The End of the World as We Know It, Part Whatever
Friday, July 22nd, 2011 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rolanniBig Box Bookstores are in the news this week.
Most of you will have heard that Borders is closing all its remaining stores, not only leaving a Huge Freaking Hole (henceforthly “HFH”) as well as a Big Empty Building (BEB) in the center of some towns where Borders had successfully driven out the indies and small chains to become the only bookstore. Bangor, Maine is gonna be hurting — it lost Walden a couple years ago, and now Borders is going. There’s Mr. Paperback, of course — an instate chain that’s survived by being small, and by altering its business model so that it sells more plushies, greeting cards and “gift items” than books — BookMarc’s, downtown, a “general” bookstore with a heavy slant toward mystery and Maine books, and another all-Maine-all-the-time store — Betty’s, I think? (Mr. Hetley informs me that Betts Bookstore went digital some years back and only handles books written by the estimable Mr. King.) Not a lot of bookstores to serve what passes for a biggish city up this way.
Not only is the folding of Borders bad for towns, readers, and lovers of bookstores, it’s also bad for publishers and writers. What a surprise, right? Less shelf space means less books sold on impulse to those browsing the shelves, and to that population that still exists — though we here on the so-called World Wide Web tend to discount them — who Don’t Do The Internet, and the majority of readers (the last number I heard was 70%) who Don’t Do Ebooks. This means less revenue — and even less revenue, since Borders didn’t exactly pay its honorable debts before it cocked up its toes.
Now, bad as all the above is, it was a longish time in coming. There were red lights and warning signs. Publishers had time to make contingency plans, to cut their fulfillments to Borders, to sit back and wait. There certainly was still loss, but there was a certain amount of control in latter days in regard to how much loss.
If the economy were in better shape, I might say, well, look! A chance for indy bookstores to rise and fill the newly created hole in the market.
The economy, however, sucks, and all the critters on all sides of the aisles in DC seem determined not to fix that, so forgive me for not being sanguine about the imminent rise of a bookstore indy class.
So, anyhow, Borders.
But, wait, there’s more!
Kris Rusch reports this, received from a BN employee: “We were notified at our B&N location this week that in the next couple of weeks we will be receiving a ‘massive returns download.’ To coincide with this outflux of books we will be adding 3 more of the massive toys and games displays, as well as expanding gift and the digital presence.” (here’s the rest)
Yes, that’s right, not only did Borders go out of business owing publishers money, now these same publishers are going to get hit with Massive Returns from BN. That means, instead of cash inflowing to publishers, so that publishers can do things like, oh, pay authors among those other, universally familiar necessities such as keeping the lights on, making payroll, and continuing business operations — the publishers will owe BN for the stock returned (“stock” in this case meaning books); stock that, with the demise of Borders, has no other sales venue to which it might go. Stock that will sit in the publishers’ warehouses until it must, for tax-saving purposes, be remaindered or pulped.
Pop quiz: Who benefits from books pulped en masse?
Yes, that’s right — nobody.
A word about that “owing BN.” The antiquated and terrifying so-called “system” of bookselling runs to a large degree on counters. Therefore, the Massive Return doesn’t necessarily mean that BN will expect a check in the mail, though it might have some deal where a percentage of the Return must be made in cash. However, it will by this action gain a sizeable Tab, which means that all new books shipped for Some Time will be provided for free — and accepted at full return rate when they come back in a couple months.
…which means that the future cashflow of publishers is borked fifteen ways from Thursday, and therefore their ability to pay authors, keep the lights on, make payroll, and continuing to produce books.
Well, then. . .interesting times for the next while, eh? Kris Rusch’s estimate is that everything will be comfy again (insofar as &c, the Usual Rules Apply) by, oh, 2015. Unless, of course, something else Interesting Happens before.
Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 03:10 pm (UTC)There is a rumor that the Borders stores in Portland and Bangor will be bought out of the liquidators by Books-A-Million, a chain with which I have no experience whatsoever.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 03:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 04:49 pm (UTC)Thank you for the information regarding Bett's. Will so note.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-24 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 03:35 pm (UTC)A while back, I came up with a Generic, All-Purpose Headline for stories about the book biz: CHANGES AHEAD IN PUBLISHING INDUSTRY; WRITERS TO BE ADVERSELY AFFECTED.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 03:38 pm (UTC)Nothing.
It's more than a little depressing...
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 03:52 pm (UTC)As for B&N, I am greatly saddened. The problem for me is that the big boxes and Amazon were so successful that they drove smaller stores out of Denver. With the exception of the Tattered Cover, the remaining indies are very subject-specific (a feminist bookstore, one that focusses on racial issues, religious, metaphysical, used). Tattered Cover used to have a great SF/F section, but it is now the worst I've ever seen in a store of its kind.
