Books Need a Record Store Day
It's a mystery even Agatha Christie would have trouble solving. Why don't book publishers emulate Record Store Day?
Record Store Day is a highly successful annual event that has been a key piston in the resurgence of the popularity of vinyl records. Started in 2007, RSD has quickly become an event for music lovers. Bands release special editions of albums, there are in-store concerts, lines are long at independent record stores -- everybody wins!
So why hasn't the book publishing industry tried something similar?
I sometimes wonder if book publishers really realize what a depressing thing it is to go to a book store today. Barnes & Noble has basically become a toy store that sells a few bestsellers. Independent bookstores have a better selection, but why spend $50 on three paperbacks when you can pull out your phone and download the Kindle editions for $30, and maybe even less? And it's a coffee table book that you really want to have in your hands, you can get it for roughly $20 less than at any bookstore -- and with free delivery.
I'm sorry, but the "ambiance" and "knowledgable staff" of a book store just isn't worth that much money.
Compare that to Record Store Day, which has become a textbook example of how to create excitement about a product. The hype starts weeks and even months before, as artists and stores start releasing information on what bands are participating, and what records they will be releasing. Many of these issues are solely for RSD. When they sell out, they are gone.
This gets people talking and tweeting and posting. This in turn brings people to the stores. I myself couldn't resist this year, when I heard that the Cure was releasing a special red vinyl edition of their 1980s album Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me.
It's amazing that the digital revolution is now well over a decade old and book publishers have not adapted. Ten years ago the industry should have begun a tiered system for books. First tier would be the electronic edition, available for quick download. Second tier would be a hardback copy signed by the author. Third tier could be a lavish package, including the book, a poster, notes from the author, special paper, whatever.
Just think of the opportunities that have been missed with movie tie-ins - The Great Gatsby, Les Miserables, The Road. A deluxe hardback edition of The Great Gatsby complete with vintage illustrations from Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines, as well as original review of the book and an afterward by Leonardo DiCaprio. A special edition of Cormac McCarthy's The Road with illustrations by Alex Maleev. Les Miserables editions with special limited covers.
And market these editions during Book Store Day, or Book Store Week. Anything is better than what book stores are now, which is make work jobs for English majors who mumble, "We don't have it, but we can order it in a few days if you really need it." I just downloaded it on my phone, but thanks anyway. Sigh.
My book buying habits are now essentially in two different worlds. Most books I simply download and read instantly. Yet there is a significant subset of books that you need to hold in your hand -- MetaMaus by Art Spiegelman, photography books, Palookaville by the cartoonist Seth, works about Picasso, the visual history of punk, collections from the pages of Mad magazine.
That last one deserves special mention. When I was a kid in the 1970s I was completely obsessed with Mad magazine. I would anticipate the monthly issue like it was Christmas, and ordered books through the mail by their cartoonists. One of my favorites was Al Jaffee, who did a section called "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions." Jaffee was even more famous for the "Mad Fold-In," the back page of the magazine that was a picture that, when folded in on itself, would reveal a different picture and the answer to a question (try that on a Kindle). I ordered Jaffee's books in the mail, and I can still remember the joy when the brown box appeared four to six weeks later.
I'm not saying that publishers have to resort to The Sound and the Fury: Al Jaffee Fold-In Edition. But as the originators of Record Store Day have found, there is a middle way between $100 boxed set editions and singles that people will only want to download. There are special editions of albums that cost a little more but are unique and have special meaning. You can produce something beautiful, create excitement about a product and make money, and help struggling musicians.
Why publishers don't do it themselves is anyone's guess.
