"Where will bookstores be five years from now?"

[lynninva]

This is an interesting blog on the impact of ebook readers on shelf display space for books in brick & mortar stores.

http://www.idealog.com/blog/where-will-bookstores-be-five-years-from-now

The author states that "the fate of bookstores is an existential question for today's book publishers (not to mention today’s booksellers!) Although it isn’t often stated this starkly, the core value proposition for the biggest trade book publishers is that they can put books on shelves."

Two key paragraphs:
"So the race between single-function e-ink and more full-function tablets accelerates the movement from print to digital book consumption; and the move from print to digital book consumption accelerates the shift from store-based purchasing to online purchasing; and the shift to online book purchasing, whether print or digital, accelerates the reduction of brick-and-mortar shelf space.

And the reduction of brick-and-mortar shelf space increasingly challenges the core proposition of all of today’s largest book publishers."

He then discusses key stats on book buying trends & the growth of ebooks and the impact of a more digitally-comfortable reading public to draw a conclusion on the potential impact to B&M bookstores five years from now.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

I can honestly say I have not stepped foot in a bookstore since I worked part time at Borders 3 years ago and since I bought my first Kindle.

[Linjeakel]

I don't think I've bought a DTB since I got my first Kindle. I think once people make that transition, they rarely go back. I think the slide into more or less total digitisation of books is inevitable - but how slow or fast that slide is, is less easy to predict.

...... Although they have problems with the government interfering with their business model and retirement charges, the U.S. Post Office is behind the times.  In traveling to other countries I find countries where their Post Offices don't just deliver the mail.  Depending on the country you can send a fax, buy a license, pay your taxes, get internet service, set up a savings account, get your phone service, make photo copies, buy concert tickets, record a will or land deed and do many other things.

Seriously? You mean you can't go into a post office and apply for a passport or a driving licence? Pay your car tax? Open a Post Office current or savings account? Collect your old age pension? Buy travel insurance or foreign currency? Get a mortgage or credit card or a loan? Apply for a fishing licence? Get your home phone and broadband service? You can in the UK. It's just a pity they're also crap at delivering the mail....

[Jeff]

In the not too distant future, Print On Demand will be available in book stores. If they don't have it in stock, they'll print it for you while you wait.

[Jeff]

I think you have something there, but it makes so much sense there will be great opposition at first.

The price of the printers will dictate. They only need to come down a bit more to make them feasible for any retailer, large or small.

[Hurricane John]

I still visit my local Borders store, buy a cup of coffee and read books on my Kindle.

Obviously, I still enjoy visiting the bookstore, but my purchases are now mostly magazines, DVD's or CDs......I'm not sure how long the brick and mortar store will be around, but I plan to enjoy them while I still can.

[Jeff]

The devil is always in the details. The retailer would have to buy a PDF from the publisher and pay a royalty for each copy. A smart publisher would make that easy.

[Xopher]

Scott... Dude... Paragraphs!


my eyes hurt....

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

I still visit my local Borders store, buy a cup of coffee and read books on my Kindle.

Obviously, I still enjoy visiting the bookstore, but my purchases are now mostly magazines, DVD's or CDs......I'm not sure how long the brick and mortar store will be around, but I plan to enjoy them while I still can.

at least you read your kindle..I remember watching people bring stacks of books and magazines into the cafe there (I know as I was the poor sap that had to put them back) and wondered how we could honestly sell them as new after that? Essentially we were sellling used books and magazines at new prices.

[Basilius]

The devil is always in the details. The retailer would have to buy a PDF from the publisher and pay a royalty for each copy. A smart publisher would make that easy.

I am, frankly, stunned by how few of these actually exist.

[Hurricane John]

at least you read your kindle..I remember watching people bring stacks of books and magazines into the cafe there (I know as I was the poor sap that had to put them back) and wondered how we could honestly sell them as new after that? Essentially we were sellling used books and magazines at new prices.

Fuzzy

Don't get me started on that...... it drives me crazy when I see all the regulars using the local bookstore as a library. Magazines left everywhere , not to mention, who is going to purchase books with bent or broken spines? Of course lets not forget the students (laptops in hand) who use the bookstore (instead of the library) as their personal space for homework and socializing, unfortunately, the bookstores are partically to blame for this because they offer free wifi connections.

Anyway, I can only imagine what people who work in bookstores, think of all these book and magazine freeloaders? Sometimes I wonder how bookstores survived and profited, even before the advent of ebooks?

[Candee15]

This is an interesting question.  I can't see bookstores totally disappearing, but I can easily imagine them decreasing in size or becoming few and far between.  Of course, eReader and eBook sales are going to rise, but there are still people that will like DTBs.  That's not me <g>.  I love, love, love eBooks.  BUT ... I do feel publishers have to cut prices paperback and hardcover  to coincide with the economic climate and shifts in how people read and what they're willing to pay.

