When Nora Ephron was writing the script for "You've Got Mail," I'll bet she never considered the following dialog:
[Owner of Little Shop Around the Corner talks to her employees about whether to go out of business:]
Kathleen: What am I going to do?
Employee 1: Looks bleak. I say close and do something else.
Employee 2: Not so fast. Give it time. Eventually, Fox Books will go out of business. It's too big. Just wait them out. Remember the dinosaurs. You'll be fine.
Kathleen: Fox Books go out of business? Gimme a break!
The reality of Ephron's tale was based on giant Barnes & Noble putting the squeeze on the independent bookstore Shakespeare & Company by putting two big box stores at Lincoln Center and 82nd and Broadway. Shakespeare had to close, ending a long and valuable tenure on New York's Upper West Side, where reading actual books still flourishes.
Now, it has been announced that Barnes & Noble may be up for sale and that it may well close many of its 700-plus outlets. Sales of eBooks rose from 3% to 8.5% last year and even Barnes & Noble is pushing its eReader Nook to compete with Kindle and the iPad.
As an author who is giving a reading at the Broadway Barnes & Noble on Sept 2, I am not anxious to see printed books disappear anytime soon, but the digital print is on the screen (as opposed to the handwriting on the wall) and we who are in the of business publishing books have to worry.
The irony is that when my latest book was in production, the folks at Barnes & Noble actually had useful input when it came to choosing a title and designing a cover. Their buyer gave the publisher plain-spoken advice like, "That title won't sell," and "That cover design won't jump off the shelf." We paid attention and made changes.
The bleak truth is that profit margins shrink when a book goes digital. Authors and publishers get much less and since a digital book lives somewhere out there in the quantum soup, the book is essentially unavailable for attention like serious reviews and research. And eventually, of course, copyright protections will erode, and one supposes that like the music business, material will start to migrate from eReader to eReader much faster than paper moves from hand to hand.
Will we go back to the Little Shop Around the Corner? Probably not. The present trend, however, is something quite similar. Nowadays, readers gather in coffee shops and pull out their eReaders. It's like having tens of thousands of invisible books available in a small space, with the difference being that the words and images are in the quantum soup where quarks and leptons leap about from iPhone to Kindle to iPad scrambling pixels into meaningless blips of information. Perhaps Kathleen's employee is right. Just close up shop and go do something else, like serving coffee, which as yet does not come in digital form.
Follow Richard Geldard on Twitter: www.twitter.com/richgeldard@gma
Speaking as someone else who is in the business (I own a literary agency), it isn't worry that is called for: just stop dragging your feet and get with the program.
Digital books offer huge benefits: Thousands of books in hand, instead of one; reading in the dark and bright daylight; error correction after book purchase; shared digital bookmarks, highlighting, notes; links; reduced pollution; books never have to go "out of print" or "out of stock"; books may be obtained anytime, anywhere, reading can begin within seconds; adding art doesn't cost extra; book sales will no longer be impacted by resale of "used" titles; "borrowing" will be enormously reduced; reader eyestrain is reduced by end-user font and other readability settings; books share across user devices (I can read my books on my ipod, ipad, kindle, or computer); in short, there are myriad good reasons to welcome e-books.
We do need improvements: As mentioned, author income is too small a slice of the digital pie, but it's *your* contract - insist on what you want, and see to it other authors do likewise. You have that power; use it instead of whining about the situation.
e-books are a great opportunity to alter the publishing landscape forever to the great benefit of the author and the legitimate end-user (the reader who actually bought the book.) Digging in your heels will just get you left behind.
The experience far surpasses that of the physical book. I carry my library around. Every book has its own bookmarks, notes, and highlights. They can be collaborative. I can buy a new book in seconds upon encountering a recommendation or review, and read it immediately - no need to travel or wait for delivery. The selection of books available to me is far larger than any physical bookstore can possibly offer, and getting larger every day. My books are backed up, and not subject to coffee stains or other modes of damage or loss. My home library space becomes available for other use. And my iPad can do a zillion other useful and worthwhile things.
e-books aren't becoming such a force because they are a "fad." Far from it. They're a significantly better way to read. Like computers, e-books signal a serious change in society; and it's a good one.
Years ago, Bank of America decided to go paperless. Then that earthquake in San Francisco took out their main computer server farm. They were sidelined for four days while they repaired the servers because all the procedures manuals were stored on the servers rather than in bound hardcopies on a shelf somewhere.
A couple years back I lost a book from my carryon somewhere on a flight home from LA. It was a recently published item so it only cost me $8 to replace it.
But before we all dance on the grave of the big-bad-book-store let us remember that most likely no-one will be there to replace them, which means less book stores.
Which is simply sad and a reflection on our society.
Book Reviews: http://www.ManOfLaBook.com
As a reader, I no longer purchase physical books unless they are high-resolution art compendia; from my POV, the sooner the physical book industry dies, the better off I'll be.
At that point, the role of publisher and store will merge (it's already begin, in fact); there will be no need for a publisher to decide what gets published. So you'll still see books that the majority indulges in available; but they will no longer crowd quality literary works (or even last year's popular titles) off the shelves. That particular benefit is truly worth losing physical bookstores for: They cannot afford to keep the "good stuff" on the shelves when "shiny vampire" and similarly trendy books sell more copies. Digital stores have no such problem and offer many other benefits as well.
Good riddance to physical bookstores (and publishers.) I'm solidly convinced that the many, many benefits of e-books far outweigh the very few problems.