Bookstores need more money, less mouth

The bookstore I co-founded and built from the acquisition of a single rare book is closing at the end of March. Wolfgang Books has been a mainstay of the Philadelphia area for the last five years. It has won four consecutive “Philadelphia Hot List – Best of Philly” awards and has never been shy of good press. Any walk of bibliophile can find something at Wolgang’s. Rare, used and plenty of new titles are to be had. Of the new titles I’d say 80% are from indie publishers and 100% are chosen by the bookseller.

That’s a lot of talk. Since my former business partner, Jason Hafer, to whom I sold my half of the company, announced that he was going to close the store because of slowed sales (and they are slow) I have heard a lot more talk. No doubt he’s heard still yet more.

“Was there no way to save it?”
“Are e-books killing bookstores?”
“I thought with Borders retreating it might get better for indies.”
“I always mean to go in but forget to.”
“These are hard times.”
“Amazon, Amazon, Amazon…”

Someone recently told me that they love the store and wished they had bought more books there — but Amazon, they said, was just too cheap. Not in the mood to accept their expiation I decided to tell them that the situation they just described was a major reason for the store’s closing. They acknowledged my point and proceeded to ask me if I knew whether the rare & collectible books were going to be on sale. Apparently paying full-price on front list paperbacks was too much of a hardship for him. Getting 40% off on a first edition of Celine, well, that right there fit snugly into the budget. Hell and damnation.

The other day I read a pair of articles about Borders “retreat” and found the same sentiments on display.

Tim Feran in the Columbus Dispatch writes:

Book-loving bargain hunters last weekend jammed the Columbus Borders locations slated to close as part of the company’s bankruptcy filing.

Parking lots at the two stores, at 4545 Kenny Rd and 6670 Sawmill Rd., were so crowded at times that would-be shoppers couldn’t find a space, several people said.

“I tried to stop by a few times Saturday, but there was no parking,” said Marie Gherghei of Columbus, who visited the store on Kenny Road. “My boyfriend and I finally were able to find parking Sunday. The store was packed full of shoppers.”

Later Feran describes the frustrations of one of the bargain-hunters:

“Most everything I looked at — books and DVDs — was 20 percent off,” said Gary Daniels of Columbus. “That’s still significantly more than I want to pay when I can get much better deals on Amazon Marketplace, eBay and at Half Price Books without waiting in line.”

The blood in the water was apparently enough of an attraction, but seeing prey that was only moribund was not enough to get a bite. I don’t blame Gary Daniels for not buying a DVD for 20% off because he showed up hoping for some far greater savings. I am curious about the packed parking lot and circling cars. I am doubly amazed that people couldn’t find parking and had to (and did) try again on another day. Most of all I wonder about a store packed to the gills in late February, a murderous retail month, that was formerly so devoid of customers that it was … closing.

Apparently the readers are there. Apparently their credit cards are not as yet still red hot from the recent holiday season. These are readers, I should add, of the physical book. I mean, this wasn’t a Sears closing and people weren’t climbing over themselves to get a microwave, washer & dryer or much-needed replacement for an ancient refrigerator. These were books.

Indie bookstores pride themselves on their ability to champion things. The other article I recently read was by an Australian bookseller who observed that Australian writing is not generally well-represented throughout the publishing world and that an indie Australian store is one of the few places sensitive to that situation. Granted, indies can sometimes be prone to translating their sensitivities into a “tin cup” strategy of feeling entitled to customers that they may not always be competitively wooing.

After readings about a bustling Borders and being asked about discounts on rare books I’m prepared to give it all (economy, e-books, Amazon) a pass in my mind. Instead I think some realizations need to be made about how and where we’re spending our book-buying money. Sincere guilt at passing on your beloved bookstore is a start.

It will not however keep the lights on and the shelves stocked. Just so you know.

Paul Oliver is the marketing manager of Melville House. Previously he was co-owner of Wolfgang Books in Philadelphia.

Gimme

Another idiot blaming the public for going where the price is best. There’s barely a single bookstore left in the country and they still haven’t figured out the basic rules of retail: you can’t offer less for more & expect to stay in business.

Instead of accepting that basic bit of reality, they scold customers for being greedy and selfish and short-sighted because they would rather pay lower prices. Unbelievable.

Cassie

Wow, if you really think that brick and mortar stores are offering less for more than online retailers, then I feel sorry for you.

I diagnose this as, ‘another idiot who fails to realise not only the value of brick and mortar stores, but who doesn’t understand the costs of running one’. How on earth do you propose Booksellers run a store while only charging Amazon prices?
Socratesadams

Wow – you should maybe think about setting up a consultancy business to help bookstores.
Foreveroverhead

You and Ilya, commenting below, are viewing this through an incredibly narrow lens. It’s ridiculous to accuse booksellers of being dumb or greedy for charging the price PUBLISHERS mark their books at. There is a much bigger eco-system here.

Of course you want to only pay $.99 for a book. But the day is going to come, soon it seems, when the only books getting published are teen vampire romance thrillers because that’s all that sells.
The fact is that the publishing of literature is totally counter intuitive to the world of profit. Publishers make money on Steig Larrson and use it to publish first time fiction writers they know won’t show a return the first time out.
Can literature or scholorship exist on severely discounted margins? Of course not. There are probably 50,000 people in america who will read Freedom. Far fewer are willing to read poetry. Should publishers stop publishing good and important books that fewer than 20,000 people will read just because Amazon wants to charge $2.99 for everything?
And how will these authors make a living?

