If you are an independent bookseller and your door is still open you are to be commended. The systematic onslaught against independent businesses that is a byproduct of our current economic policy and technological advances has been steady and ruthless for the last decade. Luckily the bookstore is faring better than the independent (or the patronizing tag the mom & pop) hardware or drug store. I don't have the numbers but I would bet the % of these that have gone out of business in the last 10 years is far greater than the % of bookstores that have closed...
The Bookseller Manifesto Part I: I am a Bookseller – New Definitions for a Shifting Landscape
There are not many industries in the last 10 years that have undergone the volcanic eruptions that the world of bookselling has. The world of the antiquarian and used bookseller has been turned upside down. A dinosaur of a trade that pretty much moved at turtle speed for most of the 20th century has had it shell torn off in the last decade. The new bookseller has feared worse. It has become almost impossible to sell new books. Though as a whole the new book world was not as set in its ways as the bookseller in the resale market...
Book Patrol at the Seattle PI
The Book Patrol blog is now also available on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer websiteCome visit.
The Dumbing Down of Bookselling
Granted Amazon is the Godzilla of the new book business and much of their energy has been channeled in redefining the new book business. And one must take their hats off to them for what they have accomplished. Of course, I am all for the independent bookseller and the independent spirit but one must always be open to change. Too many new booksellers spent their energy running for the hills, and not enough energy in attempting to transform their businessBut the real growth area in books is on the used, rare and out-of-print side of the equation. A side that...
The Trade Discount
One of the stickiest issues facing today's bookseller is the trade discount.How much? Who gets it? Which sales channels are eligibleHistorically, the trade worked on a 20% discount to members in the tradeBeware of the CWS - Collector Who Sells