Angry Readhead

Now Where Were We?

Ah yes, I believe we were at the pivotal part of the conversation (albeit one-sided).  How to prepare for the ebook revolution.  Although if bookstores haven't been preparing thus far, they are admittedly behind the curve. 

Repeat after me, "embrace technology."  Sorry Luddites, if you don't embrace technology, you'll lose business to those who do.  Learn how e-readers work, even if you don't sell them in your store.  Start figuring out how you can leverage this market so it will provide you with some way to make money out of it; brainstorm.  List ebooks on your website.  The time at which customers will come into your store looking to purchase books in ebook form is now.  Don't dawdle and miss the bus, or you may find that you are cut out of the supply chain.  Once that has happened, you cannot regain your place in it.  Granted if your customer has already purchased a Kindle, you have already been cut out of the supply chain.  One of the most business savvy moves Amazon ever made was investing in this technology, and then insuring that if their customers purchase it, their only outlet for ebooks would be through Amazon.  By encouraging your customers to purchase ebooks in your store, you are reinforcing what you actually have to offer; customer service.  If you make customer service a pivotal part of the ebook purchasing experience, it keeps the door open for you to still be involved in the ebook purchasing process.  It also allows you to be present to handsell, the most important thing you can offer your customers.

In embracing technology, don't forget embrace the internet and social marketing.  Even the smallest bookstore should have a blog.  Just something small that you can update once or twice a week, with what's going on in your store, book reviews, and new release information.  It may not garner you that many new customers, but it allows you to communicate with your existing customers, stay on their mind, and most importantly bring them into your store.  It will function well as a stand alone, or in conjunction with an email newsletter.

Contacting your customers via email can be one of the least expensive, and most productive ways to advertise your business.  Their willingness to give you their email address implies that they want to hear from you.  It is also nearly free to produce if you can do it yourself.  The only cost to you is time, which is not free, but compared to dishing out money for an advertiser, that may or may not hit your target audience, it's a no-brainer.  Spend the time so you may make the money.

There are also other sites that you may make use of in you efforts to market your business.  These include: Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace.  As far as Twitter is concerned, I've often wondered what the appeal is of setting all of those little snippets of personal information free on the internet.  I guess it's for bloggers with ADD.  Although personally I don't find Twitter very relevant to my personal life, I can see how it could be very useful in the bookselling industry.  Imagine having a direct line to your customers, informing them when new books were released, and when popular titles came back in stock.  Imagine reminding customers when author events were, an hour or so before the author was scheduled to appear.  I'm not saying you have to tweet about every little thing that happens in your store, every moment your store is open, but if you do it when you can, and make it a responsibility of your job, it can be an incredibly useful tool.  It also functions to remind your customers that not only are you there, you're thinking about books.  It establishes an environment, where even if your customers are not there with you, they feel like they can peer into your world.  And anything that reminds your customers of your business, while they're not actually there, cannot be a bad thing.

As far as Facebook and Myspace are concerned, this part is easier.  I'll allow you to pick just one.  I would personally choose Facebook, as it tends to be slightly easier to use, and it has better privacy controls.  Although in the business world, you want everyone who is anyone to be able to access your site.  There are also specific business related profiles that you can use to promote your business online.  You can use Facebook to show your latest blog post, and connect it to your Twitter feed.  It's a great way to connect all of your internet marketing efforts in the same place.

Before you rush off to start marketing the living bejesus out of everything, keep a few things in mind.  Firstly, don't bombard your customers and potential customers with so much information that they are overloaded.  There is a fine line between being informative, and being annoying; find it and don't cross it.  Secondly, don't underinform your customers.  Don't update your blog fewer than a few times a month.  Your readers will wonder where you've gone, and if you really care.  Believe me, people have a short attention span when it come to the internet; you will be deleted from their favorites.  Thirdly, the internet is a lot like high school, the more popular you are the easier it is.  You need to market your marketing tools.  Let your current customers know where you can be found online.  The more followers, fans, and friends you have online, the more people you have free access to ( I know my participle is dangling but I couldn't find a better way to communicate that sentence).  Initially, when you're attempting to establish your fan base online, it is helpful to have your friends and family as readers and fans.  Sometimes it's easier to ask them, and the more followers you have, the better it looks for you and your business.

You may ask yourself why all of these things are necessary, when the conversation was about ebooks.  The purpose of all the internet marketing, is not only to get people to spend more money in your store, it's to let them know your comfortable with technology.  If they think you're comfortable with what's out there now, they will continue to come to you as the playing field evolves.  At least that is the hope.  Oh darn there's that darn sneaky undercurrent of obsolescence again.  That's my take, what do you think?

The Future Of the Book: One Woman's Opinion

Being a book geek, I often find myself having conversations with booksellers and former booksellers about the future of the book.  For those of us that work or have worked in the industry, there is a quiet undertone of fear every time the latest technology for reading ebooks is released.  Every year in Publisher's Weekly the category sales for books are released, and it seems that every year there is a triple digit increase percentage wise in ebook sales.  That increase can be a bit misleading, as according to the 13 publishers that report to PW, ebooks only accounted for 3.3% of their sales last year.  It should be pointed out that that is more than double their sales from 2008.  It should also be pointed out that Amazon adamantly refuses to release sales information for the Kindle, or ebooks in general.  What are you afraid of Amazon?

