How Amazon is Destroying the Bookstore World

(OR could also be aptly titled: How Espresso Book Machines could Save the Bookstore World)

People love shopping online. I get it. It's easy, convienient, and it doesn't involve going out in 40 below weather right during Christmas season.

But honestly, Amazon is a big part of the reason that bookstores are dying, and I also believe that it also may have a hand in the destruction of movie rental stores, but in that case, it's not as significant of an influence.

I understand the appeal. I really do. I mean, why would you order a book from McNally when it may take 2 weeks to get to the store, when you could order it from amazon, pay nothing for shipping and get it sent to your house in 3 days? Having hundreds of warehouses at your disposal really does make everything happen way faster.

But Amazon is the Walmart of the book industry. They can sell books to you for cheap and they are a big bully to be reckoned with.

An example of this bully activity is in regards to Print On Demand machines, such as the Espresso Book Machine (EBM) made by Xerox (seen below).

The EBM mostly prints Public Domain and Self published books at the request of the author. But in 2009, Xerox had approached Harper Collins (HC) to see if they would be willing to add their titles to their "menu". HC would still get a significant portion of the profits and would save on shipping costs. Clearly, this makes total sense for the publishing company. But as soon as Amazon heard that HC was in talks with Xerox, they called up HC, pointed out how the majority of their book sales were done through Amazon, and stated that if they went through with this deal, Amazon would no longer sell their books. SO, the deal fell apart. And everyone suffered except Amazon. Just imagine! If HC hadn't been bullied out of the deal, it would be WAY less likely that you would ever go into a bookstore and come out empty handed. The bookstore would benefit, because if they didn't have your nice beautiful commonly printed copy on hand, they could just direct you to the Espresso Book Machine, you pop in your creditcard, wait 5 minutes and leave with the book you came for, instead of leaving the store empty handed and disappointed. Win for the customer. Win for the bookstore. Win for the publisher. and Win for Xerox. But no. Big bully Amazon shut that down. THEN Amazon had the audacity to create their own print on demand system and asked several major publishing companies to SELL their low print titles to them so that they could print them on demand. At this point, none of them have done so, thank goodness. It would be just one more step toward world bookstore domination for Amazon.

The industry has progessed to the point where Xerox is allowed to print certain publisher's low print rate books, but that is a far stretch from ANY book you could possibly want. It would be great if it could also be used for HIGH demand books. It would cut down on distribution costs, and environmental costs of shipping, and I'm pretty sure that currently, more people leave bookstores disappointed when their Bestseller book is sold out rather than their obscure title from 1930 or a book about the psychology of Galapagos Turtles or something.

It is my belief that this is why companies such as McNally can't justify getting one of these machines. The problem with Public Domain books is that ANYONE can publish them, so granted, William Shakespeare and Bram Stoker are public domain, but every large publishing house in the world prints copies of Hamlet and Dracula, so how likely is it that a bookstore would be sold out? Pretty slim. Publishing low print rate books is great, but how often would they get printed? Obviously, not often. And it's a great opportunity for self published authors, but once again, their audience tends to be limited, generally geographically I would think, so it may not be worth their while unless there is a EBM in their area.

I would love to see an EBM at the McNally in Saskatoon, but I can understand how the $100,000 price tag is just not in the budget when they seem to be struggling to make ends meet as is... stupid Amazon...