Bookshop.org

by Alan Beatts

A number of people have asked me about Bookshop.org over the last month.  Specifically, they've been drawing my attention to it because they think that it would be really useful to us, especially given the current situation.  If you haven't heard about Bookshop.org, the super-short version is that they're offering an almost effortless way that bookstores can sell books on-line and get a very nice percentage of the sales (30% right now).  Further, they're offering a much larger percentage of affiliate sales than Amazon (10% vs. 4.5%).  And, finally, they're giving a substantial portion of those sales to local bookstores.  So far they've raised $1,271,387.61.

So, what's not to like?  And, where can Borderlands sign up?

The first one is a complicated question but the second one, that's easy -- Borderlands _can't_ sign up.

The American Booksellers Association has a very long history (it was founded in 1900) and my history with the ABA is long as well.  Borderlands became a member in, I dunno, 1998?

The ABA has done some great things.  It was the kernel for The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (founded in 1990), an outstanding organization that supports freedom of speech and has mounted highly effective opposition to banning books.  It has also worked closely with the BINC Foundation, which provides aid to individual booksellers in financial distress.  And it has been a tireless advocate for independent booksellers by providing extensive education opportunities, acting as an advocate, and working in opposition to, initially, the threat posed by large chain stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble and, later, Amazon's domination of the market.

It's also a wealthy, often clueless, organization that see itself as the embodiment of independent bookselling.  Perhaps its greatest failing, probably due to institutional blinders, is that when the ABA _thinks_ "bookstore" what it _sees_ is a large, general interest, new bookshop.  Problem is; that doesn't describe most of the bookstores in the US.  Consequently much of what the ABA does ends up being a Procrustean bed.  Everything that doesn't fit gets cut off or distorted.  Please bear with me while I dig into the ABA for a bit.

The ABA is wealthy.  Per the last federal tax filing in 2018, the ABA has assets of a bit over $34 million and revenue of $3.9 million.  In the real world, that's not much for a national trade organization, but we're talking about bookselling here -- that's a lot of cash.  In comparison, the average bookstore in the US has an annual revenue of around $225,000 (1).  As would suit a wealthy organization, the ABA is generous.  Salaries and other compensation in 2018 were $2.4 million.  Oren Teicher, the former CEO, pulled down a salary of $379,859 plus $65,367 in other compensation.  Remember that average bookstore?  Teicher's compensation is just shy of double that amount.  It's probably a good thing that the ABA is sitting on so many assets since, in 2018, they had an operating loss of more than three-quarters of a million dollars (2).

The ABA is clueless.  I'll just give a single example because I could go on and on.  Since the early 2000s, the ABA has flailed around trying to figure out how to provide access to ebook revenue for indy bookstores.  After various false starts (i.e. partnering with Sony and their walled-garden ebook reader), they settled on Kobo.  Which is not a bad eReader platform but, the deal that is supposed to make ebook sales have some value for stores nets a participating store around fifty cents per sale (3).  That's a fine model.  If a store moved 25% of its business to ebooks they could look forward to going right the hell out of business.  So, why the deal in the first place?  Every bookseller I've talked to about it has, at best, said, "Well, at least we can sell ebooks.  But, it's not really worthwhile."   One of the booksellers was an ABA board member at the time!  So, in a desire to seem relevant, the ABA chose a solution so bad that, if all their members embraced it and supported it, it would put them out of business (both the members and the ABA).  What makes it even better is that, though they didn't come up with a solution, they did create a perception on the part of customers that buying ebooks would support their local store.  If that doesn't sufficiently demonstrate the cluelessness of the ABA, just go visit the ABA's ecommerce site - https://www.indiebound.org.  Never heard of it?  That's because it's awful and has always been awful.

Bottom line, the ABA is composed of well-meaning people who care about books, readers and bookstores.  I would never dispute that.  But, as an organization, they're not very competent and they're seriously out of touch with what bookselling is actually like.  Here's a secret about bookstores - many of the big, well-known stores are run by people who don't need to survive on their profits.  To my certain knowledge there are big bookshops owned by: venture capitalists who did very well during the dot-com boom; people who are well-enough-off to own a villa in Italy for vacations; the heir of a family that owns a significant portion of the downtown of a major city; and a landlord who owns a nice strip of top-end retail buildings in another major city (actually, there are two like that).  It is booksellers like that who have the time to serve as board members of the ABA.  I certainly have neither the time nor money to do it.  No bookseller who is really scrabbling does.  It's also booksellers like that who give the ABA the endowments that allow it to function.  And, finally, because ABA dues work on a sliding scale, it's the big stores that pay the most in annual dues.

So, you've got an organization steered by booksellers who are complete outliers in their field and headed by an officer whose compensation is almost double the gross sales of the average member store.  What could possibly make it better?  How about this?  The ABA, as an organization, is habitually less than honest in its public communication.  The first time I ran into that was a write-up in their newsletter years ago about a town-hall meeting with the CEO.  It was described as a pleasant discussion with Northern California booksellers.  In fact, it included an exchange between myself and the CEO that was so unpleasant that the president of our local booksellers association apologized to me for the CEO's conduct.  Over the years I've seen that pattern of spin-doctoring over and over again.  In that case, it wasn't particularly harmful, but it can be.  Take the ABA's recent riff, for example.  Over the past few years a big talking point for the ABA has been that indy bookselling is doing well and that new stores are opening.  It's treated as serious news by places like NPR (4), The Harvard Business School (5), and The Voice of America (6).

