It is official: second-hand book sales are up. According to the Arts Correspondent, Stephen Adams of The Telegraph, second-hand booksellers 'have recorded a bumper year as cost-conscious readers try to save their pounds as the recession bites ...'The report says that some of Britain's second-hand booksellers have reported "significant" rises in sales while the market for new books has dipped. And it is not just the independents that are benefiting. Amazon.com has reported that 30% of its sales actually come from "third party units". These are items sold through the website by other retailers like independent bookstores and individuals (though this category also includes new books and non-book items).
And in another development Amazon.com has also acquired Abebooks.com, which has over 110 million used, rare and out-of-print books listed from thousands of independent booksellers around the world. This is new respect for old books indeed.
Also on a similar note, Motoko Rich of The New York Times writes in a story, Puttin' Off the Ritz: The New Austerity in Publishing: "For decades the New York publishing world promised a romantic life of fancy lunches, sparkling parties, sophisticated banter and trips to spots like the Caribbean to pitch books to sales representatives. If the salaries were not exactly Wall Street caliber, well, they came with a milieu that mixed cultural swagger with pure Manhattan high life."
So it is possible that sanity finally returning to the book industry after decades of nonsensical hype. This can only be good for serious book people. The rest can go back to selling groceries.
One can only hope.
The Telegraph
The New York Times
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