Neither booksellers or publishers are greedy. They’re running a business with very tight margins. And no they haven’t been running it well. But to believe that literature can survive on the loss leader model Amazon is pushing is just bad business sense.
Booksellers and some readers are frustrated because the general reader has no regard for what is best for literature in general.
Compare it to television. You can watch reality tv shows for free or pay a premium to get good shows on cable. But according to you Gimme no one would be willing to do that with books…? Why?

In a past life I ran an independent bookstore. We had an average of 12 in-store and offsite events every week. Sold merch. Sold coffee. Had seasonal sales. And the fact of the matter is business still got worse and worse despite our best efforts.
Bottom line is independent bookstores are closing not for lack of effort but because they can’t afford to pay rent and employees and 65% of the books cover price to the publisher while consumers are unwilling to pay full price, or tax for a good read.

What do you do for a living? And can I pay you at 40% off?

Gimme

“Compare it to television. You can watch reality tv shows for free or pay a premium to get good shows on cable. But according to you Gimme no one would be willing to do that with books…? Why?

In a past life I ran an independent bookstore.”

Of course you did. Only booksellers are this stupid.

To spell out the ridiculously obvious answer to your question: why won’t people pay more for books the way they do with cable? Because they don’t have to. When the same book is available in a bookstore for $15 or at amazon for $2, they will go to amazon. If people could get cable without paying, they’d do that to.

We can wring our hands all day about why this is so, but it doesn’t change the basic reality that we must adapt to if we are to survive.

Feel free to continue blaming human nature though – see how that works out for ya in the retail world. Oh right, that was your PAST life. Huge surprise there…

Paul Oliver

“I don’t blame them for buying it from Amazon. A bookstore does not have a right to consumers. That’s one of the biggest mistakes I see small business owners make. They believe that since they are doing the right thing (organic food, good books, or free trade coffee) that consumers should buy from them. There is nothing more untrue.”

That’s something I wrote on February 12th of last year. I think many booksellers would agree with that statement because they live the reality of its implication. Booksellers are not idiots and really such internet based bravado on your part is not a flattering reflection of who you are.

I think that more than anything some booksellers are facing a reality that they knew was out there if not altogether likely. I didn’t start a bookstore because I wanted a BMW. I started a bookstore because I wanted to represent authors and publishers that were producing work I felt was beneficial to the intellectual life of the community and culture at large. I was also very aware that such a concept might not add up to bags full of money.

In the case of my role in Wolfgang’s, I came to the realization that our cash-flow was probably never going to get to a place where it could support two principals at the location we were in. Combine that with the fact the business was relatively young and therefore could not make a move into something larger or open a second store without endangering the entire enterprise.

Running a literary bookstore is not easy, especially if you’re unwilling to compromise like Jason and I were. I wanted to give the store a chance because, and here’s the part that I don’t think you understand, I believe in the product on an emotional and philosophical level. It’s hard to run a business when you’re willing to sacrifice your personal gains in order to support the “cause.” Foolish perhaps, stubborn yes, but that’s why I went into it knowing that it could fail and would be hard. And it was.

But worth noting is the fact that it did work, largely. Wolfgang Books was open for five-years, which is a relatively high number for a small business. According to the SBA most small businesses (over half) fail in their first five-years. There is another point however, just past the dreaded five-month mark, when you can see some of the more nuanced details of a business. Sometimes, because of location or size of inventory, amount of time involved, etc, a business grows up but never grows big. These are very difficult factors to understand prior to owning a business and I wouldn’t expect someone who hasn’t run that particular business to understand them. When you’re putting in a ninety-hour week (nearly every small business owner is familiar with the term “Be there shift”) and paying yourself for thirty, well, you’re running a better-than-average business but you may very well tire of the extreme work levels.

Kind of like how I feel about this thread right now. A lot of work with low returns. Zing.

Paul Oliver

Correction: Five-months. Over half of small businesses fail in their first five months.
Gimme

Again, it seems to me you’re talking pretty good sense now, Paul. I got no gripes with anything in that post either. It seems somewhat at odds with the initial ML post that started this whole thing, but perhaps you were just venting a little with the “lazy and cowardly” spiel. Clearly it didn’t do justice to the breadth of your views on this subject.

I still maintain (somewhat cheekily – yet, also kinda seriously) that booksellers as a whole seem, generally, to be sort of willfully ignorant of the basic rules of the market – either that or they just aren’t interested in playing by those rules for whatever reason (and some of the reasons may very well be admirable).

I have a lot of sympathy for people who labor at a thankless job because they believe in what they do, not because they want a BMW. I don’t have much sympathy for when those same people turn bitter and spiteful because the world has not chosen to support them, and they decide it’s the world’s fault for being lazy, cowardly, etc. – rather than just owning up to the fact that they took a risk & it didn’t pan out.

Gimme

Another idiot blaming the public for going where the price is best. There’s barely a single bookstore left in the country and they still haven’t figured out the basic rules of retail: you can’t offer less for more & expect to stay in business.

Instead of accepting that basic bit of reality, they scold customers for being greedy and selfish and short-sighted because they would rather pay lower prices. Unbelievable.

Cassie

Wow, if you really think that brick and mortar stores are offering less for more than online retailers, then I feel sorry for you.

I diagnose this as, ‘another idiot who fails to realise not only the value of brick and mortar stores, but who doesn’t understand the costs of running one’. How on earth do you propose Booksellers run a store while only charging Amazon prices?
Socratesadams

Wow – you should maybe think about setting up a consultancy business to help bookstores.
Foreveroverhead

You and Ilya, commenting below, are viewing this through an incredibly narrow lens. It’s ridiculous to accuse booksellers of being dumb or greedy for charging the price PUBLISHERS mark their books at. There is a much bigger eco-system here.