I agree with comments here about how people have become accustomed to using bookstores as libraries.  I can only begin to imagine the money lost from magazines and books that get read/corners bent in stores that have to go back to publishers because they don't sell.  In my estimation, that HAS to drive costs up.

Sooooooooooo, while I don't have a great solution, I do see lots of problems and lots of changes on our reading horizon.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Fuzzy

Don't get me started on that...... it drives me crazy when I see all the regulars using the local bookstore as a library. Magazines left everywhere , not to mention, who is going to purchase books with bent or broken spines? Of course lets not forget the students (laptops in hand) who use the bookstore (instead of the library) as their personal space for homework and socializing, unfortunately, the bookstores are partically to blame for this because they offer free wifi connections.

Anyway, I can only imagine what people who work in bookstores, think of all these book and magazine freeloaders? Sometimes I wonder how bookstores survived and profited, even before the advent of ebooks?

unfortunately the store ..at least Borders encourages it. A job I thought would be more about helping book lovers was nothing more than picking up after
a lot of riff raff . That being said I dont know how they stay in business either..charging list price for books on top of everything else
I do know that many Waldenbooks closed down and were absoribed into some of the Borders stores. Borders has been on shakey ground for awhile. Local store inventory on books music and movies was and still is being massively downsized . If you notice most books are faced on the shelves  with the cover out now instead of the spine as an illusion so it looks like there is still a big inventory when indeed there is not.

[Chad Winters]

Local store inventory on books music and movies was and still is being massively downsized . If you notice most books are faced on the shelves  with the cover out now instead of the spine as an illusion so it looks like there is still a big inventory when indeed there is not.

That's the real killer, if I want to bookshop I go to Amazon where they give great reccomendations based on my previous buys and great reviews. And they have a wide variety of books. Most B&M bookstores seemed to be downsizing to the point of carrying the NYT list and the latest fad books, don't even try to get a midlist genre author.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

That's the real killer, if I want to bookshop I go to Amazon where they give great reccomendations based on my previous buys and great reviews. And they have a wide variety of books. Most B&M bookstores seemed to be downsizing to the point of carrying the NYT list and the latest fad books, don't even try to get a midlist genre author.

agreed they are all like Crown Books now..and looked what happened to them
we do have a killer used book store by us, Half Price Books which is a chain. I think those type places will still flourish

[CNDudley]

In the not too distant future, Print On Demand will be available in book stores. If they don't have it in stock, they'll print it for you while you wait.

I know a couple independent bookstores in my area have already added an Espresso Books Machine to do just this.

Probably no bookstores are thriving right now, but the healthier ones I've seen differentiate themselves on other fronts: book club services, author events, stocking local indie authors who have local followings, branching out into gifts...

[donna callea]

Although I only buy books for my Kindle now, I would be very sad to see B&M bookstores disappear.  At least once or twice a week I go to my local Barnes&Noble store to browse,  order tea and a bagel from the cafe and, yes, sample a novel or two.  Guilty as charged.  But I'm very, very careful to treat the book gently and replace it exactly where I found it.

What can I say?  I like hanging out in bookstores.  I've noticed, though, that Barnes&Noble is really pushing its Nook big time.  There's a big display of Nooks and a live clerk giving demonstrations in the front of the store, and a video about Nooks always playing in the cafe.  There have been Nook classes, seemingly filled to capacity, in the back of the store.  And I've seen employees giving extensive one-on-one assistance to new Nook owners.  So maybe they're trying to figure out a business model that incorporates e-readers and e-books while providing a place to browse, touch and sample books in dead tree form.  Plus the cafe is always crowded, with long lines of customers wanting to order expensive drinks and treats.

[Jeff]

I know a couple independent bookstores in my area have already added an Espresso Books Machine to do just this.

If memory serves me, the cost of an an Espresso Book Machine is $95,000 plus the printer. If someone like Google decides to get into the POD business the investment will be only the printer. The book cost will be paper, ink, glue and download fee (plus overhead). If that happens, paper books might be getting close to being competitive with eBooks in both price and convenience of purchase.

[jheydt]

In the not too distant future, Print On Demand will be available in book stores. If they don't have it in stock, they'll print it for you while you wait.

I'm a musician and a couple of years ago I visited a music publisher and ordered a composition for my concert band.   They keyed it into a computer and out popped all the parts on a printer.  Granted it was only about 70 pages printed but it amazed me.   They didn't have the printed composition but because the info was in the computer they were able to print it.

John