Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

insidehook.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 87 posts

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#31

Post by wbl »

wenc wrote: post #28
chrisseaton wrote: post #14

Did someone really call their bookshop 'Bookshop'? And I really don't get it - printed books are commodities. They're the same wherever you get them. Anyone except the author is a middleman. Independent bookshops can't value-add anything except in-person, and even then it's limited to creating a nice environment. I love my local bookshop, and we're buying from them during the crisis to be delivered, but being honest…

Yes, a big part of what local bookshops offer is the physical environment. Mine (near the University of Chicago) does book events, which is why I keep supporting them. Good bookstores also provide a free service: curation. Really good bookstores are usually small, located near a good university and are run by book-loving alumni who never left the area. Small is important -- limited space means having to be super sele…

I joined the coop years ago when I was a student and never sold back my shares.

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#32

Post by beaunative »

chrisseaton wrote: post #29
beaunative wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not all against digital seller, but at least when I was a kid, I read in the bookstore almost every day after school. I've only got the allowance of one book per week from my parents, so the bookstore was the only way for me to read though a few books a day. I'd like for bookstores like these to continue to exist.

Is that not what libraries are for?

Ideally yes. However, the quality of the books, and the reading space provided by libraries are largely dependant on government budget. Those would be nice if you live in big cities. In a small ones? They really depends.

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#33

Post by dzolob »

chrisseaton wrote: post #14

Did someone really call their bookshop 'Bookshop'? And I really don't get it - printed books are commodities. They're the same wherever you get them. Anyone except the author is a middleman. Independent bookshops can't value-add anything except in-person, and even then it's limited to creating a nice environment. I love my local bookshop, and we're buying from them during the crisis to be delivered, but being honest…

At least in my country, publishers get a bigger cut when you buy your books in indie/local than amazon. They demand bigger discounts, are relentless with penalties, accounting maneuvers and all sorts of schemes to undermine payments, and authors get the same royalties whether the book is sold by amazon or other channels. So, yes, it makes a difference.

Please support your local bookstores and your indie publishing houses.

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#34

Post by chrisseaton »

beaunative wrote: post #32
chrisseaton wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that not what libraries are for?

Ideally yes. However, the quality of the books, and the reading space provided by libraries are largely dependant on government budget. Those would be nice if you live in big cities. In a small ones? They really depends.

> However, the quality of the books

I think in most library systems you can demand literally any book you want that has ever been published in the modern age and have it delivered to your local library. They often don't advertise it - but ask for it.

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#35

Post by chrisseaton »

dzolob wrote: post #33
chrisseaton wrote: post #14

Did someone really call their bookshop 'Bookshop'? And I really don't get it - printed books are commodities. They're the same wherever you get them. Anyone except the author is a middleman. Independent bookshops can't value-add anything except in-person, and even then it's limited to creating a nice environment. I love my local bookshop, and we're buying from them during the crisis to be delivered, but being honest…

At least in my country, publishers get a bigger cut when you buy your books in indie/local than amazon. They demand bigger discounts, are relentless with penalties, accounting maneuvers and all sorts of schemes to undermine payments, and authors get the same royalties whether the book is sold by amazon or other channels. So, yes, it makes a difference. Please support your local bookstores and your indie publishing ho…

> authors get the same royalties whether the book is sold by amazon or other channels

If the authors get the same, what's the problem? Everyone else is a middleman.

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#36

Post by abathur »

chrisseaton wrote: post #18
wellusee292 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not true that having independent stores doesn’t value add anything. They add protection against monopoly which is dangerous, especially when talking books, to allow in a free society. They don’t add anything in the narrow context we are usually meaning when we say such. There’s always another abstraction that says otherwise. And in the case of society, I’d prefer a robust, unmonopolized trade. But most people do…

But they just buy exactly the same books, from exactly the same publishers, as every other bookshop in the world. Where are they adding any kind of protection against anything? My local bookshop sells the same as I could get in a chain bookshop. The books aren't any different! What's the point? And anyway you don't need bookshops to disseminate free thought, if that's what you mean. You can do that with a website. (D…

Could you disseminate free thought with a website if there were but two massive corporate hosts?

Does it matter if anyone can be bothered to interact with your free thoughts, or only that you're free to post them?

Perhaps it is sufficient that we're all free to shelve our free thoughts in the closet?

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#38

Post by freepor »

chrisseaton wrote: post #34
beaunative wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally yes. However, the quality of the books, and the reading space provided by libraries are largely dependant on government budget. Those would be nice if you live in big cities. In a small ones? They really depends.

> However, the quality of the books I think in most library systems you can demand literally any book you want that has ever been published in the modern age and have it delivered to your local library. They often don't advertise it - but ask for it.

At my university that was explicit policy. If you needed a book for academics and they didn’t have it, they’d order it.

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#39

Post by chrisseaton »

abathur wrote: post #36
chrisseaton wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they just buy exactly the same books, from exactly the same publishers, as every other bookshop in the world. Where are they adding any kind of protection against anything? My local bookshop sells the same as I could get in a chain bookshop. The books aren't any different! What's the point? And anyway you don't need bookshops to disseminate free thought, if that's what you mean. You can do that with a website. (D…

Could you disseminate free thought with a website if there were but two massive corporate hosts? Does it matter if anyone can be bothered to interact with your free thoughts, or only that you're free to post them? Perhaps it is sufficient that we're all free to shelve our free thoughts in the closet?

I don't really know what you're trying to say.

Most independent bookshops don't solve the problem you're describing. They just buy the same books from the same publishers as everyone else. They don't create any variety. It's the same books!

Re: Thanks to Bookshop, indies stand a chance against Amazon

#40

Post by dzolob »

chrisseaton wrote: post #35
dzolob wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in my country, publishers get a bigger cut when you buy your books in indie/local than amazon. They demand bigger discounts, are relentless with penalties, accounting maneuvers and all sorts of schemes to undermine payments, and authors get the same royalties whether the book is sold by amazon or other channels. So, yes, it makes a difference. Please support your local bookstores and your indie publishing ho…

> authors get the same royalties whether the book is sold by amazon or other channels If the authors get the same, what's the problem? Everyone else is a middleman.

Not true. A publishing house is not meddling anything, is creating the “commodity“ along with the author. Creating a book is an art. It involves formation, sometimes translation, concept and design. It also fires a big productive chain that in some cases, for indie publishers at least, goes along with the ethos of the author. That’s why some very successful authors stick along with indies instead of penguin random.

People are putting a lot of heart into this industry.

Post reply on HN