Serious Books, Serious Bookshops

My initial forays into serious bookshops happened my first year at college, 1982. The Union bookstore at the University of Kansas, while filled with the usual textbooks and t-shirts, also had excellent, scholarly books on a host of topics, from various publishers. Military History, medieval, Greek and Roman Loeb classics, and even a book on a Russian Viking that I still own to this day.

Later that year I discovered J. Hood, down at the bottom of the Hill on Mass Street. It was my first real venture into a real used and rare shop, and their stock represented exactly what you'd think a university town used and rare shop would have.

Do these kind of places have a future?



Recently in the Guardian online newspaper out the the UK (Do make their book section a stop on your regular web browsing - you won't be disappointed) discussed this very point. Titled You Can't Be Serious, Andy Beckett discusses the decline in publishing serious non fiction across the board, and especially in regards to shops. It touched on a number of important issues in books and bookselling I'd like to bring out further, along with some other issues I feel are related.

Serious books have always been harder sells, as the article points out, and they are not getting easier. There are recent examples of serious books having great success. However, the majority of the more serious, challenging, and scholarly titles have small audiences, sell more slowly, and require more from the reader. Not a formula for a beach read. Demand from libraries is declining as books budgets are trimmed to cover online resources costs, while bigger book chains go for titles with wider appeal and most small bookshops pull back or fall away. Both big and small shops face declines in sales as well.

Serious publishers themselves are facing more direct challenges in addition to declining sales. University presses are undergoing what amounts to an economic culling as states cut back support and universities re-prioritize their expenses. University presses are vulnerable because many do not make money or make little. Many universities want to put them on a profit basis, but unfortunately that was never the rationale for their existence in the first place. The schools seem to value expensive sports teams over academic endeavor. Smaller independent publishers in the US, without subsidies available in some other countries, suffer from a shrinking market as much as any other publisher and any grants or collaborations they have sought in the past are gone or harder to achieve.

The book industry is undergoing perhaps the most profound changes since the mechanization of printing nearly 200 years ago. A changing and struggling economy, internet challenges such as digitization and Amazon, and the ever increasing variety of media to occupy our free time are major factors in that change. The article points out that such a decline in serious books has happened before, and other works, such as Reluctant Capitalists by Laura Miller (mentioned by me before) confirm this. But this time change is occurring across the breadth and depth of the industry, and that has even more serious implications for the future. We are facing a new world.

The good news is that in this new world serious books will not go away. The old world has useful lessons for serious booksellers and book publishers if one takes both a broad and deep view. Like species, certain types of books thrive in specific environments. Whether selling new books or used, success in scholarly bookselling is about the books, about the people, and about the location.

For the books, it's not just what is new or rare or expensive. It is knowing which are the better books, who publishes them, and how they fit (or don't) with other books in the field. Sometimes the best books are out of print, or are just being published, often by a small publisher. It can be a challenge to find them, learn about a new publisher, to keep up with any given field and to learn its history and the printed milestones. But knowing those milestones provides a map of sorts, a tool to help shape stock, and make it better. I personally think that specialization is very important and that selectivity is key. These are even more important if one does not specialize and/or is selling new books.

People are not just buyers, but sometimes sellers and sometimes advisors. Bookselling, to me, is an industry where you are rewarded for what you know, punished for what you don't, and presented with opportunities to learn every single day. Readers offer to teach a bookseller every day by what they buy, by personal conversation in a bookshop or by email, through their online discussion groups, and more. Taking that information and continually shaping services and stock to a chosen clientele is perhaps the most important thing booksellers of serious books can do, both as a service to a community and as a sound financial effort.

The old saying is still true: location, location, location. For serious books and serious bookshops, I still think a storefront in important. The contact with the community, the opportunities for both selling and buying, and the discipline of running an open shop are important advantages, not to be overlooked. However, location now means more than just the physical premises, but where the business fits in the new and changing geography of bookselling. Amazon is not going away. The recession may dribble to an end, but job recovery will still be slow. Price pressures are greater than ever and not all of your market resides in one community. The internet, with all its mixed blessings, is important terrain to map and navigate for a bookshop. It is not only selling, but presenting the shop and its stock to specific communities to get on their maps. Finding both online sources - forums, listservs, websites - and actual live events - association meetings, shows, fairs, festivals - provides superb opportunities to interact with a select community. In short, walk in traffic is not just off the street, but off the internet as well.

It is not easy. These are challenging times. Small changes in the market can have major adverse effects for even a well-run small, focused bookshop. Selling serious and important books is perhaps one of the hardest and most challenging tasks for booksellers currently. But as Tom Hanks said, it's the hard that makes it great. Otherwise everyone would do it.

More after the jump...

Blackwells to the Right of Me, Volley'd and Thunder'd

I have always thought that knowing the history of one's profession is important, and knowing the history of businesses that impact our lives equally so. I don't think one have have any understanding of bookselling without knowing something of Blackwells of Oxford, probably the most successful single bookshop and one of the greatest mid-sized bookselling firms ever. Their publishing arm is not to be overlooked either.

