It's Been Awhile...Bookstore Edition
Recently, I stopped and visited a bookstore, like an actual bookstore, for the first time in probably six months. What I discovered not only irritated the hell out of me, but sorta put me in a terrible mood of "If this is how they are running things, they deserve whatever it is they have coming."
Let's rewind to the year 1998. For three months, I was a bookseller at a Bricks & Mortars Booksellers. Back in those days, going to bookstores late in the evening was what I loved to do, and landing that job was something I thought I would really enjoy. And I would have been right, except on the other side of the cash/wrap desk, it's all just retail. Finnicky POS equipment (point of sale, not the other POS--yet it still applies), customers tossing their gold cards at you and not even noticing when you accidentally rang the same book through the scanner three times, because they wouldn't stop piling things on the counter. And back then, there was the Oprah crowd. Every Tuesday, Oprah would prop up some book on her show and suburbanite soccer moms would come in to the store in droves, trying to find a copy of White Oleander or some abomination Wally Lamb wrote. The books would fly off the shelf in minutes and that look of desperation would creep into their faces because we didn't have what the HiveOprahMind had commanded them to read.
Don't get me wrong, Oprah had a huge impact on getting people to read again. I have to give her credit.
Lately, other factors, often inexplicable, have gotten people to read again. From Harry Potter at the beginning of the century, to the bevy of Vampire novels and then the subsequent BDSM for Beginners trilogies that came out (interestingly enough as fanfic of vampire novels), people have been reading a lot. Even more than the notorious "Star Report" of the 90s. If they want to read about oral sex, they don't have to let their imaginations run wild from presidential inquest transcripts. It's probably in a mainstream book, in all its glory. Just the other day, in fact, my 11 year old son and I were in the waiting room of the allergist. He points to the lady sitting across from us as her three toddler age children run amok and he says "That is SICK!"
Turns out he took umbrage at her reading "50 Shades of Gray" in the waiting room at the allergist. I refrained from judgement at the time.
Anyway, the bookstore. Books and Store, once a mighty and proud establishment, where you could almost find any book you ever wanted. And enjoy a Starbucks in the cafe while you pawed through it. I had worked at another one just long enough to see it for what it was. No longer a home to characters and knowledge, it was the exact same thing as a GAP or Dillards, with hundreds of thousands of pounds of product and overhead on the shelf. Books instead of clothes. I quit after a few months because I still loved books, and this job, in spite of employee discounts, was making me like books less. Plus, if you have never worked retail, let me explain something. As an employee, you learn that there are two kinds of people. Customers and workers. According to the business model, customers are all childish idiots and workers are just drones who exist to do whatever Corporate tells them to do. Corporate isn't even a person or people. Corporate is basically a Force, much in the same way that Pacific island dwellers might view an active volcano as their god. Every once in awhile, you have to make sacrifices and someone gets tossed in. I left before it was my turn. Swing Shifts happen, and they do suck. As do weekends, but those happen to people who don't work in retail.
So, my trip to the bookstore today reminded me of what I hated about working at the bookstore, as well as what I loathe about the publishing industry in general. Not so long ago, we had two different categories: fiction and non-fiction. Times were simpler back then.
Today I went in and what had already been fragmented in the Genre world of fiction (a product of publishers and booksellers, in case you didn't already know), was broken down even further. Now, instead of fiction being literature, genre (horror, Sci-fi, fantasy, romance) it was further delineated into TEEN horror, TEEN paranormal romance, TEEN and Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, and then a plethora of other sub-genres, including product-based books, such as D&D books, Warhammer, XBox inspired titles, AND "teen and young adult" varieties of these.
I must have walked through the stacks four or five times and started the alphabet over half a dozen times with each pass. It's ridiculous. Not to mention alienating. You see, like the woman reading "50 Shades of Gray" sometimes I like to read a book without having to justify or explain my reasons for doing so. She had the cover bent back so nobody could glean the dirty thoughts of light bondage and relationship trauma from the reflection of her eyes. I often do the same on some genre books. And I hate to say this, but as a reader, I'm not yet secure enough to read YA in public. YA tells some great stories, don't get me wrong, but sometimes a 38 year old man reading a "kids" book gets you on a Megan's Law list in some people's opinion.
