Yes, that’s the Hindenburg, and no, I do not believe it’s all over for bookshops.
It does appear, however, that Borders has crashed again, only a few months after being rescued, and the flesh-and-blood booktrade is apparently losing money hand over fist to the online shops.
On the upside, the IndieBound initiative is coming to the UK. Indiebound is a network, a cultural talking shop, a pro-local, wired revolution centred on independent booksellers. After all, as they’re keen to remind us, if you buy from an indie bookseller, you’re putting money into your local economy, supporting charities, reducing your carbon footprint, and reinforcing your community in the face of the atomising effect of globalisation. So it’s kind of a no-brainer. It may be in the medium to long term that the creative businesses have to change, but let’s not let the Idiot Hand of the market tear down communities and put up cardboard replicas. Let’s make the shift a benevolent one. Buying is voting, so let’s vote for something worth having.[1,2,3,4]
In the spirit of which, here’s a couple of things I would like from my local bookshop…
Diversity and insanity
I can get the latest Dan Brown at the train station bookshop. It will inevitably be ludicrously discounted. (Hm. And there’s a thing. Waterstone’s is in a price war with Amazon. Waterstone’s and other real world shops and the online sellers are jointly squeezing publishers for greater discounts. Here’s a notion: if publishers take a stand on discounting and Waterstone’s and friends go along with it, Amazon &co. can be pushed away from crazy reductions and the booktrade can breathe for a few months. Aaaaaaanyway.) These days I’ll probably buy it on iPhone, anyway. I don’t need a paper copy of The Lost Symbol.
I don’t mean that a small bookshop shouldn’t sell bestsellers. I mean that what’s great about them is that you can trip over My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist or Night of the Avenging Blowfish, or a forgotten gem like Fawn Brodie’s staggering The Devil Drives. You can get these books on the internet – but you won’t hear about them unless someone tells you they’re there.
Which brings up…
Curatorship
Yes. The bookseller is the sommelier of the written word. “With your new sofa and a glass of Talisker, Frabjous & Lobe’s Books Of Quality is pleased to recommend Don’t Point That Thing At Me, sir. The verbiage is fruity, the plot pithy, and the characters possess verve, sir. And to follow, we recommend a crackling log fire and David Grossman’s most excellent Writing In The Dark. It broadens the mind, sir.”
Dexterity
One of the bizarre experiences of buying a book from big chains is ordering. I’m staggered when I have this dialogue:
“I’d like a copy of Sharp Teeth, please.”
“Oh, yes. Great book. Uh, we’ve sold out. Would you like to order it?”
“Yes, that would be great.”
“Okay, it’ll be here in a week.”
“Wait, we’re what now?”
Disadvantages of scale? Problems with parking? I have no idea. But Primrose Hill Books, my old local shop, could get most titles in 24 hours – making them at least as fast as Amazon.
Print On Demand?
This requires a bit of shift, but I really think it’s interesting. I love the idea of being able to go into a bookshop and have them print a properly formatted book for me, in one of a variety of sizes (“pocket or portfolio, sir?”) and put on, perhaps, one of a number of independently-produced jacket designs of my choosing. A local artist’s work, perhaps. Or, of course, a lightweight temporary version at lower cost, which I can write in and drop in the bath. And what if they could do that with my eBook? What if I could buy the eBook and then decide I wanted a paper version after all?
Yes, all right, this is bookscience fiction. But it needn’t be for long.
Stopping there for the moment, because I have work to do. What do you think about all this?
