Interesting news day.

Barnes and Noble has announced that they are cutting back on new hardcover books. Instead, they will concentrate on "frontlist with proven track records."

Excuse me. Isn't that just an Orwellian way to say "backlist?"

 

So the publishers are all concerned about Amazon and Barnes & Noble cutting back. Karma's a bitch, ain't it?  "The cuts highlight the importance of independent bookstores as showcases for new books of all kinds." (Shelf Awareness). Well,duh.

 

"If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem." (J. Paul Getty). Kind of a problem with near monopolies, innut?

 

Amazon "began cutting back buying in the past several months, and in at least one case is negative for August." Which means, I guess, they sent back more books than they bought. 

 

Actually, I'm not surprised. I've always gone with the books with "proven track records." It just made sense instead of gambling with each new hardcover book that came out. I can afford to wait for books to make an impact, except for the top of the tippimost books.  

Meanwhile, in his column for "The Beat," prominent comic retailer Brian Hibbs talks about the constant lowering of discount for comics from our wholesalers. It's making it very hard to earn an income from comics alone. Weirdly enough, we may have had an advantage early on because I never could make enough money from comics alone and therefore always had to try other things. 

We transitioned to a pop culture bookstore a few years back. We still carry comics, but all I could see in the future was a continual uphill battle. We’re in a heavily touristy downtown core and we’re currently making 5 times more on books than comics. I'm actually kind of shocked by that. The turn in the market toward, as Hibbs put it, a "strong lean-in to “collectibles”, the variant cover and other stunts where they can increase margin in that fashion" was a major factor in my decision. Been down that road before and it didn't end well.

 

All I could see was heavy lifting. Transitioning to a bookstore relieved the pressure, ironically, so that we can still do the job with comics.