The Truth

The truth, in todays fast paced instant information, internet age is a topic worthy of discussion. Chris Anderson's revolutionary book The Long Tail was one of the most insightful and sharp business books of recent years. He predicted a new approach to business that could only be facilitated using the web as a sales venue. It is a model Amazon has shown not only as functional but astoundingly successful; as they are happy to take little bits of action in all different markets and make money. They may lose money on a Kindle edition of a new bestseller or it's hardcover counterpart, but they make up for that lost sale in seller fees for everything from books to cds, to dvds. And while they have your attention they just might sell you anything from a generator to a new gps to a new set of Golf clubs. They truly are the stock market of retail goods. All of which Chris Anderson saw coming in his Long Tail. But, in his newest highly anticipated book coming out in July called Freemium he seeks to examine the ability to give away product, services, and content online as a way to gain business in the long run. I can't wait to read the book (and it is free to download at least for the first 2 weeks) but the recent coverage in the NY times about his blatant word for word use of many passages direct from Wikipedia - begs the question - is total Freemium a good thing? If you can write a book using wikipedia, if you can write your college term paper without ever really checking out solid "real" sources, if you can outsource your book and term paper to India...are we really better off? I think this at your fingertips ability to get everything fast and without much work is spawning a generation of potentially lazy "corner-cutters" and bending the truth or where your sourced the truth isn't a good thing. Then again, prior to the internet age would we ever have known about Anderson's blase use of Wikipedia, or Senator's dalliance, or what about James Frey's bogus memoir? The internet age has brought the ability for real time fact checking by the world - public official caught with the wrong woman - someone saw you and is plugged in and is willing to tell the world using his twitter feed. So, we can cut corners but we can't keep a secret in this age of information - it just takes a little more hunting and fishing around, a role that the general public must now accept as newspapers trim staff and head towards extinction. Are we better or worse off? Like the eReader - it's hard to tell - but it is time to accept that in todays world - like it or not that is just the way it is with the truth.

Take That Kindle! Guest Post

Any bookseller these days will admit to at least a mild apprehension over the rising popularity of electronic reading devices. While their long-term impact on the sales of “traditional” books remains to be seen, the appeal of e-readers cannot be dismissed. There is reason for optimism among those of us who enjoy the heft and feel of bound paper pages, however.

The other night, my seven-year-old daughter and I settled in comfortably; she was going to read a new book to me. Waiting for her to begin, I glanced over. Her nose was pressed against the pages of the just-opened book, and she was breathing in deeply:

With a blissful look on her face, she exclaimed, “Oh Daddy, this one smells great! Did you smell this yet?”

We enjoyed the rest of the book as well. Take that, Kindle!

-Chris Rose

Kindle2

Well, well, well Kindle2 arrived in its wonderfully packaged box and it to keep it short and sweet the device amazes me. The Sony Reader was great - the Kindle2 is much better! It takes all the features that the Sony lacked and added them, plus more. The delivery system is flawless and takes out the hassle of the Sony site - plus they had the book I was looking for - "Tinkers." I was able to buy the daily NY Times for 75 cents and start reading it 30 seconds later. I found a word I didn't know and the included Oxford dictionary had the definition for me instantly. I found a quote I liked and was able to clip it virtually for later perusal. Yes, Jeff Bezos and his team are geniuses - and yes, I'm more scared then before with just my Sony...the ten year window of pure bookselling might just be shrinking into the 5 year range. But that said, the pure volume of wonderful novels still astounds me - I find a new ones in our boxes, via twitter, on blogs, and of course through good old word of mouth. How we buy and read them may change but I think the written word is thriving. This pleases me despite all the other chaos in the book industry.

