Publishers Weekly: National Bookselling Day on November 7
In a move to try and drum up foot traffic at bookstores across the country, Publishers Weekly is announcing the first ever National Bookselling Day, according to this article from their website. PW has partnered with several publishers, various literary publications and different bookselling associations across the country to help promote the event.
While in theory this sounds like a great idea, I wonder how they are going to get Joe Average Reader on board to actually visit his local store on November 7. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but if they are not careful, it can easily turn into an event that only PW and the involved parties care about – not the readers who are the ones who shell out cash to actually buy books.
With sales down and indie bookstores quickly becoming an endangered species, that leaves the big-box stores like Barnes & Noble and Borders. Will they be on board with this plan? Nevertheless the idea is to promote the ‘vibrant culture’ that bookstores offer:
“We want to celebrate the vibrant culture of bookstores,” publisher Ron Shank noted, “increase store traffic, sell more books and create an enjoyable customer experience that will lead to return visits. Every store is doing this already, but we think there may be an opportunity to get more customer attention if many across the country band together on the same day.”
I really hope this works. But I do remain skeptical. As I said, the indie bookstores are disappearing, leaving the big chain bookstores to take their places. And those chains do try to create that ‘bookstore culture’ that Ron Shank speaks of, they also appear to be more interested in endlessly promoting their own customer memberships/discount clubs to customers already weary of such deals. Every retail store I go into these days (not just bookstores) seems to have their own credit card, membership, club, etc that they push onto customers. Sometimes I just want to go in, buy what I need and leave without being harrassed.
The future of bookstores
This idea begs the question: What is the future of the bookstore? With ebooks on the rise, and POD technology always improving, where will bookstores be in 20 years? 10 years?
For those of you who follow me on Twitter, I recently tweeted about this very topic – prompted by a great post from the Teleread blog. The post mostly talks about the effect of POD technology on the bookstore, and whether or not bookstores should be in the publishing business.
But my concern for bookstores lies with ebooks. If ebooks really take off, the way digital music has, and people can buy all their books online, then where does that leave the bookstore? In a whole lotta trouble! I don’t think this will happen anytime soon, but it is certainly worth thinking about and planning for now.
An example of what could happen is to look at stores that sell CDs. Sales of CDs have plummeted in recent years in favor of digital music (thanks, in large part, to services such as iTunes). The music industry clung to CDs, even as their own customer base was moving away from them in large numbers. The CD isn’t dead yet, but the end is very near. Stores that exclusively sell CDs are in big trouble. Stores that sell CDs along with other merchandise, like books, might fair a little better.
I’m only talking about the effect of ebooks – I haven’t even mentioned the online retailers like Amazon that sells virtually any book under the sun. The physical bookstore might find itself on the ‘endangered species’ list of retail markets sooner rather than later.
Do you think there is hope for bookstores? Do you think the ebook will make the need for such establishments obsolete? Leave your thoughts below in the comment section. I look forward to reading what you have to say!
