Open Letter from River Run Books:

[Martin]

I thought this was interesting enough to share:

Open Letter from River Run Books titled "Why I'm not going to complain about Amazon anymore."

"Hello, Folks!

As you may know, Amazon has been in the news a lot lately: winning a lawsuit against Apple over eBook pricing, selling bestsellers at a loss in a price war with Overstock.com, and hosting a speech on the economy by President Obama. If you want to hear why all of this is bad for the consumer and for the economy, here's a great letter from the American Booksellers Association: ABA Letter

But you aren't going to hear it from me, because I'm done complaining about Amazon. Why? Because the people who need convincing DO NOT CARE, and the people who don't need convincing are tired of hearing about it.

Every time there is an article online about something heinous that Amazon is doing, there is no shortage of commentators jumping in to say that low price and great selection is the American Way, and good for the economy, and that all these precious little indie booksellers should just stop their self-important whining. I could talk for hours about how monopolistic behavior is bad for the economy nationally and how giant multi-national corporations are bad for the economy locally, but I'm not going to.

Because if you are reading this, you already shop here. So I really only have two messages for you.

The first one is this: THANK YOU!
The second one is this: WE WILL KEEP TRYING AS HARD AS WE CAN!

I don't want to suffer the fate of the buggy-whip salesman. I am not so naïve as to think that indie bookstores can just keep doing what they have been doing for centuries and survive these modern times. No indie bookseller thinks that. Trust me.

"Woahh!!?" You say. "Just because I read your newsletter doesn't mean I ONLY buy books from you. I want to be able to shop in my local Indie AND have the convenience of selection and price that Amazon offers. Why can't you co-exist?"

Well, we'd love to, but Amazon has decided that they don't want to share. They want to bring you the greatest possible selection at the lowest possible price, and they are very good at it, and I suppose that goal is admirable. They are so good at it that they don't actually make money doing it, and that is where the problem lies. I wish I had a better answer for you. I'm not saying that you should always buy your books from RiverRun and never buy your books from Amazon. I'm just saying that it is a choice, and that each time you make that choice I hope that you will make it consciously. This goes for all purchases of course, not just books and not just online. Your dollar is your vote.

So thank you again for your support, for "voting" for us, and here are just SOME of the things we are doing to try and deserve your business:

1) Becoming more convenient in the real world. We know that parking is an issue, we know that selection is an issue, we know that your time is at a premium. That's why we are opening a small retail space in Kittery this fall, because we know that it is hard for our Maine customers to visit us sometimes, and if we don't have what they want it is hard for them to make a return trip.

2) Becoming more convenient online. We have revamped our sales website to make it easier for you to use, and to be competitively priced with Amazon. That's right, competitively priced with Amazon. Check it out here: Online Bookstore
We can't offer deep discounts like these in the store because we need to pay for rent, lights, people, snacks, shipping, etc. But when you order from us online the book ships straight from a distributor's warehouse to your home, and if you are willing to do your online shopping with us instead of Amazon, we are willing to give that profit away.

3) Providing eBooks. You can now order eBooks from our website that will work on all your electronic devices. You can download them as epub files, or download the flashy (yet completely free) BLIO app and use that. You can also buy eBooks through our friends at www.zolabooks.com and by choosing us as your companion bookstore, we will receive a portion of that sale. Personally, I still prefer paper books, but RiverRun isn't here for me, it's here for you and if eBooks fit your lifestyle best, we want to help you with that, too.

4) Helping with price. There's only so much we can do here, because unlike Amazon we make our money from selling books (honestly, they don't, which is a big part of the problem.) Even so, we give a 10% discount off every purchase if you buy our awesome RiverRun Bookbag, and most importantly, we have an amazing selection of used books that are much cheaper than buying new. And lastly, if price is truly an issue for you, we urge you to consider only buying books for gifts-for your own reading use your local library. It's a really great place.

5) Finding new sources of revenue. Face it, fewer people are buying books. While you may be as big and loyal a customer as ever, it was your business combined with more casual book shoppers that allowed us to stay in business. As those casual readers read less and less (and the statistics are frightening), it's important for us to find other sources of revenue so that we can keep doing what we love. Starting The Piscataqua Press has been our centerpiece initiative over the last year. In short, we help local authors who were thinking of using a faceless online company to self-publish their book, and we bring that business local. Everyone wins. You can find out more about this here: www.piscataquapress.com

6. Providing you with education and entertainment. We are still committed to producing over 100 book events a year. Real! Live! Authors! Additionally, while we love to see you in the store, we know you can't always stop by for a chat, so we try to keep an active presence on Facebook and Twitter and to send you lively emails every week. We hope you will take part in those conversations.

7. We are listening. We are always happy to hear from you. Let us know what you want from RiverRun, and we'll see what we can do.