Or worse yet, an adult perusing the YA aisles gets that whole "If that man offers you candy or puppies from his van, run children!" looks. You know, because an old bastard like me should be relegated to High Litrachoor or the James Patterson/Sue Grafton section. And yes, they have a section for each.
Bookstores have become so specialized that they really limit ones exposure to what is out there to read. People get into the habit of staying in their lines. They teach us that in Kindergarten with coloring projects. We get a cookie if we stay put. Most of our adult lives are about staying put. We find a job and stay there. We find a house and stay there. Brand of soda/beer/car. Sit. Stay. Good. So it's no wonder that Bartles & Nobless Oblige are getting their asses handed to them by Amazon, who not only tosses everything into one pot but suggests all sorts of other shit you hadn't even considered buying. "The latest bestseller AND a trampoline? Yes, please."
Instead B&N has told kids "THis is what you are supposed to read. Come over to this section once the suffix 'teen stops being part of your age." Which is great and all, until these kids have mentally graduated past teen witches/vampires/zombies/chosen ones into other genres, or subgenres, or books about other things. But, by then, they are probably already either in college and no longer reading for fun, or skipped higher ed and are now too busy with work/family/addiciton to read anything. BUt at least they got that one section at the bookstore taken care of. They say this in much the same way that a cart pony says "Boy, thanks for these blinders! Off to the glue factory for me!"
Because once you are stuck in a rut, by the time you realize you were in one, there's a good chance it's too late.
Barnes and Noble? You are in a rut. Just putting that out there for you.
Until then, your readers, the Customers, are going to run out of their category and be too timid to leave it, or completely unaware that other books are out there for them.
And just sayin', try making Bookselling your business. Your employees ought to know about books. They should know that a new release of a book available ONLY online is a missed sale when I have $15 in my pocket and I want to buy something.
Let's rewind to the year 1998. For three months, I was a bookseller at a Bricks & Mortars Booksellers. Back in those days, going to bookstores late in the evening was what I loved to do, and landing that job was something I thought I would really enjoy. And I would have been right, except on the other side of the cash/wrap desk, it's all just retail. Finnicky POS equipment (point of sale, not the other POS--yet it still applies), customers tossing their gold cards at you and not even noticing when you accidentally rang the same book through the scanner three times, because they wouldn't stop piling things on the counter. And back then, there was the Oprah crowd. Every Tuesday, Oprah would prop up some book on her show and suburbanite soccer moms would come in to the store in droves, trying to find a copy of White Oleander or some abomination Wally Lamb wrote. The books would fly off the shelf in minutes and that look of desperation would creep into their faces because we didn't have what the HiveOprahMind had commanded them to read.
Don't get me wrong, Oprah had a huge impact on getting people to read again. I have to give her credit.
Lately, other factors, often inexplicable, have gotten people to read again. From Harry Potter at the beginning of the century, to the bevy of Vampire novels and then the subsequent BDSM for Beginners trilogies that came out (interestingly enough as fanfic of vampire novels), people have been reading a lot. Even more than the notorious "Star Report" of the 90s. If they want to read about oral sex, they don't have to let their imaginations run wild from presidential inquest transcripts. It's probably in a mainstream book, in all its glory. Just the other day, in fact, my 11 year old son and I were in the waiting room of the allergist. He points to the lady sitting across from us as her three toddler age children run amok and he says "That is SICK!"
Turns out he took umbrage at her reading "50 Shades of Gray" in the waiting room at the allergist. I refrained from judgement at the time.
