Article about ebook readers affect on bookstores

[kevrab]

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle...rksUUUycaEacyU

[asjogren]

How are used bookstores doing?

Lower book sales for paper books is one impact on retail book sales. A poor economy cannot help either.

I expect used bookstores to still be viable.

[mr ploppy]

It isn't really ebooks, it is the internet in general. People just don't think of looking in local shops for things any more (except food). They just can't compete with the internet for choice, availability and convenience. When the internet is often cheaper, it's obvious why local shops would close down.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

It isn't really ebooks, it is the internet in general. People just don't think of looking in local shops for things any more (except food). They just can't compete with the internet for choice, availability and convenience. When the internet is often cheaper, it's obvious why local shops would close down.

I think you are right on target when you lay the blame on the Internet. In years past, I used to dread the holiday season -- having to fight crowds in the local stores to do shopping. For the past several years, with minimal exception, nearly all of our holiday shopping has been done online -- and the driving force was ease of buying, not price. I'm in my sixties and didn't grow up with online shopping; if I adapted to it, imagine how quickly and completely those younger than me have done so.

As for books, I think that market will turn into a 3-tier market. The first tier will be ebooks. I suspect that eventually 75% of all books sold will be ebooks, once every ebook supplier conforms to a single format standard and a single DRM standard that ensures a long life for a purchased ebook and device neutrality. This is still years away.

A second tier will be print books. I expect this will be hardcover only and comprise 20% of the market. These will be sold via specialty stores, both brick-and-mortar and online, via the agency model. Publishers will wake up and realize that b&m stores really do serve a marketing purpose and force the agency model on all hardcover sales so as to level the playing field. These books will continue to be bought by collectors and by those who want a secondary market.

The third tier will be the used book market, the secondary market, which will cater to collectors and to those who want to buy books at a price lower than they would otherwise pay for a hardcover or an ebook.

I think that eventually the book will wholly replace the current paperback market. I think if publishers were forward thinking about their own tenure in the business, this is how they would be going.

[Penforhire]

I always thought of smaller book stores as a labor of love. They were never that financially sound. I wouldn't take much to drive them to extinction. Larger stores like Borders or B&N will just take longer to recognize their death (and some are more actively transitioning to e-books).

We've had lively debate here over the timing of the e-book revolution. They can't take over until e-readers trickel down to much lower economic levels, and perhaps become physically more robust as well. Most of us agree that's not in the 3-5 year time (we've got some optimists) so bookstores may have anywhere from a decade to a score of years or more of potential survival.

[jasonkchapman]

I can imagine some of the indie bookstore owners watching the demise of the "record store" and thinking, "I'm glad that can't happen in THIS business."

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

While there's nothing good about small stores having to close, I think a lot of them could still take advantage of the change in the market, instead of assuming they are doomed and helpless.

For instance, stores that understand they are becoming "browsing centers" for online buyers should be tryig to work out ways digital customers can still buy ebooks from them, at their store or portal, allowing them to collect part of the sale. And they can offer other products to visitors... I don't remember the last time I went into a bookstore, big or small, and found all they were selling is books.

I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just saying there are alternatives to just shaking a fist at Amazon and turning off the lights.

[Lemurion]

Hey, both the major bookstores here have Reader devices on display and operate ebook stores. They also sell a lot more than books. (Not limited to coffee and stationery.)

I agree that mass market paperbacks are on their way out, but I think it's going to take a while and there will probably be holdouts that will keep them going for another generation or so.

Beyond that, it's going to be hardcovers and collectible volumes all the way.

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

It isn't really ebooks, it is the internet in general. People just don't think of looking in local shops for things any more (except food). They just can't compete with the internet for choice, availability and convenience. When the internet is often cheaper, it's obvious why local shops would close down.

Yeah, that's really the big thing, I think, not e-books. The only time in the last 10 years I haven't bought a new paper book off the internet was when I had jury duty and needed something right away.

Once you start paying a lot less for something it's hard to pay full price again.

