Make literature marketable, please!
My brother would always hesitate whenever I ask him to buy a lovable
book here. You can buy many books half the price they sell in England.
But he never buys a single book in our market. This had been puzzling me
every so often. Is he getting loaded with money, I wondered.
I got the answer one day at last. He is lured by the 'buy one get one
free'. There is no point in buying book here even it is half the price,
so to say. Our booksellers must be following the same technique too, but
I haven't seen it. I have seen it in soap and other items more than
enough. We use soap anyway, but the sellers are so concerned about which
brand we should use. Too sad booksellers are not equally concerned.
As long as they have their steady income by stationery, textbooks and
a few novels or short stories, the booksellers do not care for other
things; they don't just want to boost their income, or are they short of
strategies to market literature?
This 'buy one get one free' may seem a bit commercial and you may
argue literature should not be reduced to that level. Come on,
literature is after all a mode of living for some writers. In England
some writers live by books, because they have a steady publishing
industry and good reading culture (in the sense those who buy and read)
Whatever you write has a value, and you have every right to follow every
trick of the trade to sell it!
I remembered the enigma of my brother when I saw a facebook status
update by my closest colleague. She was eagerly waiting for September,
the book month. I was among the lot who commented on her status update
by bringing up this 'buy one get one free' thing.
I am not sure if I am a bookworm or anything, but I buy a book only
when it tempts me. In that case I am scared to step into some bookshops
lest I will be lured. But still I hear parents lament their children
don't read much, and publishers complain their fiction don't sell
properly.
In countries like England people buy books like we buy fruits and
vegetables. This is basically because books are more affordable than
here. Who would give it a chase when they can buy one get one free?
There is nothing much but that 'free' tag is enough to seduce the weak
customer.
Isn't it damn shame we have one month specifically for buying books
and another for reading books, just like some days for mothers, fathers
and others? Does that mean we should not buy and read books off these
months? If we go back to our glorious past, we are a nation who could
listen well when there were no books. Now we are shifting to the audio
books from reading books; wonder if we are going back to our roots!
This goes best for the bibliophiles who hate hanging around
libraries. Now these bibliophiles are of two forms: collectors and
readers. Readers are concerned mostly about contents, while collectors
are fond hardback publications: both need to have a personal collection
for self-reference.
Bibliophiles will somehow read the book they want. Now with the
Internet on your palm, this is even easier. Some book converted to both
e-books as well as audio books make our life easier. I have a friend who
sometimes uses up the whole night to read one book over the Internet.
Just imagine concentrating on one book, without facebooking or anything!
If booksellers can come up with more ideas like what my brother has
fallen to, I am sure they will enjoy a better customer hold.
The second hand book is another scheme to magnetize the customer. But
bookshops and pavements mostly have magazines and decade-old
supplementary books. Seldom will you come across a one or two-year old
book. People don't even leave or forget books here and there, like in
many developed countries.
Bibliophilia is all right, but make sure you won't get bibliomania of
collecting books obsessively affecting your physical and mental health.
I am sure you won't, so booksellers, over to you, to make literature
marketable for the sake of poor fellows who simply cannot wait one whole
year for September.
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