Diary of a Mad Editor

This year is really blowing by quick. Next week it will be Labor Day, the unofficial end of Summer. Pretty soon, will be whipping out the long john and getting ready to send out holiday cards. That will be good news for bookstores, as the holiday season is when they tend to do most of their business . . . or, maybe not. According to Simba Information, a media firm that studies trends in the the book trade, found that more and more, bookstore patrons are using physical bookstores as a showroom. They do their browsing in physical bookstores then buy the book or e-book online. That does not surprise me in the least. After my friend’s book store went out of business over a decade ago, I all but stopped buying from traditional book stores. I’d go to Barnes and Noble and look around, but I’d inevitably buy my books from Amazon. Although, Simba admits that this casual browsing trend only accounts for about 10% of the book market, it is a sobering fact for many bookstores.