(Continued)
This column was all set to hand in to the editor when Wal-Mart and Amazon started a price-slashing war, resulting in a small selection of "bestsellers" available from the retail giants at 60% less
than the list price. Wal-Mart and Amazon can afford to do this because the books are seen as loss leaders
they lure the customer in, and then the customer (hopefully) will buy additional merchandise that does turn a profit. Real booksellers, people who focus on and know about books, are the ones who suffer
from this kind of predatory pricing (and so do readers and bibliophiles, but I’ll get to that). Even the big chain bookstores who once put the squeeze on independent and/or used-and-rare bookstores
are feeling the squeeze. I admit to some hopeful malice when I recall something I read by Nicholas Spice, publisher of the London Review of Books: "Remember what happened to Tower Records or Zavvi? They were
reduced to selling the MP3 players that were destroying their CD business. And then they closed."3
Oh, that’s just spiteful of me, isn’t it? A little context and more about my background: I worked in a large chain bookstore for a little more than a year, and what I will say in its defense is
that it had thousands of titles on hand every day, more than a lifetime’s worth of reading available at any given moment—but I also have to agree with a popular complaint that the staff isn’t
very knowledgeable about books. A handful of the booksellers employed there stayed because they genuinely cared about books, so they didn’t mind that they weren’t being paid very well. The majority
just clocked in and stood around, angry that they weren’t being paid very well. The overwhelming tone of the company was that books were nothing more than "units" to be shifted which I guess helps
explain why they hold knowledgeable booksellers and uninformed booksellers in the same regard.
If even the big chain booksellers (not to mention the independent booksellers) are being driven out of business, the choice of books will suffer. Publishers may release fewer titles, focus on bestsellers, and heavily
promote just a few authors rather than nurturing a literary writer, or one who needs time to find their audience. (Plenty of authors who are popular today were not instantaneous bestsellers). "The key has always been
diversity at the retail level. There’s a big difference, say, between 500 buyers all buying for their own stores and one chain-buyer purchasing for 500 outlets. Buyers for independent stores tend to cancel out each other’s
mistakes; no single error in judgment can sink a prospective literary career."4
I will wait and see if e-readers provide (or restore) an atmosphere that encourages innovation and literary discovery. They certainly have the potential to (quite a few determined, self-published authors have manipulated Amazon to
boost their sales, or have otherwise harnessed the internet to garner attention). Hopefully, there will always be publishers competing with each other to break the mold. I’m new to Featherproof Books’ website, which allows
readers to print out short stories and fold them into books. They also have an iPhone app, called "Triple Quick," consisting of short works of fiction in your phone (333 words or less, the stories amount to three screen swipes).
Booksellers, too, have some role in encouraging innovation (would we have James Joyce without Sylvia Beach?), and discovery. Whether the bookstore offers a large selection, leaving the customer alone to treasure hunt (like The Strand
in New York City), or a carefully curated collection (like Royal Books in Baltimore), they are valuable spaces, and I fear losing them.
A few months back, The Grolier Club hosted a symposium entitled "Books in Hard Times," featuring panel discussions and lectures by prominent antiquarian bookdealers, collectors, and librarians. It covered a range of perspectives
on the fate of the book, taking into account not only the current global economic turmoil, but the constantly evolving information technologies that compete with print media. It was an entire day of great food for thought, plus the usual joys
of mingling with bibliophiles their specialized knowledge, their stock of arcane humor, and their sometimes extreme personalities (one listed the iPhone as "a horseman of the print media apocalypse," and was met with a few somber nods of agreement).
We touched briefly on the demise of bookstores and an alarming number of participants seemed ready to accept bookstores as having played an important role in seducing the bookbuyer. I use the past tense with awareness, as I noticed many in
the room were already dwelling there ("the bookstore played"). It seemed a capitulation that the bookstore is widely acknowledged (at least in a room full of informed, if specialized, bibliophiles) as having been usurped. As the presence of
bookstores declines, what space will booksellers (or readers, or publishers) use to cultivate a sophisticated readership or a collector? Certainly there are book fairs, catalogues,5 and exhibits—but there is also the internet. Indeed, that which so many
bibliophiles regard as a harbinger of doom may be exploited to bibliophilic ends. Ian Kahn, the delightful brain behind Lux Mentis, extols his Facebook page, Twitter feed and, of course, website, as essential to establishing his reputation and encouraging customer interest.
Plenty of savvy and energetic bookdealers are experimenting with electronic media, and we can learn something from them—and, hopefully, please, buy something from them.
Looking around at my fellow passengers on the subway, I notice a few people using electronics—iPods, iPhones, Blackberries, video game systems—but I also notice just as many people, if not more, using paper. Newspapers, magazines, and books are alive and maybe even well.
I love to play Scrabble on my iPhone, but nothing compares to putting a pencil to the crossword. It’s an old technology, tried and true, and it need not be replaced. In my readings about the fate of the book, there are those who envision a future that is almost entirely digital,
with a select few books residing in libraries with special collections—but I think the truth is somewhere in-between, and that we’ll have to balance old and new reading technologies. But I’ve chosen to base my livelihood on books, so perhaps I have to think
that way in order to get to work. I don’t want to think about a few select books residing only in libraries, in special collections. And if you’re like me, and at all uneasy with the question of who selects, or what is special, then, please, go to a
bookstore, buy a book, and tuck in.
4 William Petrocelli, Not a Simple Price War—It’s a Fight Over What You Get to Read. Huffington Post.
5If you’ve never read an antiquarian bookdealer’s catalogue, they are a treat. Go online and check out Between the Covers, Brian Cassidy, Lux Mentis, Royal Books, Ken Lopez—these are few of my favorites because I always learn something new and find something unique.