E vs. P: Snarky vids alone can’t save the Green Apple bookstore
Planning an overnight layover in San Francisco a few years back, I asked a friend from the Bay Area what the best used bookstore in town was.
Without hesitation, he said, “Green Apple Books.”
So I went there. It’s just what you’d expect: the slightly standoffish clerks, the vast selection of Buddhist-themed tomes, the glowing Sherman Alexie recommendations.
I surrendered to that wonderful vertigo every avid reader experiences when there are too many good books to count, not enough time, and not enough money. I walked out exhilarated with two bulging bags of used paperbacks.
So I was intrigued to see that Green Apple is mounting an anti-Kindle campaign via YouTube.
Their point, evidently, is that a Kindle will get you nowhere in a used bookstore. Fair enough, and amusingly presented. (Irony #1: Green Apple using electronic technology to refute the value of e-books. Irony #2 the Kindle transforming hipster Left Coasters into the fuddy-duddy conservatives of the book world.)
Of course, Green Apple doesn’t mention that the Kindle and other e-readers have the potential to make places such as Green Apple obsolete, the recent brouhaha surrounding Amazon’s 1984-like silent zapping of 1984 notwithstanding.
E-readers have all kinds of issues to work out before that ever happens, needless to say. But traditional bookstores can’t just void their existence with dollops of meta-snarkasm. I, for one, hope that Green Apple and others like it find a way to adapt and survive. But they’re going to have to do it in a world of e-readers. I don’t know that trading on their hipster appeal is going to be enough to keep them afloat.
The videos here are Parts One and Two a planned series of ten. Stayed tuned to Green Apple’s YouTube channel and their blog for updates.
Related: Earlier post on the Green Apple YouTube series.
Editor’s note: Actually I’ve written before on how wonderful indie bookstores like Green Apple might make the transition to E and POD, while still selling P books to those who wanted them. - DR
August 1st, 2009 at 12:41 pm
First of all, I think you really need to evaluate what constitutes a “hipster.” Trading on our hipster appeal? We’re just goofing around and showing how the Kindle is inefficient. Of course we’re not really making a serious argument: throughout these ten videos, our real goal with these is to get people thinking while entertaining them.
We’re a generalist store that’s been open since 1967. We welcome anyone and everyone. Our store is literally built from used books from the community surrounding us. We’re not a “hipster bookstore”– in fact, I don’t even know what that means. Do we sell only obscure titles and scoff at anyone who brings up a New York Times bestseller? Of course not! Most of our sales come from the new releases floor alone.
We’re not against e-Books. We’re not against technology. We’re not a bunch of old people raving about walking 15 miles in the snow to school. We’re specifically against Amazon’s ridiculous piece of technology that is riddled with problems while touting itself as the convienient new way to read.
I think our friend Stephen said it best: “In the end I think this whole thing boils down to two not necessarily mutually exclusive camps - those who embrace a new format and those who are OK with an old one. I don’t know if we’re trying to convert anyone as much as entertain them, but we’re a bookstore, we sell books. We really like them.”
August 1st, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Agree. Finding a way to allow local bookstores with (hopefully) knowledgable staff and a pleasant environment to prosper in the eBook future is a challenge–a challenge that belittling eBooks is more likely to worsen than solve. Because a key attribute is the ability to buy from wherever you are, the role of the local bookstore will have to change.
I personally think that no resale (meaning the author gets royalties based on every new reader rather than letting used bookstores collect all the profit from future sales) along with affordable prices for each purchase, is the path to eBook success.
People don’t go to the music store to buy iPod downloads. Likewise, we need to come up with a reason if we expect them to go to the bookstore to buy eBook downloads.
Rob Preece
Publisher
August 1st, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Too many people still think of ebooks as p-books minus paper. They need to be educated before they talk themselves out of business by focusing on the wrong things.
August 1st, 2009 at 5:59 pm
I really don’t see how ebook readers are a threat to Used book stores. Other than the drop in sales of out of copyright materials, it would seem to me that most used book stores offer a better deal than E-Books in terms of price. You don’t go to a used bookstore to get what you want, when you want it. You go to a used bookstore to find treasures you didn’t even know you wanted until you’re staring them eye-to-cover on a dusty shelf.
August 1st, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Hello Roman. Thanks for responding. I don’t know if you claim total innocence of hipsterism, though. Let’s see. I watched the videos again. No, you can’t. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Places like Green Apple are going to have to have a niche in the post-Amazon world, and having some cred, or whatever you want to call it, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It what distinguishes a place like Green Apple from Barns & Noble or online book buying. I’ve been in dozens and dozens of Barnes and Nobles around the world; I can’t remember anything about anything of them in particular (they’re like McDonald’s that way). But I remember very well my one visit to Green Apple. So I say you should play to your strengths. There may come a time when an Amazon algorithim can replace a knowledgeable bookstore clerk, but that day isn’t here yet.