Were's my bookstore?
One of the things I used to love to do is relax on a bench in an indoor shopping mall. While there I would open up a freshly purchased book from Borders and it's predecessors.
I remember the last viable Barnes and noble where I bought so many of the Steven King Dark Tower series. Those doors were shuttered in 2004
There's something about the freshly minted print on the pages and the content physically there before you. This is usually bounded by a great illustrative cover. More and more I find they are hardback as paperback first additions disappear after 2,or 3 successful sales in the series.
Now you have to drive to Books A Million the last surviving bookstore in my area. It makes no sense to anchor them in the mall where so much of retail is already dead or dying. they thrive better in big box format on their own.
There is usually an internet café on premises featuring coffee and hot drinks. gaming and chat lines are also a side draw.
Until Amazon stocks its physical locations everyone pretty much has to go on line. They wanted it and now they have it!
The source below details of Book world a Midwestern chain about to go under for your reading interest. Those few left are planning mini shops of periodicals that draw local customers.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/mone...
Treasure your books. They are the source of so many internet ideas as you help make Wealthy Affiliate grow!
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I agree. I have been building my library for a long time. I love going to book stores and just looking at books, looking at the pictures, reading the reviews, etc., nothing can compare to that experience when buying a book online. If you need to find a specific book, the advantage of buying it online is the ability to find it quickly, by the title or by the author,
John Y
I agree. I've always been a book lover and reader and before they all started closing, I used to enjoy spending time in physical bookstores. In Sydney there's a few still open but not always easy to get to depending on where one lives. For me, libraries are not quite the same. One can't stop change but I sure do miss the "old days".
We love books in this family, and bookstores are regular haunts, notwithstanding our online purchases.
Just about to do a fresh audit of the books on our shelves here at home. There are around 5000 I think, not including the ebooks, which we scan barcodes of and organize in our 'Delicious Monster' app. Books that were printed before barcodes are entered manually. One item here is over 200yrs old.
I urge people considering their passions and ideas for online content to look beyond the internet for their ideas. There is only so much that online content can do for you.
One person copying the online content of another copying another is just circular reporting. I see so much of this.
We will not add value to the online world doing this. We will not supply our readers, or the search engines, with original content. We should strive to go beyond what readers already have ready access to.
On the topic of large book chains: the small indie booksellers that support local writers are still doing OK here in Australia. Their larger competitors tanked because they tried to be too many things to too many people, rather than correctly identifying and serving their niche.
I think there's a lesson in that for all of us here, too!
P.S. sales of physical books are rising, ebooks sales are declining. Australians in particular still buy an awful lot of physical books each year. I love this!
Hi Ivy,
I have to disagree on your last comment, perhaps declining in your area, but the ebook business is booming in Brazil, India, Russia and China, it is a huge market there and will grow in the coming years to come. Now if they will also buy English books is another question, hey nothing stops you from learning new languages... :P
Stefan darling, I have to hold my ground on this! I used to work with a well-known book publisher and still chat with industry insiders. It's not my opinion that ebooks sales are currently declining, rather, their observation of the whole market at present. :)
Just the facts, m'am (bad detective fiction reference, I know).
That said, the book market can experience peaks and troughs for different reasons. For instance, the fad for colouring books and journals created a perception of unnatural growth in physical book sales for a little while.
There have been a lot of prognoses for the future of ebook sales that haven't really come to fruition. As there have been for the future of books in general, thank goodness. People still love to read.
One of the reasons that sales of physical books persist is because of the sensory experience and perceived value of the book as an artifact. Some authors who understand this are doing exceptionally well from the trade of limited edition artist's books, or books with peculiar features. Simon Sinek is releasing a book which has scented pages, for instance.
There are some genres for which these notions don't matter though. Romance writers have devoted readerships that do a high turnover trade where the book as artifact doesn't really matter. Their readers devour the stories and move on quickly to the next. Ebooks are great for this crowd.
So, regardless of what the market as a whole is doing - it behoves you to know your particular market and its opportunities and expectations.
One of the first books I read was "On the Beach" Ivy about a nuclear holocaust moving south through Australia. Hobart In Tasmania was the last to go. It was memorable!
