It has been six weeks ago since Borders declared bankruptcy and announced the closing of more than 200 stores in an attempt to restructure their retail business model. I went to New Orleans to the beautiful Borders on St. Charles (a former funeral home) for the opening weekend of closing sales.

Borders is in the process of dumping heavily discounted books on the market. In local markets where this is taking place, retail book value is crashing for this limited time period until actual closing takes place. I presume that most of this devalued inventory was not paid for since inventory debt to the publishers is now frozen. Borders is able to raise their capital reserves since they did not pay for much of the product they are selling. (see previous blog with publisher debt figures)

Flooding these local markets in this way keeps readers from shopping the local independents. It seems to me that publishers are losing in two ways:

1. Unpaid-for inventories are being sold.

2. The lost sales by independents means less purchases from publishers, which means less paid-for inventory will be sold.

I completely understand the independents will be better off in the long run, but  all are temporarily affected by Borders’ way of doing business.

Friday, March 25th Borders released a proposal to handout $8.3 million in executive bonuses. One would have to assume these monies would have to at least partially come from Borders dumping of devalued/unpaid-for books on the market.

I’m curious as to what deal Borders and the publishers will make next. Will the publishers play hardball with the the Borders transition? Whose demands will swing the most weight? How many unpaid dollars will Border’s use to try and restructure their tool box?

We have a winner for our Grisham contest:

How many books has John Grisham signed for Lemuria bookstore since his debut novel, A Time to Kill?

Vicky Myers has won with her guess of 75,001.

The runner-up was Bethany Thompson with a guess of 84,444.

The actual number of books signed at Lemuria–figured by John Grisham–is 79,000.

The Prize Pot:

• A uniquely signed first edition of The Confession
• A signed poster for The Confession
• A bottle of Cathead Vodka
• A signed first edition of The King of Torts
• A limited signed edition of The Chamber.
• A signed first edition of The Painted House
• A signed first edition of The Bleachers
• A signed first edition of The Runaway Jury

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Real physical books will continue to exist, if for no other reason, is that reading a physical book is practicing an art form.

The experience of holding a book, feeling its physicality and being hypnotized by its contents. The opening to read, closing to ponder and opening again to continue. Underlining, turning the pages down, personal code-marking important phrases and interpreting with your own reflections on the white space. Reaching the last page, then closing with the snap of accomplishment or just holding caught up in the meditation of afterthought and reflection, then maybe reviewing the dust jacket commentary.

Reading a book is transformative, it can be passing time or it can be a much more fulfilling experience. It’s special time with yourself. It’s a synapse of author’s ideas projecting into the reader’s thoughts. It’s fun and in many ways, creative. A wonderful reading experience is like looking at a painting and reaping the benefits of the transference of artist to viewer. The creativity of reading enhances and transforms our lives to a place beyond words. With such an abundance of exceptional benefits, I ask how could these experiences vanish?

I’m not naive enough to say books will exist forever, as change is always in motion. But for the foreseeable future I don’t believe e-books will replace the aesthetic experience of reading a physical book.

All believe we have to eat, some believe we have to read. Eating and reading are enjoyable needs and pleasures. Our value system helps us decide how we want to fulfill these needs. Our choices are reflected in our experiences.

Finishing a book is special. It becomes part of your life as it rests on your bookshelf. It watches you as you live around it. It’s always waiting to be held and remembered. Just like a fine painting or photograph in your house. It’s there to reflect upon. Its memories are part of your life and reflection is active and motivating.

The romance of a physical reading experience, time and place, and with whom are all apart of your own painting created while reading a book. The book’s aesthetic influence on your present is adapted from the past.

For me good beverage over a meal won’t cease to exist, neither will my experience of a good physical book. When conversation at the dinner table is interrupted with a dash to the bookcase to bring out a keepsake to share with a companion in a giving gesture, life is real. This is all about the art of our lives. The art of sharing ideas and joys celebrated in friendship.

I feel running to get your reading gismo to reflect yourself in the sharing experience rings creatively hollow.

The Bookstore Key Series on Changes in the Book Industry

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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The last public signing at Lemuria, The Chamber in 1994: “You want me to do what?”