Of course you want to only pay $.99 for a book. But the day is going to come, soon it seems, when the only books getting published are teen vampire romance thrillers because that’s all that sells.
The fact is that the publishing of literature is totally counter intuitive to the world of profit. Publishers make money on Steig Larrson and use it to publish first time fiction writers they know won’t show a return the first time out.
Can literature or scholorship exist on severely discounted margins? Of course not. There are probably 50,000 people in america who will read Freedom. Far fewer are willing to read poetry. Should publishers stop publishing good and important books that fewer than 20,000 people will read just because Amazon wants to charge $2.99 for everything?
And how will these authors make a living?

Neither booksellers or publishers are greedy. They’re running a business with very tight margins. And no they haven’t been running it well. But to believe that literature can survive on the loss leader model Amazon is pushing is just bad business sense.
Booksellers and some readers are frustrated because the general reader has no regard for what is best for literature in general.
Compare it to television. You can watch reality tv shows for free or pay a premium to get good shows on cable. But according to you Gimme no one would be willing to do that with books…? Why?

In a past life I ran an independent bookstore. We had an average of 12 in-store and offsite events every week. Sold merch. Sold coffee. Had seasonal sales. And the fact of the matter is business still got worse and worse despite our best efforts.
Bottom line is independent bookstores are closing not for lack of effort but because they can’t afford to pay rent and employees and 65% of the books cover price to the publisher while consumers are unwilling to pay full price, or tax for a good read.

What do you do for a living? And can I pay you at 40% off?

Gimme

“Compare it to television. You can watch reality tv shows for free or pay a premium to get good shows on cable. But according to you Gimme no one would be willing to do that with books…? Why?

In a past life I ran an independent bookstore.”

Of course you did. Only booksellers are this stupid.

To spell out the ridiculously obvious answer to your question: why won’t people pay more for books the way they do with cable? Because they don’t have to. When the same book is available in a bookstore for $15 or at amazon for $2, they will go to amazon. If people could get cable without paying, they’d do that to.

We can wring our hands all day about why this is so, but it doesn’t change the basic reality that we must adapt to if we are to survive.

Feel free to continue blaming human nature though – see how that works out for ya in the retail world. Oh right, that was your PAST life. Huge surprise there…

Paul Oliver

“I don’t blame them for buying it from Amazon. A bookstore does not have a right to consumers. That’s one of the biggest mistakes I see small business owners make. They believe that since they are doing the right thing (organic food, good books, or free trade coffee) that consumers should buy from them. There is nothing more untrue.”

That’s something I wrote on February 12th of last year. I think many booksellers would agree with that statement because they live the reality of its implication. Booksellers are not idiots and really such internet based bravado on your part is not a flattering reflection of who you are.

I think that more than anything some booksellers are facing a reality that they knew was out there if not altogether likely. I didn’t start a bookstore because I wanted a BMW. I started a bookstore because I wanted to represent authors and publishers that were producing work I felt was beneficial to the intellectual life of the community and culture at large. I was also very aware that such a concept might not add up to bags full of money.

In the case of my role in Wolfgang’s, I came to the realization that our cash-flow was probably never going to get to a place where it could support two principals at the location we were in. Combine that with the fact the business was relatively young and therefore could not make a move into something larger or open a second store without endangering the entire enterprise.

Running a literary bookstore is not easy, especially if you’re unwilling to compromise like Jason and I were. I wanted to give the store a chance because, and here’s the part that I don’t think you understand, I believe in the product on an emotional and philosophical level. It’s hard to run a business when you’re willing to sacrifice your personal gains in order to support the “cause.” Foolish perhaps, stubborn yes, but that’s why I went into it knowing that it could fail and would be hard. And it was.

But worth noting is the fact that it did work, largely. Wolfgang Books was open for five-years, which is a relatively high number for a small business. According to the SBA most small businesses (over half) fail in their first five-years. There is another point however, just past the dreaded five-month mark, when you can see some of the more nuanced details of a business. Sometimes, because of location or size of inventory, amount of time involved, etc, a business grows up but never grows big. These are very difficult factors to understand prior to owning a business and I wouldn’t expect someone who hasn’t run that particular business to understand them. When you’re putting in a ninety-hour week (nearly every small business owner is familiar with the term “Be there shift”) and paying yourself for thirty, well, you’re running a better-than-average business but you may very well tire of the extreme work levels.

Kind of like how I feel about this thread right now. A lot of work with low returns. Zing.

Paul Oliver

Correction: Five-months. Over half of small businesses fail in their first five months.
Gimme

Again, it seems to me you’re talking pretty good sense now, Paul. I got no gripes with anything in that post either. It seems somewhat at odds with the initial ML post that started this whole thing, but perhaps you were just venting a little with the “lazy and cowardly” spiel. Clearly it didn’t do justice to the breadth of your views on this subject.

I still maintain (somewhat cheekily – yet, also kinda seriously) that booksellers as a whole seem, generally, to be sort of willfully ignorant of the basic rules of the market – either that or they just aren’t interested in playing by those rules for whatever reason (and some of the reasons may very well be admirable).

I have a lot of sympathy for people who labor at a thankless job because they believe in what they do, not because they want a BMW. I don’t have much sympathy for when those same people turn bitter and spiteful because the world has not chosen to support them, and they decide it’s the world’s fault for being lazy, cowardly, etc. – rather than just owning up to the fact that they took a risk & it didn’t pan out.

