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Are Bookstores Relevant? The Results


Troy

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ARE BOOKSTORES RELEVANT? YES! WILL THEY FULLY PREVAIL? NO! THE WRITING HAS BEEN ON THE WALL.... IF THE MEGA SUPERSTORES LIKE B. DALTON, BORDERS & WALDENBOOKS COULDN'T REMAIN IN BUSINESS, WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT ALL INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES HAVING MUCH LESS/LIMITED RESOURCES AS THE MAJOR CHAINS, REMAIN? ACTUALLY, MORE STORES ARE ACTUALLY CLOSING: SAD BUT TRUE. AS MUCH AS I LOVE BOOKSTORES, E-COMMERCE IS THE FURURE. UNLESS A MAJOR REVELATION HAPPENS (CASH & COWS & CASH COWS FALL FROM THE SKY), E-COMMERCE WILL RULE & E-BOOKS WILL OVERALL TAKE OVER THE BOOK BUSINESS. I MYSELF, STILL PREFER PAPERBACKS: & SIGNING THEM AT BOOK SIGNINGS.

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Hickson my most recent sales support your position that ebooks will take over: eBooks outsold physical books on my website (again) for the period of my most recent Bestsellers list September 1st to October 31st 2012. This is skewed by the sale of books that are only available in one format, but for books that were available in both formats the ratio was as high as 3 to 1 in favor of eBooks.

I'm also agree that bookstores are indeed relevant but despite their relevance they are doomed to fail. I'm not however confident that the replacement is better. As a result, I'll continue to try to let people know what we are losing, collectively, as a culture.

I feel bad for people who never knew a world with bookstores -- just like I feel bad for the kids who never really knew what it is like to play games like tag, jump rope of any of the physical things kids used to do outside. The idea of spending one's childhood connected to a screen, communicating with friends, watching TV, playing and game, or reading a book is, well...depressing.

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TROY, UNFORTUNATELY "THE POWERS THAT BE" HAVE ENCOURAGED MILLIONS TO BECOME IMPERSONAL THROUGH CYBERSPACE AND GADGETS SUCH AS E-READERS. I PERSONALLY MAKE SURE TO GO OUT MY WAY TO MAINTAIN NORMALITY & BE SOCIAL, THROUGH PERSONAL CONTACT, OUTINGS & EVENTS SUCH AS BOOK SIGNINGS. GHETTOHEAT® WILL CONTINUE TO HAVE BOOKS IN PRINT: YET, AS I INDICATED BEFORE, WILL SELL EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH GHETTOHEAT.COM (NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION), MAINTAIN PRICES AT FULL COST & ALSO WILL CONTROL 95% OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF GHETTOHEAT® BOOKS, WHICH ALREADY WENT INTO EFFECT THIS FALL: ANOTHER TACTIC I'VE USED TO PRESERVE THE HOUSE OF GHETTOHEAT®!

I PLAN TO STAY FOR THE LONG HAUL...

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I'm sure you'll do just that Hickson!

Nah'Sun, I was thinking about your comment equating eBooks to MP3's. The other problem I see is the following: Music has become freely available on-line. Often I have found music on Youtube that I simply could not find (to buy) on iTunes. Of course a great number of people don't pay for music at all simply downloading it from various online resources.

As revenues from record sales dry up, musicians have the benefit of making money by performing. Authors don't really have the option of going on tour to generate some income. Sure some celebrity authors can sell tickets to a signing and include a book as part of the deal, but potential revenue is miniscule -- especially if the "book" is an electronic file. Besides, the average author will never make any money at a "ebook" signing -- unless of course they put on a show.

What will happen when ebooks are flying around the internet for free with no revenue going to the author? If anyone thinks this will not ultimately happen, they are woefully naive.

As ebooks proliferate (even when they are not being pirated), the pressure to lower prices will increase, so much so that it will discourage more and more people from writing and the publishing industry will follow the music industry -- down the drain.

It is happening now.

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TROY, I'VE BEEN SAYING THIS ALL ALONG: THE INDUSTRY IS GOING DOWN THE DRAIN, DUE TO THE MANY WHO'VE ENCOURAGED IT TO, BY DOING SUBPAR BUSINESS TACTICS/STRATEGIES, & LOWERING PRICES DRASTICALLY! WHAT HAPPENED WITH NAPSTER & THE MUSIC BUSINESS IS NOW HAPPENING WITH E-BOOKS & PUBLISHING. THIS IS THE MAIN REASON WHY I REGROUPED AND QUICKLY DECIDED BEFORE LAUNCHING E-BOOKS, NOT TO GIVE MY PDF'S/DIGITAL FILES TO OTHERS SUCH AS AMAZON, DUE TO PIRATING, DOUBLE ACCOUNTING, MASSIVE FREE DOWNLOADS, ETC. NO ONE LISTENED TO ME, NOW MANY ARE COMPLAINING ABOUT THEIR E-BOOK SALES AND GETTING NOTICES FROM E-TAILERS ABOUT "SALES ERRORS" ON THEIR STATEMENTS! I'M GLAD I'VE MADE THE CHOICE TO SELL EXCLUSIVELY ON GHETTOHEAT.COM, AS WELL AS NEVER TO LOWER PRICES AT GHETTOHEAT®! SOON, ALL WILL BE FREE INFORMATION: & THERE WILL BE NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS...NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT'S REALLY HAPPENING. YET, I WISH ALL OTHERS WELL....