I think the publishers have done this to themselves to a certain extent. The recent push toward ebooks is curtailing the market. Add to that the fact that it comes during a bad economy when people are buying fewer "extras" anyway and the result is a failing market.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 06:14 pm (UTC)I gave up on B&N two years ago when they built their fancy new store. They moved into a larger space, and put FEWER books on display. At that point I moved to Amazon, and eBooks.
Publishers are getting a temporary bump in revenue from me as I upgrade my library to bits, but once I get done with the conversion, I'll buy books as I want to read them, which will be fewer than when I went to Tattered Cover and stocked up because I couldn't get there very often. As a result I bought hundreds of books that I never read.
So if I had to say what killed Borders? It's Amazon and eBooks.
Many publishers, IMHO, are shooting themselves in the foot with their insistence on DRM and high prices. Thank goodness for Baen.
Killing of Borders
Date: 2011-07-22 08:01 pm (UTC)Re: Killing of Borders
Date: 2011-07-24 01:58 pm (UTC)My local independent, Between Books, carries stuff that is not only backlist, it's still got 15 - 20 year old pricing on it. Not only that, Greg and his employees know books, and know their stock. I went in once in 2002 looking for the novelisation of a 1989 TV show. I couldn't find it in his used book section, but I asked Chris about it and she located it in a heartbeat in the new section - brand new, unread, with the 1989 price on the cover!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 04:32 pm (UTC)I was in our local Borders yesterday and had a conversation with a couple of other people about how sad it was to see a bookstore go out of business, but we all realized that we never shopped there. It turned out that we all preferred the local independent bookstore, as Borders had issues with customer service and couldn't manage simple things like telling us when a special order had come in. We're lucky that our indie bookstore managed to hang on and compete well, but I really feel for the communities left without a nearby bookstore.
publishing
Date: 2011-07-22 04:32 pm (UTC)the book biz since I was 20. I am now 64. Comics publishing is doing it, book publishing is doing it, and they think, like insurance companies, that there is an infinitude of stupid cows to be milked. They didn't move out of expensive New York high rises ( and do virtual conferencing), they didn't stop stupid returns system (and the government taxing stored books as profit REALLy helped that mess), and they still pay bloated salaries to the very top, while editing and proofing dwindle further. Thing is, in doing it to themselves- like Congress- they done us in. Authors, readers, we don't matter. They will move on to a lucrative top job of non competence with, oh, say, a toy company. Whatever. I spit on their graves, and mourn a world of literate, intelligent readers who are getting hosed. It is impossible to browse on line.
I am not averse to ebooks, I read Ghost Ship that way, as long as
the price is not a dead tree price, but.... I can't browse, or find new neat stuff, or just bask in the bookness. Libraries became bad media centers long ago ( at least my local ones). Welcom to Bookageddon. Sigh.
Nanette
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 05:53 pm (UTC)There are a number of local chains that seem to be doing OK? And some independents that are doing relatively well.
Pardon me while I go and spend some money at the new AND used sides of Green Apple Books (http://www.greenapplebooks.com/), my neighborhood bookstore!
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 06:31 pm (UTC)I don't think everything will find itself transformed into online only. Instead I do think the small and regional store will make a reappearance until they get sucked up by the next big chain to figure out how to take over what takes the place of the evolving market.
no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 09:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-22 10:36 pm (UTC)I enjoy browsing in a bookstore, especially a good one like Uncle Hugo's/Uncle Edgar's, where the staff is helpful and actually knows the stock and can make recommendations. The publishing industry is changing - and one of the changes I'm hoping for is a way to combine independent bookstores and e-books somehow. That way, I could browse the shelves, find an interesting title and download it - and the store would still get a share of the profit.
One thing I will miss about Borders is their magazine section, though. I like looking for new needlework magazines or geneaology magazines whenever I stop by. Our local B&N has some, but not all of what Borders normally carried.
Mary in MN
Borders
Date: 2011-07-22 11:37 pm (UTC)Peggy
no subject
Date: 2011-07-23 02:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-23 03:42 pm (UTC)whom Borders was their only bookstore. I'm hoping some of the former-Borders-folk get to open their own indie bookstores.
I want to say to y'all, thank you for the indie love in this
thread. It's heartwarming to see and hear you cheer on my brothers
and sisters out there.
I spent a lovely weekend at a Star Trek con 2 weeks back, hiring
a former Borders fella to work alongside me for the weekend.
I wish I could hire them all but my bricks and mortar location
isn't making enough yet. I know Pat Darby who just opened in
Clarkville feels the same.
With Maryland's heat index today, I'd relocate to Surebleak in
a Solcintra-minute. (Do they have minutes? Trying to remember.)
Lauretta@ConstellationBooks
Sad News
Date: 2011-07-26 07:30 am (UTC)Can't remember where I saw your posting but am very pleased about the schedule for release of your new novels and one short story also on your "splinters' site.
Am glad to hear that the Tattered Cover in Denver still survives after all these years. The only way I use to knew how to find an out of print book way in the past was to call them up from whereever and ask them if they had the book! How things have changed.
C.