Kate Whouley writes:
For better or worse, I'm fully committed to independent
bookselling. Yes, my first date was with Waldenbooks--I wrote about
that in this journal--but from the day I embraced independence in July
of 1983, I've been a faithful partner to independents of all sizes and
stripes. In my work as a consultant (since 1988), I've worked hard to
help my clients succeed, one indie bookstore at a time. Until Cottage for Sale
was published in 2004, all my publication credits were professional,
and those books that I wrote or edited--I count eight--were all
intended to assist independent bookstore owners and their employees in
their quest to improve and to grow their businesses.
In that spirit, I wrote the piece that appeared in Tuesday's Shelf Awareness.
You see, I want exactly what ABA and Booksense.com want, the same thing
all those smart booksellers on the NEIBA listserve were trying to work
out: a way to ensure the healthy and prosperous future of independent
bookselling in America.
Deep breath.
I got a lot of response to my exploration of Booksense.com, Amazon.com
and the way forward for independent stores in an increasingly online
world. For some readers, it was me, not Amazon, who was carrying a fiery
trident and offering off-limit temptations for the price of a
collective soul. In fact, this devil never made it out of her yoga
pants yesterday. I couldn't keep up with the flood of e-mails and phone
calls related to the piece, never mind find my way into street clothes.
With my small exploration (just 1,300 words, where 13,000 might have
made a good start) I had one intention: to engender a national
conversation on the topic of effective online selling for independent
booksellers.
Judging from my overstuffed mailbox, the conversation I hoped to
trigger appears to be underway. In the clarification published here
yesterday, Len Vlahos of Booksense.com said, "We look forward to the
dialogue." I think Len is one of the smartest people I know, and I am
thrilled he's working on behalf of independent booksellers. Ditto with
anyone you can name working for ABA and the regional associations. In
fact, one of the reasons I've stayed faithful all these years is that I
love all the great minds who work as, for, or in concert with,
independent booksellers.
That's why I'm sure we can do better if we put our heads together.
Many years ago, writing in American Bookseller, I did a series
of articles deconstructing the results of the Wirthlin Study. This was
pre-Amazon, but post-corporate superstore invasion. In that series, I
referenced a book called Value Migration. The author, Adrian
Slywotsky, gave illustrations to show that as customers' tastes change
over time, what they value in a business changes too. He urged
business owners to keep up with their customers or risk losing them.
I feel pretty certain that at least a portion of independent bookstore
customers are migrating with their values. And I worry too about those
potential independent bookstore customers we haven't even reached
yet--they're younger, puzzling to a business composed mostly of
boomers, and they are used to having their bookstore just one click
away. Can we woo and win them? And can we slow down the movement of the
loyalists whom--though they feel a twinge of guilt when they do
it--still click and buy at least some of the time?
To say we can't is, in my opinion, to accept the prospect of a slow,
painful, agonizing death. Like global warming, indie cooling may not
kill us in this generation or even in the next 50 or 70 years. But it
will get us sooner or later. I'm reminded of Al Gore's message in An Inconvenient Truth.
He was talking about the ill effects of climate change, telling us it
is possible to reverse a staggering trend. His beliefs line up what I
hope is true about creating an improved online future for independent
booksellers. The technology is in place. What we need is the political
will to effect positive change.
Editor's note: Though she called her contribution in Tuesday's Shelf Awareness
"another of my inadvertent essays," Kate Whouley has agreed to lead an
ongoing conversation of the topics first raised on the NEIBA listserve.
In future issues of Shelf Awareness, she'll present and comment upon the views of booksellers and others who wish to participate in the discussion.
And, of course, Robert Gray will continue occasionally looking at the issue from his perspective as well.