8 Predictions for the Future of Bookselling

On The Nervous Breakdown (@TNBtweets), J.E. Fishman (@JEFISHMAN) scans the bookstore trade and hazards to forecast its fate in this world of digital publishing:

1. Superstores will shrink in number.

2. Non-book merchandise will consume half the bookstore.

3. More independents will die.

4. Google eBooks will not save independents.

5. Independents will succeed by going into the experience business.

6. Booksellers will charge admission and split the fee with visiting authors.

7. Booksellers will go forth, projecting their expertise into the community.

8. Publishers will open “bookstores” again.

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Perceptive ideas. Some of them have been stated before--numbers 1 and 5, for instance, have been suggested by Richard Nash on his blog. I like the underlying rationale for many of these ideas, though, such as numbers 5 through 7: That when the economy gets rough and the rules change, the savvy retailer finds a way to keep going, changing his game just enough to keep the enterprise afloat. 
— lambertedits