In an Oprah-driven market where reading seems to be booming, a lot of this is just starving in the midst of plenty, but as a member of a sinking national chain whose idea of a new deal is to replace virtually their entire skilled store staffs with semiliterate part-timers in the next 6 months, I could be wrong...

Dear Sara, I own a Hair Salon/Book Store, Beauty and the Book here in Jefferson, Texas. It's a speck in the bookselling world. If it wasn't for me doing hair, I would be out of business. But I love books and bookselling more than anything. The price I pay for the love of reading and books is poverty but that is a price I will pay. Our town is tourist driven and the gas prices are killing us so I am not the only business in town hurting. First, the chain stores discounted and that hurt our independent book sales, now people cannot afford to travel to our fair historic city so what to do! Online sales? Hard to compete with the online booksellers. For me it's all about my book club, The Pulpwood Queens. They support my store and keep me hanging in there. I think it's kind of like the proverbial dog who had a bone, a good bone then decided when crossing a bridge upon seeing his reflection to reach out for the bone in the reflection. He not only could not capture the bone in the reflection but lost his good bone too. Publishers better get back on track and support the independents who were premier at selling books. You kind of get what you pay for or should I say, get what you discount for. This NEW Indie Bound push by ABA is a fantastic start. All us shiny old and new pennies, (us independents), add up to make dollars too. Don't overlook the little guys as we are a publisher's bread and butter. You can't eat sweet jam all by itself! My motto is get back to the basics of bookselling. Support the independent bookstores and print good books. It's really simple. The downfall of book sales basically points to greed. How can we make the most money. Pay less and sell more. Put all your money in the bestselling authors and forget the rest. Even Oprah has gone to proven authors with big book sales. I may be little but I read the books I sell. That is something no amount of money can convince me is not a more worthy investment. Tiara wearing and Book sharing, Kathy L. Patrick Owner of Beauty and the Book

In response to Kathy of Beauty and the Book: What a wonderful concept, your store! I agree with you about the big publishers ONLY supporting the sure thing. Too much focus on on the big-name juggernaut (James Patterson, Inc. and his ilk) and little unknowns getting nothing. Publishers are printing more titles than ever and yet only a few get any traction at all. The big pubs are beholden to their stockholders--risk not, fear not. Authors like the Pattersons (and his clones) promise a certain return on investment, so do B&N and their clones. Accountants run publishing houses these days, not book lovers. They know what return on investment to expect from the big bookstore chains, and they don't want to be bothered with independents because the cost per sale doesn't measure up to their target. It has nothing to do with selling great books to people everywhere and everything to do with making stockholders happy. Eventually it will catch up with them, I just hope us little people are still around to see it. I am a designer for a teeny publisher. I am not so worried about me, but I am worried for them and their brethren. It's tough out there for a little fish.

In response to Kathy Patrick: I very much appreciated your take on things. Thanks for sharing and best of luck.

I really do believe that a "back to basics" approach could work -- and specifically that as bookselling becomes more and more anonymous/Internet-i-fied, the contact of an independent bookseller is all the more important. I love the salon-with-books approach. Good for you!

As a brand new author of my soon-to-be-published first book, I am dismayed and yet hopeful at the same time. I'm dismayed by the news I am reading about the big guys (Amazon, B&N, etc) and yet hopeful about selling my book through the independent bookstores in my town. To Kathy of Beauty and the Book, your words give me hope! Surely many independent book sellers have a similar goal as you ~ I'll make it my business to seek them out and have a go.

I agree!! But my take on publishing is a bit different. I decided to self-publish because big publishing houses don’t focus on marketing the way they should!! Many of my friends published with the traditional houses and many are left frustrated at the end of their "new" book year. I am a huge reader/book buyer and I have never looked at the copyright date to decide if I will buy a book! Yet that's how publisher's market! The copyright date to me is whether or not I may have read it or if there is an updated version available. But publishing houses are like car dealers, they only push the new shiny ones on the lot!!! How many “could be” successful books are sitting on the shelves unnoticed? If you decide to publish a book you should be willing to push it for longer than a year!!! In children’s books, look at the classics! I often wonder what the first year sales of Good Night Moon were? Wouldn’t it be fascinating to view the year-by-year sales grid for Good Night Moon over the last 61 years? When I started my company, Cedar Valley Publishing, my goal was to position myself to follow behind Margaret Wise Brown’s formula in creating a Kindergarten book that could become a classic. I will continue to revamp and revise my books to keep them in the spotlight every year, so that hopefully they will take on a life of their own, long after I am gone! My success has been to break all the rules and use viral and word-of-mouth marketing to develop my own niche with the help of those wonderful small booksellers and educational stores!!! I am proof that it can be done!!! Smiles - Stacey Cedar Valley Publishing & Mom Central Consulting Author of Let's Get Ready For Kindergarten! & Let's Get Ready For First Grade! and watch for the Spanish/English edition of Kindergarten coming soon!

Most of my books are borrowed from the library anymore, and while I could say the reason is financial, that's not the real cause. The problem is the poor quality of the books I do read makes me reluctant to purchase fiction. I LOVE fiction, but when nearly 99% of the novels I find have two, and sometimes even three, characters with confusing similar names, eyes that drop, lock, and in one book, roll down the street, and chapters that are chunked so choppily short they're barely a full scene each, I discover there are fewer and fewer books I want to keep in my library. It's not just genre fiction that has such poor quality control, either. It seems to be across the board. It's time for readers who buy books that are of disappointing quality to return them to the stores. Maybe then publishers will get the message and stop allowing sloppy writers to get away with such sloppy writing.