Friday 22 June 2007

One more point

Further to the previous blog I must add that if you peruse the websites of all the publishers - major and minor - you will find a vast number of apparently readable books! You will not find many of them in the bookstores. Nor will you hear about them in the newspapers. All this would be funny if it were not so sad. I don't think Amazon solves the problem - can't do, despite all its efforts it's not really much good for browsing. I would suggest there's a market for a totally different - and probably extremely huge - new style of bookstore. One fact that strikes me as odd is the way bookstores differ from supermarkets. In the latter, all you do not want to buy is stuck in the entrance and close to it, so you have to pass this attractively-packaged pile of goods in order to reach what you really want which is always placed either at the rear or the back of the store. Think bread, think milk, think soft drinks. Why then, on entering the bookstore, are the books the public is going to buy stuck at the front? (You might disagree saying that the new Deaver needs this place. Don't agree. Certainly the new Potter does not need a place in the store at all, except in the rear stock room to be brought out on request) Surely it would make sense to put the much publicised easy reads at the back of the store, forcing customers to browse along the shelves on the way, possibly picking up another title. On a related point, I notice the Waterstone's debate on charges. I'm not going into that except to say that with my comparison between bookstores and superstores the major manufacturers also pay massive amounts up front to secure certain positions in the supermarket store.

No comments: