Comments on: Ordering to the net, or …

By: Von Allan

Von Allan — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 03:35:04 +0000

First, apologies since I’m coming into this so late.

The Book Standard had an interesting article that touched on much of this, as well. The interesting bit is this, “…was the fact that 93 percent of ISBNs sold fewer than 1,000 units in 2004, according to Nielsen BookScan. These books accounted for only 13 percent of sales. On the other hand, 7 percent of ISBNs sold more than 1,000 units and made up the remaining 87 percent of sales.”

The rest of the article is at http://www.thebookstandard.com/bookstandard/news/publisher/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001180356&imw=Y

I’ve run an indy bookstore on top of trying to launch a career as a graphic novelist and I completely agree (though it’s probably no surprise) with your thesis here. Central, automated buying is a horrible thing. I also am not a believer that it maximizes profit. It’s not as efficient and it’s certainly not humane.

I also agree with your solutions, too. Readers must do more than just buy a book they love once. They have to talk about it and continue buying it for others. And get them talking, too. It’s the only way to make it work.

Thanks for writing!

Von

By: Chassit

Chassit — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 19:34:10 +0000

Nice additions, Holly, ha ha. I see I wasn’t the only one to notice the difference between bookSTORE and bookSELLER.

By: Zoe

Zoe — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 19:09:27 +0000

But eitje, wouldn’t it have to be an audiobook then? I can’t speak for others, but that would be a problem for me – I much prefer reading books to hearing them.

By: eitje

eitje — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 04:05:11 +0000

i wonder… why not just go digital? not digital print (which you’ve discussed before)… but an audible.com book, which could also be distributed via USB key. i don’t know how large the audible files normally are, but a dozen hours of voice-quality MP3 would fit on something like this:
http://www.4imprint.com/USB-Key-Drive-128MB/exec/detail/~SKU007409/~CA7409-128.htm

i dunno. i don’t know anything about books – writing, selling, etc. but it seems to me that if you could figure out a way to do publishing yourself – albeit digital distribution rather than physical – then you wouldn’t have to worry about who was carrying what.

By: hollylisle

hollylisle — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 19:32:56 +0000

PolarBear—you’re right, and after the new year, I’ll put up a page where folks can recommend Bookstores That Do It Right.

By: hollylisle

hollylisle — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 19:12:22 +0000

My response to a decidedly nasty post from a sloppy reader.

By: S William Shaw

S William Shaw — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 16:20:42 +0000

I live in a smaller town (40K). We have more indie stores than chains. The only chain is Borders, and the selection there stinks so we rarely head there for books.

Oddly enough I find Holly Lisle books at Shopko, but not at the indies or Borders.

By: PolarBear

PolarBear — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:56:58 +0000

Hey, Holly, the “Favorite Indie” page is a good idea, but it leaves out the opportunity to post if someone has a really good experience with a chain store. Maybe a “Favorite Bookstores” page? Include the criteria someone should consider when deciding to post so readers have an idea of what’s been considered.

By: Sophia

Sophia — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:22:01 +0000

This is mildly depressing, but I have some good news for you, there is hope for you book outside of indie bookstores in Savannah! I was at a college fair last year, and I can’t be in the mall without stopping by the bookstore (it’s an addiction)so while I was wandering up and down the isles trying to find something to read I saw your book Talyn in the new fantasy section, several hard back copies on display for any fantasy fan to see (or book fan, since I rarely buy books in the fantasy department and tend to stalk up and down isles until I find something with a cover I like.) Anyway, I bought the book because I’d been reading your website, and I thought “hey, I’ve heard of her I’ll buy that.” Anyway, I guess I’m a proud bookstore citizen or something because I like to think that bookstores in my city are just better than anywhere else, but the employees also have a section where they can reccomend any books that they’ve read recently, and since we’re a city with a well known art college (SCAD or Savannah College of Art and Design) this might be unique, I can’t say as I’ve pretty much always lived here. Roger Ebert did say that we have some of the most artistic Starbucks employees around.

As a side note, Talyn was cover out rather than spine out.

By: Jaye Patrick

Jaye Patrick — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 22:01:17 +0000

As I was reading this, I was also thinking about where I get my sci-fi/fantasy books from.

I order them in, via an indie store in Sydney. The Galaxy Bookstore is the only store I can rely on to get the books I want. Even if the book is out of print, they will let me know if/when it’s being republished (Andre Norton). Chain stores aren’t going to give you that kind of courtesy.

The chainstores (of which there are two in my area) suck like a vacuum when it comes to orders and shelving what I’d like. “They aren’t popular; we only stock what’s popular.” I was told as if I was obviously reading the wrong type of book.

I replied, “fine, I’ll order them from elsewhere.” And walked out; I know where I can get my fix…