Why I Would Open a Bookshop
If I were a booklover (which I am) and was searching for a retailing opportunity in the book trade (which I'm not), then the last thing I would consider doing is opening a traditional bookshop.
This will not come as a surprise to anybody, as we all know that traditional bookshops (being the most satisfying places to buy books) are closing across the country at an even faster rate than pubs (being some of the most satisfying places to read books). A double disaster.
The bookshops are closing down for many reasons, not least because they simply can not compete with the Waterstone monolith and the '3 for 2/BOGOF approach'. It's the corner shop versus Tesco syndrome.
However, The Big W will shortly be facing problems of its own, as people become increasingly fed up with the monolithic/grocerly approach to non-grocerly things like books. There will always, alas, be room in every W shop for The Wayne Rooney Book Of Microwave Pizzas, prominently displayed by the front door, along with the life story of a teenage sleb you've never heard of, but where will you be able to find books like my own, once the monolith's computer has 'decided' that they are not meeting their sales targets and must henceforth not be stocked, across all the stores in the country? Such books will effectively thus disappear forever, and many of them deserve a better fate.
As blandness and uniformity increase their grip, W will more and more become reduced to relying on 'safe' rubbish to pay their rates as fewer and fewer booklovers see the point of going into their stores to look for something a little unusual, the way bookshops used to be.
But W's problem with growing customer unease is as nothing compared to what is to come in a year or two's time when the www really gets into gear.
Amazon is showing what booksales might become like, but their model is not an ideal, for various reasons.
What is slowly developing in the background is the ebook/POD model, and it is this that will be the biggest threat to The Big W, and the reason why I would be opening a bookshop of my own if I had the time and the money.
Basically, what the new model involves is a publisher (or a savvy author, fed up with the traditional publishing business) making a book available in two formats: first as an electronic ebook, of some sort (Far too many competing formats at the moment. No doubt this will settle down eventually), or maybe just a free sampler, backed up by a Print On Demand hard copy service. Thus the reader can get a taster of the book, then order a paper copy off the www, delivered to her door. Digital printing techniques make this 'one-off' approach economic (just).
But hovering on the horizon is the true revolution that will shake The Big W and the entire trade to its foundations. This is the Espresso printer. It's a very clever bit of kit that can access from the www the file for any one of 100,000s of books, and can then print it while you wait, properly bound, complete with full-colour cover. Say, ten minutes.
It's this machine (and no doubt others like it in the pipeline) that will eneble me to open my bookshop.
What will my shop be like inside? Not too big, carpeted, carefully lit, welcoming, accessible shelves, and probably a dog. All good bookshops should have a friendly old Labrador, I think. Easy chairs, occasional tables, maybe a little Vivaldi, and the two big essentials: a coffee bar and an Espresso printer, with pamphlets all over the place on how to use the machine. People will pick up a pamphlet, order a coffee and flapjack, and peruse. Then they will key in their order, and have another coffee while they wait for their own personal copy of The Simon Cowell History of Western Philosphy to thud into the delivery slot, like a Vegas jackpot, possibly accompanied by a bell or siren (or possibly not).
The space will be organisable into a 'venue' for guest speakers, open mic sessions for local writers, play readings, signings, 'writer of the week' discussions, and of course, modest wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs. You get the idea. A proper bar license for evenings is an option. Links will be made with local theatres to offer them some modest rehearsal space (open to the public) and the occasional two-hander performance, and to the local radio, to encourage a weekly spot 'Hot From Espresso Books'. The library will be invited to put on occasional displays, as will the museum and other bodies, from flower-arrangers to IT-freaks. Each of these will be encouraged to recommend books to accompany their event/display. I will make sure to pre-print a couple of copies of each, ready for the event itself.
Obviously, local musicians will be invited on a regular basis. String trios, singer/songwriters, poets, comedians. I will put on regular variety shows; all local; all modest in scope (and volume!).
My bookshop will become the hub of all intellectual creativity in my district. And it will be supported by coffee bar sales, ticket sales (all modestly priced), and, of course, Espresso book sales. My shop will become the only bookshop in town for booklovers of all sorts. It might eventually move to slightly larger premises, but will never become remote or 'professional'.
My shelves will be carefully stocked with a mix of bestsellers, standards, oddities, hobbies and introductions. I will print off occasional themes: maybe a dozen books on the crusades, perhaps to accompany a television series, or five books in translation by Chilean authors. You get the drift.
It's on its way.... Not I, but many others like me will be making their plans. The bookshop will return.... and we will all be grateful.
We may even see The Big W making the first move. They are ideally placed, after all.
Have a lovely day, dear reader
Best wishes, Chas (and Walter.. aged Labrador)
This will not come as a surprise to anybody, as we all know that traditional bookshops (being the most satisfying places to buy books) are closing across the country at an even faster rate than pubs (being some of the most satisfying places to read books). A double disaster.
The bookshops are closing down for many reasons, not least because they simply can not compete with the Waterstone monolith and the '3 for 2/BOGOF approach'. It's the corner shop versus Tesco syndrome.
However, The Big W will shortly be facing problems of its own, as people become increasingly fed up with the monolithic/grocerly approach to non-grocerly things like books. There will always, alas, be room in every W shop for The Wayne Rooney Book Of Microwave Pizzas, prominently displayed by the front door, along with the life story of a teenage sleb you've never heard of, but where will you be able to find books like my own, once the monolith's computer has 'decided' that they are not meeting their sales targets and must henceforth not be stocked, across all the stores in the country? Such books will effectively thus disappear forever, and many of them deserve a better fate.
