Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Christy Awards for expressing their Christian worldview in fiction.

Christianity Today magazine has listed their book awards last year’s titles. The books have a similar feel to me, as if they were on the shelves of a discriminating bookstores.

The Literary Saloon points out the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for works translated into English. The Saloon advocates such work, encouraging readers to broaden themselves with literature written outside the U.S., and has some of this prize’s shortlist under review. I think I’ll have to make room for Suite Francaise.

As an interesting parallel, The Saloon also quotes from Alberto Fuguet of Chile who says translated works can be pretty ugly, and for works translated from the original to another language then to Spanish? Forget it!

Mr. Bertrand has a post on the Contemporary finalists which he judged for this year’s Christy Awards.

He also passes on a story about and a link to an interesting book site for new book, No One Belongs Here More Than You. Take a look at it. Do you think anyone could follow suit with a promotion of their own book? And do you think color coordinating one’s reading with her outfit will ever catch on?

The Literary Saloon points to an article asking for the point of literary readings. “Reading is decidedly anti-social behavior. The freedom to read whatever we want to read is a shining legacy of our democracy, but one’s response to a book need not be democratic. One’s response is a totalitarian regime within each individual reader, morphing over time, and fighting for dominion of the imagination,” Mik Awake writes.

How many copies did Sahara actually sell? As many as the publisher says it did, according to the LA Times. “Publishers are notoriously reluctant to divulge sales numbers, and the complex, arcane nature of bookselling makes it hard to determine how well or badly a title is doing,” writes Josh Getlin. “Publishers routinely withhold full sales figures, saying the information is proprietary. The only people legally entitled to know those numbers are authors and their agents.”

Apparently, most books don’t sell well, even losing money for the publisher, so insiders keep real sales figures, if they can be known, to themselves. If an author claims his book sold 100,000, you have to trust him. There’s no public record to verify it.

When sliding sales forced Cody’s to close its store next to the UC Berkeley campus, the poet Ron Silliman wrote on his blog that it was once the anchor of “the best book-buying block in North America.” But in the discussion that followed, the attitude was one of resignation if not indifference.

“Why would anyone want to perpetuate small independents by paying higher prices?” wondered Curtis Faville, a poet who sells rare books on the Internet. “Most of these proud little independents were poorly run anyway.”

Less harshly, Silliman suggested in an e-mail that “we’re simultaneously caught in the wonder of the new and true mourning for the losses of the old.”

It’s an unsettling if inevitable process. Half a century ago, Silliman said, he would play chess and checkers with his grandfather as they listened to the radio. “That stopped once the TV arrived, because now we all had to face the same direction,” he wrote.

Those for whom “browsing” has much more of an online connotation than a physical one barely register the shift.

“Bookstores, small or large, don’t carry what I’m looking for,” said Logan Ryan Smith, a 29-year-old accountant who publishes a literary magazine and poetry pamphlets. “I’m not going to find an Effing Press or Ugly Duckling Presse book even at City Lights or Cody’s.”

The L.A. Times has a good story on the problems of independent booksellers in our changing culture. The point Silliman makes on isolating ourselves through entertainment has impact the world over. It touches on one of reason people don’t read. We seek the tantalizing over the fulfilling. We fail to taste the richness of interaction because consumption is more immediate and comfortable.

Lynne Scanlon has darkly roasted and robust conversations about modern bookselling at this post: “Wicked Witch of Publishing Takes Over Pretend Independent Bookstore. Will She Thrive—or Just Survive?” Post and comments, all very interesting, such as:

• Find ways to save money and make money simultaneously by renegotiating your building lease and subletting to authors or anyone who needs a bit o’ space.
• Answer the question “What would you have to believe about my store to be willing to come here and spend money here?”
• In the comments: what on earth does this say about the basic premise of even having an indie if you have to do all this to prop it up?
• If we had been voracious business people instead of voracious readers we might have had a chance — maybe.
• I believe that anybody should work for a minimum of 12 months alongside an experienced bookseller who has a proven sales record.

W. Witch asked some entrepreneurs about reviving independent bookstores and recorded her conversation with one strong entrepreneur and author.

Books can be bought cheaply and efficiently from too many people other than the independent bookstores. They, the bookstores, need to figure out what they can provide OTHER than books, while still revolving AROUND books, that CANNOT be provided by the others—and figure out a way to charge for THAT.

Service and recommendations aren’t enough, so how does a bookseller figure out where the frontier is in order to cross it? Ask readers and consumers what interests them.

That sounds like a long, hard road with many potential detours. For my part as a non-businessman who doesn’t understand making money, I’ve wondered about the profitability of an audiobook kiosk in a store which would allow a person to purchase and download audiobook MP3s to his player. Perhaps that would best fit a travel or tourist market in which customers don’t necessarily have all of their resources on hand to buy audiobooks through a website.

Another idea I’ve had is personalized dedications printed in nice editions of classic books. A store could work out a system with a local printer to have preprinted or custom printed dedications available as well as fine editions of popular classics (or maybe any nice book) for people to select and personalize as special gifts to students, visionaries, and book lovers.

And I won’t repeat my store marketing suggestion: Overpriced Books (Got Money to Burn? Spend It with Us.)

W. Witch asked some entrepreneurs about reviving independent bookstores and recorded her conversation with one strong entrepreneur and author.

Books can be bought cheaply and efficiently from too many people other than the independent bookstores. They, the bookstores, need to figure out what they can provide OTHER than books, while still revolving AROUND books, that CANNOT be provided by the others—and figure out a way to charge for THAT.

Service and recommendations aren’t enough, so how does a bookseller figure out where the frontier is in order to cross it? Ask readers and consumers what interests them.

That sounds like a long, hard road with many potential detours. For my part as a non-businessman who doesn’t understand making money, I’ve wondered about the profitability of an audiobook kiosk in a store which would allow a person to purchase and download audiobook MP3s to his player. Perhaps that would best fit a travel or tourist market in which customers don’t necessarily have all of their resources on hand to buy audiobooks through a website.

Another idea I’ve had is personalized dedications printed in nice editions of classic books. A store could work out a system with a local printer to have preprinted or custom printed dedications available as well as fine editions of popular classics (or maybe any nice book) for people to select and personalize as special gifts to students, visionaries, and book lovers.

And I won’t repeat my store marketing suggestion: Overpriced Books (Got Money to Burn? Spend It with Us.)