overall that they don't require every shop carrying them to succeed anymore.
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4 comments:
I can swear that it has in fact been touched and been looked at a couple of times over the past few months. But, although understandably so, it is shrink wrapped and one can't really look at it to determine if it is something one is willing to pay the amount asked for it.
My wife is, or at least was, interested in it and I know she looked at it and I definitely did a couple times trying to decide whether or not I wanted to get it for her as a gift.
The same goes for a fair few of the art books you have at the store. I am interested in quite a few of them but am not paying art book prices for something I cannot even flip through to see if I truly want them. Again, I (mostly) understand the need to protect them.
Now, admittedly, we can't afford to buy many more books than we already do so whatever additional books we bought from you wouldn't do anything for your bottom line.
My point, I guess, is that the situation is a bit more complex than you describe here. And that that particular item was indeed fondled a couple of times.
Interesting.
Well, in most cases I'm willing to open the plastic, especially if it's the slipcovers I put on them myself. Just ask at the desk.
Though you're right that I wouldn't break the plastic on this one. The only excuse I've got is that one damaged book is the equivalent of four sales....just to break even. Sometimes I can discount by half, so that just means it's the equivalent of about two sales to break even.
It's a catch--22. People will not buy damaged art books -- they'll by a reading book that's dinged up, but not an art book.
I know most art can be seen online, if you need samples. But...I'm thinking shrink-wrapped material isn't more than a couple percent of my books, at most..
Sorry about that.
No need to be sorry and I wasn't really trying to argue against you but simply point out it is a little more complex. It truly is a Catch-22 for you!
Thanks for letting me know I can ask to actually see a book. I promise to reserve that for only books I am seriously interested in.
Thanks Mark. I'm most often likely to open it for you.
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