In an age where independent booksellers are supposedly extinct, here’s a welcome contrarian view:
“Saying that bookstores won’t be around in the future because Wal-Mart and Amazon sell books is like saying Italian restaurants will go out of business because we have canned spaghetti sauce,” said Michael Norris, a senior analyst at Simba Information, a researcher and adviser for publishers. Part of the value of a bookstore is the expertise of its staff, he said.
As for the e-book market, it is growing, he said, but it’s still far behind the printed book market.
On the other hand …
“The bookstore business is in turmoil and could go into oblivion,” said Howard Davidowitz, a national retail consultant. “Borders is in crisis, and the industry is shrinking, people are reading less, digital readers are exploding, and the 800-pound gorilla is Amazon.”
Read more at: Pages or pixels? Houston Chronicle.
Will Barnes & Noble implode, and take biz real estate down, too?
A scary scenario from StarTribune.com:
News last week that giant book retailer Barnes & Noble is putting itself up for sale sent tremors through a commercial real estate industry that’s already struggling with record-high vacancy rates.
As a “bricks-and-mortar” business in a bookselling world that’s rapidly adopting digital downloads, fears are creeping in that a new Barnes & Noble owner would seek to shed or downsize the leases of many of its 700-plus stores nationwide. And some pundits are speculating B&N and other mall-based bookselling chains ultimately could go the way of video rental and record stores decimated by digital downloading.
via Barnes & Noble landlords fret.
Book dealer acquires Steinbeck manuscript
Wouldn’t you love to have this in your inventory?
Vic Zoschak is a happy man. He has a lot of treasures for sale in his Alameda shop, Tavistock Books, and he loves his work. At the moment, he relishes his inventory even more since acquiring a 1949 handwritten manuscript by John Steinbeck.
Three and a half pages of yellow legal pad sheets are filled with Steinbeck’s story, “His Father.” The Salinas-born author wrote the story in cursive with a pencil, and he apparently felt he’d reached his final draft before he sent it to his agent because there are very few words marked out.
eBay mulls seller fulfillment service
There’s a lively debate over at Auctionbytes blog about eBay considering the launch of a seller fulfillment service. eBay says it would offer two main benefits to sellers: better search placement and elimination of bad seller ratings due to delivery time.
Sellers are skeptical. Of course, Amazon sellers didn’t think much of Fulfillment by Amazon when it was announced, either.
eBay is surveying sellers on whether they would be interested in using a fulfillment service called eFulfillment Service. Sellers would send their inventory to eFulfillment Service, which would store the items, and then pick, pack and ship orders as they were received.
- improved search exposure on eBay for listings that used the fulfillment service;
- no low (1 or 2) shipping DSR ratings for those orders.
via eBay May Offer Outsourced Fulfillment Service to Sellers.
It seems eBay wants to copy Amazon’s FBA service. But it was relatively easy for Amazon to offer seller fulfillment — they had warehouses and a big fulfillment operation already. Does it make sense for eBay to build one from scratch? And what would happen if eBay signed up sellers for their new program, then ditched it? Would sellers have to pay to get their inventory shipped back to them?
Amazon sellers get FedEx shipping discounts
From the Amazon help page:
As a seller on Amazon Marketplace, you are now entitled to special savings on select FedEx Express U.S. and international and FedEx Ground services. It’s the FedEx Advantage – Amazon Marketplace Savings Program, no cost to enroll and no minimum shipping requirements. You can save on all of your shipments.
Go to http://www.fedex.com/AmazonMarketplace. You will need to enter the passcode: NPQ89Z13 and your Amazon Marketplace Merchant name.
Goodreads pushes books on the Web, not on paper
If you’ve never come across the great book-lover site Goodreads, this article will bring you up to speed:
“Book reviews in newspapers, well, those are gone,” the young Web entrepreneur told me in the most matter-of-fact way. “Independent bookstores are almost gone. Chains will probably be gone soon. It’s all happening online now.”
That might have been ho-hum stuff coming from just any techie. But the pronouncements were being made by a descendent of a print-and-ink empire.
via Goodreads founder pushes print on the Web, not on paper.
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One Comment
Bookstores need not fear the collapse of books. As Norris went on to point out, ebook sales account for only about 20% of the global book market. Print books are never going to go away. As for Amazon, its grasp is beginning to annoy. Its attempt to undercut prices on both books and ebooks from suppliers to below cost cannot be sustained for a long time, because eventually suppliers will begin to pull their titles from the catalog. The big six publishers are still realizing profits because they refused to capitulate to Amazon’s pricing structure. It’s time for independents to do the same. I am not in competition with bookstores but as long as they rely on antiquated wholesaling programs my books will not be on their shelves anytime soon. When they loosen their wallets I’ll be there to deal.