So what does that mean for the physical book?  Is it doomed to go the way of the CD?  Only purchased by people too old to understand MP3 players?  Some people feel that way.  Some people are desperate to prevent that at all costs.  Booksellers and Luddites unite!  Okay, perhaps the rallying cry needs work. 

It should also be noted that there are some valid points that the book industry is responding well to the technological revolution, and will not experience the bloodbath that was the digital revolution for music.  So help me if a publisher or author ever sues a ebook pirater for lost royalties, I will throw up on my own shoes.  We experience this very phenomenon in the bricks and mortar retail world; we call it shrink.  The only way to deal with theft is to be vigilant in your efforts to prevent it, and understand there is no way to totally eliminate it and still run a profitable enterprise.  That and where theft is concerned, understand that for every effort you make to prevent it, thieves are doubling their efforts so they can still get your goods for free.  It's all they have to do.  You, on the other hand, have other responsibilities.  Sorry, I used to work Loss Prevention, and that needed to be said.

Ebooks, and ebook readers have a lot to recommend them.  They are very portable; they hold a ridiculous amount of information; and in the case of the Kindle, Nook, and iPad which offer Wifi connections; they provide instant gratification.  You can order a book anywhere you can get a signal.  One of the major slights against a dedicated ebook reading device I have encountered from techies (one I agree with wholeheartedly)  is they want one device that functions as a phone, ebook reader, and laptop.  You better believe it's coming, and if Apple can do it with a device similar in size to the iPad, they'll be poised to dominate the entire technology industry.  As if they weren't already.

I guess that leaves us with the one question that this entire post has been leading to, "where does that leave the bookstore?"  It is my greatest hope that it just leaves it in flux until it finds how best to serve its book buying community.  In offering a nod to the nearly defunct record store (or music store if you like), it should be pointed out that book buyers are old, whereas traditionally those who buy music tend to be younger.  This is not an insult to the typical book buyer, it is just that those who tend to buy the most books, and read the most, are in their mid 30's to late 40's.  It's an avocation of those who have more free time.  That means the technology aspect should take longer to catch on than it did with the music buyers in their late teens and early 20's.  This merely give bookstores longer to prepare than record stores.  How to prepare is the question.  That I will endeavor to cover tomorrow.

The Future Of the Book: One Woman's Opinion

Being a book geek, I often find myself having conversations with booksellers and former booksellers about the future of the book.  For those of us that work or have worked in the industry, there is a quiet undertone of fear every time the latest technology for reading ebooks is released.  Every year in Publisher's Weekly the category sales for books are released, and it seems that every year there is a triple digit increase percentage wise in ebook sales.  That increase can be a bit misleading, as according to the 13 publishers that report to PW, ebooks only accounted for 3.3% of their sales last year.  It should be pointed out that that is more than double their sales from 2008.  It should also be pointed out that Amazon adamantly refuses to release sales information for the Kindle, or ebooks in general.  What are you afraid of Amazon?

So what does that mean for the physical book?  Is it doomed to go the way of the CD?  Only purchased by people too old to understand MP3 players?  Some people feel that way.  Some people are desperate to prevent that at all costs.  Booksellers and ludites unite!  Okay, perhaps the rallying cry needs work. 

It should also be noted that there are some valid points that the book industry is responding well to the technological revolution, and will not experience the bloodbath that was the digital revolution for music.  So help me if a publisher or author ever sues a ebook pirater for lost royalties, I will throw up on my own shoes.  We experience this very phenomenon in the bricks and mortar retail world; we call it shrink.  The only way to deal with theft is to be vigilant in your efforts to prevent it, and understand there is no way to totally eliminate it and still run a profitable enterprise.  That and where theft is concerned, understand that for every effort you make to prevent it, thieves are doubling their efforts so they can still get your goods for free.  It's all they have to do.  You, on the other hand, have other responsibilities.  Sorry, I used to work Loss Prevention, and that needed to be said.

Ebooks, and ebook readers have a lot to recommend them.  They are very portable; they hold a ridiculous amount of information; and in the case of the Kindle, Nook, and iPad which offer Wifi connections; they provide instant gratification.  You can order a book anywhere you can get a signal.  One of the major slights against a dedicated ebook reading device I have encountered from techies (one I agree with wholeheartedly)  is they want one device that functions as a phone, ebook reader, and laptop.  You better believe it's coming, and if Apple can do it with a device similar in size to the iPad, they'll be poised to dominate the entire technology industry.  As if they weren't already.

