{"id":16744,"date":"2015-08-20T06:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T10:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=16744"},"modified":"2015-08-20T06:00:19","modified_gmt":"2015-08-20T10:00:19","slug":"good-money-after-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=16744","title":{"rendered":"Good Money After Bad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week the NAIBA board, supported by a letter from their NEIBA counterparts, called for a renewed investment in the ABA’s indiecommerce website platform, and expressed pointed dissatisfaction with the current, recently upgraded status quo. The letter asserts that \u201cthe customer experience feels as if it\u2019s at least a decade behind other online sites, highlighted by a completely inadequate search engine. We do not expect ABA to offer a site equal to that of Amazon or other online giants, but we do believe the current site is in immediate need of significant upgrades.\u201d
\n\"Paul_Oesten_-_Les_Danaides\"<\/a>Let’s spend a moment thinking about how Tantalus and the Danaides spent their time in Hades. Tantalus, inflamed with an extreme thirst and hunger, looked upon a sumptuous feast that moved away from him whenever he reached out for something to eat or drink. The task of the Danaides was to fill a bathtub with water carried thereto with sieves dipped in a well some distance away, thus arriving at the tub with nothing. The strenuous attempts of the ABA, acting under a very strong mandate from members, and carried out by skilled and resourceful staffers, to invest and labor its way toward filling the online appetites and tubs of its constituents has closely mirrored the efforts of our underworld cousins.
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\nI am not an indiecommerce user myself, I use a different ecommerce platform. However, I have a great interest in independent bookselling interactive plug-ins, apps and widgets that are of potential use to all members, and have been involved for many years in utilizing online means of outreach for my own store. Obviously the productive use of limited ABA capital reserves is of interest to all members.
\nI have no doubt that when the NAIBA and NEIBA Boards complain of inadequate search functionality and other elements, that the complaint has serious merit. Nonetheless, while the Danaides were forced to keep trying to carry water in a sieve, we are not. We do not have to continue throwing good money after bad. Money on digital initiatives does need to be spent, and can be very productive, but it is not an end in itself. Doing something is not the same thing as doing something effective. Everyone knows that about running their bookstores but that point often gets lost beyond their bounds, which is the problem exactly.
\nEffective online outreach is a moving target from many vantage points, but success is determined by underlying philosophy. I have a strong conviction that the purpose of online outreach is to get people into the store. It should be a dynamic, personal extension of the store designed to promote customer engagement, and result in store visits. Online outreach is not a “set it and forget it” enterprise. It is not a field of dreams. It is not about keeping up with the Joneses. That sort of thinking has been very expensive and unproductive for many years.
\nAs technologies become more user-driven, there is a need for targeted investment, but if one doesn\u2019t have constructive answers to the question, what do you want from your online presence? You might as well be dipping into our trade organization’s bank account with a sieve.
\n\"Bismark\"<\/a>Still, perhaps I’m too close to this. After all it is a complex issue. So I decided to run it briefly by an expert in these matters, Otto von Bismarck.
\nKB : Greetings Otto! As Chancellor you united economically, culturally, and socially diverse independent German states into a single nation with incredible skill. What are your thoughts on the ongoing enterprise of independent bookstores pooling resources for an e-commerce platform?
\nOvB: Thank you for inviting me into this discussion. I am of your mind, Kenny. You must have clear, sound objectives going in, and then think very incisively as to how to bring them about. Now of course independent bookstores have no wish to be united into a centralized state so that the role of their trade organization is sadly circumscribed. Nonetheless, it seems to me, that ideas are of only two varieties, good and bad.
\nKB: Ah, so it is as the Scarlet Pimpernel indicated?
\nOvB: Precisely. Mediocre ideas are inherently bad. Good ideas take into account the character and nature of their parties. The term “a means to an end” is often misunderstood. The art of diplomacy is choosing the right means to a prescribed end. For example, you would not wish to create a work environment at DDG in which your staff was reduced to tears at their work stations, reporting on each other to management, and worked nearly to death, even if it helped your bottom line.
\nKB: Of course not. What an imagination you have, Otto. Even to think of that. We always strive to have a hard working, but fun, and pleasant work environment.
\nOvB: Hmmn. I know you’ve been busy lately, but you might want to pay closer attention to the news. In any case, my point is that money spent on online initiatives should be targeted towards expression and interaction, the currency of individual bookstores. Incentivizing e-book purchases is a terrible idea, for example, more likely to win a Darwin Award and lose customers than anything else. But using online interactions to engage with customers and bring them into the store is a vital enterprise. The increasing use of mobile devices and customer expectation is a two-edged sword. On the one hand customers are twaddling around on them instead of reading. On the other hand productive interactive interfaces do require some upkeep and development. No doubt about that. Spend, but don\u2019t overspend without return.
\nKB: Totally agree!
\nOvB: Yes, independent bookselling is its own peculiar form of diplomacy. The roles of various cultural mediums do change. Newspapers of today are barely related to those of my time, for example, but making strong connections to the community is always a work in progress for those engaged in it, regardless of the instruments they use.
\nKB: Thank you for your insight, Otto.
\nOVB: My pleasure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thinking strategically and philosophically about spending ABA money on digital initiatives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}