A Scary Bookbuying Twist
We visited a nice little bookstore in St. Augustine called Anastasia Books, located right in the heart of the historic district. Their forte is used books, many of which are rare, but they also have some new. What was of particular interest to us was their large selection of fantasy and science fiction, one of the largest I’ve seen in a store that is primarily general interest. The woman we spoke with, Rachel (I think), was not the owner but had an obvious love of the shop and we talked a bit about the perilous times all independent bookstores have been contending with for going on three years now. I really hope this nice shop will make it–the immediate goal is to stay alive to be a part of the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, coming up in 2015. Five years…that’s a long time when you’re struggling and there are few independent stores that aren’t to some extent, although there certainly are some that are doing quite well.
Verso Digital, in conjunction with the American Booksellers Association, conducted a survey in recent months regarding book buyers’ habits. One of the more interesting results to me, because it confirms what we believed when the Creatures ‘n Crooks storefront was open, is that more than 26% of independent bookstore customers browse at independent shops and then buy books they’ve discovered there online or at chain stores. What wasn’t addressed in the specific question was what additional percentage of browsers make their purchases at used book stores or borrow the books from the library. The point here is that a large percentage of browsers do their “research” in indies but don’t buy there. You can imagine the effect this has on a store’s ability to pay the bills and continue to provide those services readers have come to expect from indies. My personal interest is, naturally, in shops that sell predominantly new books but these buying habits also affect used book stores.
Is this fair? Of course not. Does anyone guarantee fairness to the owner of an independent shop? Again, of course not, but we simply must find a way to save stores like Anastasia Books and, yes, like Creatures ‘n Crooks.   The Verso Digital survey results indicated that discounting hardcovers 15% would increase buying at indies by 4%; we discounted all new hardcovers 25% for 4 months. A second factor is “better selection”; as a genre store, we had superior selection in our four target genres which we could not have had with a broader focus but perhaps the specialization was our downfall. I just don’t know but I wish I had the answers.
June 13, 2010
Posted in: Tales of a Bookseller
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