A Work in Progress

Panel: Michelle Sagara, Peggy Hailey, Michael J. Walsh, Gini Koch, Lawrence Person

This was an interesting session and not as "gloom and doom" as you might think.

Other Notes:

• Bookselling is in a period of minor transition (personally, I thought this was a vast understatement)
• Things haven't changed that much
• It's important to hand-sell books customers would actually like
• Booksellers pay, in general, less than everyone else; they work there because they love books
• Struggle with the brick and mortar stores with eBooks
• Suddenly everything was available everywhere all the time
• A great time for book buyers
• For sellers: a lot more competitive, a lot more books, free shipping
• It's nearly impossible to compete with Amazon at the things they do well
• The Internet changed a whole lot
• Amazon is a godsend to small presses to sell internationally
• It's a Golden Age for people buying books
• For more authors, it's more difficult because there's so much out there
• Buy the building
• Your job is to convince your audience that you are worth supporting
• The way to make a small fortune in the book business is to start with a large fortune
• Know your customers; know what your strengths are and what your weaknesses are
• Most bookstore have not failed due to sales, but from rents
• You need to do something that Amazon can't
• Author events
• Offer yourself for events; pass the word
• Keep your word
• Bookstores need authors; authors need bookstores to sell their books
• Word gets around
• Most bookstores are willing to work with you, but make sure you're talking to the right person
• Make sure you tell your friends to show up
• As it becomes easier to get POD books, more bookstores will be willing to handle them
• Many bookstores will sell on consignment
• Tends to be book-dependent
• As an online bookseller, I will tend to carry only stuff I already know
• We shouldn't judge a book by its cover--but we do
• Lead time for events depends on the store: at least a month for large stores
• Ideally, approach them a few months before the book actually becomes available
• The bookstore business is an absolutely insane business
• If you want to get rich, don't be in this business