Indie bookstores beginning to charge for author events
By Jeff MillsJune 23rd, 2011, 1:45 pmComments (4)
Independent bookstores are now faced with the unthinkable: charging admission for author readings and signings. With competition like Amazon, large chains, and e-book sellers eating into their profits, brick-and-mortar businesses are beginning to ask customers to pony up out of economic necessity.
The idea of people using commercial outlets as their own, cleaner-smelling libraries is a charming one, but, according to some indie-bookstore owners, charm is pretty feckless when it comes to paying bills. Heather Gain, the marketing manager of the Harvard Book Store, says, "We're a business. We're not just an Amazon showroom." And Nancy Salmon, floor manager at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, California adds, "They type titles into their iPhones and go home. We know what they're doing, and it has tested my patience."
So now bookstores are selling tickets at five or ten dollars a pop, or requiring customers to purchase a book for readings and signings. And it seems reasonable to contribute a small sum in the interests of preserving physical, community-minded gathering spaces for bibliophiles, which artificial delivery systems will never surpass, even if the shipping is free.
But the issue continues to be controversial. Keith Gessen, author and editor of egghead magazine N+1, thinks all events should charge admission. He said, "I think it makes it more fun. I don't think you should be able to walk into a Barnes & Noble and get to look at Joan Didion." And speaking of Barnes & Noble, the country's largest bookstore chain has never charged admission for its events, according to a spokesperson. (But they will charge you $139 for a new entry-level Nook.)
Comments ( 4 )
Tough issue with no easy answers. Sadly the changes in technology sometimes kill off beautiful things, like indie bookstores. I certainly don't begrudge them trying to charge, but I fear it will hurt them more than help. Those are the kind of events that help people form relationships with the bookstores in the first place. If those die off, so will the stores. There's just no defense against lower prices, even for purists.
The answer is simple - the stores should stop charging for these events. It's the public's right to have access to these authors and putting profits above that right is unacceptable. I catch a store doing that in my area and I'm flash mobbing it.
I'll teach those bastards to value profits over my right to hear an author speak.
I wonder whether *that* many reading attendees buy the event book via Amazon on their iPhones, in store. One of the major reasons we attend readings is to procure an author's signature after the reading concludes. That signature provides a physical and tangible link between author and reader, marking a particular moment in time when author and reader--otherwise distanced--literally touch the same page. It's a moment we return to whenever we open the book in question. Amazon can never replace those little inscriptions.
There's no question that technology is causing a lot of industries to reconfigure their business models in order to stay viable, but it's not a deathknell. Stuff like this is though. From a entrepreneurial standpoint, I completely understand; they have to find a way to cut losses and increase revenue. From a consumer standpoint, I can only say that a store that started charging for formerly free events would never see a dime from me again. There has to be a better way for bookstores to survive than finding ways to nickle and dime consumers. I don't know if I agree that people have a "right" to meet authors, but all this is going to do is deprive people who can't afford a 5 or 10 dollar cover fee of ever even having the chance to do so.
Of course, if this is how indie bookstores want to go about it, the airline industry has been a fine example for them. Why not start charging a quarter every time someone opens the cover of a book without buying it?
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