Day 9 of Road Trip: Silence and John Carter of Mars
The silence is on the bookstore front. We’re ensconced in Universal resort and refuse to leave. The biosphere of always playing rock music, how can I help you’s, and charging humans with Harry Potter on their minds, has us in its web. I can’t remember what day it is or what day of the week. Are they the same thing?
A fountain near Universal’s Sinbad stunt show is called Willie – Wet Willie. And it talks to you. For real. Nobody goes too close to it because it can shoot a stream of water at you if it doesn’t like what you say and it’s extremely sarcastic. Oh and it speaks in an Irish accent so it sounds funny even while he’s insulting you. Hah.
Yesterday we got up early and charged with the crowds to get to the gate at 7:45am and were one of a few hundred waiting in line already. Still we had no wait getting onto the Hogwartz ride – and it was awesome. Actually what was even more cool (because a virtual reality ride is what it is) were the details of Hogwartz that you can see as you walk through the line and wait. The talking pictures, Dumbledore’s office and study, Hermione, Ron, and Harry giving us advice from the Dark Arts classroom – all just terrific details. Having a dragon breathe fire into my face from three feet was a bit terrifying (as can be seen from the picture of the three of us at just that point that they tried to sell us (no thank you!)). Max and I went on the hippogriff coaster and that just about screwed my head on backwards – always a good thing for a small, tightly wound, low to the ground coaster (I love coasters – not one of the kind you put under cups but the kind with wheels).
Oh, and after all this we went to them movies and saw the new Spy Kids movie (not as good as the other ones but fun anyway). And that’s when I saw it.
A large poster of the John Carter of Mars movie. Since I was a kid when I read the first book from Edgar Rice Burroughs – A Princess of Mars – I was hooked on his tale and have been waiting for a movie of the book ever since. I can’t believe it’s actually coming. The opening date in March 2012. Max and I will be there. Check out this trailer for the movie John Carter of Mars. Tars Tarkas of Thark! I just love saying that also. Almost as much as Wingardium Leviosa – which by the way is hard to spell unless you look it up – which I did.
Nothing literary to report. I’m off duty of the bookstore pitching tour until we head back on Sunday. Then maybe one or two on the way home as we follow the hurricane north. I hope all on the path are taking cover and taking care.
Day 7: Harry Potter and E-books
Okay. Harry Potter was cool for what we did but the lines were crazy. It’s 90 degrees and wall to wall people at each of the stores (oh what a merchandising heaven) and a 90 minute wait to get into Hogwartz, the ride – which wasn’t that bad – we were told. We made it 30 minutes and hit the stretch of line that was in the sun and gave up. We’ll do it another day. The butter beer was indeed excellent as was the breakfast at the 3 Broomsticks. We’ll be back again tomorrow.
Wingardium leviosa! Sorry. I just had to say that.
Now onto the discussion of indi’s, B&N, Borders, and survival of the fittest.
So Jeff of Bound to Read Books in Atlanta gave me some insight into the real plight of indi bookstores in this age of ebooks. Now the age of ebooks seems like it’s an age that’s been here forever but it’s really only a couple of serious years old. But a lot has happened in two years. The Kindle took out the Sony Reader, and the Nook took on the Kindle and has established itself on the shelf next to it and the iPad is right behind trying to throw its apple muscle around to create some space for it. The Kobo – backed by Borders and we all know what happened to them – is far behind as are the Sony Readers and a few others.
What do the indi’s have? Nothing.
I mean bookstores are traditionally selling points for books. But that doesn’t mean they have to be hard copy books only, though, does it? Will bookstores change the way they look? How can they compete with electronic sales over the internet? Do they want to or even need to?
Amazon owns the Kindle and indi’s could sell the Kindle but what about the books that people read on the Kindle? Everybody goes to Amazon. Barnes & Noble has their own platform so they sell both the Nook and their own books, because they can too. But what about the indi’s? How do they get into the e-book market? Can they? I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of this before.
Now I’m not saying ebooks are going to take over the book reading market. But they are and will take up market share and It’s a market share that’s growing and that indi’s can’t touch.
Jeff just shook his head when I asked him what he was going to do.
When I talked to Andy at the B&N in Gainesville store I asked him how B&N was doing now that Borders has kicked the bucket. He said they were good, then added. “We invested in the Nook. And it’s paid off.”
Indeed it has. Consumers Report rated it higher than the Kindle recently which was rated pretty high all by itself. Each product is different in it’s platform but gives a segment of the population something that it wants – a way to read books electronically.
But what about the indi’s? Does anybody know?
Road Trip: Day 6 – Gainesville to Universal
We made it to Universal. We did nothing but check out the grounds, hit the pool and game room, eat and go to sleep. We all agreed we were very happy to be out of the car.
Some interesting things we saw on the way down were a giant confederate flag a little north of Valdosta – and I mean giant, definitely a statement being made with that – and an incredible number of billboards for right-to-lifers and medieval times. You can take that for what it’s worth.
I 75 is long and straight and endless.
We stopped in Gainesville, Florida, to hit a Barnes & Noble there. Now don’t go all indi on me – there were no indi’s in the area and B&N was the closest to the interstate and we needed to find a book that two indi’s prior did not have. So we went and I pitched my book to the merchandise manager while I was there – a nice guy named Andy who indeed had heard of Captain Blood and Errol Flynn – always a good sign – who took Open Wounds and said I could follow-up with him to see if he read it in a couple of weeks. It’s something new I’m doing – asking if they mind if I follow-up. Anything that might make a difference is worth trying. Remember, it’s all about the relationships (yeah, yeah, I heard that before – okay… I’m just saying…).
The B&N in Gainesville has been there 18 years and seems pretty entrenched in the community. Andy said it’s one of only three small B&Ns left in the country. It doesn’t have a Starbucks café. It’s only books and although it’s a pretty good size – still bigger than any indi I’ve been too so far, it was smaller than the super stores. I had an interesting conversation with him about how B&N is doing compared to Borders – who clearly has lost the race to survive. More on that tomorrow because it links well to the conversation I had with Jeff from Bound to Read Books in Atlanta.
Road Trip: Day 4 Revisited – Atlanta
So I went to three bookstores in Atlanta yesterday that I wanted to post about also.
A Cappella Books Atlanta
A Cappella is not a YA bookstore and I missed Frank, the owner, but I talked to Chantal and pitched her the book. I think she may read the first chapter, at least, and if she reads the first chapter… It’s a funky indi in a funky part of town called East Atlanta. I’ll write to them both in two weeks to see if either one took a peek.
Eagle Eye Books Atlanta
Eagle Eye Books was not too far down the road so I stopped there next. This is a good sized store with both used and new books. The owners, Doug and Charles were not in (I keep missing folks but that’s the nature of a drive-by – you got to visit when you have the time) so I pitched the book to Bob who smiled the whole way through and said he’d give it a read. I’ll be following up with him in two weeks also.
Jeff at Bound to Read - Atlanta
Bound to Read Books is a great small indi that had a great kids section in addition to a good size graphic novel section and just a beautiful interior. I got there just after a big event so the owner was in. Jeff was kind enough to listen to my pitch and we talked about while about how publishing and bookstores have changed. He said, now that Borders has been taken out Barnes and Noble and Amazon are next on the indi hit list. Hah! But what do Indi’s do about getting a piece of the ebook market? I’d never thought of that before. It’s a good question for another blog post. I’ll be following up with Jeff too, and my guess is he may well have copies of Open Wounds in his store some time soon. Just guessing.
Bound to Read - Atlanta
Eat Sleep Read Local
Lunievicz 