Never saw the movie. I was at the age where reading was more vivid. Stranded I the car looking across Bass strait to unreachable Tasmania!
It is sad about bookstores and the jobs that they represent. The online option has opened new opportunities that we here at WA have chosen to adapt. But, then I think that the big mall craze actually contributed to the rise of online. Who wants to go to a big mall , all I need right now is A PAIR OF JEANS and I would have to walk a half a mile to get them.
Back in the Old days you went to the local JOES boys and men's wear walked about 300 ft and that was both ways . Any way, Life is change BANK on IT Scott
Great to bring this up Mike. I got old books from 1850-1940 and I am amazed what you can find in there for the good use of your niche.
2 old books from around 1900 are medical books from a famous German Doctor and one of those books is signed by her... I found those books on the flea-market here and such a market is often a treasure place to find such old historical books and documents.
Yes I found one old wedding document from an Austrian Princes, I will surely make a nice article about that one, and there is only one in the world of that one.... :))
And many more old documents, also very old maps of the world... Treasures are surely a good niche as you can write about it and it will be a unique article.
All the Best!
Hello again Mike,
I think we're part of a dying breed. I love to sit in a quiet place and read a book. There's not much that feels better to me than turning the pages of a real book. I'm fortunate to still have a Barnes and Noble close to where i live. I do have to admit though, I've recently started going the e-book route. So many titles I look for aren't on the shelves. I believe it's just a matter of time before this one closes too. I think the smartphone will eventually put them all out of business. What a shame. I guess we'll either change with the times or get left behind.
Don
Books are a treasure. I have collected books for a long time (It makes for a heavy load when moving house). However, I like the feel of and the look of books and bookshelves. Books were very expensive to by here in Thailand, I suppose because all the English titles were imported and the margins had to be higher. It was a problem for a while as I was reading 10 to 15 books a month at ~$10/book 19 years ago.....
I moved to second hand, but back then there were not that many second hand sellers. There are more now, but mostly I read digitally now.
To be fair I have not actually ready a physical book in a few years. It is just so easy to read on my phone, and I always have my phone with me. I am never without a book to read. This is a blessing for me as I used to be at a loss when waiting for my wife or for a meeting to start. Now I just open the phone and read.
Recently iJared posted here about reviewing WA content and moving forward with WA. He gave me the idea of using my reading time to review WA content. I am going to try this. I hope I can save some of it offline to avoid downloading all the time, but either way. I will be using my time more constructively.
Alex
Hi! Mike,
Thank you for searching and sharing the established trending in many lines of businesses which has claimed its many victims - clearly bookstore is one of them. Online business, in general, saves money and time, and provide convenience; these potential benefits divert customers from physical to online stores.
Of course, such trend will help Affiliating business thrive further. This will indeed benefit WA members.
Much appreciated,
Chin
Luckily we stil have some "real" book stores locally where I am!
One of my favorite things to do is visit the "antique" stores and even flea markets looking through the selection of books.
The few memories I have as a child pretty much all relate to reading books!
Nothing like sitting under a tree in a park and reading a book, boarding a plane with a fresh new overpriced book from the airport book store under arm, having lunch by yourself somewhere on the road eating and reading, lying in bed propped up by pillows with a book, folding the corner of a page down before giving it up and the first thing you reach for after your morning coffee! ;-) Aaaahhh! Books! ;-)
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I've had to revert to real books. My Kindle died on me just before Xmas. Now reading MY library books, ones that should be read often.
I realize it was a good thing, sometimes an e-book that sounds good turns out to be just porn. I've generally changed my genre because of the explicite sex pages, pages & pages of it.
Mystery is now my favourite & sometimes science fiction.
As far as I know we have only one book store in a big plaza, otherwise most news agencies have a lot of discarded novels, the ones where there is a ink slash across the bottom of the pages.
They are usually very inexpensive, so I buy a pile, read them and pass them on.
The markets are a sure thing for used books, however I've noticed that they are really expensive, so instead of buying several I tend to buy one for a rainy day.
Cheers Jae