Whats New at Hungry Mind!

As per many of your requests we have grown our CD's,DVD's, Music and Books on CD selection thanks mainly impart to our good friends at "Sounds True Publishing".

This year we will be at the INAT's ( international New Age Trade Show ) show in Denver booth #528.

As I wrote in an article entitled "The Future of Books" the printed book is here to stay. With many large chain stores closing there doors the number of independent bookstores especially Body,Mind,Spirit stores has expanded greatly since then.We have seen quite a few retailers coming to us because they are opening up new stores and need help stocking there shelves. This is great news for Independents like us!

A personal message from Jay Davies CEO Hungry Mind

One of the big advantages of dealing with an independent is the personalized service someone gets when they come in to your store. They become so much more than customers in many cases they become friends. They come to you and ask you if this is a good book or do you like this incense etc..... and of course you tell them the truth even if it means loosing the sale. The same is true when you order from us. After more than 24 years of helping service New Age Bookstores there are many of you who come to me and ask me for help when ordering. Please understand that this is not a burden for me but rather something I enjoy doing.

A big part of my purpose on this planet is helping independents like you succeed and prosper. When I can help you do that it makes me feel good. So I am extending my humble service's to you in assisting you when you place an order. If you ask me if a title is good or not I may or may not be able to tell you but what I can tell you is if it is a fast mover for us or if people are reordering it alot.I also don't have any problem discouraging you from a title if I think it wont be a good fit for you and your store.

Please feel free and give me a call and we can set up an appointment so I can guide you through an order. It would be my pleasure to help you and to share my 24 plus years of experience in selling Books.

We listen to all your suggestions so please let us know how we can make the site better and easier to navigate. We are here to help you succeed! Sincerely Jay Davies Hungry Mind Hungry Mind Bookmart www.hungrymindbooks.com

Hungry Mind News

The Future of Books

By Jay Davies

I know there is a lot of talk about the future of books and the future of bookstores. With Borders announcing bankruptcy and with Amazons Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook it's hard to know what the future holds for books and booksellers in general. On top of that Amazon is selling their new books well below Pub. Retail price so what's a Bookseller supposed to feel about their future.

Well there's no doubt we are in a time of great change and there's no doubt that temporarily at least it is difficult to compete with these changes, but if you can see past the short term headaches of the change I think you will see that all of these changes are in fact positive changes for the future of independent booksellers.

With the closing of Borders and with Barnes & Noble's closing many of their physical stores it will be harder and harder to find large bookstores to go to and purchase books. So where does that leave you the independent bookseller? With the Karmic closure of these chain stores in the near future the only place people will have to physically go to buy books will be independents like you. I say Karmic closures because if you might remember in the early 90's Chain stores opened up directly across from or in some cases right next to independents and drove many of them out of business. Well it's comin around and if you the independent booksellers can hold on you will be the ones who reap the benefits. After being in this business 23 years and watching the trends go up and down I feel qualified to make the statement that physical books will not in the foreseeable future be replaced by ebooks and downloads. There will always be people that want to hold an actual paper edition of a book. However having said that there will be a big shift and many people will switch to ebooks as Kindles and Nooks become more and more affordable. Right now the most inexpensive kindle is 114.00. Still quite an investment. When kindles and Nooks go down to the 29.95 range more people will try them. What does this mean to the publishers who are printing books? It means smaller press runs and eventually much higher retail prices on books and greater incentives on digital books. You see the more a publisher prints the cheaper the per unit cost is for him when printing books.

So what's this mean again to you and your future in the bookselling industry? The good news is its already happening independent bookstores are opening up at a rate of 1 a day. Chain stores are closing every day. So bottom line is that people will be seeking out bookstores and independents like you and you will thrive more and more. Of course people can still buy books online for less than they can buy from you but the vibe, ambiance, and personal service that you and your store give them they can't find from an online shopping experience. Many of you already offer discount sections and buy from discounters like myself. The other great alternatives are to buy and sell used books. In this case even if a customer could buy it on Amazon for even a penny they in most cases will simply just buy from you. First off there's no shipping charge and second of all its instant gratification no waiting. Just find your book and take it home. I believe buying and reselling used books will be a strong asset in successful bookselling now and in the future, even in stores that have only sold new books in the past.

So the future from my perspective along with the few changes looks very promising for the independent bookseller of the near future and present.

Happy Bookselling

Jay Davies
Hungry Mind Bookmart
www.hungrymindbooks.com