I guess that leaves us with the one question that this entire post has been leading to, "where does that leave the bookstore?"  It is my greatest hope that it just leaves it in flux until it finds how best to serve its book buying community.  In offering a nod to the nearly defunct record store (or music store if you like), it should be pointed out that book buyers are old, whereas traditionally those who buy music tend to be younger.  This is not an insult to the typical book buyer, it is just that those who tend to buy the most books, and read the most, are in their mid 30's to late 40's.  It's an avocation of those who have more free time.  That means the technology aspect should take longer to catch on than it did with the music buyers in their late teens and early 20's.  This merely give bookstores longer to prepare than record stores.  How to prepare is the question.  That I will endeavor to cover tomorrow.

101 Things In 1001 Days Update

So, it has been a while since I've updated the 1001 in 101 days list, so I will point out where I am with some of the key areas, and where I may have slipped a wee bit.  Which is to say, I won't be admitting failure at any of these until my dying breath.  Oh who am I kidding, I'll never admit failure, I'll just say I have yet to succeed.

I'm up to 12 out of 100 of the books on the 1001 you must read before you die.  Do I believe these books are necessary?  Not really.  There are some incredible works that should definitely be read on this list; Charles Dickens notwithstanding.  

As far as the language goals are concerned, I have acquired a language program that contains all three of the languages I had intended to learn.  I have used the Spanish one, so I do know more Spanish now than I did a year ago, but I am by no means fluent.  The day after day dedication that it takes to learn a language is very difficult for me.  Perhaps it's the ADD.  I'm always thinking there is something newer and shinier out there I could be experiencing.

I have put back on several of the pounds I lost on the way to my weight goal.  I used to use a low carb diet to lose weight.  I would recommend strongly against this unless you don't like your digestive tract and want it to suffer.  I have changed to a slightly less restrictive version of this, and think it may be a better option.  Which translates into, I like fruit and don't want to eliminate it from my diet.  What it basically comes down to is I have limited intake of carbs to a one hour window.  When this window is open I will more or less gorge myself on fruit the whole time.  Not entirely true, but I will get my two servings.

The cooking goal of an authentic dish from around the world is something I've been doing occasionally, but not actually recording.  I believe I have cooked 4 international meals, so I will record as such and keep track from here.

And another random observation for the next time I do this, use a number of times as a goal, not as a once a month thing.  If you miss one month you feel you've already failed, so you don't bother tracking anymore, and there is no longer any way you can complete that goal.  Although I wouldn't want to imagine cooking like a mad woman for the last few days of my challenge to catch up on my cooking goal.  That would be bizarre, but preferable to giving up on the goal in general.  Going forward (I know you were waiting for your daily dose of corporate speak) I will track the number of times I actually do the thing on the list, regardless of the monthly goal or weekly goal.

Have reached 35/175 books read.  For most people that wouldn't be too bad for a year.  I'm really going to have to ramp that up if I intend to make my goal.  I'm working on it.

My clothing has officially been culled.  I should probably do it again, as I don't think I was quite thorough enough, but at least it's been done once.

That should pretty much summarize my progress to this point.  The finish date for all of these insane goals is Thursday November 10th 2011.  This actually seems like it's approaching at a rather break neck speed.  So that's 622 days, and 23 hours.  I should probably go read something.

Oh, and now that's another month of blogging two times.  I am an 101 things in 1001 days machine.  Woohoo!!

A Desperate Quest To Remember to Blog And A Little Bit About Healthcare

I can't remember the last time I wrote anything.  That's pretty depressing, because I am paying for the privilege of having this blog, and when you're unemployed, and ineligible for unemployment, every single dollar counts.   That has been said.  And now to move onto more important things.

I got a letter today (in 8 different languages) from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts about my MassHealth.  I fell it important at this point to establish that I don't actually have MassHealth.  The reason I don't have MassHealth is as follows: They wanted me to prove I was who I said I was by sending them my passport.  They neglected to specify whether they wanted my actual passport, or a photocopy of the original.  I wasn't keen on sending such an important identifying document through the mail, so I didn't.  Now to bring to step in the time machine and return to today.  The letter I received warned me that my coverage would be canceled if I didn't fill it out and return it.  As I don't actually have any coverage, you can see why I was gripped with terror over this prospect.  Apparently the temp job I did at the end of January triggered this automatic mailing.  They were hoping I was eligible for healthcare somewhere else, so they could discontinue or modify my coverage.  How one can discontinue or modify non-existent coverage is somewhat beyond my ability to comprehend.  That is the end of the silly part of this post, and the beginning of the part worth reading.  Proceed to the next paragraph.

And as a small political jibe, for those wondering why healthcare coverage isn't up to the individual states, look at the giant amount of debt that the state of Massachusetts is currently wallowing in, as a direct result of our universal healthcare plan, and ask your question again.  Then look at the number of people who die every year because they have inadequate or no medical coverage.  Ask yourself if you can continue to labor under the delusion that this is the greatest country on Earth?  (don't respond with "if you don't like it you can get out,"-that is a cop out that is used by those who have lost an argument, and no longer have anything constructive to offer to offer, not as a point worth making)  It will not be the greatest country on Earth until poverty is no longer fatal; to anyone.