I love Amazon. Really. I started shopping there in 1995, when they first went online, during the years when daily rumor said they were losing so much money they’d go under in a month. A month. Sixteen years ago.
I’ve published all three of my Western historical novels through CreateSpace, the Amazon subsidiary, and will continue to publish with them and on the Kindle platform. In my own small way, I harness Amazon’s long tail marketing for my niche. (More about that on my continuing self-publishing blog, The Entrepreneurial Author.)
Nevertheless, nothing beats our local indie bookstores for the “book” experience. To a degree, that’s because we’re in Montana.
Granted, Montana is different. We’re the fourth largest state, and we have fewer than a million residents. Job prospects are dismal in many areas, and for nearly everyone money is tight. Very tight.
Someone has said that Montana is a small town with very long streets. How true. During the upcoming political year, we’ll get to know our candidates. Unlike in other places, though, if I don’t know someone, I know someone who does. Six degrees of separation don’t work here; it’s more like three degrees.
What does that mean for bookstores? For Amazon? It means community. Or not community.
When we lost Borders, we lost a community center for book lovers, for people who needed a hideout on Sunday afternoons away from the clamor of their everyday lives with no pressure to buy anything. The indie bookstores are filling the gap as best they can.
Amazon can’t do that. You and I can buy cheap on Amazon, but we can’t bump into our friends and acquaintances. It might save us money, but it can’t pour the coffee or provide a refuge on snowy afternoons.
From my observation, if indie bookstores consider themselves little community centers, they might do better. A couple of comfy chairs, a coffee pot with fresh coffee. But if all they do is sell books and make it plain that customers should buy books and that’s all, guess what?
The uge to save money will kick in and people will shop at Amazon.
Great idea! Bookstores nowadays should come up with an idea how they could attract customers not only to buy their books but as well as visit the bookstore more often. We can’t deny the fact the most people now prefer the high end technology as it is a lot easier, faster and more accessible. Thus, I agree that bookstores should be innovative this time.
We all have to change and adapt, don’t we? Technology is a necessary component of what we do, whether it’s writing and publishing books or building long homes!
Thanks for the comment.
Like you say, amazon used to be the underdog. As they became a big dog, I’ve watched bookstores of all kinds and sizes go out of business. Now that they’re apparently trying to drive ebook retailers out of business, too, I’m even more ambivalent about them.
I understand, Ron. Amazon may be getting too big for its britches, and if that’s the case it’ll become a target for legal complaints about unfair business practices.
A business either grows or it becomes stagnant, withers, and dies. When it gets too big, human factors help to bring about a correction. In 2008, Amazon removed the “Buy now” button from all self-published books that were not printed through its own subsidiary, then Booksurge. Several smaller self-pub companies complained and went to court, and eventually Amazon yielded to pressure and replaced the button. (I had already chosen Booksurge, so I was not affected.)
A company has to be sensitive to public opinion. With the Internet, an outcry against a business practice has the potential to become extremely powerful. As long as a business is perceived as doing and being good for its customers and its vendors (authors, in this case), it can get as big as it wants to. If not, the gazillions of self-published authors in combination with major publishers will react.
Power to the people!
Carol