0

By Paul Biba

Banner_BTW In a long and thoughtful article, Opportunities in the Digital Arena for Independent Bookstores: An Action Plan for the American Booksellers Association the ABA gives a blueprint for its members to deal with the increasing popularity of e-books. Given the nature of this trade association it makes fascinating reading. Thanks to Shelf Awareness for the link.

Given all of this, we now find ourselves at a critical moment. We can either build on the knowledge base that we have established and use the collective power of our trade association to facilitate the sale of digital content through our member stores, or we can cede this business to other channels. …

While building a solution through our e-commerce product should be our main focus, the association would be well served to consider the issue more broadly. As such, we suggest proceeding along three parallel tracks:

  1. First and foremost, we should conduct further study. ABA needs to convene a task force of staff members, booksellers, publishers, and technologists to make sure we understand the issues, the challenges, and the opportunities. We need to carefully study and assess industry trends to find out what consumers want and expect, and to look at what our colleagues at other trade associations are doing to address this issue.
  2. We need to continue to engage in a dialogue with key industry partners — Ingram, Symtio, etc. — while also reaching out to potential partners both in and out of the book industry and conducting careful, measured assessments of their products and services.
  3. We should step up our education efforts, making digital content and all that surrounds it — social media, e-commerce, etc. — a centerpiece of the education we offer through the balance of 2009 and all of 2010. We also need to write about this issue in Bookselling This Week, on ABA’s "Omnibus" Blog, on Facebook, on Twitter, and through any other forum in which we communicate with our members.
 
0