Day: August 6, 2006

Target and books

~ Eoin Purcell ~ 3 Comments

I remember reading somewhere (tried to track it down but cannot) that 75% of people would buy more books (or even one) in a supermarket if the selection was greater.

Well I was in Target, Evanston Illinois last night (if you don’t enjoy late night Friday shopping then you would not enjoy a Target at 9.30pm Friday) and was amazed at their selection. It was huge compared to any supermarket/department store I have been in. And what is more I bought a book, I nearly bought more too.

The proudly purcahsed book was David McCullough’s 1776 which I have been planning to buy for ages. I got the paperback at $14.00 or so which although more expensive than Amazon is a damn sight chesper than most bookstores.

I very nearly bought the complete set of Narnia book stoo but thought I could affor dto wait on those if I ordered them over the web. Their selection was good, the atmosphere decent and the ability to browse freely was welcome. In short I think I proved the research correct.

Happy with books
Eoin

More on the backlist

~ Eoin Purcell ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes it seems a wave crashes over the web and a topic ripples with it. The amount of comment on books and digitisation and backlists has been huge. I won’t repeat the links but the last few posts address them. I guess one of the important movers in this current discussion is the HarperCollins’ announcement regarding its “innovative” plans for Search Inside and extracts of books on their site.(you can read the details here)

What intrigues me about this though is that it is not revolutionary. Nothing announced is new. No publisher is really pushing the boat out in terms of change, certainly not any of the largest five publishers that’s for sure. Where is the radical change that the web seems to hold its breath for?

It’s nowhere. Oh there is some messing on the edges, a little change and innovation, some people trying to figure out how to move the industry on but overall progress is slow and mostly stalled.

The more I think on it, the more I hope to see an outsider or an insider change the game completely, to shift the goal posts. The announcement by HarperCollins is welcome but it is hardly that.

In top form
Eoin