[27896] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
FYI France : Indie Bookstores Fight Back
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jack Kessler)
Sat Apr 16 20:37:40 2011
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Date: Sat, 16 Apr 2011 03:39:38 -0700
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FYI France : Indie Bookstores Fight Back
Our own favorite bookstore here in Noe Valley USA just closed --=20
finally and for good -- and I have nearly 200 digital "ebooks"=20
stored somewhere out in my Amazon Internet "cloud", now...
The French approach: somewhat similar, somewhat by contrast --
"Indies online : coming to your home"
By Fr=E9d=E9rique Roussel, "Libraires en ligne : =E7a arrive pr=E8s de chez
vous", in _Lib=E9ration_, 4 Avril
[tr. JK, excerpts:]
> It's what we needed... The web-portal of the independent
French booksellers finally has lifted its iron curtain. Twelve=20
years after the dawning of the idea, in discussions among French=20
book dealers... Eleven years after the arrival of Amazon in=20
France... After all the lost time, due to the Dotcom Bubble, the=20
difficulty of uniting financial people, and the building of=20
consensus within a shattered, overloaded, and above all very=20
individualistic profession... There have been defections, and=20
oppositions. There was the headache of dreaming-up a complicated=20
technical platform. The task has not been easy. The imminent=20
launch has been reported again and again. But=20
"1001libraires.com", a name designed to enchant an internaute,=20
finally is here.
> Behind this homepage lies a solid organization : solid
financing -- 2.2 million euros, in the form of zero-interest=20
loans from notably the Centre national du livre for 500,000 euros=20
-- plus funds provided by 36 bookstores and associations of=20
bookstores. At its opening, the website counts 65 bookstore=20
members, with an objective of having 200 within three months...
> So, from today, the internaute can order printed and digital
books from a catalog of 60,000 titles. He may receive them=20
through the postal mail, within 24 hours, or he may reserve them=20
at the nearest member-bookstore within two hours.
> Facing up to the big online sellers, such as Amazon or La
FNAC... That is the point made by Gilles de la Porte, president=20
of the corporation behind 1001libraires.com, and former owner of=20
the bookstore la Galerne at Le Havre : he declares, "We remain in=20
close contact with our readers, and our location services send=20
buyers into physical bookstores." Across France 250 booksellers=20
are designated, as of the opening of the service.
> A third feature of 1001libraires.com is designed to circumvent
the traditional marketing system, using content generated by the=20
booksellers themselves, in some very original programming, and=20
involving the booksellers -- the 1001libraires.com service,=20
M@gazette, offers seven monthly video and audio podcasts, for=20
example "Quinzaine des libraires" partnering with the weekly=20
"Quinzaine litt=E9raire", also "Digitales sur le livre num=E9rique",=20
"Essai libre sur sur les sciences humaines", "Gonzo Bizarro sur=20
la BD"...
> So, the independent bookstore in France makes its own Amazon...
> But this service emphasizes physical proximity and
consultation, also that it will be around for the digital book,=20
as well, where and when the paper train has left the station...=20
"We must embrace these things," adds Gilles de la Porte, "the=20
bookstore no longer will exist if we refuse to"...
> Detractors are numerous : some protest against all the money
injected into a "machine", here -- others say the consultation=20
services of booksellers might be better-offered via better=20
techniques -- still others worry that this cooperative site=20
removes the booksellers themselves to positions of being mere=20
spectators. And there are those who worry over the fundamental=20
purpose of 1001libraires.com : to outdo Amazon and others like it=20
-- a message contained in its slogan, "The site which moves=20
faster than the Internet" -- that remains to be seen, let's look=20
again in 10 years.
http://www.ecrans.fr/Libraires-en-ligne-ca-arrive-pres,12419.html
--oOo--
Note: speed kills...
The race is not always to the swift, sometimes it is to the wise...
France still _has_ some indie booksellers, for example... In=20
California, where I write this, indie bookstores are closing, in=20
large numbers and rapidly. As I said initially, here, one of my=20
own favorite "locals" disappeared just the other day.
In fact a youthful dream which I and my wife long cherished, to=20
occupy and amuse our old age -- the management of an indie=20
bookstore ourselves -- appears to be vanishing, in the USA. More=20
likely nowadays we'd have to found and run herd on our own=20
digital distribution empire, the way Jeff Bezos has, and worry=20
more about profit-and-loss and cloud computing and gigantic=20
server arrays and distribution centers, than about "children's=20
rooms" and "poetry sections", and "small press" and "remainders",=20
and whether to serve coffee and what to do about coffee spills,=20
as we once imagined.
There still are some exceptions left in the USA, though. One=20
store's loss is another's gain, perhaps...
Just around the corner from the indie bookstore here which=20
closed, is another which appears to be doing fabulously well, and=20
now may do even better. Perhaps this is, then, as the economists=20
nearly always say, simply a consolidation & realignment, and not=20
really a paradigm shift.
Perhaps there is opportunity in all of this, that is, for the few=20
who remain: for a small indie bookstore which can find its own=20
market niche, and which "gets" the Internet and digital, and=20
which can figure out how to make money itself from e-books: a=20
small indie which can find and understand new forms of=20
publication, perhaps -- smaller distribution activities, maybe --=20
small press, local press, local news, academic publishing --=20
healthy arenas from which the big online retailers could not=20
squeeze their "economies of scale", but which nevertheless could=20
support a small shop and online service, or a few of them.
