The Impact of the economy on book sales

[I. J. Parker]

This week, mine stopped selling on Amazon.
I recall the last recession when, on another site, we theorized that in bad times people would turn to books for encouragement or just to escape the depressing news. I'm not sure it works that way any longer. For one thing, there is the additional problem of publishers not having the money to buy more books or to promote them. Then the stores aren't likely to take chances but stock only sure-fire sellers, and not too many of those.
I think perhaps that we've reached a point where people who are saving save first by not buying books. Books are the ultimate luxury when one can get them at the library.
If anyone here has some cheerier statistics or facts, by all means share. I'm getting seriously depressed.

[D.R. MacMaster]

It costs about the same to buy a paperback book as it does to go to a movie (at least here in Canada). But with books, you usually get a longer time being entertained, in the comfort of your own home, and you can enjoy it again and again, without have to pay for it again. Plus, there's a lot less hassle with traffic getting to the theatre, parking, gas, and other incidentals, making books the better buy in uncertain times.

Hope your own books starts selling again soon.

[I. J. Parker]

Thank you. You're quite right, of course. Let's hope that everyone remembers that.
I could add that with books you have nearly unlimited choices on how to be entertained and what imaginary journey to take. You also get to stretch your mind and your imagination and build your vocabulary. In a book, you can always go back to reread something. And if children see their parents read and value books, then they too will read. And their grades will sky-rocket.

[Dan Coleman]

Though they are often one and the same, readers and movie goers are two different species. Readers will often go to movies, but the movie rat will not read a book. Unfortunately, the younger movie goers dominate, buy most of the tickets, enjoy the instant gratification without the investment of reading time, so ticket sales continue, while the book species takes the hit. If you put the movie rat in prison and told him the only way out was to complete a book or two, it'd be tantamount to a life sentence.

[John Dishon]

How can two different species be one and the same?

The problem here is you are comparing a moderate viewpoint with an extreme viewpoint. On one hand you have people who are mainly readers but also like movies, but then you compare that to people who only like movies. That's not a good comparison. It would make more sense to compare READER/movie people with MOVIE/reader people, the latter being people who prefer movies but also read books.

Your movie only crowd should be compared with a reader only crowd.

I don't understand why older generations always seem to think young people are brain-dead simpletons who can only be entertained by flashy colors. I've seen/heard/engaged in more thoughtful conversations in my dorm room then I've ever seen on here, to put it bluntly.

[Dan Coleman]

Has nothing to do with "moderate" or "extreme" points of view, just different ones that might share similar tastes sometimes. The two "species" mentioned rhetorically just share things here. My examples suggest two types of movie goers, say, one who comes out of Harry Potter and says, "I can't wait to read the book," and the other who just comes out of the movie, wouldn't read the book for a million dollars; wouldn't occur to him.

No, and all young people are not brain-dead, while many of the older generation are, always have been. But the level of conversation you might find in the dorm room, when you look back on it in later years, will seem sophomoric, even trite, by comparison to that you might engage with the benefit of time and experience.

But I understand your take on it.

[Pepper Smith]

The economy is doing some pretty wild gyrations lately. People may be too busy worrying about their nest-eggs and homes to even think of entertainment beyond turning on the TV. But, the price of oil is dropping, the dollar is getting stronger, and though it may be a wild ride for a while, things will find equilibrium again. I guess it's easy to feel, when your life's quite exciting enough and your attention is focused on just making it through it, that you don't need something more.

Those who read will start buying and reading again. Some of us haven't stopped. It's an addiction.

[I. J. Parker]

Thanks, Pepper. One has to keep hoping. I just bought 4 books for my grand daughter's Christmas.

[Nick Lawless]

I don't have any stats to back this up, but I have a feeling there are other reading junkies who are doing what I'm doing to stretch the buck. I stay away from Barnes & Noble/Amazon and buy from "half-price/used" stores. I recently spent an afternoon in such a store and came out with under $50 worth of rarities and some excellent "dog-eared" titles. So, in a way, the economy slump has sent me AWAY from supporting big box stores and back to supporting the small business "Mom & Pop" shops - a definite silver lining, if you ask me.

By the way, I just got some Akitada books on the cheap, too. Hope you don't mind.

[Kim Smith]

Nick, this is true for me too, sometimes. i can buy a lot of authors with big, hardback books for less than four dollars a book at a thrift store. i am of the mind that people should be spending money right now to help out the economy though, so i havent gone and done that but rather have gone to B and N and spent my twenty dollars a month that i always spend. if we all budget, say ten or twenty a month for a book, we could really keep things moving. Writers unite!

[I. J. Parker]

Well, Nick, on condition: If you like them, convince others to buy them. :)
If you love them, post a review on Amazon.
Thanks for looking for them in any case. Another reader is always a good thing. You made my day.

[Beth Groundwater]

I know that I's so sick of the politics and bad economic news on the TV that I'm turning it off and tackling my TBR pile instead. Hopefully other readers feel the same. :)

[Christine Duncan]

I think that is it. Readers will still read because that is how we escape from all the depressing news. And if we can't take a trip to Hawaii for vacation--we can read about it and go there in our heads. At least, I'm hoping that's true.
Also, if we request that the library buys books, that's good too, right?