How Bookstores Stay Afloat
As far back as 2010 bookstores, book clubs, and other orgs started asking my wife and me to talk to various groups about the publishing business. We started most of those events by reading off a list of book industry statistics, just to give wannabe authors a sense of what they were up against.
A third of the U.S. population leaves high school and never reads a book again in their lives.
Forty percent of college grads never crack a book after getting their sheepskin.
More than 70 percent of Americans have not entered a bookstore in the last year.
I collected these stats back in 2010, so hey—maybe things have gotten better in the world of publishing, but I kinda doubt it. That said, it’s still a multi-million-dollar business and plenty of people actually still read. But if you’re thinking of opening a bookstore, you might want to think hard about how you will pay the bills.
In my article for SleuthSayers this week, I’m talking about bookstore models I have observed over the years, and why I like them. Some sell food and bevs, which is by far the most profitable model. People will pay dearly for a pint of beer or glass of wine, and they’ll keep doing it again and again over the course of their stay in your store. But as much as you’d like them to, they will not keep buying books again and again and again on the same visit.
Here’s part of what I’m saying today in my blog post:
My accountant told me I was crazy. “This is not a way people make money,” he told me. My financial advisor said that if I ignored her advice that my wife and I would probably jeopardize our retirement plans. The lawyer—who represented the other side, not me—said that the investment on offer was probably not a smart move for most people.
Just what was this crazy thing I was about to do that everyone else seemed to think was moronic?
My wife and I were contemplating buying a bookstore. It made sense to us. We were writers, after all. We wrote books. We liked books. What more did we need to know?
You can check out the whole thing at a post entitled:
How About a Book with that Scone?
I usually try to mention one of my books when I post here. Preferably, one that fits the topic I’m writing about. My bookshop mystery fits the bill today. I hope you’ll check out my cozy mystery, Murder on Book Row, (affiliate link) which has a great new cover.
Click image for details (affiliate link).
