So when is the Stranger going web only?

@4: See that's the thing: *can* you sell your e-book? Is is it DRM locked? And is there something in the fine-print when you download to your machine that says you can't.

And in my opinion, Amazon is getting ready to declare war on the publishing industry with this move. It's like that slimy guy who's only nice to you so he can steal your girlfriend...

"Simply being a bookstore isn't enough; you have to be useful, too."

YESSS. You could not be more right. We can cry into our coffee cups all we want about what got us to this point, but the fact is, we're here. Bookstores need to offer differentiated services and experiences in order to survive. Public space (e.g., a joint coffee shop/book store experience), book-of-the-month buying clubs (like how wine shops have 3-4 monthly picks, you come in once a month and pick your bottle), anything that builds community. I see some shops doing this sort of thing now -- but it will be mandatory in the future.

Paul is so right about this - if you run or own an independent bookstore and you are not preparing for this new world then you are a fool. I don't know what this new world will look like and I'm not sure that I'm built to exist in it. That's one of the reasons that I'm convinced that closing our store was the right decision to make, as difficult as it was... The way books are published, distributed and purchased is changing with lighning speed and indie booksellers have got to figure out where they fit in this new pipeline. Maybe you sell ebook readers, maybe you refuse to adapt and fly your luddite flag with glee - I honestly don't know. But I do know that doing nothing is not an option. It breaks my heart that publishing and bookselling is at an implosion point. But it is.

And Vlad's right. Amazon is positioning itself - there will be new price wars - there will be scrambling over rights and fees and access. It's going to be ugly before it gets mainstreamed ans accessible to all. But booksellers can't wait. They have to figure this out before publishers, before authors, before anyone if they expect to stay alive in this weird new world.

Michael's right.
It's going to get ugly.
And in the ugly spirit, I and Fantagraphics declare the Official Fugly Contest for BEA 2010!
Stop by our booth and give us your best Fugly (you do it anyways).
Outstanding Fugly wins a BOOK.

Bookstores are very nice, but isn't having meaningful texts produced and disseminated and discussed more important? If electronic distribution helps this to happen while giving a decent cut to the author and publisher than I'm not entirely sure that this is such a terrible thing.

Right now, I happen to prefer the form factor of a bound collection of printed pages that I can pick up at a bookstore or from in my mailbox from Amazon. Maybe in a few years electronic ink will be so much good that it won't matter to me. I agree that the passing of a tradition of bookstores with knowledgeable and opinionated proprietors is a sad consequence of this transition and hope that they quickly find a way to adapt to the changing publishing landscape.

I'm especially interested in Third Place, Village Books, and (soon?) University Bookstore's use of on-site print-on-demand publishing. Village Books, in Bellingham, is especially well set-up to become a local publisher, as well as a gathering place, etc. and this might be a very potent tool for staying relevant and profitable.

Paperbacks.

Oh, and check out Fremont Place Books. Very browsable.

That said, I'm looking forward to getting my copies of Proust and various authors in the original French at University Bookstore using the original book.

And by "publisher" I don't just mean reprinter of old books or printer of new ones, but actually making new books with writers, perhaps local historians, authors of interest to the nearby community, etc., and then hosting the social life that lets people gather and encounter and talk about these books. It could be amazing.

@9: But why can't bookstores evolve, too? Books are changing with the e-book, but maybe the idea of a bookstore in 20 years will be different, too. It's too simple to just declare a funeral for the concept of a bookstore as a whole; we should be trying to find ways to make the model work.

The print on demand machine that Matthew is referring to is not inexpensive. Up to a hundred thousands dollars, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong but that's the last figure I was quoted). This is simply not a cost that the majority of brick and mortar bookstores will be able to afford. While I agree that the technology is interesting and has potential its not realistic as an option for most bookstore, mid-size, small or middling...

And I agree, again, with Paul - the bookstore is not dead. Some of them will adapt, figure all of this out and thrive. But only the smart and forward thinking will survive.

Ummm....I guess that leaves me out....

Like I said, I hope that bookstores do evolve and I agree with you that they need to figure out what they and their employees can offer to distinguish themselves (especially if it's through a mechanism other than "selling coffee and having comfortable couches"). It's just hard for me to imagine that in 20 years their core-value will be acting as curated walk-in warehouses of printed materials.

