I took this photo a week or so ago at the Brisbane Borders store. It got me thinking about the future of bookstores (as distinct from the book business) becoming more and more analogous to cinemas.
There are around 220 copies of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight books here – and that’s on top of the display on the ground floor, the display in the science fiction and fantasy section, the display in the YA section and the posters promoting the upcoming release of the DVD. It’s no surprise there are reports that the Meyer books accounted for 16% of all tracked book sales in the US in the first quarter.
Many chain bookstores are already stocking fewer titles but the oncoming ebook swarm is about to make that even more profound. I suspect we’re going to see chain bookstores either devote more space to making it easier to buy ebooks instore (in the interim) and then move to stocking substantially fewer “hit” titles. The cinema analogy comes into play when you look at choosing a movie online or from the rental store, or going to see one of eight or 10 movies on the big screen.
Question is how fast it will happen and what it will mean for the book biz in the meantime.
I still enjoy buying hard copy books because I’m a major fan of reading and like having my collection displayed. Just how reliable is the net anyways? Never know what tomorrow brings!
This my friend is some scary shit, without even bringing in the parallel importation issues. Sparkly emo-vampires aside, give me choice over bulk availability any day.
I think some book buyers will still want to buy instore from quality independent bookstores for a long time to come. But whether they’ll be able to stay viable is a whole other issue.
I think the ‘movie’ analogy is both precise and prescient. My great fear after a life time in the business of books is that this phenomenon which was once the over marketing of Stephen King, and then J.K. Rowling is about to go nuclear. This on top of the wholesale Googlization of the backlist of civilization.
Vince–