#Wordsworth bookstore manual#

He spent his last couple of decades, after many years of less genial reception (see, for example, ByronвЂ™s, ShelleyвЂ™s, and KeatsвЂ™ responses to Wordsworth), enjoying his well-earned popularity amongst the early Victorians. In those eighty years, Wordsworth brought a unique poetry to English letters and to the world it had never before been seen, nor has it since.

#Wordsworth bookstore manual#

I love the fact that I can buy an XML reference manual 11:30 PM in my neighborhoodвЂ¦ before B&N, even in New York City, you had to go to McGraw Hill in midtown for good computer books, and they closed at 5 PM promptly.William Wordsworth was born in Cockermouth, Cumberland, in 1770-the same year as gave us Beethoven, Hegel, and HГ¶lderlin-and died at the age of eighty, rich in the knowledge of his huge accomplishments, in Rydal Mount, Westmorland, in 1850. I love the fact that B&N means that 2600 magazine is available nationwide. I love the fact that B&N means that worried gay teenagers can read XY magazine, even if they live in Kansas City. In many smaller cities across America, the Borders and B&N megastores represent the first time thereвЂ™s been a decent selection of books available. I myself am an Amazon affiliate itвЂ™s earning me about $100 a month which just about covers the cost of all the books I buy at Amazon рџ™‚ ДЄnyway, no matter how much I love independent bookstores, they just werenвЂ™t getting the books to the people. Doc Searls changes his bookstore from Amazon to Wordsworth and sees his revenue plummet to $0. In the online world, the same thing seems to be happening between Wordsworth and Amazon. I would miss them, if I could think of a single thing they offered that B&N didnвЂ™t. They hung on for a while but eventually closed down. My guess is that Shakespeare was undercapitalized and couldnвЂ™t afford to compete on the same basis as B&N. Sometimes true, but not in the case of Shakespeare and Co., who were hiring the same local entry level workers that B&N did.ДЄt the time, Shakespeare had limited floor space to expand their inventory - but a giant store that would have been perfect for a large bookstore was vacant, right across the street. Indies вЂњclaim to fameвЂќ is that they have more knowledgable staff and they do better selection of interesting books. Their selection was much smaller than B&N - for example, I wanted a book about bicycle touring - B&N had a whole shelf of bicycle books Shakespeare had one book. I liked Shakespeare and Co., but, you know what? They just werenвЂ™t doing what it takes to be competitive. HereвЂ™s an example I can think ofвЂ¦ a famous bookstore here on the Upper West Side, Shakespeare and Co., closed down when a Buns and NoodleвЂ™s SuperDuperStore opened up practically next door.

I suspect that is because the types of people who love books enough to be indie booksellers are not necessarily the best businesspeople. I love the concept of independent bookstores, but in many cases I think that they are just not вЂњdoing what it takesвЂќ to be competitive - online or in the stores. My rather extensive reply to SanjвЂ¦ more of a rant about independent booksellers in general: The only reason I can come up with it the same reason Wordsworth books has never tried to вЂњchainвЂќ itselfвЂ¦we are an independent store that tries to keep the вЂњcommunity storeвЂќ ethic and we were afraid we would loose that. Our error, we had the vision we just did not execute. Did we envision that the web would be this big for books? We knew it would be very big, we did not think it was going to be this HUGE.

We have put very little in terms of monetary resources in it and we are every marketerвЂ™s nightmare.ДЄre there days where we donвЂ™t kick ourselves? IвЂ™d be lying if I said no. Our website does fairly well, in spite of us. I have no qualms with what you say, though I must add that folks have heard of us (not to the extent they have heard of Aaaamaazon, but there are folks out there who know us-largely because of our reputation in the physical world).

вЂ¦ A customer of ours pointed out and after the appropriate period in which I agonized over your comment I thought I might write back.

I was happy to hear back from Sanj Kharbanda over at Wordsworth, who wrote: If youвЂ™re going into a market with no existing competition, lock-in, and network effects, you better use the Amazon model, or youвЂ™re going the way of, which started two years before Amazon, and nobodyвЂ™s ever heard of them.