Bookstore Keys: Decluttering the Book MarketIndependent bookstores to financial analysts have been watching Barnes & Noble’s strategy closely since the rise of the e-book. As an independent bookseller, I couldn’t be more pleased with the impending pressure on big box bookstores.
J. P. Mangalindan of CNN Money.com made the argument for “why Barnes & Noble should go from bookstore to Nookstore.” He makes these key points about the changes at Barnes & Noble:
- B & N stock is down 80% over the last five years.
- Since B & N went on the for-sale market last August, there has been no buyer.
- B & N did beat Borders in branding its very own e-reader as opposed to Borders’ poorly marketed, little known Kobo reader. The B & N Nook has also beat the Sony reader in sales and remains second to Amazon’s Kindle.
Analysts like James McQuivey note B & N’s advantage with the Nook, but caution that changes to store space cannot come quickly enough. E-book sales are predicted to dominate the market within the next 24 months with B & N expected to cut retail space. However, McQuivey urges a faster and more drastic reaction:
“In a conservative market scenario, the company would shutter at least 30%, or 211, of its 705 retail locations, within the next three to five years. ‘If it were me? I’d cut deeper, faster–like two to four years,’ he says, suggesting a boutique model where B & N reduces store capacity by 50% through a combination of store closures, reduced store footprints, and decreased shelf space.’”
Meanwhile, Amazon announced this week that they will now be selling a reduced price Kindle–with ads. With ads?!?
The device is called “Kindle with Special Offers” and features ads from Proctor & Gamble, Buick–and the worst of all–Visa credit cards. If that weren’t enough, the screen saver is sponsored as well. Another layer of ads is Amazon itself–promoting their own products. Amazon assures its customers that the ads will not get in the way of reading.
One of the last questions Mangalindan asks in his article was important because he used the phrase digital company:
“Barnes & Noble has already gotten one thing right in having an ereader ready to help it do battle with Amazon. But as far as successfully transforming itself into a digital company? Well, that’s just Chapter One”
It made me ask myself: Can we say that B & N is moving out of the book business?
Thank You B & N and Amazon for focusing on a digital product and for taking much of the beauty and aesthetic enjoyment out of a book and allowing true book lovers to sell them! To me, putting ads on an e-reading device was the last straw.
What do you think?
The Bookstore Key Series on Changes in the Book Industry
Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titantic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)
7 responses so far ↓
1 Bobby Keane // Apr 14, 2011 at 3:14 pm
The ads were a forgone conclusion. They already exist on our mobile devices. The ads do not interrupt the reading experience since they are only shown on the screensaver and in the main menu of the Kindle and never when you are actually reading. That being said, it will likely be soundly rejected by the public unless Kindle drops the price by another $50. That will happen before Christmas.
2 Joe // Apr 14, 2011 at 3:35 pm
Sure. I wasn’t surprised to hear the news about the ads, but I sure wouldn’t want to have to put up with them.
I have always thought of a book as a sacred space. Time to focus on one thing, time to lose yourself in another world. Today with our heavy reliance on technology, the pages between two covers mean even more to me.
4 Bobby Keane // Apr 14, 2011 at 4:12 pm
Joe, nor would I. I would opt to pay $25 more to not have any ads. I think that is the majority opinion coming out of the gate.
Your point is taken, Lisa, and I do not disagree with your sentiment. However, ads have existed in our books for years even if only to advertise more books by the same author or publisher. (You don’t find that much in literary fiction but open up some pulp mass-market mystery or fantasy).
Yes – the simplicity of a 1-task media object like the printed book will become more “novel” (pun intended) as time goes on and that’s why the printed book isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. However, I think it is important for book lovers to not so quickly dismiss the power and utility of the ebook. I have a Kindle and I very much enjoy reading it. I have discovered how it is better than (to me) a physical book in *some* areas. There are some books I would prefer to read as an ebook (mostly non-fiction). Poetry and literary fiction, however, I would prefer the physical book. Hardbound with a mylar cover. That is because I have an emotional bond with some books – and I think this is what you were getting at, Lisa – and would want the physical object.
I think independent booksellers are in a unique position to raise their market share right now because of the bad decisions the big stores made. John’s blog entry on that was fantastic. Since Lemuria is the best indy there is I expect Lemuria will flourish over the next few years as the landscape of the book industry continues to swiftly change.
Bobby, Yes, I personally do not care to have an e-reader. But of course Lemuria does not ignore the technology. We care about it because it affects Lemuria. If we dismissed it, we would not read articles about it everyday and ask people what they thought about it. We are excited about this change in the book industry because it opens new doors for Lemuria as you pointed out in your previous comment.
6 TheMama // Apr 14, 2011 at 10:32 pm
I absolutely love my Kindle. I wouldn’t buy one with ads, though.
I still buy books and I haven’t paid for a single thing on my Kindle. There’s so much free stuff available, and I use netGalley to review books on my blog. I also send a lot of articles and long blog posts as .pdfs to it, to avoid wasting paper to print them out. Love that feature! I’ve had it for about three months and haven’t yet had the need to buy something on it. I’ve bought a bunch of paper books since then, though.
7 Madame Mimi // May 16, 2011 at 2:30 pm
As a writer I try to stay abreast of what’s going on in e-books and while I wouldn’t object to having my book made available in digital format, I love books. I have nearly 4,000 of them now not including the 17,000 books I inherited from my father’s library when he passed away that remain in storage because I need to find a bigger house. The only time I regretted not owning a Kindle is when it was time to move house and boxes of books had to be carried up and down 6 flights of stairs. I never buy brand new books unless I want a first edition or can’t wait to read something somost of my books are bought at library sales or second hand bookshops. Since I live now in the middle of a forest the convenience of a Kindle doesn’t matter to me, but the smell of books suddenly disappearing from my life? All those good friends no longer on my shelves waiting for me? I’d rather die. I probably would from heartache.
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