And Speaking of Used Bookstores

or should that be used book bookstores?  It’s not the bookstores that are used, it’s the books inside them.    Hmm, I’ll have to think more about that one.

I’ve been thinking about used books a lot lately, and not just because Kim recently wrote about a bunch of ones I’d like to check out someday, or because I’m beginning to dream of another visit to Bart’s Books.  It’s more because of the economy and the environment: the pressures caused by the downturn of both make me wonder whether the responsible thing to do these days is to buy used books whenever possible.

I’m not the first person to start musing along these lines.  A writer named Matt Selman wrote a post recently for his “nerdworld” blog on Time Magazine’s website that examines the relative morality of ordering a book new from Amazon.com versus ordering a used copy from a smaller bookseller.  Now, I’ve never met this Selman person in my life (except when he and his wife came over with their kids to our house for brunch that one time, or any time I visit my husband at work since they write on The Simpsons together), but I did find his blog very interesting.  He set up a good debate, but my first thought on reading his blog was, “What about the independent bookstores?”  (By the way, they’re having an archive problem since they switched servers over there, so I can’t post a link to his original piece, but I’ll add it to the end of this one once I get hold of a copy.)  Note: I’ve since obtained a copy of Matt’s piece and added it to the bottom of this one, so you can read it for yourself.

I guess the fate of independent bookstores is more our concern than his.  Selman focuses entirely on online ordering and whether it’s morally preferable to buy from an enormous (one might even say bloated) corporate entity like Amazon–and know for sure that the author will receive his royalty–or support a smaller seller of used books who needs to stay in business but who cuts the author out of the equation altogether.

So what is  the most moral way to buy a book?

Take environmental considerations.  Since the goal in that direction is always to reduce waste, you can make a pretty good argument for buying a used book over a new one (for buying used over new in general).  Nothing says “recycle” like passing an item along to the next user. 

Of course, there’s one step better than buying used and that’s taking the book out of your local library.  My brother is my environmental barometer–he’s got the smallest (and therefore prettiest) carbon footprint of anyone I know–and he pretty much only takes books out of the library.  Same goes for DVDs.  (He also buys mostly used clothes and other necessary items and, when possible, gets them for free through Craig’s List.  But we’re only interested in books on this blog.)

So the environmental choice is clear: used is better than new, libraries are better than used.

There is of course one problem with all this: authors who don’t make any money off their books will become authors who stop writing and turn to other occupations like, say, used book salesmen.  

For anyone out there who’s a little unclear on how authors get paid, it’s like this: the money you’re paid when a publisher buys your manuscript is an “advance against royalties.”   You theoretically get a percentage of the money paid for each and every book (that’s your royalty) but before you see any of that money, you have to “earn out” your advance.  So, say I get paid a hundred dollars for my manuscript and then get a dollar royalty for each book sold, I won’t see any MORE money until a hundred books are sold and I’ve “earned out” my hundred dollar advance.  Then I start getting that dollar on all future books sold. 

Books are also, as far as I know, the only retail items that a seller is allowed to return to the producer for full reimbursement if they’re unable to sell them.  If you buy too many tomatoes for your grocery store, you either try desperately to sell them or make tomato sauce.  But if you order too many copies of a book no one wants, you can return them to the publisher and it’s the publisher who eats the cost, not you.  This policy may change in the near future, but it’s been this way for a long time.

All of this is to say that every book sold is meaningful to an author (and his/her publisher).   When a used book is sold, there are no royalties on it and none of that money goes back to the publisher–only the bookseller gets richer.  On the other hand (I like to argue both sides), it’s possible that a person browsing a used book store will take a risk on a book he might not want to pay full retail price for, will like it, and will happily purchase the author’s next book when it’s first published.

There are arguments to be made each and every way.  Kim and I have made it clear that we ourselves love a good used bookstore, and the people who own them have every right to make a good living.  Used books are environmentally friendly, as I said above.  And if you want to support used bookstores, then you have to take your hat off to Amazon, which, as Kim wrote in her last post, allows used booksellers to get their wares out to a nationwide customer base that they otherwise couldn’t access. 

Libraries are wonderful.  We all know that.  There are people who simply can’t afford to buy books and libraries mean that no one is denied the opportunity to read, learn, amuse, and educate himself.  And libraries are of course huge book purchasers, so even if people are “sharing” the books, a lot of books are sold in the first place thanks to our library system.

So there’s no clearcut moral answer to how or where you should be getting your books (at least as far as I can tell–please write in if you have a strong feeling about this).  I still find myself going first to my local independent bookstores where I happily pay full retail because I love that they’re there and I don’t want them to stop being there.  And also because I’m an author as well as a reader, and I know how important it is for people to be out there buying new books and making sure the author gets his royalties.   But I do gravitate toward the library more and more these days for my kids, especially for my daughter who can tear through a YA novel in a couple of hours.   It simply makes financial sense for us to take those out and exchange them for new ones when she’s done.  Finally, I love a good used bookstore and have discovered a lot of books by browsing through dusty shelves than I never would have found any other way.

So . . . Vive la retail!  Vive la used books!  Vive la libraries!  To paraphase Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee (“I just love finding new ways to wear diamonds”), I just love finding new ways to obtain books.