SEDALIA DEMOCRAT

Book biz adjusts to era of e-readers

By JOHN HANSEN

MARCH 27, 2013

The Sedalia book scene has certainly noticed the rise of e-book readers in recent years, but the industry’s emergence in the digital realm hasn’t driven paper-and-ink tomes to an early grave. Sedalia’s used book store, Trade-A-Book; its new book store, Reader’s World; and its two public libraries have rolled with the punches.

Old-fashioned books have survived locally in part because of the older, technology-shy demographic of Sedalia and Pettis County.

“We still have a number of people who read the (physical) books, because fortunately in our area, there’s an enormous amount of senior citizens that read, and they don’t necessarily like the e-readers,” said Trade-A-Book owner Arlena Sowash, who will mark 30 years in business in October.

Furthermore, reflecting a national trend, the printed page has continued to stay afloat locally because e-readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook turned out to be niche products more so than revolutionary products.

Reader’s World manager Laura Brown was surprised by this, but she said it makes sense in retrospect.

“We have a lot of people who come in who have a Kindle or Nook or an e-reader on their phone, but they still like to have a book in their hand,” said Brown, who has worked at the store, previously called Sedalia Book & Toy, for 15 years. “I know we’ve lost business, but it’s not as bad as I thought. And from reading the trade journals, that’s the way it is all over. It was kind of a novelty, I guess, and they came back to their books. They like to browse.”

E-readers certainly have advantages, including portability, flexibility of format (such as changing font sizes) and immediate access — anytime, anywhere, as long as you have an Internet connection and a credit card.

“It’s really neat if you’re on vacation,” said Sedalia Public Library director Pam Hunter, who is in her 12th year at the helm. “You can load up 10 books and don’t have to carry 10 books in your bag.”

“If we don’t have it on the shelf or we’re closed, that makes a difference,” Brown said.

For library staffers and patrons, e-books mean more convenience.

“You buy so many copies of a bestseller and then once everybody’s read it, it takes up more space on the shelf,” Hunter said. “And we weed them and put them in a book sale.”

The library’s website (sedaliapubliclibrary.com) added e-book borrowing two years ago (the Boonslick Regional Library likewise offers e-books), but it especially saw a surge in recent months. The most basic model of Kindle can now be had for $69, and the product did boffo business in December. While web-based libraries of e-books might eventually replace physical libraries — and her job along with it — Hunter sees the e-option as a good thing.

“Man, did we have a surge of people coming in right after Christmas,” Hunter said.

“Everybody got a Kindle for a gift because they came down in price, but nobody knew how to use them. So they brought them in and we helped get them started. That was a surge we hadn’t anticipated, but we’re glad, because we want (our e-book catalog) to be used.”

Bookworms are experiencing a surprise similar to what music fans dealt with during the switch from CDs to digital albums: Despite the fact that an e-book costs much less to produce than a physical book, the selling price is not drastically different. Sometimes the price is identical across formats.

“Especially with the paperbacks and the trade-sized books, they are very similar in price to an e-book, unless it’s older. In that case, it’s going to be more cost effective to buy it on their e-reader,” Brown said.

There are some limitations to e-books. Most notably, they can’t be shared as easily, and they can’t be traded at all. Once you own it, you own it for good.

“A lot of my customers like to buy and trade, or give them to family and friends,” Sowash said. “And they can’t do that with e-readers because they have to give them the whole machine.”

Sowash thought she had lost some customers to a digital changeover, only to see them return to her store.

“People got into (e-books) in-depth two years ago and a lot of those people have now come back. They may still have their Kindles, but I think they figured out it was just as expensive to have the books on the Kindles as it was to have them (in book form). And they can at least trade their books in and get a little bit for them.”

Trading and reselling aren’t in the e-book business model, at least not yet.

“They’ll never do it, but it would be neat if e-book (publishers) would let you trade in so many for a new title and switch out that way,” Hunter said. “But I can’t see that, because they’re in it for the money.”

While flexible font sizes help some people, other people’s eyes are more comfortable with a printed page than a screen. Furthermore, while e-books have page numbers, they don’t provide the physical sense of where you are in the book.

“When I read something and think about it later, I can’t flip back (as easily) on an e-reader,” said Brown, who received an e-reader as a gift. “With a physical book, I have an idea of where I read that. And my eyes don’t get along with screens, wearing contacts. For a person who needs large print, though, I would recommend an e-reader.”

Without question, e-readers have filled a niche in the industry. But do they foretell the death knell of printed books? Sedalia’s book professionals agree: Yes, printed books will eventually die out; however, it won’t happen anytime soon.

“People ask ‘Where do you see libraries in 15, 25 years? Do you see no books?’ And I just can’t see that,” Hunter said. “You’re still going to have readers who like to hold their books and they don’t have the wherewithal for technology. Then again, when today’s kindergartners become seniors citizens, it may change.”

While Brown fears for the future of printed magazines (the Reader’s World stock has dropped by one-third during the last decade), she feels good about books.

“Honestly, I thought we would’ve been hit a lot harder by the e-readers, so I think it’ll stay the same or maybe get better if customer service improves,” she said. “Amazon can recommend a book for you, but having a conversation with someone and getting to know them — Amazon can’t do that. Sometimes people want to talk, and they can’t talk to their computer. And some people just like to shop local. So I think I’m a little bit more positive because I was so pessimistic about it in the past.”

If Reader’s World does good business, that’s good news for Trade-A-Book. The two stores in the State Fair Shopping Center don’t see each other as competition; rather, they feed off each other. Although Trade-A-Book is a used book store, its survival depends on the publication of new books; by the same token, some people buy brand-new books at Reader’s World knowing they can get trade value out of them at Trade-A-Book.

“We send a lot of people their way, and they’ve sent a lot of people to us,” Brown said. “We’ve called each other looking for books for customers.”

Sowash believes that although her store currently fills a need by being the only Sedalia store specializing in secondhand tomes, the days are numbered for used book stores.

“I know of used book stores within the last five years that have closed,” she said. “The only way a used book store can work is for someone to buy those books new. One thing I’ve noticed is that 30 years ago, people collected books. They quit that a long time ago because books got more expensive, and they started trading. So I’m fortunate enough to get a fairly good supply of (recently published) books here.”

The local book bigwigs might be biased, but Sowash, Brown and Hunter all prefer the printed page to e-readers. Aside from weighing pros and cons, it’s mostly a case of habit and emotion.

“Let’s just be honest — when you open up a book, there’s that wonderful smell of a new book,” Hunter said. “And you just don’t get that with a Kindle.”