But what the ABA has actually been saying is that _their membership_ is growing.  If you look at the US Census figures, it's a different story --"For 1992, the Census Bureau reported 13,136 bookstore establishments, consisting of small "independent" stores as well as larger chain stores. As of 2016, the number of stores tallied in the Census Bureau survey had fallen to less than half that figure, to an all-time low of 6,448."  Furthermore -- "The bookstore workforce increased by more than 54% from 1992 to 2008. The number of employees then declined substantially, with 45% fewer people (83,319) working in these establishments in 2016 than eight years earlier." (7)  Even adjusted for the closure of Borders and the downsizing of Barnes & Noble, that is still a steady decline.

That kind of spin-doctoring is actually damaging because it gives people a false sense that everything is fine for bookstores.  Why does the ABA do it?  First, I think it's to maintain the fiction that bookstores are vibrant and important (and, by extension, that the ABA is important and going a good job).  Based on what I've seen over the years, that fiction is very important to the ABA.  Second, I think it's a function of the institutional blinders that I mentioned earlier.  The ABA has a hard time conceiving that bookselling is much bigger than their members.

Last point, and speaking of members.  Notice that the census figure for number of bookstores in 2016 was 6,448?   The ABA has gotten pretty clever of late and doesn't clearly list their total number of members.  But, searching their online list of members without any limit returns 2,817 stores (8).  They do list how many new stores join each year (while omitting the number of stores that stop being members -- perhaps no-one ever leaves?).  Per their website, they added 75 members in 2017 and 99 members in 2018.  Backtracking from that information suggests that they had 2643 members in 2016.  So, the ABA actually represents significantly less than half of bookstores in the US.  But you'd never imagine that from either their public statements or the amount of credibility they enjoy.

We haven't been a member since around 2000 or so.  I just wasn't willing to participate in an organization like the ABA.  I haven't regretted it for one moment.

By now, you're probably wondering what in the world the ABA has to do with Bookshop.org, yeah?

Fair question.  Bookshop.org exists because a guy named Andy Hunter went to the ABA with some suggestions about what they could / should do to correct the problems with the ABA's ecommerce site - Indiebound.org.  The catch was that the ABA couldn't do it.  His suggestions would have meant that they were actually selling books, which they can't do.  (Rightly, I think. The ABA is a trade organization.  It's not cool for an organization that represents businesses to set up as a competitor.)

I talked to Mr. Hunter yesterday.  He's a good guy.  I think he really cares about bookstores.  Actually, I know he cares about bookstores because, when he couldn't work with the ABA to make something that would be really functional for indy stores, he went and did it himself; in consultation and with the support of the ABA.  At the time, he told me, he didn't know about issues with the ABA.  In fact, he said he had no idea that any booksellers had problems with the ABA.

So, to participate in Bookshop.org, as a bookseller, you have to be a member of the ABA.  Granted, any bookstore can be an affiliate (just like anyone else on the planet) and get a little cut of referred sales but; that is neither financially nor practically the same thing.

Further, part of Bookshop.org's plan is sharing a portion of their profits with independent bookstores.  From their website -- "If you want to find a specific local bookstore to support, find them on our map and they'll receive the full profit off your order. Otherwise, your order will contribute to an earnings pool that will be evenly distributed among independent bookstores (even those that don't use Bookshop)."(9)

The stores that get a piece of that "earnings pool".  It's the members of the ABA.  No-one else.

Which makes the counter at the top of their site reading, as of this moment, "$1,271,387.61 raised for local bookstores", a bit inaccurate.  Might be more honest if it said, "$1,271,387.61 raised for the membership of the American Booksellers Association".  Perhaps the ABA's fondness for less-than-straight speech rubbed off?  I hope not.  But, as my dad used to say, "You can't touch pitch and not be defiled".

The question I had was; Why ABA members only?  Since then, I've spoken with Sarah High, Bookshop.org's Partnership's Manager, and with Andy Hunter, the founder. Initially the only answer I got was, "Our reasoning for the ABA requirement is because of our partnership with their organization."  But, at the end of a really lovely conversation with Ms. High, she said that it was because of an agreement that they had made with the ABA.  An agreement that the ABA requested.  No surprise there, really.  But then, during my conversation with Mr. Hunter, it turned out that there actually is not a binding agreement in place nor does the ABA have a controlling ownership stake or board position.  In an email followup to our call, Mr. Hunter pointed out that, from the very beginning, his understanding with the ABA was that only their members would be participants and that the ABA had been very helpful through the process. But, when all is said and done, the only conclusion that I can come to is that the requirement is there because the folks who run Bookshop.org want it there.  Which, I guess, is fine.  It's their company, after all.  Perhaps they don't want to piss off the ABA.  That's never been something that's concerned me very much (shocking, eh?) but I'd hardly suggest that my way of doing business is well suited to most other companies.