Back in November, we started a series of interview questions with John Grisham. He had just been here to privately sign a great number of copies of The Confession. Instead of us coming up with the questions, he agreed to write and answer his own questions as we did not want to ask the same questions everybody else was asking him.

This last part of the series answers a question many people wonder about.

What was your weirdest experience at Lemuria?

John Grisham: There are two. A young mother asked me to autograph her baby’s diaper. I did, and I’ve never believed it was fresh. And a very strange lady once asked me to autograph a book to Delores, her best friend, who had died the week before. I did so quickly.

And your most surprising experience?

John Grisham: Years ago, before  I dreamed of getting published, and before Lemuria moved to Banner Hall, I was leaving the store one day and recognized Eudora Welty as she was entering. I stopped her, introduced myself, offered some drivel about how much I enjoyed her work. She was grateful. I still regret the intrusion.

Now for some more fun–We also started a contest in November with this question:

How many books has John Grisham signed for Lemuria bookstore since his debut novel, A Time to Kill?

We promised you a prize pot for the guess that is closest to the actual number as calculated by John Grisham. It includes:

A uniquely signed first edition of The Confession

A signed poster for The Confession

A bottle of Cathead Vodka

A signed first edition of The King of Torts

(And, now John Evans has added these items, after having time to rummage through storage for more Grisham treats.)

A limited signed edition of The Chamber.

A signed first edition of The Painted House

A signed first edition of The Bleachers

A signed first edition of The Runaway Jury

The winner will be announced Friday, March 18th.

Click here to add your guess. (One guess per person please.)

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Here’s a recap of the John Grisham Interview Series.

Part 2: Mississippi Politics

Part 3: Book Collecting

Part 4: What’s next?

John and I have been talking a lot about the physical experience of the book and of the bookstore. Ironically, the e-book and increased fascination with all sort of digital gadgets, puts a bookstore like Lemuria in the light again as we are so different from what main stream media and culture pushes at the individual.

Over the past week several weeks I have been tossing around several sources of input which all cause me to consider the physical as opposed to intangible world of cyberspace and electronic media and Birkerts concept of horizontal time as opposed to vertical or “deep time.”

My thoughts go back again and again to a book I read a long time ago called The Gutenberg Elegies by Sven Birkerts. Elegies was published in 1994, long before most of us began to think about how computer technology was changing our lives. Birkerts’ thinking on “deep time” has stuck with me over the years.

“The explosion of data–along with general societal secularization and the collapse of what theorists call the ‘master narratives’ . . . has all but destroyed the premise of understandability. Inundated by perspectives, by lateral vistas of information stretch endlessly in every direction, we no longer accept the possibility of assembling the complete picture. Instead of carrying on the ancient project of philosophy–attempting to discover the ‘truth’ of things–we direct our energies to managing information. The computer, our high-speed, accessing, storing, and sorting tool, appears a godsend. It increasingly determines what kind of information we are willing to track in; if something cannot be written in code and transmitted, it cannot be important.”

“Resonance–there is no wisdom without it. Resonance is a natural phenomenon, the shadow of import alongside the body of  fact, and it cannot flourish except in deep time. Where time has been commodified, flattened, turned into yet another thing measured, there is no chance that any piece of information can unfold its potential significance. We are destroying this deep time . . . Where the electronic impulse rules, and where the psyche is conditioned to work with data, the experience of deep time is impossible. No deep time, no resonance; no resonance no wisdom.”

There are many deep time experiences to be had at Lemuria. One that comes to mind is the experience of meeting John Bemelmans Marciano and Joseph O’Connor. I think it qualifies as a deep time experience–or at least it was the seed for one for many who attended these two events which happened to occur the same evening a few weeks ago.

My intention was to write a “great” blog about it, but the more I thought about it, the less I felt able to write about it. And then the less I wanted to write about it.

