September 25th, 2005
Another panel at the Book Standard Summit featured a top listings service executive. Abebooks COO Boris Wertz defended the online booksellers system and encouraged brick and mortar sellers recently in a session discussing the future of book retailing. “It is not either [online sellers or brick and mortar stores],” said Wertz, “I believe that technologies that increase visibility and sales of books will have an overall positive effect [on booksellers] that will be much, much bigger.” (Read more about the session)
September 23rd, 2005
Sorry, but you can scratch visions of a giddy Manley (CEO, Alibris
) peering out from behind a smoky podium at the The Book Standard Summit technology session… No this posting has to do with an outrageous comment by John Sargent, CEO of megapublisher and corporate giant Holtzbrinck Publishers. After Manley said that by 2015 used booksellers will claim 20 percent of book sales, Sargent quipped, “I am hoping that [by 2015] Marty is stoned out of business.” Oh boy, look out internet sellers… Sargent is on the prowl. I think the German “blood and iron” culture is seeping down from Stuttgart to Holtzbrinck USA offices. (Article link).
September 22nd, 2005
Abebooks was the first to come out and say it, but it is definite: Amazon has informed all of its multiple partner sellers (like Alibris’ network of independent sellers) that they will no longer be accepting their titles for list. This will be a huge blow for many sellers. Amazon generates a plurality of total sales for our Alibris used book inventory (under 1,000) . Nevertheless, Alibris has confirmed to us they will continue to target new outlets for their sellers’ books. The actions in the past few months seem to prove this statement. Abebooks, on the other hand seems to be turning inward, already the #5 site for book sales (Amazon, Half, BN, Alibris, Abe) one has to wonder… can they generate enough sales to make it a viable outlet for their sellers?
