B & A is just one of the boys?

Interesting article on B & N on the "Shelf Life" site.

1.) They are having trouble keeping on top of non-fiction. (The implication being that the local clerks don't read NF?) I'm having the same trouble, mostly because there is so much of it and it sells at a fraction of fiction for us and is totally unpredictable. It becomes dated very, very fast. Since I don't do returns, I have to be careful.

2.) They are de-emphasizing hardcovers. They had an 80% return rate. (Holy cow. If I could just fling 80% mud at the walls, I'd be capturing a few more sales too. Meanwhile...B & N was allowed to send 80% back? Wow.)

3.) The experience used to be "predictable and boring" hardcovers and bestsellers at the entrance. (As opposed to now? As opposed to every other bookstore in the world? It doesn't seem to me that much has changed.)

4.) They focus on YA books. (Well, duh. So is everyone else.)

5.) They had been doing a bad job on backlist. (Again, as opposed to every other bookstore in the world?)

This last point is the most significant to me. I focus most of my attention on backlist. Show me a backlist book that sells and I'll keep it in stock. You start with 20 books that sell, then 50, then 100. The goal is to keep growing those perennial sellers, whether they are considered "bestsellers" or not.

I simply do not understand ordering 10, 20, or 30 copies of every New York Times "bestseller." I suspect that the experience of sending back 80% of hardcovers is not limited to B & N, but to every American Booksellers Association type bookstore. (Maybe smaller stores aren't at 80%, but it's because they don't reorder, not because they don't order most new hardcover ABA model books.)

Predictable and boring is right. 

I get enough of a percentage of the new bestselling hardcovers to have a nice selection, but I don't overdo it. I prefer to use 80% of my budget on backlist. 

But hey, what I'm doing is working, so I'll just keep doing it.