I find myself very conflicted about Bookshop.org.  It is obviously run by people who share values with me.  Most importantly, they both care about independent bookselling and are competent enough to actually do something effective.  I absolutely love that they're playing Robin Hood to Amazon's Sheriff of Nottingham; with the greater affiliate percentage and their pass-along-the-profit scheme, they're taking sales away from Amazon and giving the money to bookstores and the people who are generating the sales.  During my conversation with Mr. Hunter he genuinely listened to my perception of the problems with the ABA and said he would bring them up.  I was left with the feeling that he really would like to see things work out well.

On the other hand, their catering to the ABA doesn't sit very well with me.  And, especially at a time like this, when _all_ bookstores are struggling and people are so happy to help, the misdirection in using a phrase like, "XXX dollars raised for local bookstores" and avoiding almost any mention of the ABA on their website is . . . upsetting.

The ultimate feeling I'm left with is that I just wish it were different.  Bookshop.org is something that I'm thrilled to see and I would love to support wholeheartedly.  I just wish they would support me.

Hell, they seem smart enough.  Perhaps they could solve the problem of how to get indy bookstores a good enough margin on ebooks that we could sell them, and not go out of business in the process.  That would be cooler than skates on a rattlesnake.

1) https://www.womply.com/blog/the-state-of-local-bookstores/
2) https://www.causeiq.com/organizations/view_990/135676641/0ca9d546f5bf1c27b1240f1296c9bab0
3) https://publishingperspectives.com/2015/08/ebooks-sold-at-independent-bookstores-garner-pitiful-profits/
4) https://www.npr.org/2018/03/29/598053563/why-the-number-of-independent-bookstores-increased-during-the-retail-apocalypse
5) https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/20-068_c19963e7-506c-479a-beb4-bb339cd293ee.pdf
6) https://www.voanews.com/arts-culture/us-independent-bookstores-thriving-and-growing
7) https://www.amacad.org/humanities-indicators/public-life/bookstores-establishments-and-sales
8) https://www.bookweb.org/member_directory/search/ABAmember/results/0/0/0/0
9) https://bookshop.org/pages/about

Borderlands Open for Mail Orders

This week, the San Francisco Health Department revised the shelter-in-place order.  The revised order states that non-essential businesses (which is us) can continue "Minimum Basic Operations" which are described, in part, as "provide for the delivery of existing inventory directly to residences or businesses" (Section 13.g.i.). That change, along with the shift of most of the bookstores in the city to doing mail order services, means that we feel that we can start fulfilling mail orders, effective immediately.

(To be perfectly clear, we wouldn't be doing this if we weren't confident that we can ship books without putting the staff, our customers, or the mail carriers at risk. Likewise, to maintain social distancing, the only staff that will be working in the store will be Alan and Jude, who share a household.  No other staff will be present.)

So, if there's anything you'd like, please feel free to place some orders.  There are three ways you can go about that -

1)  Biblio - Our entire book inventory is listed online at Biblio.com <https://www.biblio.com/bookstore/borderlands-books-san-francisco>.  It's easy and intuitive to use, and is the simplest way to order books from us securely online.

2)  Email - You can always email us at orders@borderlands-books.com with any orders, questions, comments, or preorders.  We'll need to know the item(s) you'd like, your shipping address and phone number, and a good time to call you so we can get payment info.

3)  Call - If you're really anxious to speak to a human to place your order, we'll be available to answer calls and happy to speak with you from noon until six pm PST on Mondays. The phone number is 415 824-8203.

We're going to be doing one thing different from some of the other stores in town by not offering "curb-side pickup" -- all our orders are going to be sent through the post office, even if you just live right around the corner from the store.  We know it's a pain in the butt and seems completely ridiculous but, first off, the Health Department Order doesn't say anything about having customers come to pick up their items, and secondly, we believe that passing paper bags between us and you, even if we remain separated by six feet or more, isn't consistent with the sort of social distancing that we, as a community, need.

Also, unlike other stores in the city, we're going to have to charge shipping on all orders.  The cost of shipping is high enough ($2.80 to $3.33 for media mail shipping on one book), that it would seriously eat into our margin on a sale.  However, for the duration of the store closure, we are going to reduce our shipping charges to $3 for the first book, and $1.50 each for additional books.

We expect that, even within San Francisco, it will take a few days for your order to arrive.  In part this is because, based on what we've seen, the postal service is overloaded right now.  But, there will also be a delay built into our shipping process.  Per the NIH, the virus that causes Covid-19 can survive up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to 72 hours on plastic (https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/new-coronavirus-stable-hours-surfaces).  Since book covers are often treated with a plastic-like substance, it's possible that the virus could last for up to 72 hours on books that we pack.  Of course, neither Jude nor Alan will be packing up books if they're sick but that's beside the point.

To ensure that we don't mail you a box full of germ-y books (wrapped in germ-y bubble wraps like some sort of tasty garnish), we will be packing books on the first day after we get the order (or thereabouts) but they'll spend the second day all boxed up at the shop.  The third day we'll drop them at the post office and they'll arrive no sooner than the fourth day after we get the order.  As a result, though we can't make any promises about the exterior of the packaging, all of the contents should be perfectly safe.  So, just like anything you get delivered, open the outside packaging, wash your hands, unpack it, wash your hands again and enjoy.  Granted, the risk of infection from a contaminated surface is considered low by the CDC but, we want to take all possible steps to protect the health of our customers.  (And that is why we're not doing curb-side pickup).