Luckily someone wrote a book about the history of the firm.


There are a number of books about bookselling firms, new and used. Not all are very good, but most give one some insight. Most also are fairly sketchy about the recent past, as many of the principals are still alive and active in the firm. It probably wouldn't do to dwell on the warts too much, especially if the author has close ties to her or her subject.

That said, A. L. P. Norrington wrote a history of Blackwells in 1983 which I think stands up as a very good firm history. The book, "Blackwell's 1879-1979: The History of a Family Firm", is a bit sketchy on the late 60s forward as I noted does happen in some histories. Norrington was on good terms with Blackwells, having worked for the Oxford University Press and later President of Trinity College and Vice-Chancellor of OXford University. In fact, the great underground 10,000 square foot room at Blackwell's flagship shop at 50 Broad Street (actually 48-51 Broad Street). I imagine his interest was on a positive work rather than on a scholarly study of the firm.

What makes this a good book? Well, first, it is about a man as much as a bookshop. Basil Blackwell, the son of the founder, was the guiding light for much of the growth of the firm. A firm but fair leader, a lover of fine printing, and a conservative champion of his profession, Sir Basil (known as the Gaffer) led the growth in the publishing arm of Blackwells, and took over in 1924 after his father's death, staying on 'til his own demise in 1984. His work with the firm make interesting reading, and Norrington is not quite so dry as one might expect.

I believe British authors do a better job discussing the business side of bookselling than Americans do, and this books holds to that tradition.
The book is fairly detailed in the history and operations of the firm, up to the chronological point I mentioned earlier. The overall theme seems to be quality - good books, well made, and sold at a reasonable cost. The firm is noted for attention to the bottom line but not an obsession with it, and Norrington mentions a number of decisions regarding publishing, bookselling and the acquisition of other firms that are done for reasons other than profit, though in most cases profit was made.

I think that is why I like this book so much. It is clear from Norrington and a later derivative work called "Adventurer's All: Tales of Blackwellians" by Rita Ricketts that Blackwells is rather unique. It has grown, but is not into a Borders or Barnes and Noble or Waterstones. It has kept a sense of itself, and members of the firm are aware that this is an important legacy. Other shops I feel share this was well, like Foyles in London, though none with quite the steadiness of Blackwells. It was and remains a model firm for the industry, and back in the day when I worked at Borders here in Ann Arbor the lore had it that the Borders brothers admired Blackwells in Oxford so much they modeled their original concept on it.

Whether that shop legend is true or not, it has the germ of a good idea. Keep an eye on Blackwells, when looking either back or forward. There's much to learn there, from commitment to quality, to growing a firm intelligently, to being a true participating member of a profession. Get Norrington's book, and read it.
All we need beyond that is an update that take us into the 21st century, so see the next chapter.

More after the jump...

Award Season - The Best New Bookshops

In both the US and in the UK, there are annual awards for the best bookshops. In the US the award is called "bookseller of the year" and ran by Publisher's Weekly. The UK has two versions - the "independent bookshop of the year" organized by the Publishing News as part of their British Book Industry Awards. The US ones are a bit harder to find, but for both awards they give a good view into some of the more successful bookshops in the world, including some in business for over 100 years.

Its enjoyable to read about such shops, but there 's a lot to learn from them as well.



For starters, the two bookshops between the big pond could not have been more different on the surface. In the US, the 2008 win went to Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena CA. Started in 1894, Adam Clark Vroman came West for his wife's health and was also a photographer, who western views and Native American images influenced Ansel Adams. The shop has always been sizable, and is still the largest independent in California and has over 20 staff. There is a solid talk with their head buyer at the LA Weekly, though the article is 2 years old.

Mr. B's Emporium of Reading Delights is located in the resort town of Bath, famous since Roman times. Opened in 2006, Mr. B's won praise and customers immediately, with the vision and energy of its founders Nic and Juliette Bottomley. With 3 floors books of books and a surprisingly useful bathtub, Mr. B's seems to have a well thought out selection for a whole range of tastes. They even detailed their decision to start their shop at the Guardian. They have recently expanded to 6 staff.

In browsing the articles about these two bookshops and their own websites, their differences seem to fade away a bit. Both have very active book groups. Both have good ordering programs in place. Both have a healthy number of events, though Vroman's clearly has an edge here because of its size. Also, through email, newsletters, groups, and of course their web pages, both shops have solid lines of current communication up between themselves and their buyers. They support local external book and literacy events, and local authors. In short, they know the books well, know who they are and they know their customers. That, to me, is the fundamental understanding a bookshop has to have to survive.

I know we all often hear about independent bookshops closing and the problems they endure from sales to online competition. But shops like these can give us a window into how bookshops can and will continue. So click on the links, and go look at past winners as well. There's more than a little for any owner of a shop for used, rare or new books to learn from these folks.

More after the jump...