Book Games
Okay, so book sales keep going down, we know that. I think that's going to continue because the books are so expensive and people simply can't afford them. Publishers can spin their wheels all they want comparing their cost to that of DVDs, computer games, or light sweet crude, the problem remains. I believe that, for the most part, people who buy books want to buy more units than, say, your typical video game purchaser.
(Why kill the mass market paperback? They said sales their sales were down and trade paperbacks numbers were up; therefore, eliminating the mass market format in favor of the crappy and expensive trade format means more money in the pocket, right? No, it means fewer books sold, regardless of the numbers of the mass market format as a whole. I looked for the mass market version of a science fiction book--no longer available. What is in print, lucky me, is a trade paperback version for fifteen dollars. Guess what I won't be buying?)
Anyway, if bookstores are so convinced that newer, alternate forms of entertainment are what is to blame for bad business (note that I don't think I agree with this, at least not across the board), why not sell video games? Take out those endless racks of DVDs and CDs and put in precisely those forms of entertainment that are actually selling.
This seems quite obvious to me, but they'd have to offer them at competitive prices. C'mon, who out there has actually gone to a Barnes & Noble or a Borders (or an independent) and actually plunked down list freaking price for a DVD or CD? That shelf space may as well be designated as the Display or Browsing section because they sure can't contribute much to the bottom line. I'd be willing to bet that they don't cover their costs per square foot in an average store.
The only argument against this that I can think of is a water and oil mentality, where books and these newer entertainment forms can't mix because they really oughtn't. Get over it. Sell something and stay alive. Publishers sure seem to have sold out, the booksellers may as well, too. Something positive needs to happen until books can become affordable again even though that seems to be the absolute last thing publishers are willing to consider.
(Why kill the mass market paperback? They said sales their sales were down and trade paperbacks numbers were up; therefore, eliminating the mass market format in favor of the crappy and expensive trade format means more money in the pocket, right? No, it means fewer books sold, regardless of the numbers of the mass market format as a whole. I looked for the mass market version of a science fiction book--no longer available. What is in print, lucky me, is a trade paperback version for fifteen dollars. Guess what I won't be buying?)
Anyway, if bookstores are so convinced that newer, alternate forms of entertainment are what is to blame for bad business (note that I don't think I agree with this, at least not across the board), why not sell video games? Take out those endless racks of DVDs and CDs and put in precisely those forms of entertainment that are actually selling.
This seems quite obvious to me, but they'd have to offer them at competitive prices. C'mon, who out there has actually gone to a Barnes & Noble or a Borders (or an independent) and actually plunked down list freaking price for a DVD or CD? That shelf space may as well be designated as the Display or Browsing section because they sure can't contribute much to the bottom line. I'd be willing to bet that they don't cover their costs per square foot in an average store.
The only argument against this that I can think of is a water and oil mentality, where books and these newer entertainment forms can't mix because they really oughtn't. Get over it. Sell something and stay alive. Publishers sure seem to have sold out, the booksellers may as well, too. Something positive needs to happen until books can become affordable again even though that seems to be the absolute last thing publishers are willing to consider.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 11:57 AM
1 Comments:
I'm only guessing, but I have to assume these big trade-paper sellers must be the word-of-mouth bestsellers (Water for Elephants, Kite Runner, etc.) that are the "must-reads" for that audience (who seems to have no idea what to read until someone tells them) but aren't available in any other format.
Mass-market is pretty much reserved for us freaks that like a little murder going on between the pages, so we aren't considered a real audience at all. But they must be making money for somebody. After all, some of those mass-market series (Longarm, Mack Bolan, etc.) have been going on for decades!
It doesn't make any sense to me, and I imagine it doesn't make any sense to them, either. They're just trying to raise the numbers for the current quarter, and are willing to say or do whatever it seems to take, right or wrong.
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