Read Me A Story

[Editor's note: Long-time customer Melinda Rose is a big audio book fan and a recent convert to Libro.fm, so we asked her to share her thoughts about the service and some of her personal recommendations.  See more about Libro.fm at the end of this article.]

By Melinda Rose

I love books, I love stories, and I love being read to. Growing up my parents read to us almost every night, and it's always felt like such a loving, nurturing thing when a partner reads to me.

I'm a longtime fan of audiobooks, and pretty much always have one going. The right performance can bring so much life and texture to a story, and I can get lost in a book while doing chores around the house, exercising, driving, or simply relaxing. Plus it's a great way to work through that never ending, ever increasing, to-read pile. Between all the fabulous new books coming out on the regular, recommendations from friends of great books I've somehow never read, all the books I've meaning to read, and the impulse buys when browsing my favorite bookstores, well, the sad truth is I'll never get to everything I want to read.

I've had an audible account since 2007, and I was thrilled when I found out there was an alternative that supports independent book stores. I recently made the switch to Libro.fm, and it's been wonderful. It's easy to set up an account and choose which independent bookstore you'd like to support. The company splits the profits with the bookstore, and they have a huge selection. You can set up a monthly membership to automatically buy one credit a month (good for any book in their collection) or just buy as you go a la carte style. You can listen to a sample before you buy to make sure you like the narrator (and believe me, that really makes or breaks the experience).

If you want to listen on your smartphone or other device, download the libro.fm app and your purchases automatically show up in your library. The app's interface is basically the same as Audibles, and it's very intuitive, so if you're switching over it's an easy transition, and if you're new to the world of audiobooks you’ll find it pretty easy to navigate. They also have a very human, responsive, and helpful customer service team.

It's all about the performance!
Here are some of my favorite listens

* Erin Morgenstern's latest novel THE STARLESS SEA is a story about stories, and the way the stories we love shape our lives. It has love, adventure, and hidden doorways to a secret world. There are multiple narrators and it's very effective. There's the main story arc, and then there are the books and stories the characters come across and those are read by different voice actors. This is one of the most beautiful books I've encountered, and the audio version really brings the intersecting stories to life.

* Warren Ellis's CROOKED LITTLE VEIN performed by Todd McLaren perfectly captures the twisted noir tone of the story, told in first person by a private detective reluctantly exploring the debaucherous underbelly of American culture. Sex, drugs, and plot twists galore!

* If you're a fan of The Kingkiller Chronicles, Patrick Rothfuss reading his novella "The Slow Regard of Silent Things" is an absolute treat.  It follows the adventures of Auri -- her life in the forgotten, underground halls and rooms of the university. It's an achingly beautiful character study.

* "Aliens suck at music" is the first line in YEAR ZERO by Rob Reid (performed by John Hodgman). Basically the galaxy is filled with intelligent, creative, and evolved life forms who had no intention of contacting the primitive Earthlings, until they discovered our pop music. . . . And downloaded and listened to it for decades before reading our copyright laws. Delegates from the intergalactic society descend upon a low-level entertainment lawyer to try and negotiate down the huge sum of money the rest of the galaxy collectively owes Earth.

* Neil Gaiman is as brilliant a voice performer as he is a writer, and he narrates most of his books. I've only listened to a few, but I've loved them all, and honestly I don't think you can go wrong in selecting one of his works.

I encourage you to go to libro.fm's website and explore the options. Their catalog is not quite as extensive as Audible's, but it's still a huge collection and they're helping the small independent guys, which is wonderful. I know many of us could use an extra diversion right about now.

[Libro.fm is an audiobook purchase platform specifically designed to support independent bookstores. Unlike all of the e-book sites that have offered us partnerships, and in direct contrast to Amazon's audiobook platform, Audible, Libro.fm make it practical and seamless to support Borderlands (or another indie of your choice) with your online audiobook purchases.  It's easy to sign up and easy to use, moreso, we've been blown away by their extraordinary customer service and dedication to helping bookstores. Just go to https://libro.fm/story to learn more about them and create your free account. As part of the account set-up process, you designate an independent bookstore that you want your purchases to support. (You can use this link if you want to choose Borderlands to support right out of the gate: https://libro.fm/?bookstore=borderlands .)  After that, browse more that 150,00 audiobooks and either set up a monthly membership, or buy audiobooks a la carte. ]

Borderlands is Hiring

Dave Fitzgerald, whom many of you know as the "baby" member of our staff  (he's only been a bookseller for a bit over a year -- that's a mere infant in bookseller years), is going to be heading out of SF for Eureka.  We're damn sad to see Dave go; he's a hell of a fine bookseller on top of fitting in well with the rest of the inmates at The Borderlands Home for Those Who Read Too Much.  But, since it's looking like he'll be splitting at the end of February, we need to hire someone to replace him. Further, because of all the extra work that this year is going to hold, we're decided to hire two new staff people.  So . . .

