If you’re in America, or pay attention to the book industry, you’ve probably heard the news by now. The second largest retail bookstore chain in the States received no real offers, and so has cancelled its plans for a bankruptcy auction. The chain shut down many of its stores earlier in the year after entering bankruptcy-court protection in February, but has been unable to turn it around – the remaining 400 stores will sell their stock and shut for good.
It’s a sad time for readers, writers, publishers, and agents everywhere. Borders did a decent job of promoting authors, and their storefront ads have caused me to pick up more a few books from authors I wouldn’t have tried before. The closing of Borders’ stores will probably hurt readership as a whole, and likely help e-books continue to capture a greater share of the market. It’s the first part of that sentence that bothers me though – books are, and have always been, a great form of both entertainment and learning. It will be sad to see fewer book stores and fewer readers. While e-books are fantastic and clearly fill a sizable demand in the market, I wonder how many younger readers have easy access to e-readers.
Think of the children...
Though it is sad, a part of me can’t help but wonder if this was all really necessary. Amazon offers such tremendous savings over Borders that it really is hard to justify spending the extra money. I say “offers”, not “offered”, because even now that Borders has announced its liquidation, the vast majority of their “discounted” book prices are still more expensive than buying from Amazon. I’m sure the price cuts will increase in time, but for now it still doesn’t make sense to shop there. In my experience, Barnes & Noble has usually offered good deals – 30% less or so – on new releases, and I’ve always been happy to give them my custom. So why the high prices?
I’m sure they had their reasons. Perhaps their relationship with the publishers wasn’t as close, perhaps everyone was trying desperately to keep their profit margins high, perhaps Amazon’s warehouse business model really does allow them to cut that much off prices. But I think the industry is going through some growing pains right now. The growth of e-books has shown that there is a huge market there, but pricing is still a point of contention – how do you price the e-book vs. the hardbackvs. the paperback? How much are readers willing to pay for each?
At the end of the day, I think it’s pricing that will determine the shape of the industry as e-books and real books compete for market share, Amazon and Barnes & Noble continue to struggle for control of the regular book readership, and publishers and sellers vie for profits. I do think there will always be a place for physical bookstores – but apparently there’s only room for one big chain in America.
I’d seen The Steel Remains on shelves before, but I didn’t seriously pick it up until after the release of its sequel – The Cold Commands – hit bookstores and impressed me with its cover art. And wow! What a series.
