Last week, 29 New York State bookstores all members of the American Bookseller Association (ABA), signed on to a letter sent to Governor Spitzer asking him to revisit his recent decision not to “enforce sales tax laws” or more precisely to start collecting sales tax from online retailers (ie. Amazon).
Somehow they believe this will help level the playing field in the bookselling world. Do they not realize that many of their customers buy books online too? and that even if they had to pay sale tax the book will still be cheaper when purchased online!
Also, the ‘independent businesses are vital to the health of a community’ mantra will be seriously challenged by the reality of raising the taxes of most members of the community.
I wonder how much business these 29 bookshops do online?
Obviously not enough to produce a significant revenue stream.
The more pressing underlying issue here is what happened to Book Sense? It was supposed to be the ABA’s online response to Amazon’s assault on independent bookselling, a way to unite the power of independent bookselling and e-commerce, a chance to offer customers an alternative to the faceless bargains at Amazon.
I have yet to buy a book on or through Book Sense. It’s not the price-point issue, I would happily pay more to buy a book from a community based business, it’s a usability one. Asking me for my zip code or whether or not I want to find a bookstore that has a website (this is the internet!) before I start shopping is prohibitive.
Here is the process:
I enter my zip code
I get sent to a page where I have to choose the bookstore I want to shop at.
Then I click on the link to go to the homepage of that bookstore.
Then I have to navigate their homepage to find the search feature to begin my quest.
Please.
Why not offer all the books in print like Amazon? Provide an easy to use interface and at the end of the transaction after you have taken my money ask me which independent bookstore in my neighborhood (or anywhere for that matter) would I like to buy the books from. The books can be mailed from the bookseller or dropped-shipped from the distributor or publisher.
Luckily, I don’t think it is too late. Yes, a tremendous amount of damage to the bookselling community has already occurred and the model of selling new books only is a very much endangered one, but a well planned online presence catering to the independent spirit…