The View From Gordon Hill

19.04.05. Reading your review of book fairs and their performance, it's hardly surprising that the quality of stock offered for sale at many book fairs continues to deteriorate.

When we went on ABE, about 4 years ago, there were approx 23 million books on that site. Now, there are 13,000 'dealers' and 70 million books on offer.

I put dealers in quotes because many of the people offering books for sale are not booksellers - merely people attempting to sell their own books - books which in all probability, in previous years, they would have sold back to booksellers with whom they have been dealing - this is what made the world go round.

The bona fide booksellers are now reduced to scouring shops and fairs and the internet for copies of books at re-salaeble prices, which is becoming increasingly difficult as these sites are starved of books now going elsewhere, and the prices of books on the internet are being driven down due to sheer volume.

As the number of people selling their own books on the internet increases, the bookseller as middleman becomes redundant as these people now have access to information over which the trade once had control.

Also, the book as a source of information is under threat as the current generations are being taught to stare at screens and not go to books for information.

Who knows what percentage of the population will, in future years, be collecting books, as increasingly children are being led away from them as sources of learning and pleasure.

We find that we can no longer buy with confidence copies of books we have sold over and over, as there are no new customers for them, either in the shop or at fairs, which we have stopped doing.

It may be that we have seen the best years of bookselling come and go. The future looks much more uncertain and hard to predict. Add a comment.

Gordon Hill
Bowdon Books
Clitheroe.  

I would very much like to be able find fault with Gordon's observations...but I can't. - TBG.