While the downfall of Borders earlier this year may have lessened the competition for independent bookstores, the debut of new e-reader tablets from Barnes & Noble and Amazon this fall means the plot only gets thicker in the story of how independents and their used-book counterparts continue to survive.
By 2013, U.S. consumers will have purchased an estimated 381 million e-books, roughly four times the amount they purchased in 2010, according to technology research firm Forrester Research.
But at Reader's Corner, long a fixture on Hillsborough Street inRaleigh, sales of used books have increased in the past year.
For some customers, it's not a matter of choosing between digital books and hard copies.
Jason Robinson, an information technology worker at N.C. State University, received a Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader for his birthday in May, but says he now buys more print books than before. He's filled his house with the paper editions since his son was born, because he wants him to grow up surrounded by them
"If I do download a book online, I may buy a hard copy, too, and re-read it," Robinson said.
Reader's Corner employee Todd Morman said he's aware of the threat from e-readers' growing popularity but isn't worried about losing his job anytime soon.
"There's not much overlap between e-book availability and our bread and butter - older, used books," Morman said.
The store has carved out a safe niche, with technical science books as the most popular genre, said owner Irv Coats, a physicist by training. And, two years ago, Coats launched a complementary online store that sells books 24-7, including to scientists all over the world.
With the additional profit from online sales, Coats is able to afford buying books from people, which wasn't the case during the recession, when his online store didn't exist.
"Since the recession we have been flooded with people coming in to sell books, and the Internet saves us," Coats said.
The story is not the same for other bookstores in the area.
A new strategy
Steven's Book Shop manager Anthony Chiu believes e-readers are less of a threat to used bookstores than websites that give access to free books. Those include Google, which offers free public domain books, and Amazon's Lending Library, which gives customers with a paid membership the option to borrow one book a month for free with no due dates.
"Small businesses can't compete with the scale of those operations," Chiu said.
A used bookstore specializing in religious books, Steven's Book Shop typically relies on its online store for 50 percent of its sales, but those transactions have dropped in the past year.
"We're not thinking about closing, but there's a need to make modifications to our business plans," Chiu said.
The store, which once touted its diversity with more than 500,000 titles, will now focus on what local customers have shown a strong interest in: religious works and children's books.
Looking toward thefuture, the store will focus more on its online store and have a smaller storefront.
Another strategy that used bookstores haveemployed to stay strong is to play host to the competition. Edward McKay sells pre-owned versions of several tablet readers in each of its four locations across the state.
"When we saw e-readers, we didn't tremble in our boots, we saw it as an opportunity," regional manager Janet Elliott said.
Though the chain also has seen a small decrease in sales this year, Elliot said it can hardly keep the e-readers in stock.
Other used bookstores in the area, including Nice Price Books and Falls River Books in North Raleigh, also have seen sales drop in the past year, though it is impossible to say whether e-readers played a role.
The next chapter
While e-readers are likely to continue to cause bookstore owners to rethink their business strategies, the makers of e-readers will also be developing new strategies in the coming years.
According to Yankee Group, a Boston-based technology research center, the average selling prices of e-books will plummet over the next two years.
By 2013, the average e-book retail price will fall to $7, down from an average of more than $9 in 2009.
Even at those prices, Reader's Corner customer Philip Sasser remains a true believer in the traditional reads.
"Materiality matters," Sasser said. "In that way, old books are like vinyl records. Used books, especially the old ones, are stories in themselves."
