Tuesday, August 12, 2003
ack, this story makes me a little sick. The focus is against independents, and I hope the journalist is taking the Fireside Book Store owner's words out of context:
The Olympian article on local book stores
Here is the quote from the article that is popping up in publishing newsletters:
"If patrons want hardcovers, they can buy them much cheaper at Costco, [Fireside Book Store Owner Jane] Laclergue said. "The prices at Costco are my wholesale prices."
Of course, Costco carries a very limited selection of titles and not much service when it comes to ordering books for customers. Costco does not have the depth in titles of even the smallest bookstore. Yes, they had mountains of the new Harry Potter this summer, but how many did they have of the first book when it first published? Did they help build the momentum to make it the phenomenon? They specialize in buying what they know can sell and not taking chances. If they were all we had, then every author would have to be a bestseller on their first book.
The independent book store model for selling new books is moving toward heavy emphasis on trade paperbacks for reading groups and to maintain backlist sales, smart buying for the remainders section (and possibly used books), a cafe or restaurant for customer retention, active events calender for marketing, and aggressive special ordering to showcase customer service. The most successful independents (Tattered Cover, Powells, Square Books, RJ Julia, Third Place Books [where I worked]) focus on these areas.
Let's get this information into these news pieces, not doom and gloom quotes about the future of bookselling belonging to the five gallon olive oil peddlers. argh. Where's my copy of "You've Got Mail" to throw against the wall again?? Why does the independent have to go out of business?
oops, I forgot to title this post "Rant" at the top.
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The Olympian article on local book stores
Here is the quote from the article that is popping up in publishing newsletters:
"If patrons want hardcovers, they can buy them much cheaper at Costco, [Fireside Book Store Owner Jane] Laclergue said. "The prices at Costco are my wholesale prices."
Of course, Costco carries a very limited selection of titles and not much service when it comes to ordering books for customers. Costco does not have the depth in titles of even the smallest bookstore. Yes, they had mountains of the new Harry Potter this summer, but how many did they have of the first book when it first published? Did they help build the momentum to make it the phenomenon? They specialize in buying what they know can sell and not taking chances. If they were all we had, then every author would have to be a bestseller on their first book.
The independent book store model for selling new books is moving toward heavy emphasis on trade paperbacks for reading groups and to maintain backlist sales, smart buying for the remainders section (and possibly used books), a cafe or restaurant for customer retention, active events calender for marketing, and aggressive special ordering to showcase customer service. The most successful independents (Tattered Cover, Powells, Square Books, RJ Julia, Third Place Books [where I worked]) focus on these areas.
Let's get this information into these news pieces, not doom and gloom quotes about the future of bookselling belonging to the five gallon olive oil peddlers. argh. Where's my copy of "You've Got Mail" to throw against the wall again?? Why does the independent have to go out of business?
oops, I forgot to title this post "Rant" at the top.