If you've ever thought that it would be fun to work at Borderlands, here's your chance.  But, before you fire off a resume and cover letter, there are a couple  of things you should know -
1)  It's a hard job.  Despite his charming disposition, Alan can be a demanding person to work for and, on top of that, there is a _lot_ of work to do.
2)  The pay is San Francisco minimum wage, currently $15.59 per hour.
3)  Almost all shifts are from noon to 8 pm, weekends included.
4)  After being trained, there would be two to three shifts per week.
And that's all the bad news.  There are a bunch of upsides, but we can talk about them in person.  If you're interested, please do email Alan Beatts (abeatts@borderlands-books.com) a resume-type-object along with a cover letter explaining why you'd like the job.

Oh, Poor North Carolina

by Alan Beatts

A fine local bookstore in North Carolina is suffering from the national reaction to a recent discriminatory law passed by the state legislature.  Though I understand the underlying  reasons, I think that there's some unfortunate ally-harming going on.  In a recent open letter, Linda-Marie Barrett, general manager of Malaprop's Bookstore, explained that authors canceling appearances could be very harmful and is perhaps not really justified.  http://www.shelf-awareness.com/issue.html?issue=2728#m32075

Speaking from personal experience, Malaprop's is a lovely shop that embodies everything that is good about independent bookstores.  It's located in Asheville, N.C., which is a hot-bed of liberal attitudes in a mostly conservative state.  Honestly, they might as well have a sign at the entrance to town saying, "San Franciscans Welcome".  But, due to the recent passage of HB2, many businesses, organizations and individuals have chosen to protest by refusing to do business in the state.  (For details about HB2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Facilities_Privacy_%26_Security_Act).  Probably the highest profile protest thus far was Bruce Springsteen's cancelation of his Greensboro concert  -- with only two days notice.

HB2 is a loathsome law.  The headlines about it have focused on bathroom access for transgender people but some of the other parts are much more serious.  Notably, it requires that a person's legal gender is fixed at birth and cannot be changed.  And it sharply restricts legal enforcement of the state's existing anti-discrimination statutes in the state courts.

I agree with the prevailing attitude that the best way to hit almost any government or organization is in the pocketbook and that refusing to conduct business in states that promote discrimination is an outstanding way to foster change.  But, just like anytime you start hitting someone or something, it's important to avoid collateral damage.

Bookstores have been a bastion of free expression and the free exchange of ideas from their very beginning.  Certainly, in the last century, bookstores have consistently stood up to attempts to censure thought, most notably in their resistance to banning books.  In addition, bookstores have opposed other attempts to restrict civil rights -- in the early part of this century many stores erased customer purchase records and stopped collecting that information due to concerns about over-reaching search warrants derived from the original Patriot Act.

Recently, Sherman Alexie canceled an event that he had scheduled with Malaprop's, for exactly the reasons you would expect.  While I applaud his convictions, both generally and in this specific case, I think that his situation is very different from Bruce Springsteen's.  We all know that bookselling has been suffering financial challenges for decades and we also know that independent bookstores are strong supporters of freedom of speech and other civil rights (with the exception of one type of specialty bookshop - I think you can guess what kind).  Author events are a hugely important source of income for bookstores.  They are also a critical part of a bookstore's mission to spread ideas and inspire readers and future writers.

I hope that other authors who might be considering canceling or refusing to do events in North Carolina would consider alternatives that would allow them to help overturn HB2 while still supporting the bookstores that are fellow-travelers in the fight for civil rights.  It seems to me that donating the royalty from each book sold to organizations opposed to HB2 would be a possibility; as would using the opportunity of a public event to speak out against HB2 and rally opposition.

It is ultimately the duty of each individual to decide what course their ethics demand and I support anyone who makes that sort of principled and ethical decision.  But I hope that my fellow professionals in the "business of words" will consider all the possibilities before making the decision to boycott North Carolina (or, for that matter, Mississippi).

Sponsorships

by Alan Beatts

Last month I announced that we had reached our goal of 300 sponsors and would remain open for at least another year.  I also explained that, because the sponsorship program had been so successful, I have raised our sights beyond merely remaining open until our lease ran out in five years.  Our sponsors have been so constant and enthusiastic that I'm not really concerned about the near-term viability of that model to support us in the face of mandatory wage increases.  Of course, something could change but overall our situation seems stable for the next few years.

With that concern addressed, I've been looking forward at the next major concern -- what we're going to do when our lease expires in 2021.  Given the current rental market in San Francisco and the historical trends (even during hard times economically), we will not be able to find a space that we can afford and that will house the store in 2021.  So, we are either going to need to move out of San Francisco, or we need to come up with another plan. Moving is unattractive, but I'll keep that as a backup.  My preferred plan is to buy a building to house the store (and, perhaps, similar businesses -- more on that next month).

If we're going to do that, we need to raise a bunch of money for the down payment.  I've done the math, and I'm sure that we can cover the mortgage, maintenance, and taxes with what we currently pay in rent.  But we've got to have that down payment.  I have many ideas about how to raise that money and I'll pursue them all, but there is one thing happening already that's helping a lot -- the sponsorships.  Right now we have more than 500 sponsors.  Last year we had 844.  If we can continue getting many more sponsors than we need to cover the higher payroll, we can make it most of the way to our goal.  And so, despite our success in reaching the 300 sponsors we needed to say open, if you've been considering becoming a sponsor, please do.  To perhaps help you with your decision, here are a few reasons to become a sponsor.

