Borders and the Future of Publishing

[sandial]

Over on Facebook, I posted a link to an interesting short article on Quora by Mark Evans (Borders' former Director of Merchandise Planning & Analysis) in answer to the question, "Why is Barnes & Noble performing well as a business while Borders is near or has even reached bankruptcy?" [Everything on Quora is organized in terms of questions and

Comments

[kalimac]

I see that one of the reasons offered is hat Borders concentrated more on music than B&N did, and thus was more vulnerable when the music business crashed.

Well, those of us who still go to physical bookstores do so because we want to browse among physical books. For the same reason, I like to browse among physical CDs, and, for a while after Tower Recods closed, Borders was my stopgap lifeline. I went there often for that reason, even though it wasn't as geographically convenient as B&N, and I bought books there too. Since it cut back on music and lost that advantage over B&N, I have gone to Borders less, even though it opened up a new store (which isn't closing, btw) more convenient to me than the B&N store.

[sandial]

Yup, I feel your pain. It can be hard having minority tastes like classical music, or wanting your music on a physical medium rather than as a download. That's me, too.

Over in the FB thread there were some parallel responses to the whole coffee aspect of the story, with some people saying they actually preferred Borders to B&N because the coffee wasn't Starbucks, and someone else complaining that two Borders stores near him were poorly ventilated and stank of coffee!

It's a big, complicated country, and thus it's hard to please a plurality, let alone a majority, let alone everyone all or even most of the time! For the moment, B&N is doing a better job of that than Borders did, but B&N may prove no less vulnerable to the ebook juggernaut approaching from just over the crest of the hill.

[kalimac]

y'know, in a world where everything has ten thousand options, and you can personally customize everything you buy, to be told that you can't browse among physical objects because it's a minority taste is ... well, I'm not going to say what it is.

I've tried ebooks, and they're OK for casual re-reading of old-favorite light fiction, but I won't attempt anything else book-length on them. If that's the only way new books become available, I just won't read any more new books.

[sandial]

Well, to be clear, it's not me telling you that browsing physical objects is a minority taste, it's the marketplace. The disappearance of music chains like Tower Records over the last decade is quite discouraging to those of us who enjoy that kind of shopping experience, with its broad inventory and the opportunity for serendipity.

As for paper books, I don't think they're going to disappear in our lifetime, so you needn't worry about having to fulfill this heart-rending vow.

However, I'm confident that e-readers will continue to improve and, who knows, may someday offer a reading experience that meets with your approval.

If you'll forgive me for saying so -- and in no way meaning to single you out, because I see this everywhere now among my friends -- I can't help but be struck by this discussion as yet another confirmation that the idea we used to have that reading SF inoculated us against 'future shock' was totally wrong.

[apostle_of_eris]

It depends on how many publishers and distributors go under because Borders stiffed them.

[sandial]

Quite true.

For example, Tor and Macmillan as a whole are owed millions.

[sandial]

Back on Facebook, the thread has now reached about 40 posts.

Gary Farber explained at length why his personal circumstances and preferences meant that though he actually buys very few books, he gets almost all of them online and hence why bookstores in general were doomed.

My response:

‎Gary: I guess I'm more reluctant than you seem to be to generalize from my personal experience to the whole consumer marketplace!

Judging from my recent visits to branches of B&N and Borders and independents like the Strand or St. Mark's Place Books, there are still lots of people who enjoy bookstores and are buying at least some of their books in person. When your health allows you to make it over to Moe's Books in Berkeley, I bet you'll find the same.

Having said that, I'll freely admit that in the last decade I've bought many more books from Amazon, Half.com, Allibris, AbeBooks, etc. than I have in meatspace establishments

[womzilla]

No one yet has created an online tool for *browsing* a selection of books that is comparable in ease of use, serendipity, and pleasure as a bookshelf. When someone does finally does that, bookstores are toast.