Gonzalo Barr

Sven Birkerts, in his excellent book of essays and memoirs, The Gutenberg Elegies, described his days as a bookseller for the Border brothers in Ann Arbor, Michigan. If Jack Eckerd revolutionized the pharmacy by placing the prescription counter at the back, forcing customers to walk through a convenience store to get there and sparking millions of dollars of impulse buying, the Border brothers changed bookstores by adding the café. Now even small bookstores have espresso bars to keep customers from skipping over to Borders or Barnes & Nobles.

The English bookseller, Blackwell, announced that they are going one further by installing a machine that can publish on demand one million titles. Anna Richardson, in her blog at bookseller.com, reports that the machine is called, appropriately, the “Espresso Book Machine” and is made by On Demand Books in the US. But unlike Italian espresso makers, this machine looks like a large and boxy photocopier. According to The Independent, a novel takes about seven minutes to print.

The big news here is that customers will have more titles from which to choose. The bad news is that we may see these machines replace the bookstore with aisles and shelves and books you can pick off the shelves and page through. Real books take up space. The cost of leasing retail space has risen tremendously, forcing many independent bookstores and even some chain stores to close. Would it be that strange to buy a book from one of these machines esconced in a little space like an ATM? It would be no more strange than ordering a book on line, I suppose.

Blackwell plans to keep stocking books on shelves for the moment. With the cost of leasing real estate continuing to rise, though, do not be surprised if bookselling becomes a predominantly web-based enterprise or one that operates out of little kiosks just large enough to house one of these machines. The sign above the kiosk will read, “Books,” even though there won’t be any.

Sources: Arifa Akbar, “Millions of books to choose from – yours will take only minutes to print,” The Independent (June 21, 2008)

Candida’s World of Books was the second stop on my book tour in the fall of 2006. The store is in the Logan Circle area in northwest Washington, a neighborhood that’s been undergoing robust gentrification for several years. Beautiful but decayed townhouses that were bought a few years ago for next to nothing have been refurbished and are shockingly expensive.

Now, the Washington City Paper reports that the store is closing. “Thin margins” is the reason that the owner, Candida Mannozzi, gave to the reporter.

Making a bookstore succeed is very difficult under the best of circumstances. Mannozzi further explained that the construction, the cranes blocking the store, made it difficult to attract customers.

I remember my reading. It was a cool Saturday afternoon in October. I arrived early so I could walk around the neighborhood. There was an “antique store” on a corner of Fourteeth Street with a painted statue of a Roman soldier (pictured above) on display outside.

Mannozzi was gracious and welcoming to me, both qualities that this nervous first-time author appreciated.  I was looking forward to reading my next book there.

I am saddened to learn that the store is closing. I hope it will reopen somewhere else or maybe even there again. You never know. In the meantime, my best wishes to Candida Mannozzi and her World of Books.

Photo:  Gonzalo Barr; Sources: Washington City Paper, publisherslunchdeluxeblog

Indiebook has posted at least eight videos on the art of bookselling, which is one part common courtesy and three parts being quick and knowledgeable enough to exploit an opportunity to sell a book.

The first videos, “Out of Stock — The Wrong Way” and “Out of Stock — The Right Way,” illustrate how to lose and gain a sale. In ”the right way” video, the bookseller takes advantage of the moment to suggest an alternate book before she confirms that the title the customer asked about is out of stock. You can’t assume that just because a customer walks in with a title in mind she will not take any other.

In “Just Browsing — What Went Wrong,” the customer announces that she is going on vacation and asks the bookseller for a recommendation. He enthusiastically offers Finnegan’s Wake, which does not need any editorial comment.

The videos are worth a look. They are well done and fun, even if you don’t work in a bookstore. And they remind those of us on this side of the counter that bookselling is not as easy as it looks, but that’s what Castiglione called sprezzatura, isn’t it?

Source:  publisherslunch blog