Hopefully Apple will come up with an ad campaign that will make e-book users look cool, instead of like retards.

@14: the current EBM costs $75,000 and can be leased on a monthly basis or bought outright. Everybody who's owned one for more than a year had said that it essentially pays itself off in the first year.

The whole issue is not sitting back waiting for something to happen. That's why Third Place Books and Village and the U-bookstore jumped in. We see where everything's headed and want to shore up any leaks in the dam. We're not rolling in money, but sometimes you have to invest to evolve. It's what almost destroyed Elliott Bay Books in the late 90s- a fear of adapting and investing something to get something.

And the more clients that line up to get a machine, the more the price will go down, just like all technology.

Our print-on-demand publishing office, Publication Studio, is built around $2000 of machinery that does what the Espresso Book Machine does, only slightly slower and much more hands-on. http://publicationstudio.biz/about/ (At the bottom is a short clip of our rig, making a book...) We got the CraigsList remains of an Instabook III, which predates the EBM (its inventor, Victor Celorio, calls it "the Mr. Coffee of print-on-demand publishing"). With the well-financed EBM pushing the Instabook into obsolescence, this is a great time to be looking for bargains on used rigs. When you do, email us. We're ready to share our whole catalog if you agree to do as we do and give the authors 50% of the profits.

Are any local higher ed institutions offering classes on this topic? If so, under which department?

Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park is a marvel, a great example of an independent bookstore working together with some kind of municipal authority to seriously improve a community's quality of life.

@19: Hey, I wasn't making a pitch for services. Just responding to a need for facts. It might've been prudent to stop at listing your website.

Your rig looks dangerous...

@20: you know, the thing that amazes me is that with only 6 of the current version of the EBM, *3* are in Washington, and nobody is really paying attention to that.
The land that spawned microsoft & starbucks has a group of committed indie stores ready to fight back... Allons se!

@21: Allons-y, du ***. :)

I did not know that about 3/6. We have a combustible mix here, in my opinion. Paul Constant knows 1000% more than I do about this, but:
Seattle is a city that has exploded in population in the last 1-2 decades with self-selected émigrés. None of whom grew up together, so that network is missing. Turns out, neither the existing scandinavian population here nor the prevalent tech industries encouraged community/networking/too antisocial now to remember the word for it. But we're readers. By god, we need meeting places with roofs, and we'd benefit in so many ways if the spot was a thoughtful bookstore. Distant #2: dog parks.

I am neither pro or con on the print on demand machines. My point remains that at 75 thousand dollars the majority of indie bookstores will not be able to access this technology. I did not know about the monthly payment plan and do not know the details. But the economics of running a bookstore would seem to prevent wide access. That's not to disparage Third Place or Village Books - more power to them. But the slim profit margins in the industry means that this is simply not a widely available solution.

Cory Doctorow offers another angle on why all this matters: http://thevarsity.ca/articles/23855
"Having your books there like an old friend, following you from house to house for all the days and long nights of your life: this is the invaluable asset that is in publishing’s hands today. But for some reason publishing has set out to convince readers that they have no business reading their books as property—that they shouldn’t get attached to them. The worst part of this is that they may in fact succeed."

@21: thanks for the French correction. Lovely language, damned if I'll ever get a simple grasp of it...

I agree about community. That's been the interesting thing about TPB getting the machine; it's got people talking, admitting they have a book they want to publish, curious about who else does. They're excited because they feel more connected to the mystique of publishing. Previously they just saw books show up at the bookstore, almost like as if they were delivered by elves--we've all felt this way at some point--and now they understand the work that goes into making books a little better. So, yeah, I agree that community, not just tech flash, needs to be at the fore.

@24 Cory may be a bit militant in his stances sometimes, but he's a ferocious thinker about the 'big ideas', and I like how he always stirs shit up.

An Englishwoman named Alexandra Pearson has a small empire of English language bookstores developing in China--so far in three cities including Beijing. Her model combines bookstore, (by paid membership) lending library, restaurant, bar, and reading room with stage that hosts live music and films and lectures and seminars, as well as readings/signings. She has an annual literary festival which draws amazing writers who come from all over the world and will last for two weeks this year. Her stores are always full and are destination points for residents and travelers--incredible, vibrant places.