So many people people are writing and publishing now : everyone,=20
now, everywhere, has a desktop or/and a laptop or/and a palmtop=20
or/and particularly a mobile -- information overload quickly is=20
becoming information inundation, a flood.
So in all of that there are new opportunities for people=20
specialized in controlling or at least channeling such floods:=20
for librarians and libraries, for indie booksellers and indie=20
bookstores -- helped greatly, perhaps, by online services such as=20
1001libraires.com. As a customer, at least, I gladly would give=20
much to find the camaraderie, and warmth, and easychairs and=20
accompanying coffee and cookies, of the bookstores of my=20
childhood, amid the so-far industrialized e-publishing of today.
They're getting there, with Amazon's "cloud", and Starbucks'=20
"Mobile Card" barcode coffee purchasing, and everyone's=20
Inter-networking of everything. But they're not there yet.
It seems to me too that the long-predicted "decentralization"=20
direction of digital is reversing now, in fact, providing new=20
bookstore opportunities. For some years we have had telecommuting=20
and teleworking opportunites, provided by The Digital, moving=20
many of us to suburbs and small towns and into extensive travel=20
even overseas. Now, though, people appear to want again to live=20
in, and spend more of their personal and professional time in,=20
the Central City. Perhaps we've so automated the back office and=20
routine functions of so much, using our new digital technologies=20
so well, as firms like Amazon and Starbucks have, that we're now=20
free once more to seek real face-time with one another: to live=20
in the center of Big Cities where our friends are, to spend hours=20
lounging around with those friends in city parks, and coffee=20
shops, and in user-friendly bookstores again.
That is what the 20-somethings do now increasingly in San=20
Francisco, anyway: the kids who work for Google and Facebook and=20
Apple and the others -- those firms' large home offices are=20
located down the bay from here, in Silicon Valley -- but their=20
employees all live up here in San Francisco, where there is truly=20
"social" life for them. They may take the GoogleBus down to=20
Mountain View when they have to: the giant vehicles run every 15=20
minutes in the mornings from Noe Valley, a 45-minute ride, and=20
legend says they have one plug for wifi and another for caffeine,=20
at each seat on-board... But more and more of their work week is=20
spent at and around home where their friends are, now, here in=20
the city. This also is true perhaps, and perhaps increasingly as=20
well, in Manhattan, in central London, in central Paris, all of=20
which are inter-connected Global Cities -- per Saskia Sassen's=20
and other urbanologists' musings about this -- seeing a=20
renaissance of central city property values and services now. So=20
maybe there is simply a new and increasing need, for a new kind=20
of "bookstore", in such places.
In the meantime, then, we all wrestle now with e-text:
* auto-capitalization and auto-correction and auto-spelling and=20
auto-other-things... On my iPad, the text I type, "within two=20
hours", but this magically and invisibly and maddeningly becomes,=20
"within two horsings" -- the race truly is not always to the=20
swift... -- and mY caPitaLiZation does fuNny thiNgs -- and my=20
French words become approximations en am=E9ricain, while if I hit=20
a wrong keyboard button the reverse just-as-mysteriously occurs; and
* e-text, the "words", themselves... I once was asked to review a=20
book printed by a distinguished English press, and I found basic=20
copyedit errors in every paragraph, in some paragraphs in every=20
sentence, within some sentences several. The distraction was so=20
great that I reviewed the editors rather than the text, and my=20
review was turned down. But it made me keenly appreciate what has=20
gone before, in publishing: that particular press long was known=20
for its editorial excellence, and has slipped -- other presses=20
which do this better, still, are that much more appreciated. No,=20
digital e-publishing is not just a matter of throwing texts "out=20
there", scanning and ocr'ing and seeing who salutes. And yes,=20
publishers in the past have earned their keep: if not necessarily=20
the 95% of proceeds which some have claimed, at least the 85%=20
claimed by most -- good editing, among other publishers'=20
significant contributions, is hard and important work; and,
* scanning : Amazon and Google and Gallica and others all do=20
wonderful jobs, with their scanning. The imperfections of the=20
process still show up in strange ways, though. To anyone who=20
enjoyed a mature 20th century print publishing industry, working=20
with ancient well-known texts which a 1950s copyeditor=20
practically could recite by heart as he labored, nowadays it=20
comes as some surprise to see Jane Eyre for example exclaim, "I=20
shirted fields, anhedges", and we realize that the scanner simply=20
slipped, or it tripped over old tiny type on yellowed paper --=20
this happens more frequently, now, not only because of tired=20
copyeditors' eyes but because we are in the Age of Incunabula of=20
e-text's new technologies, and mistakes will happen with new things.
So perhaps it's just nostalgia -- my longing for the old=20
user-very-friendly bookshops in which I used to spend happy=20
afternoons -- or perhaps it's the cusp of the newest wave, and=20
the very latest changes. As the commentators are saying about=20
Fukushima Dai-Ichi's new wave unknowns too, now, and about=20
1001libraire.com, we'll know in 10 years.
Happy reading.
Jack Kessler, kessler@well.com
=09=09=09=09--oOo--
FYI France (sm)(tm) e-journal ISSN 1071-5916
*
| FYI France (sm)(tm) is a monthly electronic
| journal published since 1992 as a small-scale,
| personal experiment, in the creation of large-
| scale "information overload", by Jack Kessler.
/ \ Any material written by me which appears in
----- FYI France may be copied and used by anyone for
// \\ any good purpose, so long as, a) they give me
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Use of material written by others requires their permission. FYI=20
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=09Copyright 1992- , by Jack Kessler,
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=09=09=09=09--hjlm--
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