Local Bookstore Closings
Wednesday, January 17th, 2007Yesterday I mentioned a story about a local bookstore in danger of closing. Today, I see more news about Independent Bookstores that continue to close across the country. Here is another story about Coliseum Books, a famous independent bookstore in Manhatten, closing down recently. They site competition from big bookstores like Barnes and Noble, Borders, and Amazon have changed the face of bookselling.
What most people don’t also know is that huge book distributors such as Ingrams and Baker & Taylor are also key players in this trend. Online booksellers funnel many of their orders through these distributors to their buyers and the buyers never know it has happened. Baker & Taylor licenses access to their databases of book descriptions and images for thousands of dollars per year. I suppose Ingram charges similar rates, but I haven’t seen what these are.
There seems to be no way to be small and sell books solely online. Members of the American Booksellers Association that have a Brick and Mortar store can get access to online catalog data for a much, much smaller fee, but it’s still a significant amount for a small bookstore.
