Comments on: Thursday Throwdown: Shelve the Books Already

By: Booklover1335

Booklover1335 — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:31:44 +0000

I am with you on this one Jackie. I can’t tell you how many times I have gone to an actual bookstore to purchase a book (new release or not) and not be able to find it. This is especially frustrating when you make a specific trip to this one store to buy a specific book. Instead I now buy at my superstore, like Target or Walmart, or if it is a book I know they won’t have then I order it online.

I am tired of going out of my way to patronize a business, only to be turned away because they are not prepared. My time and money is valuable and will instead go where I now I can find what I want when I want.

By: Karen Erickson

Karen Erickson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:45:14 +0000

I’m with you, Jackie. What about the bookstores not stocking a book at all? Lauren Dane just blogged about this – Borders stocked her previous books but her latest release is available online only. What’s up with that?

Going to my local Borders today, I noticed they did that with my friend Tracy’s book Tie Me Down. Online only it said on the computer in the store. Talk about screwing authors. Sigh…

By: admin

admin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:38:24 +0000

I’d guess the ‘average’ reader probably doesn’t pay much attention to release dates, but I do think if you have a favorite author or have read/heard something good about a particular book that’s coming out, you might well know when it’s supposed to be released. I also know that I’m much more aware of shelving dates than I used to be because authors tend to list them on their websites.

I just think if you go into a bookstore looking for a particular book that should be out, don’t find it, and are told “well, we haven’t broken down that box yet, sorry” with no attempt made to actually bring the book out for you–it’s a lost sale for the bookseller. And in the long run, I think that has to hurt the booseller (although it also probably hurts the author, who just lost a sale; maybe the person buys it somewhere else or maybe the person just gives up, it’s hard to know which is more likely).

By: Clisby

Clisby — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:07:08 +0000

I don’t know – I read a lot, and buy a lot from bookstores (both amazon and brick & mortar), and I’ve never paid any attention to release dates. (Except for Harry Potter, which we ordered way ahead).

Do that many ordinary readers even know the release dates of books? That is, unless it’s a blockbuster like HP, would they have any idea it wasn’t shelved?