click to enlargeIn nineteenth century America door-to-door bookselling was a big thing. As the country grew westward and new technologies provided cheaper production and transportation opportunities subscription bookselling became a major component of the publishing world. The book became a commodity. By some estimates by the end of the nineteenth century 70% of all books sold were sold by subscription.Agents Wanted : Subscription Publishing in America, an online exhibit at University of Pennsylvania, provides a great introduction to this part of publishing history. It features items from the seminal collection of canvassing books by Michael Zinman.From Lynne Farrington's introduction:Subscription publishers...
The Chains are Breaking : A Look at Bookselling in a Post-Chain World
The numbers are brutal. Hardly anyone bought anything in the month of October. According to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs index, retailers had their weakest October performance since the index's inception in 1969! If this trend keeps up through the holiday season it is safe to say that January will become National Bankruptcy Month.How the economic meltdown will ultimately play out in the book world remains to be seen, but early indicators are pointing to a significant shakeout.In a memo to his employees last week Barnes and Noble Chairman Leonard Riggio said "Never in all of the years I've been in business...
Costco the Bookseller
The current issue of Costco's in-house magazine The Costco Connection features a look at their highly successful book department.The Costco book buyers call it "The Table" - the two rows of real estate within Costco where the 200 or so hand-picked titles reside. And it is from the success of "The Table" that Costco has become one of the top five booksellers in the country.Jeff Rogart, HarperCollins vice-president of sales, says of the Costco book team:“This team knows what they are doing...Despite the limited selection of books [compared to industrial-size bookstores], Costco is consistently one of our top retailers for...
Jeanette Winterson on the Bookshop
"I am keen to preserve what is good in life, and that is often at odds with what is most profitable in life. Leaving aside the price arguments about supermarkets, bookshops have, or should have, a special place in our culture. We need books, and books are best browsed in the energetic peace of a small store where the owner loves reading, just like we do."She goes on:"real books belong to the heart, not the pocket, and there has to be a way of letting that be. I know that the internet is great for ordering whatever it is you...
An Illuminating Visit to a New "Concept Borders" Store
Paul Constant, the book editor of the Stranger, got a tour of the new "Concept Borders" store in Seattle and shares his thoughts in his piece "The Future is Behind us Now."Constant uses a simple litmus test to determine the quality of a bookstore. If it stocks any novels by Stanley Elkin then " it's a sign of all-around quality" and is a place he would happily spend some time. There was no Elkin to be had at the new "Concept Borders" store. Strike one.During his visit to this new "behemoth temple to commerce" Constant was escorted by Tim Anderson,...