Cassie

Sorry to hear that Wolfgang books is closing, Paul. Just out of interest, did/do you ever make sales of your more valuable books online to collectors?
Cassie

Sorry to hear that Wolfgang books is closing, Paul. Just out of interest, did/do you ever make sales of your more valuable books online to collectors?
Wordvoid

I truely feel for you. I work in a discount (60%) bookstore in the UK and we even hear the question “Isnt there any more off this”, unfortunately we live in a something for nothing society. The publishers wont sell us the top chart books for a discount that we can pass onto the customer, so we can only offer 20% on those ranges at which they moan and go to amazon. The problem is also with overheads, wages, rent and rates all go up but our prices dont, so were we where fine 4years ago now we find it hard, even after letting 3 members of staff go an cutting hours on the remaining two. Thing is a store just can not compete with the net which have much smaller overheads and can order levels of stock, to get extra discount, we wodnt be able to shift or store.
Wordvoid

I truely feel for you. I work in a discount (60%) bookstore in the UK and we even hear the question “Isnt there any more off this”, unfortunately we live in a something for nothing society. The publishers wont sell us the top chart books for a discount that we can pass onto the customer, so we can only offer 20% on those ranges at which they moan and go to amazon. The problem is also with overheads, wages, rent and rates all go up but our prices dont, so were we where fine 4years ago now we find it hard, even after letting 3 members of staff go an cutting hours on the remaining two. Thing is a store just can not compete with the net which have much smaller overheads and can order levels of stock, to get extra discount, we wodnt be able to shift or store.
Joni at Paragraphs

The other thing many fail to recognize is that Amazon and other online retailers do not discount many of their books. They lure you in on the deeply discounted titles, below cost in many cases, and hope that once you establish a book buying habit with them you will not mind paying full-price, plus shipping for other books or merchandise you want and which are sold at full-price.

Amazon also does not do much for your local community. Have you ever attended a book-signing at Amazon, had them donate to your local charity, had them sell tickets to local event, or recommend the perfect gift for that hard to buy for uncle who has everything? Does Amazon let you take a book and allow you to pay for it later because you forgot to bring your wallet? It is selfish to take advantage of the things your local bricks and mortar independent retailer provides to your quality of life and that of your community and then fail to support them with a portion of you shopping dollars.
Joni at Paragraphs

The other thing many fail to recognize is that Amazon and other online retailers do not discount many of their books. They lure you in on the deeply discounted titles, below cost in many cases, and hope that once you establish a book buying habit with them you will not mind paying full-price, plus shipping for other books or merchandise you want and which are sold at full-price.

Amazon also does not do much for your local community. Have you ever attended a book-signing at Amazon, had them donate to your local charity, had them sell tickets to local event, or recommend the perfect gift for that hard to buy for uncle who has everything? Does Amazon let you take a book and allow you to pay for it later because you forgot to bring your wallet? It is selfish to take advantage of the things your local bricks and mortar independent retailer provides to your quality of life and that of your community and then fail to support them with a portion of you shopping dollars.
Paul Oliver

@Joni – You’re right. Things are not always cheaper at Amazon. The big exception is on mass market items, which small bookstore’s have never really been able to exploit like big tops or online marketplaces.

@Cassie – Wolfgang Books started by selling rare books online. For three or so years before becoming a brick & mortar we sold antiquarian and collectible books via several sales channels. I’d say that this aspect of the business was actually hit hardest by the economy.

These days all you can sell are first editions of Ayn Rand, but that is another problem for a different discussion.

@Gimme – Barely a bookstore left? Where do you live – in the shadow of a Walmart?

1) I don’t think I know you, though you sound oh so familiar. I see that you have the finger dexterity to post a comment replete with virtual insult but I do have to question your reading comprehension.

2) There are vibrant bookstores across the country. A lot more than you think. Sure, it’s tough for them right now but they’re there. Books have relatively low margins across the board (publisher, wholesaler, retailer) and requires a lot of bookkeeping savvy to even think about running one.

A bookstore, big top or tiny indie, is vastly different from an online market place. They have a relatively large overhead for the capital they’re dealing with. Sure, Amazon has overhead too. They employ people. But they aren’t dealing with a finite ecosystem like a community.

But since I’m a nice guy I’ll give you the Spark Notes version of this article: People see and realize that bookstores have value as both local institution and (most important) as curators of all things literary. They realize this and because of this realization they emotionally side with the store. Some actually go and buy books at the store. Some, and here is my essential point, buy online not because of the savings or quality of experience but because they are lazy. The person who wants to buy a $700 first edition at 40% off is not sweating the dollar-eighty they save on a trade paperback.

Lazy. That’s the point. No less or more. Just laziness. Got it, huckleberry?

Gimme

Paul, you and the rest of your ilk can continue to accuse the public of “laziness” if you want. It probably makes you feel better, but it certainly won’t cause anyone to change their behavior, and it won’t affect the basic laws of supply and demand which you seem determined to remain ignorant of.

What WILL make a difference is when bookstores start offering what Amazon cannot. You’re kidding yourself if you think amazon doesn’t offer a better book-buying “experience.” Amazon ALWAYS has what I want in stock, and at super low prices. Plus reader reviews, etc.

The bottom line is: bookstores cannot compete with Amazon in this area. Where they CAN compete is in OTHER areas that are separate from book purchasing: events, readings, culture, etc. That’s how a place like Elliot Bay in Seattle (to name a great indie bookstore that’s managed to stick around) makes it. They lure people in with cultural events (and pretty good coffee I might add), and the people end up buying books while they’re there.

