Comments on: What About the Future of BookSTORES? http://tropophilia.com/2008/02/08/what-about-the-future-of-bookstores/ the love of change Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:01:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Designing digital books for serendipity | Beginwithanidea http://tropophilia.com/2008/02/08/what-about-the-future-of-bookstores/#comment-2354 Designing digital books for serendipity | Beginwithanidea Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:29:38 +0000 http://tropophilia.com/?p=104#comment-2354 [...] discussions surrounding the evolution the book revolve around the impending doom of the bricks-and-mortar store as it loses out to the online experience — where our measure of [...] [...] discussions surrounding the evolution the book revolve around the impending doom of the bricks-and-mortar store as it loses out to the online experience — where our measure of [...]

]]> By: Designing digital books for serendipity | robotic rodents http://tropophilia.com/2008/02/08/what-about-the-future-of-bookstores/#comment-2353 Designing digital books for serendipity | robotic rodents Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:49:24 +0000 http://tropophilia.com/?p=104#comment-2353 [...] discussions surrounding the evolution the book revolve around the impending doom of the bricks-and-mortar store as it loses out to the online experience — where our measure of [...] [...] discussions surrounding the evolution the book revolve around the impending doom of the bricks-and-mortar store as it loses out to the online experience — where our measure of [...]

]]> By: Intercurriclar Blogging? at Tropophilia http://tropophilia.com/2008/02/08/what-about-the-future-of-bookstores/#comment-905 Intercurriclar Blogging? at Tropophilia Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:44:34 +0000 http://tropophilia.com/?p=104#comment-905 [...] talked about the future of reading here in the past.  But what about the future of writing?  Or more specifically, [...] [...] talked about the future of reading here in the past.  But what about the future of writing?  Or more specifically, [...]

]]> By: Jarred http://tropophilia.com/2008/02/08/what-about-the-future-of-bookstores/#comment-180 Jarred Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:30:19 +0000 http://tropophilia.com/?p=104#comment-180 Read an Ebook Week is March 2-8, people: http://epublishersweekly.blogspot.com/2008/02/30-benefits-of-ebooks.html Read an Ebook Week is March 2-8, people:

http://epublishersweekly.blogspot.com/2008/02/30-benefits-of-ebooks.html

]]> By: The booker http://tropophilia.com/2008/02/08/what-about-the-future-of-bookstores/#comment-181 The booker Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:13:09 +0000 http://tropophilia.com/?p=104#comment-181 The demise of the bookstore is not entirely the result of a diminished reading public. Bookstores are rendering themselves obsolete and irrelevant. Fifteen years ago the number of books published in the USA was a five figure number. By 2007 that number has grown to 190,000 plus. I have been told that the average chain bookstore inventories between 25 and 30 thousand titles. If one factors in the bread-and-butter titles that stay in a store year after year, the numbers indicate that 160,000 to 170,000 new titles never appear in a bookstore. The Harvard Business Review has indicated that the average title in a major chain bookstore sells 2 copies per year. The bookstore computerized inventory sends a book back to the publisher if it has not sold a predetermined number of copies in a few weeks/months time. In todays world it takes about a year to get a buzz going about a book. By the time the buzz happens the bookstore has returned the title. The current bookstore is less user friendly than the neighborhood library. In many libraries you can walk up to a computer and determine the availability of any title, go the designated shelf, pick up the book, and check it out. For some libraries you can do this from home. In a bookstore you have to browse (eye-ball the shelves), or ask a clerk. That is not 21st century marketing. In our busy, fast paced world who has time to browse? Outside of the obvious categories like fiction and hammering nails one often wonders who made the decision to put this book on the shelf in this category. Yes, there is a picture of Teddy Roosevelt beside a downed elephant on the cover, but this book should really be in biography rather than nature/wildlife. Did anyone take time to learn what the book is really about? Every publisher has stories of customers who went into a store to ask for a specific title, only to be told by the clerk that, "It is not yet printed," or "It is out of print." Or sometimes the reply is, "That book is not available to us." Either some of the clerks don't know how to use their software or they don't take the time to get the correct information from it. Perhaps the large mega bookstores are not the answer. If I want a book a building a wall in my garden I don't go to Barnes & Noble, I go to Menards or Lowes. I believe people like the feel of a book in their hand. When getting a book from the bookstore is as easy as ordering it from Amazon the fortunes of the bookstores should change. The demise of the bookstore is not entirely the result of a diminished reading public. Bookstores are rendering themselves obsolete and irrelevant.

Fifteen years ago the number of books published in the USA was a five figure number. By 2007 that number has grown to 190,000 plus. I have been told that the average chain bookstore inventories between 25 and 30 thousand titles. If one factors in the bread-and-butter titles that stay in a store year after year, the numbers indicate that 160,000 to 170,000 new titles never appear in a bookstore.

The Harvard Business Review has indicated that the average title in a major chain bookstore sells 2 copies per year.

The bookstore computerized inventory sends a book back to the publisher if it has not sold a predetermined number of copies in a few weeks/months time. In todays world it takes about a year to get a buzz going about a book. By the time the buzz happens the bookstore has returned the title.

The current bookstore is less user friendly than the neighborhood library. In many libraries you can walk up to a computer and determine the availability of any title, go the designated shelf, pick up the book, and check it out. For some libraries you can do this from home. In a bookstore you have to browse (eye-ball the shelves), or ask a clerk. That is not 21st century marketing. In our busy, fast paced world who has time to browse?

Outside of the obvious categories like fiction and hammering nails one often wonders who made the decision to put this book on the shelf in this category. Yes, there is a picture of Teddy Roosevelt beside a downed elephant on the cover, but this book should really be in biography rather than nature/wildlife. Did anyone take time to learn what the book is really about?

Every publisher has stories of customers who went into a store to ask for a specific title, only to be told by the clerk that, “It is not yet printed,” or “It is out of print.” Or sometimes the reply is, “That book is not available to us.” Either some of the clerks don’t know how to use their software or they don’t take the time to get the correct information from it.

Perhaps the large mega bookstores are not the answer. If I want a book a building a wall in my garden I don’t go to Barnes & Noble, I go to Menards or Lowes.

I believe people like the feel of a book in their hand. When getting a book from the bookstore is as easy as ordering it from Amazon the fortunes of the bookstores should change.

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