Friday, April 10, 2009

The Future of Bookstores

Lost in the Pixels of a Good Book by Elizabeth Bluemle
http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/660000266/post/1700043170.html

This blog article is by a children's bookseller. She talks about becoming enamored of the apps on her new iPhone, her discovery of e-books, and then her amazement that she actually could enjoy reading them.
"...it was, quite frankly, a micro-revelation. It didn’t matter what format the book came in; once I was reeled in by a skillful writer, I was lost in Neverland."

She has a very thoughtful discussion on how e-books affect the business of bookstores, especially indies such as the one she works for.
"E-books are a hot topic in the industry right now, and there are many actual experts out there writing thoughtful articles on the topic who know a lot more than I do. Like all of us booksellers, I want to know how this tiny revolution will affect my store. For one thing, it will add yet another lasagna layer to the deep dish of competition for book sales."

"How can booksellers convert our handselling expertise to have a role in recommending and distributing e-books, too, so that instead of losing sales to publishers and online vendors, we might earn a small piece of this ever-growing pie?"

Do read her full article, and give some thought to the future of bookstores. Between online retailers (Amazon-who-will-take-over-the-world) and e-books, what niche or special need can brick-and-mortar bookstores fill to stay in business?

1 comment:

Erin Cabatingan said...

The thing I love about bookstores is being able to go in and pick up a book, read the cover, thumb through it, read a few pages at the beginning, or maybe at the end. I love seeing the books and holding them and being able to get an idea of what the book is about. That's something that e-books can do, to a certain extent--they can give you a few pages to read before you buy them, let you read a blurb, see the cover, but for me, there's something about being in a bookstore that I just love. And even though I can get lost in an e-book, I still prefer a regular book. Although, since I don't have money for regular books and usually head to the library (which I also enjoy, although not quite as much as a bookstore) I'm not really any help in keeping bookstores in business


playingwithchildren.blogspot.com