I also really hate bookstore clerks. Every time you buy a book, it seems like they can't help but chime in with their opinion of what you are buying.

I realize they are just trying to be friendly, and are probably just trying to amuse themselves at an otherwise boring job. But at the same time it seems like a violation of privacy, not to mention when they dislike what you are buying.

[ficbot]

I agree that it's not just books, and I agree that there are ways for them to adapt rather than just die. One of the hottest bookstores in my city is an indie used book chain that sells new and used DVDs and new books too. Another is a high-end coffee shop that also happens to sell books.

I vehemently disagree with the idea that the publishing industry or government or whomever should somehow intervene to 'save' the bookstores. I love books (and spend more on them now that I have an ebook reader than I did before!) but as far as the retail supply chain goes, it's the business side and business changes. Bookstores are no different from any other type of store in that regard. The marketplace is full of surprises. If you had told me ten years ago that the hottest retail store in my city would be one that sells only cupcakes, I would have laughed at you, but such is life If the market wants it, it will sell. If the market would rather buy it some other way, or not at all, they'll do it and you either find a way to get your cut, or you get out of that business.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

For instance, stores that understand they are becoming "browsing centers" for online buyers should be tryig to work out ways digital customers can still buy ebooks from them, at their store or portal, allowing them to collect part of the sale.

This was my first thought exactly. Suppose there was a code number you could purchase in-store in lieu of the physical book, then go home and download the book to your computer by entering that code number.

[mr ploppy]

Either I posted it on the wrong thread or it didn't work, but selling ebooks on physical media like memory sticks, SD cards, CDROM, etc, would solve most of the problems for both new and second hand book shops. Giving someone a computer file for Xmas just doesn't seem right somehow. But I don't think the publishers would be interested because it would also allow people to sell them second hand.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Catlady

This was my first thought exactly. Suppose there was a code number you could purchase in-store in lieu of the physical book, then go home and download the book to your computer by entering that code number.

But who would do this? As I watch the snow come down outside, I'm really happy that I don't need to go out to buy...well, anything. And since I read book reviews mostly on my computer, and enjoy the ease of going from the review directly to Amazon if I'm interested (and before I forget), I'm not sure why I would go into a "book showroom" in the first place.

I do think that pbooks will continue to exist for a long time, as will bookstores, but that bookstores won't be able to really appeal to e-book purchasers.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

But who would do this? As I watch the snow come down outside, I'm really happy that I don't need to go out to buy...well, anything. And since I read book reviews mostly on my computer, and enjoy the ease of going from the review directly to Amazon if I'm interested (and before I forget), I'm not sure why I would go into a "book showroom" in the first place.

I do think that pbooks will continue to exist for a long time, as will bookstores, but that bookstores won't be able to really appeal to e-book purchasers.

I don't have a bookstore as my destination--but that's been true for a long time because of Internet shopping.

But I always stop in my local BN and Borders stores when I'm in the vicinity of either one, doing other shopping. I browse, usually rather aimlessly. I have often found something on the shelves that interests me, and purchased on a whim.

Now that I have an e-reader (recent purchase, only two months), I still browse, but then I go home and see if an e-book is available--and I might switch to a different store than the one I browsed in. If I could buy the e-book in the store, I'd probably impulse-buy the same way I'd previously bought the paperback.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Catlady

If I could buy the e-book in the store, I'd probably impulse-buy the same way I'd previously bought the paperback.

Exactly my point: Make it easy to buy the ebook while you're in front of it at the store.

A code-method would work, but I was thinking along the lines of buying the ebook online using the store's web connection (wired or wireless). Processing it through them would allow the store to take a cut of the sale. Or, outside of their store, some portals have special links to sellers like Amazon, etc, that give the portal credit for the sale.

Get people to use the portal by offering some other perk they can get in-store, like a free cup of coffee, etc. That gets people used to buying online through the store's portal, or at the store itself. It's still up to the store to figure out how to get customers to come in, but if they do it right, they should be able to profit from ebooks (and other merchandise) as they did with printed books.

Anyway, there are different ways to do it, that was just one scenario from me.