COVID19: A World Without Bookshops?

Recently, Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller, said: what we see in the charts now is a glimpse into a world without bookshops. This got me thinking. What impact will COVID19 have on the publishing industry long term?

Shopping culture

At the moment, gone are the days you could make a day of strolling around your favourite bookshop, carefully choosing what to buy. This is what I have been missing most recently, just being able to go into town and mill about for a while. Instead, Amazon's sales have increased by a staggering 27% in the first quarter of 2020 alone. It's not like Amazon wasn't a retail giant before corona, but Jeff Bezos has certainly asserted his dominance now. Everyone has been forced to temporarily change their shopping habits, but this raises the question of will shopping culture ever return to what it once was? Will people choose convenience over experience more than they already do?

Bestsellers

Especially for the first few weeks of lock down, educational books dominated the charts. All of a sudden, parents up and down the country were forced to become teachers, a role most of them were completely unprepared for. Homeschooling books became one way for parents to cope with this entirely new responsibility, resulting in a surge in sales of handwriting, mathematics and reading books for primary school level. Homeschooling has always felt a very American thing to do, but will corona mean it becomes more normalised in the UK? Will some parents discover they prefer homeschooling their children instead of sending them to school? If so, the publishing industry will have to keep up with this new demand for educational exercise books.

eBooks

eBooks are definitely not a new concept, with the first eBook being invented in 1971 by Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg. However, eBook culture and practice has definitely changed as a result of COVID. For example, we've seen some books being written quickly in response to the pandemic and published online, purely to make the turnaround time from conception to publication as short as possible. Authors who specialise in this area are having to respond to the uncertain situation in real-time - the normal life cycle of a book is no longer a viable option. If you want to write about COVID, you need to do it while it's still happening. 

On top of this, some books that were planned to be published later on in the year have been released early in eBook format. Is this to keep consumers happy? To keep morale high? Or is it simply because there is just no reason to publish it later on in the year? Whatever the reason is, eBook culture is bound to change as a result of the pandemic.

Book tours

Even if a book is published the traditional way in print, how is the author going to publicise it? There's certainly no chance of any book tours, interviews, panels or conferences happening for at least a few months. Corona will change the way a book is publicised and marketed. Advertising online is definitely not a new concept to authors, but it has always been in conjunction with the author going out into the world and creating a buzz around their book in real life. Nowadays, a book's success entirely depends on the internet, but will this carry on post-pandemic? Or will marketing return to what it once was?

But there's still hope yet

Whilst it is clear COVID will have a lasting effect on the publishing industry, I believe there is no need to worry that we will lose bookshops all together. Although it might seem like history will repeat itself, like what the internet and social media did to the newspaper industry, I am sure my fellow booklovers will keep bookshops alive and well. After all, newspapers still exist, right?

Bookshop culture will never die. The internet age didn't kill it and neither did the invention of the Kindle. The type of people who already love bookshops are those who will continue to support them for the rest of their lives. We will be the grannies and granddads who have shelves upon shelves full of old books, special editions, new releases, book merch and bookish scented candles whilst our grandchildren play with whatever Nintendo has recently invented. The written word is so fundamental to our society that we will never be able to get rid of it, no matter how hard some might try.

All in all, we will not allow the world to go without bookshops. So don't worry, Philip Jones. We got this.


What do you think the future has in store for bookshops?

Comments

  1. Interesting post! I definitely think bookstores will continue to stand due to the fact they are still going despite the fact you can buy books online!

    Amber - https://theunpredictedpage.com

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  2. I don't think we will loose bookshops as of now atleast but a lot may adjust to the habit of loving ebooks while this pandemic lasts and they may not return to paper books again. Although, there will still be some people out there loving the paper books just in the same old way 📒

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