1)  You believe that the continued existence of physical bookstores is important.
The most common cause of bookstore closures is rent increases.  In addition, bookselling has always been an only-marginally-profitable business.  More and more people are choosing to live in urban areas (check out my article about that http://borderlands-books.blogspot.com/2015/08/urban-conservation.html ) and that is increasing rents in all cities in the US.  Bookstores, especially specialty bookstores, need a minimum population density to be viable (especially in these days of Amazon and ebooks, people are unlikely to drive 50 miles to shop) so it is harder for them to survive outside cities.  That shifting population trend combined with the limitations inherent in bookselling means that it is going to get harder and harder for bookstores to locate in cities and, by extension, it is going to make it harder for them to survive.

What's Going to Happen Now?

Now that everyone knows that we're closing, I'm sure that people are wondering about the details of how the process is going to work.  But, before I get into that, I want to apologize on my part and on part of the staff for having been deliberately deceptive.  The decision to close was made in mid-November, but we couldn't let anyone know about it until just recently. There were a several reasons for that but the biggest by far was that I was concerned that our suppliers would get nervous and be difficult about continuing to honor our credit limits.  As you can imagine, something like that happening right before the holiday season would have been very bad for us.  The other major reason we waited was that we knew that there would be many, many questions to answer as well as a huge amount of work that would start as soon as we let people know.  We waited until we were past the holiday season and until we'd had time to get all of our plans in place.

Although the reasons for keeping this to ourselves were good and necessary ones, it has pained me and the rest of the staff to imply by our actions and our words that everything was fine and that we were going to continue to do business as usual for the foreseeable future.  We are all very sorry that circumstances required it and we hope that you'll understand why it was necessary.

Our general plan is to sell all of the store's inventory along with most of the bookshelves and other fixtures.  Once we're done with that (which will not be later than March 31st and could be sooner), I'll be looking for good places to donate or sell any books that are left over.  At that point the bookstore will be mostly empty and we'll start using it as extra seating and meeting space for the cafe (which will be staying open until at least October, 2015).  I'm not exactly sure how long we'll be using the old bookstore space in that way.  I've got a few ideas of things we might do in the bookstore (pop-up retail space for local folks trying to get their businesses started is one thing that I'm considering) but I'll be playing that part by ear.  I also might be open to renting the space out for special events or, possibly, sub-leasing the entire space.  That said, please don't contact me now about sub-leasing and so forth.  Those decisions won't be made until late March at the earliest.

Borderlands Books to Close in March

Updated 2/1/15 at 1:16 pm

In 18 years of business, Borderlands has faced a number of challenges.  The first and clearest was in 2000, when our landlord increased our rent by 100% and we had to move to our current location on Valencia Street.  All of the subsequent ones have been less clear-cut but more difficult.  The steady movement towards online shopping, mostly with Amazon, has taken a steady toll on bookstores throughout the world and Borderlands was no exception.  After that and related to it, has been the shift towards ebooks and electronic reading devices.  And finally the Great Recession of 2009 hit us very hard, especially since we had just opened a new aspect to the business in the form of our cafe.

But, through all those challenges, we've managed to find a way forward and 2014 was the best year we've ever had.  The credit for that achievement goes to the fine and extraordinary group of people who have come together to work here.  Their hard work, combined with the flawless execution and attention to detail provided by Jude Feldman, Borderlands' General Manager, is the reason we've succeeded for these past 18 years.

Throughout the years we've managed to plan for the problems that we could predict and, when we couldn't plan for them, we've just worked our asses off to get through.  Overall, Borderlands has managed to defeat every problem that has come our way.  At the beginning of 2014, the future of the business looked, if not rosy, at least stable and very positive.  We were not in debt, sales were meeting expenses and even allowing a small profit, and, perhaps most importantly, the staff and procedures at both the bookstore and the cafe were well established and working smoothly.

So it fills us with sorrow and horror to say that we will be closing very soon.

In November, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly passed a measure that will increase the minimum wage within the city to $15 per hour by 2018.  Although all of us at Borderlands support the concept of a living wage in principal and we believe that it's possible that the new law will be good for San Francisco -- Borderlands Books as it exists is not a financially viable business if subject to that minimum wage.  Consequently we will be closing our doors no later than March 31st.  The cafe will continue to operate until at least the end of this year.

Dark Carnival Bookstore

by Alan Beatts

There are many differences between national retailers and local businesses.  (By the way, don't worry, this isn't going to turn into a call that you should shop locally this holiday season).  One difference is that small businesses tend to see other businesses as allies and as an important part of the fabric of their locality, rather than as competitors.  Booksellers especially see their fellows that way, even if you can make a very good argument that they _are_ competitors.

That's why I'm asking you to take a trip out to Berkeley and visit Dark Carnival <http://www.darkcarnival.com/>.

Lots of Neat Books

by Alan Beatts

I'm afraid that I don't have anything for this month's article because I'm too busy cataloging books.  Which is sort of neat in its own right.  Early in October I bought an entire collection (135 boxes worth of one, to be precise).  Suffice to say that is _a lot_ of books.  Right now the back room consists of stacks of boxes as high as my head with aisles so we can get to the back door.