Calling someone lazy because they want to save money is one of those idiotic remarks you only hear from fools in the book world. I don’t know why so many booksellers have such a poor grasp of basic retail strategy, but it’s costing them dearly – and us as well, because bookstores ARE important. But they will not be kept alive by whining and guilt trips and wishful thinking. It’s hard to believe you’d really need any more evidence of this, but wait and see, if you don’t believe me.

Paul Oliver

Sigh. All this “you people” stuff is tiresome. Here are a few things you are totally wrong about:

1) “Bookstores can survive by creating a healthy events environment.”

No. You’re wrong. Having a lot of great events is certainly a part of running a bookstore successfully but it is not an answer. Real survival happens Monday – Friday at 1pm. Have you sold anything today? No. You have a foot traffic problem. Better get involved with your business association and look at your facade, advertising venues, etc.

2) Do you have the right stock? And does your stock matter to your customers? In the article I cite an Australian bookseller who likes to champion Australian writers because they (the bookseller) feel Australian writing gets passed over. That might be a feasible strategy in Melbourne, but how about West Palm Beach, Florida? Not so much.

Opening an avant garde poetry store in Ashtabula, Ohio would be ruinous. No matter how great the store might be in your mind. A religious bookstore or a used bookstore (Lofthouse Books) might flourish, or at least survive.

3) When you arrive at Amazon’s website do you see titles by MHP front-and-center? Do you see Milkweed Editions titles? Do you see Archipelago or Europa Editions? No. They’re there, somewhere, but you have to go looking for them.

These are all publishers that are doing important work. You walk into most indie stores and you’ll find their books on hand, often prominently displayed. Amazon prominently displays its own brand of authors (I will not touch that here) and your run of the mill bestsellers. That’s where indies fight the good fight and where sometimes they lose a margin here and there by holding onto a book for too long, etc.

Still, all of this is not really the point. I have written in the past about the problem of booksellers feeling entitled. So might actually agree on that concept, but clearly not the details. I suspect because you don’t really have any.

The point of this piece and subsequent defenses of it is this: Some people are lazy. They internally want to do something (buy locally) but do not do it. It’s not about savings, either, if I can get that into your head. It’s about acting on what you believe is right. If you have honestly thought to yourself, “I should have bought this book from such and such books where I first heard about it” but instead bought it from (insert online monolith) because you were at your computer when you thought of it, well, then you have been lazy, and to a degree, somewhat cowardly. To confront your convictions and fail to uphold them in order to take the easier path is the definition of cowardice.

If you, Gimme or others of your ilk, do not have those convictions then you are neither lazy nor cowardly. Get it? Go get your good coffee. If the bookstore closes there will always be a coffee house with great coffee somewhere. Especially in Seattle.

So lazy and cowardly is where we leave off, if you’re still keeping score. If we keep this up I may actually start calling names.

Gimme

Paul, I don’t really disagree with most of your last post – in fact, that is largely my point: if no one is buying what you’re selling, rather than blaming THEM, it might make more sense to re-evaluate whether you’re providing something that they want, and re-evaluate how you’re marketing it, etc.

So, people are lazy… yeah, there’s a real news flash – of course they are! The point is, you can rail against basic human nature, or you can give them a REASON to come to you instead of amazon… if you can’t come up with a reason, well, maybe you deserve to go out of business.

I hope you don’t of course – I love bookstores. Which is why it’s so discouraging to see so many of them adopting this ridiculous stance of “it’s the lazy customer’s fault.”

Paul Oliver

Sigh. All this “you people” stuff is tiresome. Here are a few things you are totally wrong about:

1) “Bookstores can survive by creating a healthy events environment.”

No. You’re wrong. Having a lot of great events is certainly a part of running a bookstore successfully but it is not an answer. Real survival happens Monday – Friday at 1pm. Have you sold anything today? No. You have a foot traffic problem. Better get involved with your business association and look at your facade, advertising venues, etc.

2) Do you have the right stock? And does your stock matter to your customers? In the article I cite an Australian bookseller who likes to champion Australian writers because they (the bookseller) feel Australian writing gets passed over. That might be a feasible strategy in Melbourne, but how about West Palm Beach, Florida? Not so much.

Opening an avant garde poetry store in Ashtabula, Ohio would be ruinous. No matter how great the store might be in your mind. A religious bookstore or a used bookstore (Lofthouse Books) might flourish, or at least survive.

3) When you arrive at Amazon’s website do you see titles by MHP front-and-center? Do you see Milkweed Editions titles? Do you see Archipelago or Europa Editions? No. They’re there, somewhere, but you have to go looking for them.

These are all publishers that are doing important work. You walk into most indie stores and you’ll find their books on hand, often prominently displayed. Amazon prominently displays its own brand of authors (I will not touch that here) and your run of the mill bestsellers. That’s where indies fight the good fight and where sometimes they lose a margin here and there by holding onto a book for too long, etc.

Still, all of this is not really the point. I have written in the past about the problem of booksellers feeling entitled. So might actually agree on that concept, but clearly not the details. I suspect because you don’t really have any.

The point of this piece and subsequent defenses of it is this: Some people are lazy. They internally want to do something (buy locally) but do not do it. It’s not about savings, either, if I can get that into your head. It’s about acting on what you believe is right. If you have honestly thought to yourself, “I should have bought this book from such and such books where I first heard about it” but instead bought it from (insert online monolith) because you were at your computer when you thought of it, well, then you have been lazy, and to a degree, somewhat cowardly. To confront your convictions and fail to uphold them in order to take the easier path is the definition of cowardice.

If you, Gimme or others of your ilk, do not have those convictions then you are neither lazy nor cowardly. Get it? Go get your good coffee. If the bookstore closes there will always be a coffee house with great coffee somewhere. Especially in Seattle.

