I hope that hearing Jeff talk about this concept will help stimulate further discussion and concrete action. Why shouldn’t there be a nonprofit bookselling sector to promote literary and other noncommercial books and authors, just as there is a nonprofit theater? Why should we continuously try to fit a crucially important culture activity into a commercial model, and always fail? This conceptual framework resonates with me and I think is worthy of much more discussion. His stance-that bookselling has a deeper meaning and cultural value-is indeed how boutique and online retailers outside of the Amazon ecosystem are positioning themselves for success.”ĭeutsch also said, “We should figure out models that support the work that we’re trying to do, not shoehorn this other model of retail that is really just about buying and selling and not about culture….We all have vocational awe, but couldn’t we have vocational awe and still make a decent living?” That’s the point we’re at.”Īs Jane pointed out, “independent booksellers will lose every time if they base their worth on the mere transactional value of selling books. Nina Barrett, owner of Bookends & Beginnings in Illinois (which has filed a lawsuit against Amazon), also on the BISG panel said “I think it’s like Alice Waters talking for decades about a sustainable food ecosystem and ultimately revolutionizing the food industry that way. Jane Friedman’s outstanding book industry newsletter Hot Sheet compared Jeff’s approach to the Slow Food movement (I think that idea makes sense – I wrote a manifesto for publishers a few years ago on the idea of Slow Publishing, but never developed it enough to publish). As publishers and booksellers once knew, developing readerships for books and authors takes time and devotion that have been boiled out of the entire process now. “Yet we all know how important bookstores are,” he said. A bookstore that actually means something to readers will need to carry a deep backlist and to spend time helping readers discover new voices, new texts.ĭuring that panel Deutsch said, “The publishing world and distributors-what you value is not our ability to sell books,” because independent bookstores can never sell in the same volume as Amazon. Deutsch was reported to have said that the model of bookselling we’ve inherited needs to be rethought: just facilitating more sales, more efficiently, is not the way for bookstores to survive. Last spring I read a report of a Book Industry Study Group panel that included Jeff, and what he talked about immediately caught my attention. Jeff Deutsch is the director of Chicago’s Seminary Co-op Bookstores, which calls itself the first not-for-profit bookstore in the United States whose mission is devoted to bookselling (there are other nonprofit bookstores of course, generally components of literary centers, like Beyond Baroque in Venice, California, Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee, and Writers and Books in Rochester, NY are examples). This week’s podcast is one I am really excited about. I’ve also had the opportunity to speak with a number of friends and colleagues I have met over the many years I have been in the book business.
I have gotten to speak with visionaries and entrepreneurs, as well as editors and publishers who have influenced and changed contemporary literature and culture. These conversations have been inspirational to me on many levels.
In an effort to document the literary world, I’ve talked with a variety of editors, publishers and others who have been innovators and leaders in independent publishing in the past and into the present.
#Bookends amazon series#
Some time back, this series broadened to include conversations that go beyond the future of publishing. I’ve spent time talking with people in the book industry about how publishing is evolving in the context of technology, culture, and economics. Publishing Talks began as a series of conversations with book industry professionals and others involved in media and technology, mostly talking about the future of publishing, books, and culture.
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