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 their doors
Anyone in the bookselling business is keenly aware that our trade is at a critical juncture
Monday in the London Times: Ben Hoyle’s “How the Internet Are Killing Art of Browsing”
Tuesday in the London Times: Michael Goves piece “Web Allows Booksellers to Flourish”
Last week from the Guardian: Indie Bookshops Making a Comeback”
End of March” Nicholas Clee, writing a Guardian blog, Booksellers in a Bind” says that big booksellers are in a bind
End of March in the Scotsman: The End of the Bookshop
Galley Cat “Book Sales, Bookstores Continue Disconnect”
All of these articles appeared in the last 30 days!
Is your head spinning yet?