Is This the Bookstore of the Future?

Many think there may not be any more bookstores in our future. E-books, E-magazines, Internet search engines, and organizations such as The Gutenberg Project and Google's current project to scan and digitize all public domain books and periodicals all point to the likelihood that books stores may no longer be necessary. Amazon, Sony, Phillip, and a number other manufacturers are producing and marketing ebook readers which will make accessing, reading, and enjoying the aforementioned e-periodicals easy and convenient. Also as the populous become more adapt and acceptable to reading materials from a screen rather then from a printed page, the demise of the bookstore appears to almost be a certainty.

As independent bookstores continue to close their doors at alarming rates, some still remain hopeful. Canadian based magazine publishers, Quill and Quire is one such hopeful. They have a plan for the bookstore of the future and they believe it can be developed. At their bookstore of the future, books will not be stocked on the shelves for your browsing pleasure; instead books will be manufactured in house on a print on demand basis.

The Internet, who continues to portray the antagonist in the story of the demise of literature, will in fact play a crucial part in the operation and functionality of the bookstore of the future. It will be utilized to create multifunctional web sites that will serve as the customer's entry point to the bookstore's massive collection of books printed on demand. Within each store, the customer will be able to browse the website, search for the books and periodicals they want, examine and sample their content, thumb through available copies, and consult with bookstore staff all before making their purchase.

Once the selection is made and confirmed, the bookstore will download the book file from the publisher's web site, print it and immediately hand it over to the customer. The customer will also have the option to choose the manufacturers preferred book cover or customize their own. This new book selling paradigm will eliminate waste which is very common in book publishing due to over printing. The expense of shipping and storing large inventory of stock will also be done away with. There will no longer be a need for the middlemen or the printers. This should reduce the cost of books. Also more independent authors will be able to bypass publishers entirely and share their offerings directly with the market.

The bookstore of the future will require a massive undertaking in order to transition into reality. Bookstores must become more exciting, they must reinvent themselves if they wish to avoid the fate which has been predicted for them. To maintain a place in this information rich world and become the favored venue for readers to travel to and for authors and publishers to reach their intended audience, the bookstore of the future must regenerate itself with feeling, creativity, and collaboration.

Resource: The Bookstore of the Future - Quill and Quire Magazine - May, 2009

Tags: bookstore, Amazon, eBooks, e-readers, Gutenberg project