Anyway, the bookstore. Books and Store, once a mighty and proud establishment, where you could almost find any book you ever wanted. And enjoy a Starbucks in the cafe while you pawed through it. I had worked at another one just long enough to see it for what it was. No longer a home to characters and knowledge, it was the exact same thing as a GAP or Dillards, with hundreds of thousands of pounds of product and overhead on the shelf. Books instead of clothes. I quit after a few months because I still loved books, and this job, in spite of employee discounts, was making me like books less. Plus, if you have never worked retail, let me explain something. As an employee, you learn that there are two kinds of people. Customers and workers. According to the business model, customers are all childish idiots and workers are just drones who exist to do whatever Corporate tells them to do. Corporate isn't even a person or people. Corporate is basically a Force, much in the same way that Pacific island dwellers might view an active volcano as their god. Every once in awhile, you have to make sacrifices and someone gets tossed in. I left before it was my turn. Swing Shifts happen, and they do suck. As do weekends, but those happen to people who don't work in retail.
So, my trip to the bookstore today reminded me of what I hated about working at the bookstore, as well as what I loathe about the publishing industry in general. Not so long ago, we had two different categories: fiction and non-fiction. Times were simpler back then.
Today I went in and what had already been fragmented in the Genre world of fiction (a product of publishers and booksellers, in case you didn't already know), was broken down even further. Now, instead of fiction being literature, genre (horror, Sci-fi, fantasy, romance) it was further delineated into TEEN horror, TEEN paranormal romance, TEEN and Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, and then a plethora of other sub-genres, including product-based books, such as D&D books, Warhammer, XBox inspired titles, AND "teen and young adult" varieties of these.
I must have walked through the stacks four or five times and started the alphabet over half a dozen times with each pass. It's ridiculous. Not to mention alienating. You see, like the woman reading "50 Shades of Gray" sometimes I like to read a book without having to justify or explain my reasons for doing so. She had the cover bent back so nobody could glean the dirty thoughts of light bondage and relationship trauma from the reflection of her eyes. I often do the same on some genre books. And I hate to say this, but as a reader, I'm not yet secure enough to read YA in public. YA tells some great stories, don't get me wrong, but sometimes a 38 year old man reading a "kids" book gets you on a Megan's Law list in some people's opinion.
Or worse yet, an adult perusing the YA aisles gets that whole "If that man offers you candy or puppies from his van, run children!" looks. You know, because an old bastard like me should be relegated to High Litrachoor or the James Patterson/Sue Grafton section. And yes, they have a section for each.
Bookstores have become so specialized that they really limit ones exposure to what is out there to read. People get into the habit of staying in their lines. They teach us that in Kindergarten with coloring projects. We get a cookie if we stay put. Most of our adult lives are about staying put. We find a job and stay there. We find a house and stay there. Brand of soda/beer/car. Sit. Stay. Good. So it's no wonder that Bartles & Nobless Oblige are getting their asses handed to them by Amazon, who not only tosses everything into one pot but suggests all sorts of other shit you hadn't even considered buying. "The latest bestseller AND a trampoline? Yes, please."
Instead B&N has told kids "THis is what you are supposed to read. Come over to this section once the suffix 'teen stops being part of your age." Which is great and all, until these kids have mentally graduated past teen witches/vampires/zombies/chosen ones into other genres, or subgenres, or books about other things. But, by then, they are probably already either in college and no longer reading for fun, or skipped higher ed and are now too busy with work/family/addiciton to read anything. BUt at least they got that one section at the bookstore taken care of. They say this in much the same way that a cart pony says "Boy, thanks for these blinders! Off to the glue factory for me!"
Because once you are stuck in a rut, by the time you realize you were in one, there's a good chance it's too late.
Barnes and Noble? You are in a rut. Just putting that out there for you.
Until then, your readers, the Customers, are going to run out of their category and be too timid to leave it, or completely unaware that other books are out there for them.
And just sayin', try making Bookselling your business. Your employees ought to know about books. They should know that a new release of a book available ONLY online is a missed sale when I have $15 in my pocket and I want to buy something.