When I was 'attending' the BEA via C-Span, I saw an interview with Laurence Kirshbaum, resigning Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Book Group. One of the major things he seemed concerned about was the future of publishing because..."We have to get new readers."
I hate to tell him, but there are plenty of new readers out there. Hasn't he been watching the news? Harry Potter just made history by selling over 5 million copies in 24 hours...and it isn't out yet! Those are all pre-orders. The books won't be in stores until mid-July. Although a lot of grown-ups read and enjoy the Harry Potter books, the vast majority of the sales are by grown-up but for kids!
So what is the problem? Why do book sales continually go down every quarter as they have for several years?
I know. I know. I jump up and down, waving my hand. I really want someone in a position of power to figure this out.
I wonder when the publishing industry is going to figure out what the music industry did when they started losing sales because of Napster.
Before computers and the internet, used books didn't hurt new book sales. When you went into a used bookstore or found a box of books at a garage sale, new sales weren't impacted. The buyer couldn't pick and choose; they took what was available. Buying a used book was pot luck and I'll bet a lot of authors garnered new readers because of used book sales. Now that you can type in the title of any book you want on your computer and come up with 69 choices to buy used, right along side the new one that is ten times the price, what person with any common sense is going to spend 24.95 (or more) for a book they want when they can buy it used without having to wait or hunt; heck, without even leaving home.
The book industry is in trouble, but 5 million people buying the new Harry Potter book before it's even out should tell someone that the biggest problem may not be a lack of new readers. Duh!
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