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@ Troy

I’m not saying whether eBooks are good or bad for authors and the industry

I merely drew a comparison between the two mediums

I don’t think people are gonna stop reading paperbacks and hardcovers because you still have traditionalists such as yours truly who holds a disdain toward eBooks

I prefer turning pages.

What's funny is that most of my book sales come from my personal website...I hardly ever throw book signings anymore...LOL

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Hickson, I hear you. Nah'Sun thats cool, and with sales directly from your website sounds like you and Hickson are on the same page.

Obviously I have a position on the impact of eBooks. While I prefer to read a paper books myself, I have read electronic books and recognize situations where the electronic format is advantageous.

The problem I'm really trying to emphasize is the disruptive nature of the technology. The business models have not caught up and are still broken this is to everyone's detriment, readers, authors, publishers and all the intermediaries (including book sellers).

I presume the business models will work themselves out eventually. But the Black aspect of the business (as usual) was hit first, hardest and will recover last. It will also happen in relative silence...

(I'm not saying eBooks are the only problem impacting the publishing industry; there are other factors including the economy, social media, etc.)

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There are a few statistics to bear in mind. I'll have to find the article, but it stated that 28% of readers own e-books. Of those who read and don't own e-readers, 80% say they have no plans on purchasing them. Now that may be because many folks are reading books on their phones. I think books will remain. Just like people are beginning to return to buying vinyl records, folks will continue to buy books.

That being said, the majority of my book sales are e-books. But my books aren't in Barnes and Noble nor in any significant amount of bookstores. Would the ratio be the same if they were? I don't know. I"m taking a wait and see attitude.

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Milton when you find the article lets check it out.

As you wrote a dedicated ereader is just one ay to read an eBook. They can be read on cell phones, PCs and generic tablets.

The remaining readers who don't plan to buy an ereader may in fact be reading eBooks on their phone (I have two eBook readers and usually read ebooks on my phone). I usually have my phone with me and rarely shlep my eBook reader around.

I too think physical books will remain, but not nearly enough to halt the havoc eBooks are wrecking on the industry nowadays.

I think making your book available in electronic form on your website is about all you can do. You can continue to promote here, on other websites and use more traditional means to help spread the word.

Sure if your book was available in a B&N store you would have may have more physical book sales. But realistically, what is the likelihood of that happening? You probably had a better chance with Borders, but they are gone, and Black independents are closing on a regular basis. Even Black websites where you could get a review, interview, promotion or buy an advertisement are loosing traffic.

An author's ability to build traffic, on their own, without paid advertising is VERY difficult and time consuming.

It would be interesting to read how many people are going back to vinyl. I can't image people doing so in significant enough numbers to makes a difference to anyone. Besides who is left to go back. The target audience of the big "record" companies probably never knew a world with Vinyl LP's and 45s.

I was in a used record/book store in Tampa recently. Interesting place; Jazz was playing, looking at album cover was nice. I actually brought a book, but I never have considered buying an album to listen to at home. If anything it would just be to collect, to look at.

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Milton, why are you considering using the PDF format anyway? While PDF files can be read by almost anyone, it is the least flexible of all the available formats. Why not simply make your titles available via Nook and Kindle and call it a day?

As far as pirating your work what do you mean exactly? Are you concerned about others taking your book and sharing it without your permission or someone taking the text and publishing your work under their name?

In today's world both are relatively easy to do. I would not let that stop you from selling your work, just use the available tools to protect your work and hope for the best because you can't prevent piracy.

I can, personally, grab a copy of your book, rip the binding off of it, run it through high speed scanner, pass it through OCR software and send it to a printer and sell it. Sounds far fetched? It is already happening.

As I've written numerous times the publishing industry is in deep do-do; there are no viable, long term business models in a world of eBooks. The prices one can command for a eBook will continue to be driven way, way down. People will now expect eBooks to be sharable, as is possible on many Kindle an Nook titles today.

You can even "borrow" ebooks online without stepping foot in the library. Do you think this will drive prices higher or lower?

So if you sell PDF files you are competing against ALOT in two main areas; Technology (The limitations of buying a PDF file from you versus the benefits of the nook or kindle files), and Content (How do we know your books are any good. Is it worth the tradeoff simply going to Amazon or B&N to find a title?).

I also encourage you all to go back and revisit the article Death of the Black Owned, Independent, Bookstore. the numerous comments are just if not more informative than my original article.

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