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Second hand books, Amazon and ebooks
I do wonder how much life is left for charity book shops.
Bookshops are either closing down or stocking more and more stuff that isn't actually books. Ebooks are taking over more of the market.
Second-hand sales from Amazon, ABE and ebay are massive.
How much demand is there for second-hand books that are not from the Web?
How do your own book-buying habits operate now?
For myself, if I know what I want, I'll go and find the cheapest copy (in acceptable condition) on the Web and buy it there.
However, I still walk into second-hand bookshops if I'm passing one.. The advantage of the physical bookshop is that it can show me the books that I didn't know I wanted because I didn't know they existed.
For now, at least, book donations to charity shops seem to be holding up. I suspect that selling secondhand books online simply isn't worth it unless you're a professional or have a lot of spare time. The amount that Amazon will pay you is miniscule. It's simpler and easier to create space by donating them.
The concern here, of course, is that ebooks mean that there are less physical books to be donated. This doesn't appear to be a problem yet, but may increase over time.
The recession probably means that many people can't afford new books, so charity shops still win on that front, and have the advantage of no postage costs which makes it easier to undercut Amazon.
Costwise, we're still ahead, and we do tend to score well on old and collectible books.
Thoughts?
I'll be in the Dorchester bookshop tomorrow, and there's a lot of work to do. I know sales need to improve (the bad weather in the last month or two has had a real impact), but I don't know what target I should be aiming for. There's only one bookshop for the hospice, so I've nothing to compare with.
Bookshops are either closing down or stocking more and more stuff that isn't actually books. Ebooks are taking over more of the market.
Second-hand sales from Amazon, ABE and ebay are massive.
How much demand is there for second-hand books that are not from the Web?
How do your own book-buying habits operate now?
For myself, if I know what I want, I'll go and find the cheapest copy (in acceptable condition) on the Web and buy it there.
However, I still walk into second-hand bookshops if I'm passing one.. The advantage of the physical bookshop is that it can show me the books that I didn't know I wanted because I didn't know they existed.
For now, at least, book donations to charity shops seem to be holding up. I suspect that selling secondhand books online simply isn't worth it unless you're a professional or have a lot of spare time. The amount that Amazon will pay you is miniscule. It's simpler and easier to create space by donating them.
The concern here, of course, is that ebooks mean that there are less physical books to be donated. This doesn't appear to be a problem yet, but may increase over time.
The recession probably means that many people can't afford new books, so charity shops still win on that front, and have the advantage of no postage costs which makes it easier to undercut Amazon.
Costwise, we're still ahead, and we do tend to score well on old and collectible books.
Thoughts?
I'll be in the Dorchester bookshop tomorrow, and there's a lot of work to do. I know sales need to improve (the bad weather in the last month or two has had a real impact), but I don't know what target I should be aiming for. There's only one bookshop for the hospice, so I've nothing to compare with.