Shuttering the Doors

The venerable Cody's book store in Berkzertly has closed. It is a household name in the Bay area and I read the obituary with a certain amount of sadness. However, sometimes things seem obvious in business but are hidden--nothing reveals this more than the demise of Cody's. In almost 25 years in this business, what I see is that bookstores, to include independents, have been hostile to small publishers. In tooting our horns, we bring many good books to light that would never make it without us. Bookstores cater to the big publishers and those they think have a reasonable expectation of selling. They display them prominently, usually getting paid by the publisher to do so, ethically questionable, in my view. So, what do small publishers do? We go to Amazon that welcomes us, teaches us how to promote our books and more than anything levels the playing field. Once our loyalty is there, we promote Amazon in all sorts of ways to the demise of stores like Cody who wouldn't have us.