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[The Borders bookstore on Wilbur Avenue in Coeur d’Alene is not on the store closure list submitted today [by Borders Group, Inc., in connection with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
February 16, 2011
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The publishers have known about the closings for a while. They’ve stopped their sell-ins in anticipation, which kind of makes this a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Brick and mortar bookstores are, lamentably, dead. I still go to Borders to buy books when I need them, and only if the book isn’t stocked do I order it online. But I am an exception.
Comment by Dan — February 16, 2011 @ 2:57 pm
I was part of the opening staff at the Coeur d’Alene Borders so I am glad it was spared in this round of closings. While I was there I was responsible for all the signings and events, something that neither Borders or Hastings put much emphasis on anymore. Kind of a shame really because I always thought that all the events with local authors and musicians where what made the stores fun to goto. Alas in an age where both are just barely hanging on, the time and effort it takes to do one of these events is seen as not a good investment.
Comment by patrickh — February 16, 2011 @ 3:07 pm
Patrickh,
In my assignments to various cities in the US, I sometimes had a chance to go to book signings. You’re right — they were always a lot of fun. Some authors are excellent speakers and can really attract and hold an audience. It seems to me that the advance work, the promotion of the event, would be critical to drawing a good crowd. Once the crowd is there, you’d have to hope the author could be informative and entertaining. It will be sad to see them fade away.
Comment by Bill — February 16, 2011 @ 5:08 pm
As does Dan, I buy print books in store unless they aren’t stocked. I believe e-books have caught on and I admit to having and really liking my Kindle. In the 7 months since I bought my Kindle, I have read 64 books. When you figure the price of new books, that is a lot of revenue. They multiply by all e-book readers. I understand that many universities are going to e-books for texts. UNLV dental school does this. On entering, the student buys all texts for 3 years on an e-reader. It’s a mixed bag as I love the stacks. But I also love the ease of an e-reader. This is the future of books I suspect.
Comment by rochereau — February 17, 2011 @ 9:06 am
Here is a blog post written by someone at my publisher’s regarding the Borders bankruptcy:
http://www.blogher.com/what-losing-borders-means-me
Comment by Dan — February 17, 2011 @ 9:20 am
So how does Kindle factor into this?
Comment by mary — February 17, 2011 @ 10:15 am
Not at all.
Comment by Dan — February 17, 2011 @ 11:31 am
I don’t know about “not at all” Dan. Borders did a bad job of reading (no pun) the market. As I understand, it ultimately was owned by K-Mart. Not exactly cutting edge literary management. The loss of Borders was pure bad business management. My comment rearding e-book readers was general. I think that at the end of the day, that will have a large impact on book stores. And I agree with the blogger, I love book stores and would hate to see their demise. Fortuntely, not all books will be on e-readers. But I suspect new issues will be.
Comment by rochereau — February 17, 2011 @ 12:46 pm
Maybe a corollary to Mary’s question is, “How will the decline in paper book publishing affect school textbook publishers and publishing?”
Comment by Bill — February 17, 2011 @ 12:55 pm
Kindle doesn’t cut it yet. For novels it’s okay. Novels are just text. But my own books don’t make the transition well to Kindle. Frankly, Kindle isn’t a good platform for references. Eventually they’ll get it right, but until then people are playing money for books and not getting the same experience electronically.
Comment by Dan — February 17, 2011 @ 1:08 pm
Dan,
Your last comment may have answered my preceding question in 9.
Once the content requires more resolution than 10-12 pt. text, the screen resolution may not be suitable for detailed graphics and small text you would find in footnotes. Eye strain may become a serious issue, too.
Comment by Bill — February 17, 2011 @ 1:20 pm
Right now, Amazon runs what’s basically a mill that transforms a book’s text into the Kindle format. They don’t really deal with tables or figures or margin art well. I had one reader get very upset that the book he ordered online was missing information referenced in the book. That’s not my publisher’s fault; it’s Amazon’s fault when they convert the book into the Kindle format. (I sent him a free copy of the book.) Amazon has been made aware of the problem, and I would assume that they’re addressing it. Obviously converting some titles to electronic format requires more work than they’re willing to put in at this point.
Comment by Dan — February 17, 2011 @ 1:57 pm
Sorry Dan, I’m a technical wasteland. I believe that a large number of people do buy novels at bookstores. Texts and scientific books are a different thing. Although I and my children always bought our college texts at the University bookstore. And my dentist told me about UNLV dental school e-books. I believe however that they were on a computer.
Your comment on eyestrain is interesting as I am begining to notice that myself and rather suspected it was from the Kindle. Still, it is so convenient.
Comment by rochereau — February 17, 2011 @ 1:59 pm
I admit that I’ve never looked closely at Kindle or any of the other e-book readers. Do any of them allow electronic highlighting, addition of margin notes, etc.? Or is the reader looking at read-only?
Comment by Bill — February 17, 2011 @ 2:03 pm
Kindle lets you highlight and bookmark. I don’t know about taking notes. The Kindle Android app doesn’t have highlighting, but you can bookmark. I’m only familiar with the Kindle app, and have bought and read books using that app. It’s actually kind of nice, as the books load on any device on which you’ve installed the app. So I’ve read a book on my Galaxy Tab and then picked up and read the same book on my Droid X. It’s handy, but no highlighting or margin notes.
Comment by Dan — February 17, 2011 @ 2:13 pm
Dan,
You can take notes on the Kindle and export the notes along with the text the note refers to. I do use my Kindle for school, and have managed to save over the cost of buying one on some of the texts I have been able to get on it. Having said that I do think that you have a point about reference and technical materials on the Kindle. I am working on my Masters in religion and there are several things that while they are available on the Kindle, just do not work well. Bible commentaries, and concordances just don’t work well in the Kindle format. Like your books any title that you flip through a lot looking for one bit of information just does not translate well.
Comment by patrickh — February 17, 2011 @ 2:53 pm
patrickh,
Is that because commentaries and concordances use small type fonts?
It seems as if e-books ought to be more easily searchable by words and phrases. Do the e-readers not have that function?
Comment by Bill — February 17, 2011 @ 4:41 pm
Bill,
It has more to do with how the Kindle indexes. Its indexing system makes it hard to quickly jump from onespot to another. So far using one on the Kindle is more of a hassle.
Comment by patrickh — February 17, 2011 @ 5:59 pm