DO YOU THINK THE BOOKSTORE IS DEAD?

         Nope. And neither does Time Magazine.
      The newsmagazine reported that the American Booksellers Association says the number of its member stores has actually been increasing. And you can’t even call this a fluke because it's the seventh straight year it’s happened. The numbers are growing because business is growing. Independent-bookstore sales have jumped by around 5% in recent times. Time goes on to say "The revival of the neighbourhood bookstore has a few different causes. Some are prosaic: new technology makes things like accounting and inventory management easier for small stores. The growth of social media makes it easier to promote events."
       As much as I like my Kindle (because I'm usually reading 3 books at a time, it's nice to have this thin little guy in my pocket rather pack a separate suitcase for several hardbacks when I'm on the road), check this out: "After Amazon launched the Kindle in 2007, e-books began a relentless conquest of the book market, from 9% of unit sales in 2010 to 28% in 2013, at which point their eventual dominance began to feel like technological manifest destiny. But the paper book – a piece of information technology that has, after all, been tested and honed over the past 2,000 years – has declined to give way that easily. [In 2015], the share of e-books (at least the non-self-published kind) actually receded to 24%. The books market appears to have rebalanced itself into a complex mix of paper and digital, with neither format completely dominating, and plenty of room for brick-and-mortar retailers."
 When I'm doing presentations on "Shark Assault" (sharkassault.com) or "Why Being Happy Maters" (whybeinghappymatters.com) at bookstores, the proprietors tell me a 'growth industry' is amongst the young: kids seem to opting for real books once again rather than e-books.
      Frankly, for this author, as long as people are reading (and hopefully reading my books!), whether it's paper or digital, it's all good.

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