So lazy and cowardly is where we leave off, if you’re still keeping score. If we keep this up I may actually start calling names.

Paul Oliver

@Joni – You’re right. Things are not always cheaper at Amazon. The big exception is on mass market items, which small bookstore’s have never really been able to exploit like big tops or online marketplaces.

@Cassie – Wolfgang Books started by selling rare books online. For three or so years before becoming a brick & mortar we sold antiquarian and collectible books via several sales channels. I’d say that this aspect of the business was actually hit hardest by the economy.

These days all you can sell are first editions of Ayn Rand, but that is another problem for a different discussion.

@Gimme – Barely a bookstore left? Where do you live – in the shadow of a Walmart?

1) I don’t think I know you, though you sound oh so familiar. I see that you have the finger dexterity to post a comment replete with virtual insult but I do have to question your reading comprehension.

2) There are vibrant bookstores across the country. A lot more than you think. Sure, it’s tough for them right now but they’re there. Books have relatively low margins across the board (publisher, wholesaler, retailer) and requires a lot of bookkeeping savvy to even think about running one.

A bookstore, big top or tiny indie, is vastly different from an online market place. They have a relatively large overhead for the capital they’re dealing with. Sure, Amazon has overhead too. They employ people. But they aren’t dealing with a finite ecosystem like a community.

But since I’m a nice guy I’ll give you the Spark Notes version of this article: People see and realize that bookstores have value as both local institution and (most important) as curators of all things literary. They realize this and because of this realization they emotionally side with the store. Some actually go and buy books at the store. Some, and here is my essential point, buy online not because of the savings or quality of experience but because they are lazy. The person who wants to buy a $700 first edition at 40% off is not sweating the dollar-eighty they save on a trade paperback.

Lazy. That’s the point. No less or more. Just laziness. Got it, huckleberry?

Gimme

Paul, you and the rest of your ilk can continue to accuse the public of “laziness” if you want. It probably makes you feel better, but it certainly won’t cause anyone to change their behavior, and it won’t affect the basic laws of supply and demand which you seem determined to remain ignorant of.

What WILL make a difference is when bookstores start offering what Amazon cannot. You’re kidding yourself if you think amazon doesn’t offer a better book-buying “experience.” Amazon ALWAYS has what I want in stock, and at super low prices. Plus reader reviews, etc.

The bottom line is: bookstores cannot compete with Amazon in this area. Where they CAN compete is in OTHER areas that are separate from book purchasing: events, readings, culture, etc. That’s how a place like Elliot Bay in Seattle (to name a great indie bookstore that’s managed to stick around) makes it. They lure people in with cultural events (and pretty good coffee I might add), and the people end up buying books while they’re there.

Calling someone lazy because they want to save money is one of those idiotic remarks you only hear from fools in the book world. I don’t know why so many booksellers have such a poor grasp of basic retail strategy, but it’s costing them dearly – and us as well, because bookstores ARE important. But they will not be kept alive by whining and guilt trips and wishful thinking. It’s hard to believe you’d really need any more evidence of this, but wait and see, if you don’t believe me.

Paul Oliver

Sigh. All this “you people” stuff is tiresome. Here are a few things you are totally wrong about:

1) “Bookstores can survive by creating a healthy events environment.”

No. You’re wrong. Having a lot of great events is certainly a part of running a bookstore successfully but it is not an answer. Real survival happens Monday – Friday at 1pm. Have you sold anything today? No. You have a foot traffic problem. Better get involved with your business association and look at your facade, advertising venues, etc.

2) Do you have the right stock? And does your stock matter to your customers? In the article I cite an Australian bookseller who likes to champion Australian writers because they (the bookseller) feel Australian writing gets passed over. That might be a feasible strategy in Melbourne, but how about West Palm Beach, Florida? Not so much.

Opening an avant garde poetry store in Ashtabula, Ohio would be ruinous. No matter how great the store might be in your mind. A religious bookstore or a used bookstore (Lofthouse Books) might flourish, or at least survive.

3) When you arrive at Amazon’s website do you see titles by MHP front-and-center? Do you see Milkweed Editions titles? Do you see Archipelago or Europa Editions? No. They’re there, somewhere, but you have to go looking for them.

These are all publishers that are doing important work. You walk into most indie stores and you’ll find their books on hand, often prominently displayed. Amazon prominently displays its own brand of authors (I will not touch that here) and your run of the mill bestsellers. That’s where indies fight the good fight and where sometimes they lose a margin here and there by holding onto a book for too long, etc.

Still, all of this is not really the point. I have written in the past about the problem of booksellers feeling entitled. So might actually agree on that concept, but clearly not the details. I suspect because you don’t really have any.

The point of this piece and subsequent defenses of it is this: Some people are lazy. They internally want to do something (buy locally) but do not do it. It’s not about savings, either, if I can get that into your head. It’s about acting on what you believe is right. If you have honestly thought to yourself, “I should have bought this book from such and such books where I first heard about it” but instead bought it from (insert online monolith) because you were at your computer when you thought of it, well, then you have been lazy, and to a degree, somewhat cowardly. To confront your convictions and fail to uphold them in order to take the easier path is the definition of cowardice.

If you, Gimme or others of your ilk, do not have those convictions then you are neither lazy nor cowardly. Get it? Go get your good coffee. If the bookstore closes there will always be a coffee house with great coffee somewhere. Especially in Seattle.

So lazy and cowardly is where we leave off, if you’re still keeping score. If we keep this up I may actually start calling names.
Paul Oliver

Sigh. All this “you people” stuff is tiresome. Here are a few things you are totally wrong about:

1) “Bookstores can survive by creating a healthy events environment.”