Blogs in general are usually updated daily and often written quickly, and they are not necessarily known for quality or accuracy. I would say that they do not lend themselves to deep time contemplation. Because of this, and out of respect for the deep time experience we had with Joseph O’Connor, I just decided to the let the event blog go. I had begun to feel strongly that it was just too bad if you weren’t there. The experience lies between Joseph O’Connor and the individuals who committed their time that Friday evening. The experience resonated with many people days and weeks after the event.

The title of an article in The Wall Street Journal reads:

“Writer’s Get Close on the Web: Simon & Schuster Bets Authors’ Video Interview Can Build Readership, Sales” (Monday, March 7, 2011)

Simon & Schuster gives the example of an interview with Lisa McCann which appears on their VYou video player. The authors talk in front of their web cams in their own homes in response to questions posted by readers on the VYou website. You can watch Lisa Genova, author of Still Alice, while she holds her baby. Chris Cleave, author of Little Bee, is drinking coffee. Lisa McCann, best-selling author of teen thrillers, is dancing in her seat. McCann says that the videos will never replace an actual author event. For her, one of the main advantages is convenience: “You can take 10 minutes and answer five questions on the day you have your hair looking nice.”

While I believe there is an immense value in all the information available to me on the Internet, it also makes me value even more the non-electronic experiences I have. It may be funny, informative to listen to Lisa McCann on her webcam, but want I ultimately want is her, in front of me, in a context that was not completely controlled by her, but instead left to the natural occurrences and energy of the moment.

Booksellers, Lemuria readers:

Do you remember when Audrey Niffenegger came last July and her aura as she browsed our bookstore?

Who could forget Lucas McCarty and the choir at the event for Mockingbird Press’ first book Year of Our Lord?

Do you remember the energy in the room as Barry Gifford made an unforgettable introduction to Karl Marlantes, connecting one of his short stories relating to Vietnam to the subject matter of Matterhorn?

While we gain so much from new technology, I do think there is cause to pause and think about the effects. Birkerts inspires me to think and write about many changes in our culture and how they affect our thinking and consuming. Here, I acknowledge that this blog is incomplete and there are other viewpoints to be considered. Hopefully, the Bookstore Keys series on the changes facing readers and professionals in the book industry is an ongoing consideration, a way to remain thoughtfully engaged while being bombarded by news everyday.

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The Bookstore Key Series on Changes in the Book Industry

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)

“I think that there will be a 50% reduction in bricks-and-mortar shelf space for books within five years, and 90% within 10 years. Bookstores are going away.” (Mike Shatzkin, Ideal Logical Co., The Wall Street Journal)

Obviously with Borders bankruptcy, much shelf space will be eliminated quickly. Now when you go into B & N you see book shelf space already vanishing into other non-book products. The new kid on the block, the e-book, seems to be growing up fast.

It’s tough to contemplate the price point of the physical book in the future. Lemuria, being a small bookstore, has little control over the list prices we can charge. Instead, our mission is to add value however and whenever we can by offering first editions, signed copies, and author appearances, etc. When price is discussed, I have very little control if I want to stay in business. Regarding Lemuria’s participation in the discount wars between big box bookstores and Amazon, I cannot even consider entering that competition.

Lemuria introduces the not-so-well known but award-winning author Mark Richard on February 22nd. To complement his new memoir, Lemuria has collected first editions of his early short stories, compared to Flannery O’Connor yet not widely read.

With the present climate change, Barnes & Noble, the T-Rex of the brick-and-mortar war, and the virtual Amazon, thriving in its own dimension selling an endless variety of products, are now in a Dino Dawg fight. (In the main ring, ladies and gentleman, the Nook vs. the Kindle!) I ask why should physical books continue to be discounted?

Can and will the retail price of physical books come down? Will the publisher begin to determine real value retail pricing on the books they present to be sold?

If retail prices come down and our book product can be valued properly, could we as an industry reinstate a more legitimate physical book value point? Can the price wars now be fought over the e-book? As real book selling space shrinks, we can offer more product legitimacy with more real value marketing for physical books. With cheaper retail list prices, can we create more customer confidence, causing more physical books to be sold?

Amazon is selling Kevin Brockmeier’s Illumination at 48% off the list price. Building on a years-long relationship, Lemuria hosts Kevin Brockmeier on February 23, supporting one of the most original voices of contemporary Southern literature.

