Yikes. Making it all the harder for small publishers like NeWest,
which still do a lot of the heavy work of finding & introducing many
writers to the public.
And which may have to learn hos to publish books online soon (an
anathema to a bibliophile like me, even if I read a lot of 'stuff' on
my computer screen).
Doug
On 28-Dec-08, at 5:56 PM, Max Richards wrote:
> from the current NYT online
>
> Bookstores, both new and secondhand, are faltering as well.
> Olsson’s, the
> leading independent chain in Washington, went bankrupt and shut down
> in
> September. Robin’s, which says it is the oldest bookstore in
> Philadelphia, will
> close next month. The once-mighty Borders chain is on the rocks.
> Powell’s, the
> huge store in Portland, Ore., said sales were so weak it was
> encouraging its
> staff to take unpaid sabbaticals.
>
> Don’t blame this carnage on the recession or any of the usual
> suspects,
> including increased competition for the reader’s time or diminished
> attention
> spans. What’s undermining the book industry is not the absence of
> casual readers
> but the changing habits of devoted readers.
>
> In other words, it’s all the fault of people like myself, who
> increasingly use
> the Internet both to buy books and later, after their value to us is
> gone, sell
> them. This is not about Amazon peddling new books at discounted
> prices, which
> has been a factor in the book business for a decade, but about the
> rise of a
> worldwide network of amateurs who sell books from their homes or, if
> they’re
> lazy like me, in partnership with an Internet dealer who does all
> the work for a
> chunk of the proceeds.
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> This email was sent from Netspace Webmail: http://www.netspace.net.au
>
Douglas Barbour
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