The news that Borders book chain plans to withdraw from the UK is really not good news for authors, nor book publicists. Borders have 71 stores in the UK. My local Borders at London Colney is a delight, a haven, a place with the best selection of fiction short of having to go into London.
Is high street retailing of books really in trouble? If so, it means that more books will be sold online (and in supermarkets). So unless you are a big name author (and can get in supermarkets), your opportunities for promotion and sales look increasingly to me as though they will be online.
2 Comments
March 23, 2007 at 2:43 pm
As an Amazon employee once said; “We sold more books today that didn’t sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.”
Lets hope the economics of the Long Tail live on for years to come, for the benefit of all smaller authors and publishers.
Chris @ rawstylus.wordpress.com
March 23, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Hi Kate – trying to look on the optimistic side, this might well be good news for both the self-published author as well as those from smaller presses.
It might create a level playing field…
Cheers Euphrosene