When the discounting of retail list prices increased, many local community bookstores were squeezed out of the market and forced to close. For 18 years, I’ve been across the road from a box store which is erasing the value of the physical book. (I was told by mutual sales reps that the box was located across the street “to put me out of business.”)

Revaluing retail book prices could level the playing field again. Less discount influence from the big box bookstores would open the door for Lemuria to grow faster out of the “Great Recession” and our customers would see Lemuria improve more quickly in terms of becoming a more solid “reader” bookstore.

Lovers of Southern literature can buy Swampandia at Ridgeland’s Barnes & Noble for $19.96 or they can buy a signed first edition at Lemuria for the list price of $24.95 and meet one of the hottest new voices in Southern Literature, Karen Russell.

Projection: Suggested e-book prices may level off between 7 and 10 bucks. With e-book values so cheap, will book publishers begin to lower retail prices of the physical book so readers of the physical book won’t feel ripped off? By lowering retail prices, the marketing strength of the word “discount” will be lessened. Publishers please remember what too-high CD prices did to our community music stores.

Also, what about net pricing, where bookstores would get to mark up like most retailers? Our existent antiquated mark down from the retail price structure, helped caused our industry to get into this Amazon “loss leader” mess in the first place.

John Grisham books are a typical “loss leader” choice for big box book stores and Amazon. One use of a loss leader is to draw customers into a store where they are likely to buy other products. The vendor expects that the typical customer will purchase other products at the same time as the loss leader book and that the profit made on these items will be such that an overall profit is generated for the vendor, prostituting the book.

Such complexity won’t be solved soon. I believe that with retail price adjustment and fair valuing for retail pricing within our industry, Mr. Shatzkin’s forecast can be proven wrong. For the present, Lemuria will continue to add value to our books we sell, providing our community with the best services we can offer. I believe that with more legitimate retail pricing from the publishers, our bookstore can exist indefinitely.

The Bookstore Key Series on Changes in the Book Industry

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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One of the best perks of working at Lemuria is being able to meet the authors that come through the store promoting their books.  Now, with my new position as community liaison I am able go out in the community and meet the speakers that are coming to town.  This past Saturday, Ellen and I had the pleasure of going to the annual meeting of the Mississippi Cattleman’s Association.

Let me tell you, all I know about cattle farming is that I like what it produces! I do enjoy a good steak and hamburger from time to time, but I really had no idea what all it takes to produce good quality cuts of meat.  From time to time, you hear about abuse of livestock and the terrible conditions that these animals live in, but I will say that I think the majority of these people that we met on Saturday really do care for their animals.  Especially since I saw how interested they were in listening to the keynote speaker of the day, Temple Grandin.

Dr. Grandin, as many of you know, is a doctor of animal science and a professor at Colorado State University, a best-selling author  and a consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior.  Her humane livestock facility designs are in use all over the world and she serves as an adviser on animal welfare to several segments of the fast food industry.  As a person with ‘high functioning autism’ she is also well known for her work in autism advocacy and for inventing the hug machine, designed to calm hypersensitive persons.

Dr. Grandin’s theory seemed pretty simple to me:  Safer Handling–Better Meat.  If you follow her methods then you will “improve the day-to-day operation as well as the profitability of  your farm by raising healthier, more contented animals. Your benefits are great–for you and your livestock.”

I would like to thank the Mississippi Cattlemen’s Association for inviting Lemuria to take part in their annual meeting. We really enjoyed meeting your members and hope to see some of you in the bookstore soon.

Humane Livestock Handling by Temple Grandin (Storey, 2008)

Today Borders officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy citing a debt of $1.25 billion and supposed assets of $1.275 billion. Publishers and distributors are owed some $230 million. Over the next few weeks, Borders will be closing 30% of its stores or about 200. No news yet that Flowood’s Borders will be one of those. (Scroll down for full list of publisher creditors.)

At the present time, interpreting future landscape of book selling is difficult.

