Secret word behind B & N's turnaround

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Booktok during COVID. Booktok made Colleen Hoover go from a self-published author to what we see now. Hee self-pub books from a few years ago are being republished the traditional way, too. It’s amazing to see how big some of those influencers have become.

Only some of her books are self published. She chose to be self published, and currently has deals with three different publishers because she likes the freedom that it gives her. She doesn't need a publisher at all, so they are bowing to her. It's really an interesting story. She used to work in child protection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Covid made me convert to Kindle. I do not want to read any physical books again.

Agree, especially from the library. Even pre-covid I had to wipe down many library books because they get gross.

I pretty much exclusively use my kindle now, and get ebooks from the library.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Booktok during COVID. Booktok made Colleen Hoover go from a self-published author to what we see now. Hee self-pub books from a few years ago are being republished the traditional way, too. It’s amazing to see how big some of those influencers have become.

Only some of her books are self published. She chose to be self published, and currently has deals with three different publishers because she likes the freedom that it gives her. She doesn't need a publisher at all, so they are bowing to her. It's really an interesting story. She used to work in child protection.

I didn't criticize her self-publishing. As I wrote, now that she has a trad publishing contract, the old books are being republished.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And not wanting to order from Amazon

This is me. B&N are basically the underdog now. And honestly they do a great job with toys at Christmas. I miss Toys ‘R Us, but I can count on a good selection at B&N for my kids and my nieces. They filled in that gap pretty well.

The underdog? They’re owned by a hedge fund, which also owns Waterstones (giant UK book chain). They made an announcement that they won’t carry any hardcover middle grade books besides famous authors, essentially killing chances for new authors to be discovered in the largest brick and mortar bookstore in the country.


Don’t pretend you aren’t giving your money to a good guy because you are avoiding the worst of the the bad guys.

Shop local and shop bookshop.org.

Thank you, PP. People are not well-informed.

DP. We are aware of the owner of BN, which so far seems to be better than poor doomed Borders. You can wish for the death of the B bookstores if you wish - that's such an old-fashioned idea now, almost quaint.

[Anonymous]

I don't really get why there's so much snobbery about where people get books. I'm just happy that it seems a lot more people are reading since covid (at least anecdotally that is true in my circles). I don't care if people use the library, e books, used bookstores/library sales, audiobooks, brand new hardbacks from an independent bookstore, amazon, or B&N.

Of course, the point is that we want access to authors outside of those the big 5 choose to publish. This year, I'm trying to read at least half of the books I read (I usually read about 80 books a year) from non-big 5 publishers. But I will source them from wherever I want.

[Anonymous]

Randomly, B&N was one of the few places I found jigsaw puzzles in stock back during that pandemic phase.

And I recently pre-ordered a book from B&N because they were having a sale on pre orders.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Randomly, B&N was one of the few places I found jigsaw puzzles in stock back during that pandemic phase.

And I recently pre-ordered a book from B&N because they were having a sale on pre orders.

Yes! I got all my pandemic jigsaw puzzles from their website, and they have a great selection in-store, too.

I love my local B&N’s little cafe with Starbucks coffee and pastries ❤️

[Anonymous]

I prefer ebooks but I love going to the Barnes & Noble in the Rio. We play a lot of board/card games (Catan, Cards Against Humanity), and the B&N at the Rio has the biggest collection I've seen locally. They have so other gifts there too (Legos, journals, lap desks). I go there every holiday season to buy gifts. It's also just a pretty store in general and it makes me happy to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And not wanting to order from Amazon

This is me. B&N are basically the underdog now. And honestly they do a great job with toys at Christmas. I miss Toys ‘R Us, but I can count on a good selection at B&N for my kids and my nieces. They filled in that gap pretty well.

Do the new smaller stores have the same toy supply?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't really get why there's so much snobbery about where people get books. I'm just happy that it seems a lot more people are reading since covid (at least anecdotally that is true in my circles). I don't care if people use the library, e books, used bookstores/library sales, audiobooks, brand new hardbacks from an independent bookstore, amazon, or B&N.

Of course, the point is that we want access to authors outside of those the big 5 choose to publish. This year, I'm trying to read at least half of the books I read (I usually read about 80 books a year) from non-big 5 publishers. But I will source them from wherever I want.

What you’re interpreting as snobbery is an attempt to avoid one of the most exploitative employers out there. No one’s requiring that you give any shits at all about people dying in warehouses, though