No. You’re wrong. Having a lot of great events is certainly a part of running a bookstore successfully but it is not an answer. Real survival happens Monday – Friday at 1pm. Have you sold anything today? No. You have a foot traffic problem. Better get involved with your business association and look at your facade, advertising venues, etc.

2) Do you have the right stock? And does your stock matter to your customers? In the article I cite an Australian bookseller who likes to champion Australian writers because they (the bookseller) feel Australian writing gets passed over. That might be a feasible strategy in Melbourne, but how about West Palm Beach, Florida? Not so much.

Opening an avant garde poetry store in Ashtabula, Ohio would be ruinous. No matter how great the store might be in your mind. A religious bookstore or a used bookstore (Lofthouse Books) might flourish, or at least survive.

3) When you arrive at Amazon’s website do you see titles by MHP front-and-center? Do you see Milkweed Editions titles? Do you see Archipelago or Europa Editions? No. They’re there, somewhere, but you have to go looking for them.

These are all publishers that are doing important work. You walk into most indie stores and you’ll find their books on hand, often prominently displayed. Amazon prominently displays its own brand of authors (I will not touch that here) and your run of the mill bestsellers. That’s where indies fight the good fight and where sometimes they lose a margin here and there by holding onto a book for too long, etc.

Still, all of this is not really the point. I have written in the past about the problem of booksellers feeling entitled. So might actually agree on that concept, but clearly not the details. I suspect because you don’t really have any.

The point of this piece and subsequent defenses of it is this: Some people are lazy. They internally want to do something (buy locally) but do not do it. It’s not about savings, either, if I can get that into your head. It’s about acting on what you believe is right. If you have honestly thought to yourself, “I should have bought this book from such and such books where I first heard about it” but instead bought it from (insert online monolith) because you were at your computer when you thought of it, well, then you have been lazy, and to a degree, somewhat cowardly. To confront your convictions and fail to uphold them in order to take the easier path is the definition of cowardice.

If you, Gimme or others of your ilk, do not have those convictions then you are neither lazy nor cowardly. Get it? Go get your good coffee. If the bookstore closes there will always be a coffee house with great coffee somewhere. Especially in Seattle.

So lazy and cowardly is where we leave off, if you’re still keeping score. If we keep this up I may actually start calling names.

Gimme

Paul, I don’t really disagree with most of your last post – in fact, that is largely my point: if no one is buying what you’re selling, rather than blaming THEM, it might make more sense to re-evaluate whether you’re providing something that they want, and re-evaluate how you’re marketing it, etc.

So, people are lazy… yeah, there’s a real news flash – of course they are! The point is, you can rail against basic human nature, or you can give them a REASON to come to you instead of amazon… if you can’t come up with a reason, well, maybe you deserve to go out of business.

I hope you don’t of course – I love bookstores. Which is why it’s so discouraging to see so many of them adopting this ridiculous stance of “it’s the lazy customer’s fault.”

Ilya

This reinforces my suspicion that publishes could make more money online by cutting their e-books prices something like threefold.
Ilya

This reinforces my suspicion that publishes could make more money online by cutting their e-books prices something like threefold.
Ilya

….Lowering the price, that is, until books enter impulse-purchase territory, and liking the 3-page preview or a book trailer is enough to make someone click Buy.
Ilya

….Lowering the price, that is, until books enter impulse-purchase territory, and liking the 3-page preview or a book trailer is enough to make someone click Buy.
Ilya

It also reinforces my suspicion that if physical bookstores want to survive they should focus on selling books as expensive design objects and/or collectibles, perhaps even going beyond the usual way this is understood and reaching out to the book arts community.
Ilya

It also reinforces my suspicion that if physical bookstores want to survive they should focus on selling books as expensive design objects and/or collectibles, perhaps even going beyond the usual way this is understood and reaching out to the book arts community.
Ilya

I.e. The bookstore as art gallery
Ilya

I.e. The bookstore as art gallery
Ilya

Re: the question of laziness, I’m not sure whether I agree with Paul Oliver’s uncharitable interpretation of some of his customers’ motives. Even if he’s right, though, a part of me is inclined to believe that a business which must entrust its continued survival to the sustained elevation of its customers’ behavior above the perhaps disappointing average of human nature has, almost by definition, a fatal flaw in its model.

Also, I hope we can agree that good indie bookstores offer more to a certain kind of consumer than online retailers, and still reasonably maintain that this is not enough to make shopping there the rational choice.

Paul Oliver

Once more unto the breach…

I want to specifically address Ilya’s concept of “fine art” books and restate my overall opinion one painful last time.

To start, I don’t work at or own Wolfgang Books. Have not since January of 2009. But as a founding figure in the business and a once active member of the local business association I am still publicly identified with the company. So people ask me about it from time to time. But on a whole, I am removed from the business and have been for several years.

So I’m a little more dispassionate about this than you might assume. I am not bleeding for the business in this post but rather commenting on a problem I see. Namely people demonstrating good-will but not acting upon it.

@ Illya: To successfully sell antiquarian and collectible books takes years of learning and dedication. The art of bookselling implemented at a successful bookstore, say Greenlight in Brooklyn, is vastly different than that of a rare book dealer. You’re reference to a gallery is very appropriate. It takes years of learning and integration into the arts community to run a successful art gallery. Particularly if your dealing with a market as canonized as rare books. You better be certain that your first edition Red Badge of Courage has all the points of issue required to denote that it is from the very first impression. Otherwise I’m going to want my money back and you can be damned sure I won’t buy any other of your “first editions.” Hacks have already ruined that market & tradition. But that is neither here nor there.

