Leveling the playing field
E-books give local bookstores a fighting chance
In case you hadn’t noticed, stores such as Amazon are only in business for the money. They don’t care what their price slashing does to small businesses, and might actually prefer those businesses to be destroyed in a ball of fire, or at least drowned in unsold merchandise.
“Amazon will even sell books for less than they purchase them,” said Dave Leonard, owner of the Booky Joint in Mammoth. To illustrate his point, Leonard demonstrated the numbers. A popular book, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” goes for $27.95 in hardback at the Booky Joint. Amazon undercuts the price to $11.39, making it impossible for locally owned, independent bookstores to compete.
“They want to put stores like us out of business,” Leonard said. Luckily, a decision that was announced on Dec. 6, 2010, may help small bookstores stand a chance against Goliaths like Amazon.
The American Booksellers Association (ABA) partnered with Google to allow independent bookstores to sell Google eBooks™ through their sites, which means if you want to download an e-book and support your local bookstore at the same time, simply download that e-book from the bookstore’s website. The price is exactly the same whether you purchase directly from Google’s site or from your neighborhood bookstore’s site, and by purchasing from local bookstore sites, that store receives a 23 percent cut of the proceeds. Proving that some Goliaths (Google) aren’t all bad.
“It takes price out of the equation and levels the playing field,” said Leonard, who plans to jump on the bandwagon and have e-books available for download at the Booky Joint’s website (www.bookyjoint.com) no later than Monday, April 25.
With consumers continuing to shop differently, Leonard is happy to tweak his business plan.
“$165 billion was spent in online shopping last year,” he said. “E-book sales have doubled, and in January, more e-books were sold than paper books.”
Even though Leonard attributes the January spike in e-book sales to people cashing in on their Christmas presents, the numbers do show a shift in consumer behavior.
“If we don’t exist online, we don’t exist,” Leonard explained.
The one downside to the Google partnership with local bookstores is the Kindle. Since the Kindle is an Amazon product, and it’s been established that Amazon doesn’t play well with others, you will not be able to download e-books from the Booky Joint’s website (or other small bookstores’ sites) onto a Kindle.
Fortunately, there are many other e-reader devices out there such as the Nook and the Kobo that you can use instead. Tablets like the iPad will work, too, and in the end may be your best long-term bet for e-books, anyway.
“Tablets will eventually take over,” Leonard opined. If you have a tablet that does everything, plus allows you to read e-books on it, why carry two devices?
E-books are compatible with any device that has an Internet connection and they are “cloud-based,” which means that if you start reading your e-book on your iPad and later want to pick up where you left off on your Smart Phone, you can. The data will have transferred and your page will be bookmarked from one device to another.
While Leonard doesn’t believe e-books will ever completely replace paper books because of people’s strong sentimental attachment to traditional tomes, he doesn’t see e-books going away, which is why he is encouraging readers to embrace them if they want to see their local bookstores stay in business.
Visit the Booky Joint’s website beginning Monday (or possibly sooner if all the technical aspects get up and running) to download your own e-books. A downloading tutorial video will be available on the site to walk you through the process. Leonard will also have an e-reader in the store as a demonstration tool to show customers just how easy it is to download an e-book. He can also order e-readers for customers that need them.
Once you download your first book, stop by the store and let the staff know. You will be rewarded with a one-time install coupon for in-store merchandise, valued at $10. While you’re there, check out their new Used Book section. Plus, this weekend only, take part in the Booky Joint’s Easter egg hunt. Search for eggs throughout the store that contain toys and gift certificates!
