Borders as it stands today:
Borders has 200 stores for sale out of its remaining 402 stores. Gores, a distressed investor group, is in talks to buy these 200 stores but nothing is firm.
Borders has still not come up with a reorganization plan and has now received approval for a 120-day extension.
Borders still owes the largest publishers about $182 million. In April alone, Borders lost $132 million.
As book people hit the show floor at BEA, Borders talk abounded. Though nobody is comfortable or necessarily happy about what is happening to Borders, it does provide a window of opportunity for independent bookstores to take advantage of these changes. Being smaller, indies are more equipped to make these changes faster.
JOHN: The Borders talk reflected the opinion that their time is running out–too much loss in the face of too many favors that have not panned out. Perhaps their nurturing of bought time is nearing the end and their doors will close. I believe this industry drain, if stopped, will redefine the value of the independent bookstore in the bookselling system. Perhaps independent bookstores strengthen their bookselling skills as publishers and the reading public realize the value of their service.
JOE: Yup, everyone up in NY seemed to think that Borders would be gone soon. Now they seem to have found some folks to bid on parcels of the company. What this really means for the industry is unclear. Borders may still be completely liquidated or it may morph into more of a Books-a-Million model or department store model. No one in NY even cared to guess, but I agree with John, hopefully all of this will mean less competition for Lemuria, which will mean a greater market share and greater appreciation from the publishers for the skills, knowledge, and abilities of the the indie bookstores.
While in New York we bumped into Charles Frazier and feel almost certain that he’ll be coming to Lemuria this fall for his new book. Why? Because Frazier, and the industry as a whole, attribute the initial success of Cold Mountain to the work, excitement, and ability of the indies to find the needle in the haystack of this industry. We did it before and we’ll do it again. There will always be needles in this haystack.
Above right: Charles Frazier and Karl Marlantes meet for the first time at BEA 2011.
Lemuria’s Bookstore Keys Series on the Changing Book Industry
Where will e-book sales level out? (June 2) Indie Bookstores Buying from Amazon? (June 1) BEA Roundup (May 19) Lemuria’s Headed for NYC (May17) Barnes & Noble Bankrupt? (April 28) Decluttering the Book Market: Ads on the latest Kindle (April 14) Independents on the Exposed End of the Titantic? (April 6th) Border’s Bonuses (March 30) The Experience of Holding a Book (March15) Finding “Deep Time” in a Bookstore (March 8th) Reading The New Rules of Retail by Lewis & Dart (March 3) The Future Price of the Physical Book (Feb 18) Borders Declares Bankruptcy (Feb 16) How Great Things Happen at Lemuria (Feb 8th) The Jackson Area Book Market (Jan 25) What’s in Store for Local Bookselling Markets? (Jan 18) Selling Books Is a People Business (Jan 14) A Shift in Southern Bookselling? (Jan 13) The Changing Book Industry (Jan 11)
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