Where have all the booksellers gone?
Each delegate at this year’s BA conference has a lanyard denoting their business e.g. bookseller, publishers, press, etc. Blue is for bookseller – but there seem to be precious few of them about, out of the 430 attendees to the conference, a quick count by me put the booksellers in attendance at about 100, less than 25% of the whole. Is that normal for a trade conference? It seems unlikely that at the next publisher conference booksellers will out number the publishers.
It’s a real pity, as the presentations so far have been of the highest quality I can remember, and could kick off a real debate about the future of the trade, and specifically what bookselling should look like in the future. However if booksellers aren’t here then it’s going to prove difficult to start talking.
I don’t know why they aren’t here, and I’m happy for people to disagree and say that there are as many here as always, reasons could be as obvious as the decline in independents, the sunny weather, busy shops etc. Any booksellers not here care to comment as to why not? (Sorry don’t mean that to sound chastising! Just wondering why…)
Kieron
Speaking personally there is no room in my business life for any trade association which will not accept the principle of firm sale, or one which believes that it can cater for the needs all sectors – independent, corporate chain, supermarket, and internet merchandiser – under the one umbrella.
Why should I spend hundreds of pounds attending a trade jamboree when – a la Erasmus – I can spend that money on book stock ?