So, I've been spending every minute that I can spare sorting books, checking prices, and getting them onto the shelves.  It's been fun.  I haven't done something like this in years and it's nice to get into the "bookseller groove".  It's also been fun to see how prices have changed.  It's not a surprise to me that a good copy of The Outsider And Others by Lovecraft is still selling for $2000.  After all, it was the first book that Arkham House ever published as well as being the first hardcover collection of Lovecraft's work.

It was, however, surprising that a first edition hardcover of my friend Richard Morgan's first novel, Altered Carbon, is now worth about $300.  It seems like just yesterday that we were selling those British hardcovers for cover price (plus shipping, but there you go).

I also ran across one of the nicest, brightest copies of The House On The Borderlands by William Hope Hodgson that I've seen in a long time.  It's a lovely early Arkham House title with full color cover art by Hieronymus Bosch Hannes Bok.  Sadly the cover is quite sensitive to fading in bright sunlight so most of the copies out there have very faded spines.  This one, however, does not.

There have been lots of other neat things like --

A first edition of The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie (I was doing security work for Tower Records when people were making bomb threats about that one)
A first of Rosemary's Baby
A complete set of Burton's translation of The Arabian Nights (all 17 volumes)
A hardcover set of Ken MacLeod's Fall Revolution novels (which I took for my own collection)
A nearly complete run of all of Subterranean Press' titles, including the three-volume boxed sets of their first two published novellas
Quite a few nice, signed Fritz Leiber novels, including one of my favorites, Night's Black Agents.
A few signed books by Ray Bradbury
First hardcovers of all four of the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons.

As you may guess, it's a nice collection and I'm quite pleased to have it in the store.  I'll be getting it inventoried and up on the shelves over the next month or so.  If you're looking for some nice books, you might want to stop in once a week or so.  Or, check our inventory online.

Until next month, it's back to the computer.

Stability In Bookselling?

by Alan Beatts

The last few years have seen some pretty big shakeups in the bookselling industry.  Probably the biggest shakeup has been ebooks' rise in adoption, driven by Amazon's commitment to the market and the popularity of tablet computers.  Added to that, the closure of Borders Books, the increased success of self-publishing and the contraction of the whole publishing business in the wake of the Great Recession have made for a bumpy time for everyone in the business of books.

However, I think that we're heading into a much more stable time for the business.  I don't foresee anything on the horizon in the near term that will cause any significant changes.  Of course, it's very difficult to predict innovations and so it's certainly possible that something will appear next week that will knock the whole business on its ear again.  But I'd be happy to bet that we'll have a few years, perhaps as many as five, before something truly notable happens.  Here's why --

B&N, Marriage, and World War Z

by Alan Beatts

Barnes & Noble's Financial Report

B&N had a very poor year based on their recent financial filings.  Their 2013 fiscal year (which ended on April 27th) showed a total loss of $154.8 million dollars, compared to last year, which showed less than half that loss ($65.6 million in 2012).  Much of that was a result of sales of their e-reader, the Nook, falling off a cliff (sales down 16.8%).  But sales at their retail stores were also poor: same-store sales (the comparison between stores that have been open for at least a year) were down 3.4%.

Most telling to me, however, are the figures for the last quarter of this year.  In the 4th quarter alone, ebook sales (both devices and ebooks) were down 34% and same-store retail sales were down 8.8%.  That looks like an accelerating slide to me.  If you dig through the accountant-speak in the report, some of the retail store sales drop was tied to poor Nook performance, but that could also be wishful thinking.  Likewise, that quarter lacked some big sellers like Fifty Shades of Gray and such but still . . . it's not looking very good.  What will tell us a great deal is what the quarterly reports for the next two look like.  If the drop continues or increases, it'll be a very bad sign for the company's future.

Clearance Section and Sidewalk Sale

I mentioned previously that we had made part of the space for our mystery section by sorting through our horror and used paperback sections.  As a result, we came across quite a few books that we either had more copies of than we needed or that had been sitting on our shelves for too long.  Right now they are all in a clearance section at the right rear of the store and they're half-price.  That discount will be increasing as we get closer to May 11th, which is the date of the big Valencia St. sidewalk sale.  At noon on that day we're going to be putting all the clearance books out for _crazy_ low prices.  But for now, come on by and take a look at what you can pick-up for a discount.  And, I should point out, these are not "bad" books . . . well, some of them are . . . but many of them are books that, for whatever reason, just didn't sell quickly enough.  There are quite a few titles from small presses like Ash-Tree, Delirium, Cemetery Dance and Subterranean as well as a huge assortment of SF and fantasy paperbacks.

Mysterious Borderlands

by Alan Beatts

Given some of my recent comments here and elsewhere, it will probably come as no surprise that we're opening a mystery section at Borderlands.  What might be a surprise, however, is how fast we're doing it.  As of today, we've got 144 feet of shelves set aside for hardcovers and large format paperbacks as well as 94 feet for small format (i.e. "mass market") paperbacks.  That works out as room for, roughly, 1700 hardcovers and 1500 paperbacks.

