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...
Alibris Announces "Alibris Inventory Demand"
Americana Exchange Monthly reported recently on a new program Alibris will be offering most of its sellers, "Alibris Inventory Demand." The service: offers three types of data. Foremost is their historical sales data, which provides actual sales prices transacted on the Alibris and Alibris partner sites (such as Borders Marketplace). Next, it provides current pricing data, such as highest, lowest and average prices currently listed, along with the number of copies for sale. Finally, they provide what they call the "Alibris Sales Index," which rates the likelihood of an item being sold. As Alibris explained in their press release:Utilizing such...
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...
On the State of the Independent Bookseller
The folks at Marquand Books, one of the country's leading book design firms, recently interviewed me for their blog. They were interested in my thoughts on "how to thrive as an independent bookseller in a shrinking economy moving heavily towards on-line sales."The interview appears here.
"A Few Principles of Publishing" by David Godine
This essay by David Godine appears in his latest catalog. As "pluck" would have it since the catalog was released word came that the Nobel Prize for literature was awarded to J.M.G. Le Clézio whose novel The Prospector was first published in America by Godine. Congratulations David!***********************A Few Principles of Publishing Somewhere, in my distant past, I read that publishing requires three ingredients: patience, perseverance, and pluck. I suppose the same could be said for any business, but at least these three prerequisites (and perhaps a fourth – pesos) apply with particular precision to this profession. Success, if it comes...