littlesnapper

Large chain bookstores, mass market publishers & wannabe booksellers (Tesco) are the worst bunch of amateurs I’ve ever seen. They are completely incapable of understanding that you can’t replace a poor-selling title with larger numbers of a better selling title. Try selling someone who comes in to buy a copy of say Tarjei Vesaas’ Ice Palace a copy of Butcher’s Blood River. Or the new autobio of Cherie Blair. Won’t work. In fact I read a great quote in one of the free London papers when Mrs. Blair’s autobio was coming out. “Let’s face it,” the reviewer wrote, “We’d all rather read Jordan’s latest book than Cherie’s book.” Which says plenty for choice of reading material as well as English politics. I’m not slagging off the state of English politics, as I’m terrifically glad to be part of the harmony in this dynamic society. Amazon are even worse. We’ve all seen the ephitet “People who bought this book also bought…” It all smacks  of desperation. Amazon know how untenable their situation is at the pole of international bookselling. Why else would there be ten million little buttons and extra little bits on any given page you visit on the Amazon site? In order for the structure of Amazon to work the consumer needs to be overawed by the vast domain incorporated into the site. If the consumer were not in awe of the massive co-ordination required of such a behemoth & damned certain of Amazon as being the easiest as well as the cheapest the whole premise of the virtual shop would all fall apart. In fact, I’m pretty certain that were such a realisation to take place, ten minutes of searching around on the web would find  an alternative that was either quicker, cheaper, local, more ethical or simply more convenient.

With such a heavy emphasis on supporting local businesses it is possible that small independent bookshops will gradually find it possible to entice local customers back through their physical & virtual doors. It is also entirely possible that Amazon will remain the Microsoft of virtual commerce & that small bookshops will become somewhat ephemeral installations before they close down. Bookshops will always be around somewhere in the background the question really is how long will they be around for & how reliable will the service be? Can owners of already large & established stores who let’s face facts only need to manage profit  margins be persuaded that bookselling as a profession is a viable alternative to shifting numbers?