the strangling of the online book biz

[keziak]

Was thinking today about how bad it's been getting and now even worse.  There is strong inflation in the prices of books to source. T his year I lost Salvation Army and a discount store due to prices jacked up across the board. Lost a catalog I used to buy  heavily from. Prices up across the board. Went to a library sale, prices doubled. In my town a collapse in donations of good books to libraries.  Marketplace a desert.  Tons of competition. And the latest is Amazon changing their website so it's nearly impossible to reprice AND sellers who do not grasp the problem may start gutting prices for the rest of us. 

Are any of the rest of you booksellers facing similar problems? Maybe not if you are connected to a bookstore where you get all your books. 

[toomuchstuffagain35]

"Book-hunting is fun -- but physically and mentally exhausting."

Back home down under this was my favourite book haunt. This is just one section...most was filed away alphabetically (if you were lucky)..most ended up in piles on the stairs etc. Sorting by genre was a pipedream.  And yes, it was fun, but also exhausting lol

[reallynicestamps]

I had this discussion elsewhere and one conclusion was that books get dated.

When I started here it was easy to sell Gene Stratton Porter (Girl of the Limberlost) at that time only about 100 years old.

Today no interest.

More recent books-- have you checked the best seller lists for 1960? 1970? Are any of those books still saleable?

The subject matter, the lifestyles, and the attitudes have changed.

So it may just be that the books you think will sell are out of touch with the zeitgeist.

I find the easiest books to see are from cult authors like John Wydham, thin paperbacks that can be shipped lettermail (Canada Post does not offer Media Mail), and are priced - including shipping- under $20.

[1786davycrockett]

@toomuchstuffagain35 

"Back home down under this was my favourite book haunt. This is just one section...most was filed away alphabetically (if you were lucky)..most ended up in piles on the stairs etc. Sorting by genre was a pipedream.  And yes, it was fun, but also exhausting lol"

Oooh -- I'm feelin' that itch again. . .

[chapeau-noir]

Many popular titles don't last - it doesn't matter in what era they were published - there are loads of authors few read even 20 years later, and of those authors there are often either massive amounts of editions already published, or they're so obscure that their market is tiny, or there have been enough copies already produced to satisfy anyone interested.

[reallynicestamps]

That is not enough given the reduction in recreational reading, and the competition by e-books.

 I disagree that there is a reduction in recreational reading.

Only that the form of reading has changed.

You mention e-books.

I saw on a publisher's site (TOR  Books/ Macmillan) that the average person - I presume they mean adult- reads 17 book a year. And that this has been consistent for decades.

When I was working I saw this change happen.

Around 2000 half the people on the bus were reading books or newspapers. By 2014,when I retired,  half of those readers were looking at phones. Probably reading a book or news site?

E-Books are important because they cannot be loaned or resold. This cuts into the secondhand business.

But is good for publishers.

[pickapaper]

@reallynicestamps I also remember when Gene Stratton Porter was popular.  Books, short stories in magazines, anything.  When I found out people were looking for them, I made it a point to watch for anything connected to her and I sold a lot of them but I don't remember making a huge amount from them.   That was a long, long time ago.

[sin-n-dex]

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@keziak wrote:

Trying my best but pretty much failing these days.

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Books aren't selling anymore like they once did... everyone is using a kindle or eReader now adays.

I bought lots of books  years ago, but I don't have room for any more books (my bookshelf is mostly comprised of reference books and classics).

If you're paying for storage, it might be time to downsize.

C.

[iart]

We're doing okay with books.

We have a simple rule. Don't sell what everyone else is selling.

But, yes, finding product is getting harder.

[tobaccocardyahoo]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

By 2014,when I retired,  half of those readers were looking at phones. Probably reading a book or news site?

Various polls have indicated more than half of Americans get their news from social media, not news sites, not newspapers.

That average of 17 books per year tells us nothing. A mean with a standard deviation might show us something, even a mean without one would be more informative.  There are many Americans who bias an average by reading more than 50 books a year, as I do. 

Amazon collects how many books a kindle owner reads and lets them know how they are doing. It would be really interesting to see a statistical analysis of their data.

A knowledge of statistics helps us to know when a number is just a number.

[chapeau-noir]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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@keziak wrote:

Trying my best but pretty much failing these days.

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Books aren't selling anymore like they once did... everyone is using a kindle or eReader now adays.

I bought lots of books  years ago, but I don't have room for any more books (my bookshelf is mostly comprised of reference books and classics).

If you're paying for storage, it might be time to downsize.

C.

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I wouldn't say "everyone" - I see a surprising number of youth here reading paper books. I notice this because it surprised me. Our bookstores are busy, as well. I do tend to prefer a kindle for novels and the like, but read paper books for research, and I expect a lot of avid readers also have a mixed use. When I started using a Kindle I stopped sending for piles of penny novels from Amazon and just downloaded the titles. I don't know how many books a year I read, but I do tend to go through them, so it was a relief not to have them piling up.

The DH gave me the Kindle as a gift when he found I was lugging 10 lb of books with me on a long backpacking trip as I had collected them up in various villages we passed through, but then would hang onto them after I had finished reading instead of leaving them in various loos as we tramped along. My pack was stupid heavy with the things.

[lux.ra_14]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:Books aren't selling anymore like they once did... everyone is using a kindle or eReader now adays.

Physical books still outsell e-books by a 4-1 margin.

It's been a cherished myth for the past couple of decades that printed books are on their way out. There are plenty of stats to the contrary, including surveys that shows even young people (ages 18-29) have a clear preference for printed books over digital formats.

[sin-n-dex]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

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I wouldn't say "everyone" - I see a surprising number of youth here reading paper books. I notice this because it surprised me. Our bookstores are busy, as well. I do tend to prefer a kindle for novels and the like, but read paper books for research, and I expect a lot of avid readers also have a mixed use. When I started using a Kindle I stopped sending for piles of penny novels from Amazon and just downloaded the titles. I don't know how many books a year I read, but I do tend to go through them, so it was a relief not to have them piling up.

The DH gave me the Kindle as a gift when he found I was lugging 10 lb of books with me on a long backpacking trip as I had collected them up in various villages we passed through, but then would hang onto them after I had finished reading instead of leaving them in various loos as we tramped along. My pack was stupid heavy with the things.

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True, not "everyone", since I, myself, don't own an e-Reader (or read anything on a small screen). I'm a paper book person. But I get rid of paperbacks when I'm done reading them, usually dump them at a vacation resort or at a cruise ship library for someone else to enjoy. I tend to do most of my reading on vacation because of long flights and lots of time sitting around.

I have an entertainment centre that's being used as a shelf-unit, and it has a section with a door for storing paperbacks... my collection of paperbacks that I keep are all in other languages that I study (mostly children's books, I'm not that advanced in reading other languages all that much...) When I travelled to Sweden I hit up a bookstore and brought home a whole bunch of books. But I can't really find the time to spend reading...

C.

[natoman777]

So I exclusively source books from outlets and yard sales, library sales.  I will NOT pay up for books due to the uncertainty of sales.  As for myself, books sales have always been an anchor store in my store.  In the past month sold 2 books making around $700.  Other books are not nearly that profitable, but I paid 50 cents each.  I will go 2 to 3 weeks sometimes with 1 or 2 books sales, and then all the sudden sell several.

[reallynicestamps]

I will go 2 to 3 weeks sometimes with 1 or 2 books sales, and then all the sudden sell several.

That seems to be the algorithm. When a Thing sells, our other Things get a teeny boost in Search.

When we sell in UpperPodunk NU, we get more visibility in NU.

When we list we get a miniscule boost in visibility.