I know the idea of ebooks saving independent bookstores sounds crazy at first. Indy bookstores are (were) small, brick-and-mortar shops with a loyal following of readers who love to hang out, visit with each other, and get recommendations from a staff. These wonderful enclaves have been an endangered species, made all but extinct by the big box, mega bookstores. What readers have lost as the indies died out is the bookseller, that flesh and blood person who’s a passionate reading, knows the stock, and knows the costumers’ taste. Booksellers used to hand sell books and they stocked inventory that catered to their specific customers.
Big Box Stores Limit Selection and Hand Selling
For the most part, the big box bookstores have left readers to wander up and down the aisle to find books on their own. The readers’ selection has become limited to new releases or the backlist titles of top bestsellers. What makes it on the shelves is controlled at the national level, so that readers in the suburban Midwest are picking from the same inventory as readers in New York or LA. This has hurt the mid-list authors who write to niche markets, like Western romance novels. It also frustrates the readers of those niche markets when they can’t find what they want to read.
Ebooks Increase Selection and Extend the Shelf Life of Novels in Three Ways
1) Out of Print Backlists Books: For years, diehard fans of genre fiction have grappled with the frustration of having a fellow reader recommend a book, only to learn the book is out of print. They either had to find it in a used bookstore, go to a library, or borrow from a friend. The author, of course, makes no royalty from used books or borrowed books. Ebooks are eliminating that problem as authors regain rights to their out of print books and re-release them as ebooks.
2) New Books by Established Authors: Many established authors who had loyal fans and thriving careers for years now can’t get a contract because of the upheaval in the print publishing industry. Those authors can now release whole new works straight to Kindle.
3) New Talent: There are also many talented new writers who would have been snapped up by publishers a few years ago, but who now may never get a print contract because the industry is facing so many challenges. Those authors can now hire a free-lance editor and release a well-written, professionally edited ebook that may gain a massive audience.
So, happy day for authors and their fans alike. Except for one major problem…
Ebooks Make Finding Books to Buy Even More Difficult
One of the big challenges with ebooks is that the selection of books available to readers is becoming so huge, finding the well-written ebooks among the amateurish offerings can be somewhat daunting. With no physical aisle to wander down, how do publishers or authors bring attention to their books among so much noise on the Internet?
Enter the Bookseller (Or Should I Say Reenter?)
Now more than ever, readers need someone to guide them with recommendations. This is a perfect chance for those booksellers who had brick-and-mortar stores (or still have them) to have an online extension of that friendly enclave we lost. I predict we’ll see online bookstores pop up and develop communities of readers with similar tastes. The ebookstore owners will earn money from associate accounts with places like Amazon.com, BN.com, and Borders.com, or they can actually sell the books right off of their site. These online, indy bookstores can offer a lot of the things that the physical stores provided: guest appearances by authors, book club discussions, and a sense of community. Ebooks will have a longer shelf life, and readers and authors of niche markets can thrive with this sort of business model.
I have no idea if this will actually come to be, but it’s exciting to think about. What about you? Do you like the idea of a virtual bookstore where you can hang out with other readers and get recommendations from a bookseller?
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