Of course, the shelves aren't quite full yet but we've already got almost 1000 individual titles in stock and there are more coming in almost every day.  By the end of the month, I expect to have more than 1500 on hand and the section will continue to grow from there.  My goal is to have as good a selection of mysteries, thrillers, and similar titles as we do of SF and fantasy by the end of the summer.

Little, Fast Mammals

by Alan Beatts

Last month I shared some pretty grim figures about the rate that print book sales are decreasing.  I also pointed out that, if sales continue to drop at that rate, by 2015 print sales will have dropped by 44% overall since 2009.  Sales shrinking to that degree will make it very hard for bookstores to stay open. However I also suggested that it could be an opportunity for smaller bookstores as well as specialty and used bookshops.

This month I'm going to go into detail about how those sorts of stores can continue to survive, and even grow, despite the contraction of the printed book business.

"Mostly dead is slightly alive" or How Faith Beats Math

by Alan Beatts

A recent spate of articles make much of reports from Nielson Bookscan about last years print book sales.  It seems that the rate of decline has seemingly leveled out.  At a paltry 9% per year.  Hooray!  According to Nielson, sales of all categories of books have dropped by that amount each year since 2009.

Ann Betts, who is Nielson's commercial director was quoted as saying, "In the context of a stagnant economy, challenging retail conditions and the growing adoption of ebooks [it] shows an underlying resilience in the market,"

The same news, combined with a Pew Research Center survey, was heralded by the Wall Street Journal in an article titled "Don't Burn Your Books—Print Is Here to Stay".  That article goes on to say that "The initial e-book explosion is starting to look like an aberration."  The author notes just one paragraph earlier that the annual growth rate for e-book sales fell  down to the abysmal pit of _only_ 34%.  Wow.  I wish my business could get some of that aberration action.

The Christian Science Monitor is less enthusiastic in an article titled "Print book sales fell in 2012 – but no faster than they did in 2011, says Nielsen" though they do close with, "Only time will tell exactly what roles print and e-books will play in the lives of readers."

You know, the last time I fell out of an airplane, I was deeply relived when the speed that I fell the second 1000 feet was no faster than the first 1000 feet.  And I thought to myself, "So far, so good.  Only time will tell how this will end."

Print On Demand Might Come to a Store Near You

by Alan Beatts

A few weeks ago I posted something about in-store print-on-demand machines that got a fair amount of attention and interest (Print-On-Demand Not Coming to a Store Near You).  The problem was that the only hard figures I could find for that post were based on two rather old articles.  In the interest of accuracy, I contacted On Demand Books, the manufacturer of the Espresso Book Machine, to get up-to-date information.  The result was a long and very pleasant phone chat with Jason Beatty, the company's Sales VP,  that clarified a number of things.

First off, I was wrong.  There does seem to be a financially viable way for large and mid-sized stores to have an Espresso Book Machine on site.  However, it is not based on the business model that I expected.

Constructing a Literary Ecosystem with Andrew Fox

Our friend (and talented author), Andrew Fox, posted an interesting piece on his blog about where the book business is going.  It's worth reading just for his commentary, ninety percent of which he and I agree on (though I don't think that the economics of in-store print of demand "book machines" will ever work out for smaller stores).

But even more interesting is the end of the post where he talks about what he'd like to see happen, and what people can do to make it happen.  Constructive discussions like this are too rare in our field and I appreciate how Andrew is approaching it.

What do you think about his ideas?

Another Future for Bookstores

by Alan Beatts

If you've read this column much over the past few years, you know that my outlook for bookstores in the long term isn't very optimistic.  I think that the combination of internet sales and ebooks is going to result in most bookstores closing (although I'm not sure how soon that will happen).  I figure that a few smaller stores will stay open by gearing their business towards truly rare antiquarian material along with small press, high quality new books.

However, during a conversation with a fellow bookseller a few weeks ago, I realized that there was another possible future for some bookstores.

Why Best Sellers Matter

by Alan Beatts

The New York Times Best Seller list has been produced every week since 1942.  Even with massive influence on book buying habits by Amazon, a Stanford Business School analysis strongly suggests that most book buyers look to the Times list for book purchase suggestions.  Although the effect of getting a book on that list is not huge for well-established authors, it can make the career of a new or previously mid-list author.  Making the list leads directly to larger advance payments, bigger print runs, and greater publicity expenditures for later books, not to mention much higher sales numbers for the current book and the consequent greater royalty payments.

Short of prestigious awards like the Pulitzer or Nobel Prize, there is probably nothing that can have a greater instant effect on an author's future and income.

The exact details of how placement calculation is performed for the Times list is a trade secret, kept by the News Surveys department of that paper.  Even the staff of the Book Reviews section, which publishes the list, doesn't know how it is calculated.  In general however, each week sales figures are collected from a selection of independent and chain bookstores (of which Borderlands is one), along with other sales outlets such as drug stores, supermarkets and gift shops.  Wholesalers are also included but the figures are weighted so that the final figure is based more on books sold to actual readers, rather than the number of books shipped to stores (which might languish on the shelves for a month or more before being returned).   A result is the Times list's reputation as one of the best, if not the best, measures of a book's immediate popularity.