Market Focus: Saving Religious Books
“The problem with the blockbuster books is that they often can lead to price wars that a lot of retailers can’t win. And it’s actually something that the book industry is going to have to … face sooner or later,” he says. “… Because bookstores … have to sell books no matter what, because that’s their livelihood. But Wal-Mart doesn’t necessarily need to sell books. Costco doesn’t necessarily need to sell books. And if they’re the only ones left selling books, what kind of negotiating heft is a publisher going to have anymore when they talk with their channels? So … I really hope that publishers continue to value their smaller channels, even though they’re not moving the blockbuster books nationwide for them. But they’ve got to value them anyway, because it’s part of a book’s identity and it’s also part of the landscape that makes publishing part of culture.”