And producing high-end, high-cost limited editions? And then selling them in a brick & mortar? I have a better idea. Wake up at 4am, climb into the shower and set it to the coldest it can go. Then start tearing up $100 bills. As many as you can in 10 minutes. Do that every day except Sunday.

Sundays will be for hard drinking or church. Whichever will get you to Monday morning’s shower.
Paul Oliver

Once more unto the breach…

I want to specifically address Ilya’s concept of “fine art” books and restate my overall opinion one painful last time.

To start, I don’t work at or own Wolfgang Books. Have not since January of 2009. But as a founding figure in the business and a once active member of the local business association I am still publicly identified with the company. So people ask me about it from time to time. But on a whole, I am removed from the business and have been for several years.

So I’m a little more dispassionate about this than you might assume. I am not bleeding for the business in this post but rather commenting on a problem I see. Namely people demonstrating good-will but not acting upon it.

@ Illya: To successfully sell antiquarian and collectible books takes years of learning and dedication. The art of bookselling implemented at a successful bookstore, say Greenlight in Brooklyn, is vastly different than that of a rare book dealer. You’re reference to a gallery is very appropriate. It takes years of learning and integration into the arts community to run a successful art gallery. Particularly if your dealing with a market as canonized as rare books. You better be certain that your first edition Red Badge of Courage has all the points of issue required to denote that it is from the very first impression. Otherwise I’m going to want my money back and you can be damned sure I won’t buy any other of your “first editions.” Hacks have already ruined that market & tradition. But that is neither here nor there.

And producing high-end, high-cost limited editions? And then selling them in a brick & mortar? I have a better idea. Wake up at 4am, climb into the shower and set it to the coldest it can go. Then start tearing up $100 bills. As many as you can in 10 minutes. Do that every day except Sunday.

Sundays will be for hard drinking or church. Whichever will get you to Monday morning’s shower.

Ilya

Re: the question of laziness, I’m not sure whether I agree with Paul Oliver’s uncharitable interpretation of some of his customers’ motives. Even if he’s right, though, a part of me is inclined to believe that a business which must entrust its continued survival to the sustained elevation of its customers’ behavior above the perhaps disappointing average of human nature has, almost by definition, a fatal flaw in its model.

Also, I hope we can agree that good indie bookstores offer more to a certain kind of consumer than online retailers, and still reasonably maintain that this is not enough to make shopping there the rational choice.

Paul Oliver

Once more unto the breach…

I want to specifically address Ilya’s concept of “fine art” books and restate my overall opinion one painful last time.

To start, I don’t work at or own Wolfgang Books. Have not since January of 2009. But as a founding figure in the business and a once active member of the local business association I am still publicly identified with the company. So people ask me about it from time to time. But on a whole, I am removed from the business and have been for several years.

So I’m a little more dispassionate about this than you might assume. I am not bleeding for the business in this post but rather commenting on a problem I see. Namely people demonstrating good-will but not acting upon it.

@ Illya: To successfully sell antiquarian and collectible books takes years of learning and dedication. The art of bookselling implemented at a successful bookstore, say Greenlight in Brooklyn, is vastly different than that of a rare book dealer. You’re reference to a gallery is very appropriate. It takes years of learning and integration into the arts community to run a successful art gallery. Particularly if your dealing with a market as canonized as rare books. You better be certain that your first edition Red Badge of Courage has all the points of issue required to denote that it is from the very first impression. Otherwise I’m going to want my money back and you can be damned sure I won’t buy any other of your “first editions.” Hacks have already ruined that market & tradition. But that is neither here nor there.

And producing high-end, high-cost limited editions? And then selling them in a brick & mortar? I have a better idea. Wake up at 4am, climb into the shower and set it to the coldest it can go. Then start tearing up $100 bills. As many as you can in 10 minutes. Do that every day except Sunday.

Sundays will be for hard drinking or church. Whichever will get you to Monday morning’s shower.
Paul Oliver

Once more unto the breach…

I want to specifically address Ilya’s concept of “fine art” books and restate my overall opinion one painful last time.

To start, I don’t work at or own Wolfgang Books. Have not since January of 2009. But as a founding figure in the business and a once active member of the local business association I am still publicly identified with the company. So people ask me about it from time to time. But on a whole, I am removed from the business and have been for several years.

So I’m a little more dispassionate about this than you might assume. I am not bleeding for the business in this post but rather commenting on a problem I see. Namely people demonstrating good-will but not acting upon it.

@ Illya: To successfully sell antiquarian and collectible books takes years of learning and dedication. The art of bookselling implemented at a successful bookstore, say Greenlight in Brooklyn, is vastly different than that of a rare book dealer. You’re reference to a gallery is very appropriate. It takes years of learning and integration into the arts community to run a successful art gallery. Particularly if your dealing with a market as canonized as rare books. You better be certain that your first edition Red Badge of Courage has all the points of issue required to denote that it is from the very first impression. Otherwise I’m going to want my money back and you can be damned sure I won’t buy any other of your “first editions.” Hacks have already ruined that market & tradition. But that is neither here nor there.

And producing high-end, high-cost limited editions? And then selling them in a brick & mortar? I have a better idea. Wake up at 4am, climb into the shower and set it to the coldest it can go. Then start tearing up $100 bills. As many as you can in 10 minutes. Do that every day except Sunday.

Sundays will be for hard drinking or church. Whichever will get you to Monday morning’s shower.

Melville House Books

Best Sellers

February 24, 2011