New Year New Challenges

After completing my review of the eReader and acknowledging the threat to independent bookstores I took some time off to think about where the direction of this blog should go. It is tempting to go into a negative spiral with the current state of the book industry - but I prefer to keep my head high despite the industry woes and the economic dificulties we face today. I have read all of the very interesting posts and responses to Ann's booksellers blog and I feel that there are many people in this industry that are committed to finding a way to keep independent booksellers alive. These are the people that are blogging, twittering, and reinventing themselves in their stores. Although some predict that the next generation will have been born into the computer screen world (digital natives - the term coined by someone) and do virtually everything online. I feel that the human element will play a role. There is nothing that compares to actually looking a person in the eye, talking to them, and ending the conversation with a handshake or a hug. There is no technology that can replace the emotions that go along with personal contact. Now, we may see the next generation overload their screens with work, virtual communities, virtual dating, virtual buying and actually come to the realization that they miss what they once had or the desire to try something they never had - human contact. I think that this is where the community plays a role - and the independent bookseller has the opportunity to be at the forefront of a new model bookstore. Recently at the Winter Institute the question was posed to create the future bookstore - if we had a blank slate. Looking at my notes from that exercise I think that the world will go electronic and the bookstore will only become a sales showroom - we'll stock backlist books that are just for show and buyers will receive an eVersion and the bookseller will receive a cut of the sale. Hard copy sales for gifts will be limited to 100 or so titles in store that are bestsellers and or staff picks. If a customer needs a hard copy of a book that is not in store it will be printed on site in less than a day and personalized to the customer's liking. The video that was posted on the booksellersblog in French actually is close to what I imagined in my notes from WiiV. If you haven't seen it check it out. I do imagine a slightly bigger concept than the video's view because I believe our future stores will need a good sized community meeting and event space. People may change completely to eReading, but I do not think they will discontinue there need to talk to booksellers, talk politics, meet new people, meet authors and learn new things. This is our future - community event centers that happen to sell books and eBooks. Recently, Susan Savory the new manager at our Andover location posed an idea for knitting lessons in store - an "outside the box" event for a store that has only ever done author events. She proposed an 8 weeks session that we would charge $40. I thought, what a great idea, get some new people in the store, make a little money, and maybe sell 5-6 books. I gave her the go ahead and we both felt that 6-8 people would be a success. We were wrong. Within the first week of sign-ups we had over 40 confirmed and easily 20 more on a wait list. People were gagging for human contact and the ability to learn something new at a reasonable price. The success of this knitting class has given rise to all sorts of discussions on how to make author and author-less events a success, while at the same time making money doing them. I believe if we keep our feet in the eReader game and find a way to get a cut of the sales and then flip our store concept on its head - independents will survive....we just might not be called bookstores...

eReader - Conclusion

The eReader, in Kindle, Sony, Stanza, or another unknown competitor's version, is here to stay. After almost 10 books on my Sony I really like the text, I like the weight; I pretty much like everything about the device. I have read lots of reviews on the Internet and a couple of personal reviews from our brick and mortar customers who have taken the leap into the eBook world – and people are positive. I have read about the naysayers that will never read in a non-traditional format and heard them voice their opinions forcefully and loudly. I speak from the heart because about a year ago those were my words, and they were loud and clear. They were naive. My eyes have been opened both as a reader and as a career independent bookseller. Although this segment of book sales is still very small –it is here to stay and to grow. We have an entire generation hooked on iPhones, text messages and online communities. The leap to eBooks just seems right - both in timing and finally, in technology. As a reader, I probably will read 70-80% of books on the eReader. Why? I like it better. I actually read longer and faster with the weight and large font size. Does this mean I won’t ever buy another book? No. Of the books I’ve read I will certainly buy copies of my favorites because a great book is just that. Great. For me, it carries not only the memory of a great story, but the time and place when and where I read the novel and this memory is best represented by the physical object. I want books in my house as decoration and I want to touch and feel them. Although I do not need the physical book for reading I do enjoy jacket design and presentation. Also, as a member of the bookselling community I certainly never lack for suggestions or free books to enjoy – but also when on vacation I enjoy browsing for books. Seeing what other stores choose to display, what type of staff picks exist, and just plain and simply what jumps out at me. Although, Amazon does this in the virtual world pretty well and they will only get better – you can’t replace physical books and physical people completely. But if you want some predictions, here are mine:

