David Kornhaber has a rather chilling op-ed piece on the Harvard University website in which he argues that the dominance of chain bookstores in America is degrading the national literary culture. Kornhaber’s main point is that without a wide net of independent bookstore owners willing to take chances on innovative and emerging writers, publishers will be forced to publish only those books that appeal to the bestseller-mentality of the corporate-owned book chains. “Three bookstore chains control three-fourths of all book sales,” Kornhaber writes. “Each of these chains has only one or two people in charge of buying books from publishers. Instead of thousands of independent buyers looking for books, there are now only five book purchasers who determine which books are sold in the vast majority of the nation’s bookstores. Publishers who cannot sell to these five buyers are now more than ever finding themselves in financial dire straits. And thus, writers who are trying to express a vision that doesn’t appeal to these buyers are finding themselves without publishers.” (Thanks to Bookninja.com for the link.)
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Read David Kornhaber’s essay
