Quote Quartet: Four Booksellers Look to the Future

Shelf Awareness

Front Porch interviewed four booksellers "to examine the many forces that shape literature, and to highlight the perceptive and passionate people to whom we owe the books on our shelves."

"Even with all of the so-called new media out there, books still have the potential to be the most powerful medium of them all. Complex ideas are explored over hundreds of pages and over several days, giving the ideas time to sink in and take root, changing a person. Being exposed to an idea or concept through social media or an article just doesn't have the same impact. Meeting authors who yield this power wisely is still a thrill."

--Don Allen, publications director, Busboys and Poets, Washington, D.C.

"We are a very word-based culture, probably to a fault, and words have become the primary source for interpreting our world. Reading for pleasure may be waning since it requires more patience than the immediate-gratification culture the Internet promotes. Still, there seems to be a large young audience that reads traditionally, so I think that it's still a central part of our culture, though definitely being pushed out of the main stream."

--Michel Candor, owner of Salamander Used Books, Baltimore, Md.

"Print on demand is already being embraced by publishers, and a couple independent stores have purchased the Espresso book machines. I would not be surprised to see backlist stock slowly erode from publishers' warehouses, until they outsource the printing at the moment of a retailer’s order. Currently that is cost-prohibitive, but the business model you describe is not sustainable. With a more targeted approach, I don't see why the printed book cannot survive alongside its digital companion."

--Carson Moss, book buyer, Strand Bookstore, New York, N.Y.

"Publishers produce less because of e-books, and we will have fewer printed copies to give away. There won't be as many books in people’s homes, and reading and literacy will be affected. You know, illiteracy breeds illiteracy. For our self-preservation, we need future readers, so the more people we can educate, the more future readers we'll have."

--Kathy Doyle Thomas, executive v-p, Half Price Books