Amazon continues to become a more and more dominant force in all forms of retail, books included. The Kindle, because of Amazon’s connection to all its customers, becomes the first eReader to make it and make it seriously. eBooks affect brick and mortar sales minimally in the next 3-5 years, but after that they grow to represent at least 20% of all book sales. This change closes weaker independents and severely effects big box superstores that cannot change into community local resource centers that just happen to sell books. Amazon or another company takes a chance and makes a cheap version of the Kindle that is only for textbooks – students proceed to pirate virtually all textbooks which severely effects any store that sells textbooks, any publisher of textbooks, and any author expecting royalties for their work. Books continue to be sold in traditional and digital formats and the remaining bookstores thrive, albeit under an entirely different model than we know today…more about that in the weeks to come…

eReader Part VII - pricing

I've just finished up reading a few more novels on the eReader despite the crazy rush of holiday sales and the subsequent winter term textbook rush and found another quirk worthy of discussion regarding eBooks: pricing. Just before Christmas I had the pleasure of selling books for an off-site event at the Reading Public Library for author, Stewart O'Nan. As is typical with author events, you never, ever quite no what to expect in terms of audience size and sales. I was told they were expecting about 80 people, turned out to be closer to 40 and I knew right away I had too many books. However, the attendees were lovely and the presentation given by Stewart was excellent, funny, and insightful. His commentary on his successful book, Last Night at the Lobster, about the closing of a Red Lobster Restaurant in New England interested me. From the cover shot I originally thought it was a novel about Hockey in New England and never really gave it another thought. After hearing Stewart's presentation and the funny questions and experiences of the audience and their fond (or not so fond) memories of working in food service - I had to read the novel. Of course, continuing the eReader project I went onto Sony's site and purchased the book for $13.96. Which got me thinking - there are no Hardcovers or Paperbacks in the eReader world - just one format. I sell the paperback for $13, so the eBook costs more money. Now going back to Hardcover I paid just $11.99 for the $25.99 eBook of Edgar Sawtelle. Conclusion - reading books in the eFormat is certainly easier on your wallet in the Hardcover version and more expensive in Paperback. Interesting... I wonder what authors would think if all of their books came out only in one lower priced format - less royalties? Or possibly more, since the cost is cheaper to the publisher? I'll have to query the publishers on that one too... nonetheless the Lobster is a great little gem that takes just a night to read and enjoy. Happy New Year!

eReader Part VI - A Slight problem

I ran into my first negative experience with the Sony eReader. Do you know the part of books that really makes them amazing? The climax and the subsequent rapid descent to the conclusion. With fun mysteries this is often just the last chapter or last few pages. With good novels this is often the last twenty pages. With great novels, like Edgar Sawtelle this is the last hundred pages. Which brings us to our dilemma: Sony claims that the eReader can go 7,500 page turns on a single charge. That is amazing! But, way off the mark! I'm in Vermont, away for the weekend with a fully charged Sony and Edgar Sawtelle and I'm devoid of laptop, internet, and USB charging cable (it is Vermont...right?), and I just crested the beginning of the climax with one hundred pages to go to ride this gem of a book into the beach - when bam! eReader informs me I am low on batttery and ten pages later, with me grasping for more as the story cranks up the pace, the screen goes dead. I started with a full charge and I set the font large giving me 1527 pages to read continuously over the weekend from start to finish of the novel. Now, here it is Sunday morning, great reading ahead, no way to recharge and no other reading material. Sony clearly overstated their claim that you can turn 7,500 pages. In the fine print it does claim that battery life varies with usage and I'd be happy to except somewhere in the range of 5,000 plus - but less than 1,500? A bummer, truly. A standard, wall AC adapter is probably in my future - and really should be included in the box. But for now, Edgar will have to wait until tomorrow and much to my Father's pleasure...I'm headed to the store to pick up the Sunday New York Times...