The news on the brick-and-mortar bookstore front seems to be mixed lately. Many bookstores are struggling, many are closing, while many also are opening. Is the latter the triumph of hope over experience? Or just the succeed of some entrepreneurial overconfidence? Or is this just a reflection of the widespread situation for small businesses (lots of startups and failures every year)?
According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, bookstore sales have been expanding since the dawn of 2008. In the first quarter, sales rose 5.1%. Unfortunately, that statistic does not get broken down in the middle of books and all else sold in bookstores (Dvds, Cd, varied gift items, etc.). Nor, for that matter, in the middle of chain market and independent bookstores.
Bookstore
In January, the American Booksellers association (representing most independent bookstores in the U.S.) reported that 115 new independent bookstores opened in 2007, the third year in a row that new market exceeded 100. However, Aba apparently does not publish figures on how many indies closed during that same period.
There in fact is no doubt that many indie bookstores have closed, and even the big chain bookstores have been cutting back, conclusion stores, and firing people. The "big box" market (Wal-Mart, Costco, et al) have been getting more and more of the bestseller sales...and at deep discounts. Online, Amazon has in fact had an succeed as it continues to growth its sales at a steady pace -- accounting for roughly 20% of all books sold.
People still enjoy shopping in their neighborhood bookstores, but the request remains unanswered as to whether they will continue to buy books there if they can get them far economy online or at Wal-Mart.
What is happening is that fewer titles will be carried in brick-and-mortar market at the same time that publication of new titles increases dramatically. In 2007, some 411,000 new titles were published, compared to 295,000 in 2006 and around 200,000 in 2005. Are we headed for a half-million new titles in 2008?
The Boston Globe reported about the challenges facing indie and chain bookstores in an narrative titled "Books and Mortar," noting that:
The market aren't the only ones with a stake in the outcome. Bookstores enliven streets and communities. They bring readers and authors together. And shoppers can still examine the unexpected.
The narrative highlights a few local indie market that appear to be doing well by reinventing the way they present books to customers and even how they feel them.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post published "The Changing Bookstore Battle" last month, noting:
In Washington, besides the big-box chains and the large book retailers, shoppers have some independent bookstore options, though not nearly as many as a decade ago.
And what will happen to indie bookstores as e-books and reader-friendly e-book readers proliferate? Will customers browse the shelves...then buy and download their choices to their Amazon Kindle as they walk out of the store?
Finally, what does all this mean to independent micro-publishers? Probably not very much, since indie bookstores have been even more difficult to convince to carry our books than the big chains. You might think there'd be a synergy in the middle of indie publishers and indie bookstores, but the reverse seems to be true. Local indie market will regularly stock regional books and local authors but, otherwise, prefer known quantities (big names and bestsellers).
It seems that the book industry's tectonic plates are, indeed, shifting. It's just very difficult to decide exactly where they will end up.
former Bookstores - Are They Doomed?
