Posted on 08/17/2010 11:04:55 AM PDT by BenLurkin
U.S. independent bookstores are discovering how to flourish despite the growth of electronic books with some even looking to form an alliance with a formidable competitor -- Google.
The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association, which represents bookstores in the northeast, said its membership has remained steady at about 300 stores over the last decade. Closures have been offset by new stores opening and existing stores have developed new business strategies.
The New York travel bookstore Idlewild offers French and Italian lessons; San Francisco's The Booksmith hosts singles events for book lovers; and Politics and Prose in Washington offers 10 readings each week.
New York Magazine declared "Indie Bookstores Rising" in a recent profile of 13 new or refurbished New York bookstores.
"We often say we're like Mark Twain: that the rumors of our death have been greatly exaggerated," said Oren Teicher, chief executive of the American Booksellers Association (ABA), an industry group for independent bookstores.
The ABA has reached a deal with Google Editions -- Google's digital bookstore, due to launch this fall -- that would allow its 14,000 members to sell Google's eBooks through their websites.
"Google Editions will serve as an e-bookstore, an e-book wholesaler, an e-book discovery platform and an e-book storage system in the cloud," said Jeannie Hornung, spokeswoman for Google Books and News.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
That’s it. I am getting the Android phone.
The big strength indie bookstores have is specialization. There’s a mystery bookstore near my place, that’s all they sell, mystery and semi-mystery. Which is really great if you get into a series because they have them all, the bigs tend to have the first of every series and the latest, but everything between 1 and N they don’t have the shelf space for. A specialized store though has the space, they can go ahead and stock the entire Alex Cross series because they don’t have to dedicate any room to Xanth, let the SF specialized store carry all the Xanth and ignore Cross.
I love indie bookstores. I love used bookstores. There are still a couple around where I live and I try to support them unless their prices are outrageous compared to the bigger booksellers. If there’s only a few dollars difference I go with the indie and used bookstores.
One last thing, I’m all for progress and all that stuff but I hate the Kindle!!! Give me a good ole book any day of the week. I want some paper to thumb through not a digital display!!
Agreed!
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