My first question, asking myself, is where will all the books go that are now on Borders’ book shelves. As stores close, will inventory be shared to the remaining existing stores? A logical guess. Will an extensive amount of inventory be returned to the publishers to pay outstanding bills? How much of Borders’ unpaid bills will be written off by the publishers, thus causing more pressure to booksellers who pay their bills. Will huge closing sales take place across America increasing the already exorbitant discount of my product?

My big question is why the publishers let Borders escape from paying their bills on time? I cannot fathom the size of the bath the publishers will take. I ask why? It doesn’t seem that Borders’ continual deep discounting of books they aren’t paying for has helped our book selling cause. I feel this publisher tolerance has erased value on all levels of legitimate book selling.

Just this November, I made an envelope addressing mistake on a publisher’s address. My check was lost in the mail, my slight error could have been caught by an astute postman, but it wasn’t. My favorite publisher, the one I try to pay first and foremost on time, threatened to cut off my account. I was beginning to run 30 days past due. When hassled, I knew I wrote the check and mailed it as soon as I could. Stopped shipments from this company would have been disastrous for Lemuria’s Christmas season. Fortunately, intervention from inside company aids kept my account temporarily open, until my check was returned, address error corrected and check then resent, thus clearing up my problem. I must add, I still was not 60 days past due.

My point is why a small bookstore paying its bills regularly is hassled and threatened while Borders owes and refuses to pay such a huge amount. Why didn’t the publishers demand results from Borders sooner? They were sure quick to pull the trigger on me. It will be interesting to see how the publishers answer this question about their tolerance over the next few weeks.

As Borders falls, I hope the publishers learn from their mistakes. Maybe their philosophy will become one of supporting real book selling with team work, and local community book selling will be enhanced.

Publishers helping the bookstores that pay their bills to make more money could be a starting foundation to rebuild our industry.

Here is the full list of publisher creditors:

Penguin    $41.1 million

Hachette Book Group    $36.9 million

Simon & Schuster    $33.75 million

Random House    $33.5 million

HarperCollins    $25.8 million

Macmillan    $11.4 million

Wiley    $11.2 million

Perseus    $7.8 million

F+W Media    $4.6 million

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt    $4.4 million

Workman    $4 million

McGraw-Hill    $3.1 million

Pearson Education    $2.8 million

NBN    $2 million

Norton    $2 million

Zondervan    $1.9 million

Hay House    $1.7 million

Elsevier Science    $1.6 million

Publications Intl.    $1.1 million

The Bookstore Key Series on Changes in the Book Industry

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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John Evans has always a very clear business plan, to make Lemuria the best bookstore he can for our community, the best bookstore for Jackson, MS. For us that has been a lot of different things – a great environment, a well chosen selection, first editions for the collector, and in recent years a dynamic website and blog. John’s goal to give Jackson a great bookstore is also why we have all of theses book signings and readings you’re always hearing about. The chance to meet and hear a great literary writer read from his or her book is a wonderful experience – we often have prize winning authors, but we also have lesser known authors who are up and coming or who have written great books and of course we have a lot of non-fiction book signings as well, history, philosophy, etc.

All of this to say that we are thrilled to be able to bring Dr. Timothy Keller to Jackson. It seems that everywhere I go someone asks me about this event, but for those of you who don’t know Tim Keller’s work he is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York – a church that has more than 5000 in attendance each Sunday. He has also published 5 books in the last four years all with Penguin Putnam – the first, The Reason for God, reached number seven on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list.

Lemuria has teamed up with R.U.F. (Reformed University Fellowship) and Belhaven University to bring Keller to Jackson. We set up the event with Keller’s Publisher, R.U.F. is helping with coordination and marketing, and Belhaven is hosting the event at their Center for the Arts. (click the here if you don’t know where that is) We will have copies of all of Keller’s books for sale and he will sign after his talk until everyone is happy. We are taking advance orders if you can’t make it or wish to place larger orders for signed books. The new book is King’s Cross and you can read all about it on our website right here.

Who: Dr. Timothy Keller

What: Speaking and Signing

When: Thurs., February 24 at 7:00 (doors will open at 6:00)

Where: Belhaven University’s Center for the Arts