Again, thanks so much for being our customer,

Tom Holbrook, and the owners and staff of RiverRun Bookstore"

[TJCams]

Interesting, and very informative letter. Too bad "the big guys" are ruining it, not only for the indies, but really for us, the consumer too.

I'd much rather buy books from a place like that, or direct from CD. Locally, we do not have very many indie bookstores, mostly used ones. Chapters kind of is the king of bookstore here in Canada - I do occasionally buy books in store. Sometimes you can get a new pb of whatever cheaper at a store, than the e-book version online.

I just hope a company like Amazon does NOT take over the entire e-book marketplace, as I already feel alienated as a loyal Kobo user. Take the e-horror bargain emails - so many titles are offered, yet many are Amazon only, or the deals are only for the kindle versions.

[Highbury]

It's an interesting business study. I've always looked at running a bookstore as being the perfect job for me but there is just no way i could do it because there really isn't wealth in selling books against the big corporates. Even the big corporates have their struggles if I'm not mistaken. Ie: Borders, Barnes and Noble.

Up in Canada, Indigo basically went after the Chapters group and took Coles and WH Smith as well. There was some controversy in that. Indigo is bleeding money, I think they were $4 mill in the hole last quarter or it may have been for annual 2012 not 100% sure. Indigo is starting to move its stores into something like Roots where they sell some books but they really are pushing the accessories, cards, throws, pottery, toys. Taking focus off books in hopes of getting other revenue streams.

With e-books it's kinda scary, I don't like them but the world in general does so you have to account for that as well. The only win to survive is differentiation from your competitors. To be a specialty of sorts by either producing books or using another angle such as signed books or signing events to draw people to the actual store.

[Dan Hocker]

I just hope a company like Amazon does NOT take over the entire e-book marketplace, as I already feel alienated as a loyal Kobo user. Take the e-horror bargain emails - so many titles are offered, yet many are Amazon only, or the deals are only for the kindle versions.

Amazon's advantage is, they are the company that made e-books popular in the US. They're also the first to make their platform available on different devices via the Kindle App. Other's have since followed suit but it's always the early adopters that take off. As per the sales it's typically because amazon runs a lot of sales independently of the publishers typically at a slight loss to themselves. It's a pretty good business strategy, as it draws more people to their business.

On a similar note I think complaining about Amazon is like complaining about Wal-Mart, it's pointless and dumb. Both companies provide cheap product to people who want them, it may put smaller business out of business, but at the same time it provides product to consumers who otherwise may not have been able to afford that product at the price a small business would have to sell it as. So pretty much you win and loose either way.

Just my personal opinion though. I'm a big fan of Amazon, I buy most of my miscellaneous stuff from them, and I think their eBook platform is the best there is, both from a consumer perspective and the perspective of someone who deals with the publishing side of eBooks.

[TJCams]

I actually am starting to prefer Amazon over eBay for a lot of small items. I've purchased everything from flea products, to printer cartridges, and quite a few books.

It's interesting to see how many reviewers on Goodreads have moved their reviews as a protest against Amazon - like you said, it's a win and loose either way.

[Theli]

I buy from Amazon, and I buy from Chapters, but they often are NOT the cheapest prices for items I am looking for. I always shop around, ebay, abebooks, the publisher itself, or even just do a google search. Wherever the item I am looking for is available, and at it's cheapest price (condition sometimes plays a difference), is where I buy it.

[TJCams]

Abebooks is an awesome place to grab books - especially if you don't mind a used one - although I have purchased "used" ones in good or very good condition - and I'd swear they are new.

[Dan Hocker]

I buy from Amazon, and I buy from Chapters, but they often are NOT the cheapest prices for items I am looking for. I always shop around, ebay, abebooks, the publisher itself, or even just do a google search. Wherever the item I am looking for is available, and at it's cheapest price (condition sometimes plays a difference), is where I buy it.

I ended up with an Amazon Reward credit card so often cheaper or not I'll buy from amazon to get the extra points, unless it's drastically cheaper somewhere else. That said what I'm mostly buying are video games and computer stuff and Amazon's prices are usually comparable or cheaper in most chases to other retailers.

[TJCams]

I ended up with an Amazon Reward credit card so often cheaper or not I'll buy from amazon to get the extra points, unless it's drastically cheaper somewhere else. That said what I'm mostly buying are video games and computer stuff and Amazon's prices are usually comparable or cheaper in most chases to other retailers.

Yes, plus electronic accessories - like cases, cords....can't beat Amazon most times.

[peteOcha]

I use Amazon (uk) because of their free shipping. I would love to get everything straight from the publisher, but the fact is I wouldn't be able to get a lot of things (especially US deals) because shipping is a killer.