Six more months of the bookshop, and then ...

Mon 1 Jul 2013, 19:44 (last edited on Tue 2 Jul 2013, 14:19)

Jon, it saddens me to read your post. There's more than an air to it of a passing age, and that's always tinged with sadness. I'll also be sorry, as will much of the town, to see your shop disappear. It's good to see that you have a realistic understanding of the circumstances though, and that you'll step out into a new life in a positive frame of mind. As for the books, that's a tough one. There's no substitute for the tactile experience of holding one in your hands and hearing the paper as you slowly leaf through it. The smell; the way paper sends back the light so softly; the analogue nature of advancing through the book, the left side thickening while the right gets gradually thinner; the moment when you return to the blurb on the back for the second time, the whole volume subtly worn instead of pristine; the rows of spines looking out at you from your shelves, offering company always on your terms; the thrill of turning to a forgotten bookmark and finding echoes from your own past. And yet I already do my reading by the byte. I enjoy the efficiency of the device that has the conveniences both of impermanence and permanence. I have my library in my pocket. I can mark my volumes without leaving a mark, and search for a half-remembered phrase without recourse to my own unreliable memory. I can make the letters bigger when I've misplaced my glasses (usually on top of my head), and explore the classics for free. The volumes on my shelves are like the old friends I no longer write to, but still think of fondly. So I think you're right; bookshops will become a curiosity and a haunt of the purist, like those record shops that still stock vinyl. And that means it's more important than ever to treasure and share the ideas we take from books, when there are no longer shops to pass them on, just readers.

Thu 27 Jun 2013, 21:01

Jon, thanks for sharing this.

One of my pipe-dreams has been to retire to Charlbury (I don't live (t)here yet) and to offer to buy your business off you ... but I find it hard to imagine (a) how I would make it pay realistically, and (b) how running a shop is compatible with having more time for myself and my family. Your post was very informative.

However, I am interested in books, and I sell on my own account to the tune of few thousand a year, and I also run a small publishing company ... all as a hobby while having a proper day job.

I'll follow this thread with great interest, and perhaps contact you for a chat.

Thu 27 Jun 2013, 18:20

I realise that I have been sharing my thoughts on the future of the bookshop with friends recently, and as a result I'll soon be guilty of starting my own rumours.

So here is the truth, unvarnished by rumour!

Not long ago, a good day's takings here were between £150 and £200. Sometimes a lot more. Nowadays a good day can be around £50, often a lot less. There are still a number of regulars who order their books from me, but the really noticeable and substantial difference is the disappearance of that very special variety of bookshopper, the browser.

And it is the browser who makes the bookseller's life worthwhile, both financially but also because the bookseller is always selecting and stocking new books (and backlist) to catch the eye of interested browser. It is enjoyable and challenging and fun. Take away the browser and the enjoyment, the challenge and the fun disappear too.

Although in financial terms, I don't lose money sitting here, it can get very quiet at times and I wonder what is the point. And if I pay someone to stand in for me on the occasional day off or holiday, then I do actually lose money every hour they are here.

I'd like to think -- as I once did -- that one day I'd retire, and that Charlbury is the kind of place where someone else might like to take the shop over. Perhaps that is still the case, and perhaps someone will come forward. Let's see.

I shall continue to Christmas and into January, and then make a strategic withdrawal! Angela and I have a month planned in South Africa, and I'd like to spend my 70th birthday in May covering at least a part of the Camino de Santiago. (Well, maybe! Dream on!). Retirement is a time to explore, to expand one's horizons, to step out.

So there you are. It is impossible to predict the future of bookshops in this country. We are the only country in Western Europe that has voted (literally) to give a free rein to Amazon in the name of competition. Neither the French nor the Germans, the Dutch nor the Spanish, the Swedes nor the Swiss have taken this route to the future, and of course it shows in other ways too. I'd imagine that at least half the independent bookshops in the UK will have closed within a year, and Waterstones will keep shedding staff until all they have got left to shed are their shops.

But it is not just Amazon. There are good reasons too why bookshops will, even should, close. Ebooks are maintained at artificially high prices yet cost almost nothing to produce and sell. Prices will tumble when publishers no longer see any point in trying to shore up the price of the printed editions -- when so few people buy the paper copies that it no longer matters. It is all a question of tipping points. Thanks to ebooks, prices should tumble and books become more accessible and affordable than ever. And the elderly can change the size of the print, while the reader itself is lighter than most books... There is good news here.

OK, so Charlbury keeps its bookshop at least until the new year. If you have any thoughts on how a bookshop might continue here beyond then, or whether it is even worth considering that option, let me know. But do remember that running a shop is not something you do in theory, it's something you do in practice.

That's all for now. Meanwhile all feedback welcome...