I know space is a limitation in many bookstores. If they use some of the room for people to meet, that's less room for books. I have not yet used an Expresso Book Machine, but I'm excited about this idea. It is a print-on-demand contraption that can print a 200-page paperback book or less in just a few minutes. They have full color covers and black and white interiors. Right now they are only in a few bookstores in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. Here's a picture of one at Village Books in Bellingham, Washington: http://villagebooks.com/espresso-book-machine-print-demand
No matter what, I’ll continue to do much of my shopping at bookstores instead of ordering online, but what will draw other people in, those more casual readers? All of us traditionalists say we love the feel of a real book, but we are fast becoming the minority. Our family has two ereaders and we all read books on them even though it's not my first choice, but it is very convenient for traveling.
Some physical bookstores do sell ebooks though Google, and I hope more follow. A customer with a google account and an ereader device that reads epub versions (not Kindles) of books can purchase the book through the bookstore website or by simply linking the bookstore to their google account. This gives the bookstore a percentage of the sale. The book can then be downloaded to a computer and transferred to the ereader by a usb cable, or if you have an ereader with access to the internet, it can be downloaded right to it. Here's link to explain this process: http://www.yourbooksforless.com/gbook/help/ibreader
Even with ereaders, I still go to bookstores so I can browse. I want to look for new books I haven’t heard about, and find out enough about them so that I can decide if I want to buy them. Again, space limitations are a problem with this. Bookstores want to sell books, so it is hard for them to stock a huge range of books.Some of you will cringe at this next idea, so I apologize in advance. Should bookstores become more high tech? What about display walls with computer screens that show book covers you can touch to get more information, like the back cover blurb, a read-inside and the book trailer. Reviews don’t influence my particular buys, but if people are interested in those, they could be available as well. Essentially it would be like the Amazon model, but in a store atmosphere. We all know Amazon is very successful with their model, so how can it be adapted to the physical bookstore? Physical inventory would be cut down, so more books could be shown, including those of newer authors who might not get a place in the bookstores of today.
It might help with grouping books of a similar type as well. For example, I’d love to see children’s books grouped more by type of book rather than just alphabetical by author’s last name. I have a daughter who loves animal stories, so it would be convenient to see a section of middle grade books about animals. You could browse historical books, adventure books, school settings, and on and on. With computer screens , books could be in more than one category too. Once you found a book you liked, you could download it right there. Somehow it seems easier to browse when you see the larger images in front of you, rather than trying to get around on a small home computer screen.
A high tech bookstore would of course be very expensive to configure, but we can dream, can’t we? So I’d love to hear comments from others about why they go to bookstores and what they would like to see in the bookstore of the future.
~Dee Garretson
I'd like bookstores to have PRE-Release parties where you can go there and get ebooks or print books before their actual release days and for a great price. Also, more events like the libraries do for kids where the more books your read the bigger your prize is.
ReplyDeleteLM, I like the idea of getting kids to read by keeping track of how many they read. My daughter loves participating in the summer library program because she likes to see her list get longer.
DeleteOne of my local indies, Alamosa Books, is hosting a summer reading program. The theme is ocean/sea stories, and kids get a passport along with a list of new and tried and true titles for early, mg, and ya readers (all somehow relating to the theme). If they read a certain number, they can get a free book at the store.
DeleteI love that place.
Caroline, that is awesome! good theme for summer too.
DeleteThe one thing I can positively say is that book stores, like publishers, need to adapt. So far, they're not doing a very good job.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, thanks for commenting. I'm looking forward to seeing what some will try next. I'm very sad Borders went under, but it does open up some possibilities for more independent bookstores to open in areas that are now lacking bookstores.
DeleteI like bookstores the way they are! No eReader for me, no way. I buy beautiful books in bookstores and I will continue to do so!
ReplyDeleteI recently saw this quote: “Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.” –Stephen Fry
I hope that's true for the traditional bookstore, too!!
Laura, that's great to hear. I do think there will always be core customers of bookstores who give them the most business.
DeleteI love the experience of going into a bookstore, and browsing the shelves, and I don't think anything can really replace that. However, I don't buy very many books in bookstores anymore. One reason is that buying books online is often less expensive. I'm also looking into buying an eReader because I like to own the books I read, but it's not very convenient moving my books everytime I need to relocate (due to university).
ReplyDeleteThe major bookstore in my country (Chapters Indigo in Canada) seems to be thriving though, and I think part of it is that it has expanded its merchandise into other areas to include stationary, small electronics, gifts etc. to become almost a lifestyle store. It also features something similar to computer screens you mentioned. In all the locations of this bookstore I've visited, they have a number of computers throughout the store that allow customers to search for the books and check their stock in store.