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Friday, January 2, 2009

Books / Retail Booksellers Online

Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 4:22 PM

Chicago Bookstore The Seminary Co-op has just come online in a big way. They've got a blog, like many other bookstores, but they have a new feature called The Front Table. Every week, they post all the books they have on their physical bookstore's front table—the space reserved for new arrivals and notable recent books—on their blog. Here's a tiny portion of the post:

And, Netflix-style, if you run your mouse over a particular book, you get a fuller description of the book:

And you can also link to a page with a full product description. This is the sort of thing that larger brick and mortar bookstores are going to have to do to stay competitive, I think, and it's one way to highlight a difference between a bookstore and an online retailer: the ability to browse. I'm a big fan of this bookstore.

Comments (7) RSS

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I just want to say that I'm a shareholder/member. That is all.

P.S.--Although the website is nice (and I'm sure you'll agree with me here with regard to most quality bookstores), you really have to visit the place for the full effect. That place is packed with books! It's my favorite place to spend money.

Posted by David E. on January 2, 2009 at 5:09 PM

Otto Waalkes on the "brutalization of bookselling":

Du kaufst jetzt Hermann Hesse, sonst gibts eins in die Fresse.
Du kaufst jetzt Günter Grass, sonst setzt es was.
Du kaufst mir jetzt den Simmel ab, sonst schneid ich dir ins Ohrläppchen.

Posted by Amelia on January 2, 2009 at 5:19 PM

That's exactly what small book stores need to do. Much more productive than bitching and guilt tripping.

Posted by sgiffy on January 2, 2009 at 9:13 PM

OK, you worked in bookstores, Paul. You know perfectly well that many of them take money from publishers to put particular books on that front table, or in other prominent places.

Did you ask The Seminary Co-Op whether or not they're taking promotion money (or discounts, or other money-like things) from the publishers whose books appear on that online "front table," or did you just run with the press release?

Posted by robotslave on January 3, 2009 at 10:34 AM

And you obviously haven't worked in (independent) bookstores, robotslave, or you'd know enough about publisher promotional money (coincidentally called "co-op") to know that stores like the Seminary Co-op don't sell space in their stores (or on their websites), and couldn't do so profitably even if they wanted to. (The Front Table, for example, is made up mostly of titles from university presses, who don't do much co-op, while the big commercial presses save their big promotional dollars for outlets other than independent bookstores.)

Posted by Book slave on January 4, 2009 at 3:13 PM

Well said, book slave. I'd also like to point out that the Seminary Co-op has a little thing called integrity that's basically unheard of at chain stores. . .

Posted by Cooper on January 5, 2009 at 6:31 AM

Just to clarify things: I work for the Seminary Co-Op and we do attempt to claim co-op money for the images that go up as part of the virtual Front Table. I'd like to emphasize the "attempt" part of the equation.

But in answering robotslave's question, neither co-op money (which in this case is no more that $50 per image, if that) nor any other form of compensation from a publisher (which, for an independent bookstore, does not exist) has any impact (or is ever offered) on what we stock, let alone display. The virtual Front Table is simply a way for us to bring a small part of the in-store experience to our customers and members who can't make it into the store as often as they'd like.

Posted by Tom Flynn on January 5, 2009 at 3:16 PM