As blandness and uniformity increase their grip, W will more and more become reduced to relying on 'safe' rubbish to pay their rates as fewer and fewer booklovers see the point of going into their stores to look for something a little unusual, the way bookshops used to be.
But W's problem with growing customer unease is as nothing compared to what is to come in a year or two's time when the www really gets into gear.
Amazon is showing what booksales might become like, but their model is not an ideal, for various reasons.
What is slowly developing in the background is the ebook/POD model, and it is this that will be the biggest threat to The Big W, and the reason why I would be opening a bookshop of my own if I had the time and the money.
Basically, what the new model involves is a publisher (or a savvy author, fed up with the traditional publishing business) making a book available in two formats: first as an electronic ebook, of some sort (Far too many competing formats at the moment. No doubt this will settle down eventually), or maybe just a free sampler, backed up by a Print On Demand hard copy service. Thus the reader can get a taster of the book, then order a paper copy off the www, delivered to her door. Digital printing techniques make this 'one-off' approach economic (just).
But hovering on the horizon is the true revolution that will shake The Big W and the entire trade to its foundations. This is the Espresso printer. It's a very clever bit of kit that can access from the www the file for any one of 100,000s of books, and can then print it while you wait, properly bound, complete with full-colour cover. Say, ten minutes.
It's this machine (and no doubt others like it in the pipeline) that will eneble me to open my bookshop.
What will my shop be like inside? Not too big, carpeted, carefully lit, welcoming, accessible shelves, and probably a dog. All good bookshops should have a friendly old Labrador, I think. Easy chairs, occasional tables, maybe a little Vivaldi, and the two big essentials: a coffee bar and an Espresso printer, with pamphlets all over the place on how to use the machine. People will pick up a pamphlet, order a coffee and flapjack, and peruse. Then they will key in their order, and have another coffee while they wait for their own personal copy of The Simon Cowell History of Western Philosphy to thud into the delivery slot, like a Vegas jackpot, possibly accompanied by a bell or siren (or possibly not).
The space will be organisable into a 'venue' for guest speakers, open mic sessions for local writers, play readings, signings, 'writer of the week' discussions, and of course, modest wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs. You get the idea. A proper bar license for evenings is an option. Links will be made with local theatres to offer them some modest rehearsal space (open to the public) and the occasional two-hander performance, and to the local radio, to encourage a weekly spot 'Hot From Espresso Books'. The library will be invited to put on occasional displays, as will the museum and other bodies, from flower-arrangers to IT-freaks. Each of these will be encouraged to recommend books to accompany their event/display. I will make sure to pre-print a couple of copies of each, ready for the event itself.
Obviously, local musicians will be invited on a regular basis. String trios, singer/songwriters, poets, comedians. I will put on regular variety shows; all local; all modest in scope (and volume!).
My bookshop will become the hub of all intellectual creativity in my district. And it will be supported by coffee bar sales, ticket sales (all modestly priced), and, of course, Espresso book sales. My shop will become the only bookshop in town for booklovers of all sorts. It might eventually move to slightly larger premises, but will never become remote or 'professional'.
My shelves will be carefully stocked with a mix of bestsellers, standards, oddities, hobbies and introductions. I will print off occasional themes: maybe a dozen books on the crusades, perhaps to accompany a television series, or five books in translation by Chilean authors. You get the drift.
It's on its way.... Not I, but many others like me will be making their plans. The bookshop will return.... and we will all be grateful.
We may even see The Big W making the first move. They are ideally placed, after all.
Have a lovely day, dear reader
Best wishes, Chas (and Walter.. aged Labrador)
Labels: books, bookshop, ebooks, Espresso, future of books, internet, POD, publishing
posted by Chas Griffin at 9:28 am
8 Comments:
What a wonderful vision of the future for bookshops. I'd love to see this come true.
Thanks, you reproduced my thoughts on the subject almost exactly!
would be interested in publishing the book on religion and science if you want any help...www.o-books.net
john
I opened a traditional bookshop over two years ago and it is doing well. You just have to work much harder... The Espresso sounds good but I have yet to be convinced by the quality of its products - not much can beat a book that is beautiful to handle and read.
There's been an Espresso book machine in the London Blackwells for the past year or so and it's failed to set the bookselling world alight. They're moving it to Oxford as it's getting so little use. I'm not convinced it's the future of bookselling. I like a well put-together book with attractive cover and quality paper chosen by people who know what they're doing - the publishers.
I quite agree - this machine is going to be the saviour of independent bookshops. They may even hide the machine 'out the back' and use it to print off their stock. When a customer takes a book off the shelf and buys it, is it goes through the till, the printing machine out the back will print off a fresh copy. As soon as the customer has left the shop, the owner has restocked it with a freshly printed copy.
It allows independent bookshops to stock whatever they wish, not the latest celebrity autobiography that publishers are pushing. Authors with a backlist may find that their backlist sales pick up.
e-readers and e-books are a new market, they are not the death of books. Books will never die. But the process of how bookshops are stocked with them, and how we buy books may change. You can't beat 'browsing' in a bookshop though.
The only thing to dash your dream may be the price of an Expresso Book Machine. They list at US$97,500 plus cost of printer.
source: http://www.ondemandbooks.com/faq.htm#5
Sounds like you describe the bookshop my parents had. Unfortunately, reality often doesn't agree with a vision unless you can use a reality distortion field like Steve Jobs does. So they closed the shop and focused on collector fairs. Anyway, I think that books eventually will go the same way as vinyl records, classic cars and arcade games. There will always be a select group collecting them but they will disappear from the mainstream. That doesn't mean that your shop won't succeed, just that you have to choose your location and target group carefully.
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