Let's reinvent the bookstore...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Given the fact that you edited your post and added the qualification "at an ebook shop" several hours after the previous poster's reply, that's hardly a fair comment.

But, even so, you don't shop are GoodReads or Fantastic Fiction. So it should have been obvious especially since this is a thread about bookstores. Neither of which those two places are.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by latepaul

OK thanks for clarifying.



It does annoy me that when you rank by rating a book with a single 5-star review beats one with loads of 4-stars.

Alas, a necessity to prevent punitive one-star campaigns from sinking titles.
Otherwise they would need a fulltime screening staff to clean out the listings. At some point they might develop an algorithm to filter out the gamers and the one-star spammers but for now the system is... adequate.
When somebody does it better they'll either improve...or buy them.
(Probably the latter.)

[pwalker8]

[QUOTE=latepaul;2852384]OK thanks for clarifying.

...

That's if you maintained the current catalog. If you excluded indies in some way then it would be cheaper but then how do you make sure you're not filtering out the next Hugh Howey? And also whilst most of these indies may not sell more than a handful of copies, multiply that by millions and you have a very nice income that you'd be giving up.

...
/QUOTE]

One possibility that I've mentioned in the past is to have two catalogs, one that is maintained by the publishers/authors and one that is maintained by the bookstore (maybe with a stocking fee for the publisher/author). Or simply allow one to filter by white lists, i.e. only show me books by publishers and authors that I want. There are lots of possibilities.

For that matter, I can see third parties stepping in and maintaining a list of various genres with reviews and links to the various ebook stores.

Like I say, there are lots of possibilities.

[fjtorres]

[QUOTE=pwalker8;2852512]

Originally Posted by latepaul

OK thanks for clarifying.

...

That's if you maintained the current catalog. If you excluded indies in some way then it would be cheaper but then how do you make sure you're not filtering out the next Hugh Howey? And also whilst most of these indies may not sell more than a handful of copies, multiply that by millions and you have a very nice income that you'd be giving up.

...
/QUOTE]

One possibility that I've mentioned in the past is to have two catalogs, one that is maintained by the publishers/authors and one that is maintained by the bookstore (maybe with a stocking fee for the publisher/author). Or simply allow one to filter by white lists, i.e. only show me books by publishers and authors that I want. There are lots of possibilities.

For that matter, I can see third parties stepping in and maintaining a list of various genres with reviews and links to the various ebook stores.

Like I say, there are lots of possibilities.

Amazon already lets you filter by publisher, among many other things.

On the left side bar you can filter by genre, author, series, etc.

Or, at the top, ADVANCED SEARCH gets you this:

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sv_kstor...ode=2735182011
And lists like thus:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=...oks-Submit.y=6

A long time ago Amazon developed a Google-competitor search engine (and company) called A-9 which feeds their commerce site.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A9.com#History

[Antoinekamel]

Beer in house's fridges hasn't killed bars. That's the core of the bookstore concept in the article.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Antoinekamel

Beer in house's fridges hasn't killed bars. That's the core of the bookstore concept in the article.

Perhaps
But in Canada anyway I can't get beer delivered or order it online, and while it is cheaper to drink at home the service isn't always as good.

I go to the bar more for the experience than just the drinking of a beer. Or when I am going with a group and don't want to be the person supplying the snacks and cleaning up afterwards. Perhaps bookstores should serve beer and snacks and loud music and hockey games.

Helen

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Antoinekamel

Beer in house's fridges hasn't killed bars. That's the core of the bookstore concept in the article.

Pretty much; I read it as an attempt to rebalance the value equation that bookstores offer readers, moving away from bookstores as (primarily) shelfspace and towards... something new.
Being of a techie persuasion, I see value in the smartwall approach for walk-by sales. The others... maybe...

[pwalker8]

[QUOTE=fjtorres;2852588]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Amazon already lets you filter by publisher, among many other things.

On the left side bar you can filter by genre, author, series, etc.

Or, at the top, ADVANCED SEARCH gets you this:

http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=sv_kstor...ode=2735182011
And lists like thus:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=...oks-Submit.y=6

A long time ago Amazon developed a Google-competitor search engine (and company) called A-9 which feeds their commerce site.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A9.com#History

Have you tried it? I have. It doesn't seem to work well. Oh I can look for a specific publisher, just like I can look for a specific author and a specific title. Look for publishers in this list? Not so much.

[fjtorres]

[QUOTE=pwalker8;2853010]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Have you tried it? I have. It doesn't seem to work well. Oh I can look for a specific publisher, just like I can look for a specific author and a specific title. Look for publishers in this list? Not so much.

Yeah I've used it.
(The listed example in fact, back when Baen first joined Amazon, to see how many titles they were offering.) And filtering out one publisher to browse their offerings is what it is supposed to do.

They also have a full alphabetic listing of authors.
What they don't do and likely never do because of corporate policy is do a traditional publishers-only list.

[pwalker8]

[QUOTE=fjtorres;2853173]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Yeah I've used it.
(The listed example in fact, back when Baen first joined Amazon, to see how many titles they were offering.) And filtering out one publisher to browse their offerings is what it is supposed to do.

They also have a full alphabetic listing of authors.
What they don't do and likely never do because of corporate policy is do a traditional publishers-only list.

Like I said, useful if you know exactly what you want, not so useful if you don't.