That’s the headline in
today’s Wall Street Journal about the impending Chapter 11 filing by the bookstore chain. The move is expected to close more than one-third of the Borders’ 674 remaining stores.
“Once physical shelf space is gone, it’s gone forever,” Mark Coker, of Smashwords, is quoted as saying.
On Saturday, in the Journal, Mike Shatzkin, a respected publishing consultant, opined that 90% of bookstore shelf space would be gone in a few years.
Ninety per cent! A breathtaking, heartbreaking number.
Is there a glimmer of good news in this? The Journal speculates that e-book sales will grow even faster. So, there’s a bright side for the manufacturers of e-book devices, for the promotional and marketing companies springing up to goose e-bok sales, for Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook, and companies like Smashwords. For writers of e-books and writers of dead tree books who are putting up their backlists on Amazon et al (as I’m doing), it’s good news too.
But so bittersweet. I feel for the employees who will be tossed out of work, for mainstream publishers who will distribute fewer books – and possibly lay off more workers – and for readers who will miss the experience of bookstores in their neighborhoods.
Your thoughts?
Paul Levine
The Jake Lassiter Series