Bookselling In A Down Economy

I read a spontaneous poll the other day on Advanced Book Exchange asking fellow sellers which direction their sales have been headed of late. Actually, it was worded rather crudely, but we won’t get into linguistics – the important thing is how the economy is affecting you and me in the real world. It occurred to me this morning while I was at the dentist that these polls, while somewhat interesting, and perhaps even a bit comforting, are essentially meaningless, especially if we place too much emphasis on them. Misery loves cozying up to itself, so negative poll results which match our own negative sales can be the equivalent of a nice cup of tea and a cozy fire when you have the flu.

But as we all know, sellers come in a vast array of flavors. There are those selling off their own books; hobby, or unemployed, sellers loading up on high-ranking Amazon titles part-time to bring in extra cash; and those like me who work it full-time for a living. Among these groups inventory varies greatly, as does inventory size, freshness of inventory, and the average price per book listed. So when we look at these polls we have to remember that they rarely compare apples to apples. (Why are so many things measured by fruit anyway? I’ve always wondered about that.) A seller reporting skyrocketing sales can make your heart plummet to your feet until you remember that it’s all relative. Last year he may have sold an average of five books per month at five dollars apiece and this year sold an average of ten books a month at six dollars apiece. Wow – exponential growth! Uh – maybe not so much.

The truth is, when you’re dodging as many arrows as booksellers are at this moment it’s difficult to know where to lay the blame for our economic woes. But I do believe that the economy itself is a huge factor. My husband has been on the road for a month now selling books from a bookstore in a tent while donning colonial storekeeper garb at two large historical events (see his handsome self in the photo above). Normally, sales average at least a thousand dollars a day for the first week at both events and then gradually decline during the second week. This year the record held only for the first two days of each event and fell off a bit faster to a new low of $300 per diem by the end. Lack of interest, e-books, and print-on-demand had nothing to do with it. People wanted to buy, came back repeatedly to visit their favorites, but in the end could not justify the expenditure. They had allocated so much money to spend on books and that was it. When the cash ran out there was no reaching for plastic.

Yet even as interesting as this story is, we need to be wary of placing too much emphasis on IT too. While it does shine light on the hardships people are facing in this economy, there are also huge differences to consider. WE are selling online. He was peddling a carefully selected mix of new, used, and antiquarian books in person to a highly targeted audience, most of whom are male, middle aged or older, not enamored of computers, though they may be very adept at manipulating them, and motivated by a strong desire to buy from HIM because they know him, he’s the only big bookseller there, and he offers a huge inventory of hard-to-find- titles they want. We, on the other hand, sell books to a diverse population which encompasses the entire world while  thousands of other booksellers nip at our heels. But I do think we can safely take away from the story the message that we are all to some extent being slammed by the economy which seems to be taking a bigger toll this year than last.

Of course that doesn’t us let us neatly off the hook. We can’t just sit back and wait for things to get better. Not only do we have to work, but we have to work harder than we ever have for less return. AND we have to take a hard, dispassionate look at our own unique situation and see what other factors are playing a role. If the economy is a problem you can bet those other factors – and there ARE other factors -- are compounding it. For me the big one -- but not the only one -- is acquisition. The steady stream of high quality titles I’ve enjoyed over the past several years is no longer rushes like the waters of the Mississippi during flood season. As you well know, it's down to a trickle. I also made the decision to leave ebay, so I’m paying for that too in some regards, though not enough to eat crow and return.

I would venture to say that some booksellers are faring quite well even in this economy. I doubt anyone is as happy as they were a few years ago, but I suspect some are reasonably happy. In fact, I’m so sure of it that I would take a deep breath and spend to get a great collection in here were I offered one. Good books have always sold and I believe they still do, but even good books won't sell themselves these days. Like it or not, the "sell" in bookseller has become a verb.