{"id":2042,"date":"2010-08-27T06:00:34","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T10:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=2042"},"modified":"2010-08-27T06:00:34","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T10:00:34","slug":"murphys-law-of-bookselling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=2042","title":{"rendered":"Murphy’s Law of Bookselling"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is a sad truth that bookselling, like so many other well-intentioned pursuits, is not immune to the ravages of Murphy’s Law (“anything that can go wrong, will, and at the worst possible time”). Fortunately, bookselling is a gentle art, and so the worst possible outcome is not along the lines of, say, botched brain surgery or the rupture of a rocket’s service module oxygen tank. The world will not end if something goes awry with a book order. However, I don’t advise saying this out loud to customers; relativistic reasoning does not soothe a teacher whose 50 copies of The Catcher in the Rye<\/em> fell off a conveyor belt somewhere in the southeast.
\nWhich got me thinking about the corollary to Murphy’s Law: Booksellers’ Bane. Booksellers’ Bane dictates that the moment you feel a sense of control over your business\/customer relations approach\/book knowledge\/inventory, the gods of bookselling will laugh and toss you on your keister.
\nMinor examples of this phenomenon include:
\n1) The inevitable fact that after you have finally dismantled your stagnant Alphabet section\u2014shelves that haven’t seen action since 2003\u2014and integrated those titles into the regular picture books, you will receive twelve earnest requests in as many days for a “special area for alphabet books.”
\n2) That when you finally re-shelve a customer’s six-month-old special order (after having made three phone calls to the customer over that period of time to remind her of the book), somebody will buy it. And then the customer will come in, wanting it desperately, and be mad that you sold it.
\n3) The day you deep-clean the floor, either carpet or wood (it doesn’t matter), a freak storm blows through and people stamp their snow\/mud\/rain-covered feet all over your store.
\n4) That the minute you return that obscure philosophy book that’s been collecting dust on your shelves for two years, someone comes in, not only looking for it, but horrified\/disgusted\/offended that you don’t carry it.
\nMajor examples of this phenomenon:
\n1) Just when you think you’ve got your little business off the ground, chain stores will start taking over the country.
\n2) Just when you think you’ve found a way to compete with the chain stores, an online megastore will start taking over the country.
\n3) Just when you think you’ve found your niche among the chain stores and online competition, publishers themselves will begin to sell directly to your customers, at higher discounts.
\n4) Just when you hope you’re wending your way through the obstacle course of competition from all sides (including the grocery stores, drugstores, discount clubs, big box stores, drycleaners, and clothing stores that are now in the game), books go digital.
\nHahahahahaha!
\nHmm, the minor examples are funnier.
\nBooksellers, what are your Bookseller Banes? (The minor, funny ones, please. I don’t think we’re up for any more of the real ones today!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is a sad truth that bookselling, like so many other well-intentioned pursuits, is not immune to the ravages of Murphy’s Law (“anything that can go wrong, will, and at the worst possible time”). Fortunately, bookselling is a gentle art, and so the worst possible outcome is not along the lines of, say, botched brain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}