New chapter for book chain
Barnes & Noble has turned the page from villain to hero in eyes of publishing industry
After years on the decline, Barnes & Noble’s sales are up, its costs are down — and the same people who for decades saw the superchain as a supervillain are celebrating its success.
In the past, the book-selling empire, with 600 outposts across all 50 states, was seen by many readers, writers and book lovers as strong-arming publishers and gobbling up independent stores in its quest for market share.
Today, virtually the entire publishing industry is rooting for Barnes & Noble — including most independent booksellers. Its unique role in the book ecosystem, where it helps readers discover new titles and publishers stay invested in physical stores, makes it an essential anchor in a world upended by online sales and a much larger player: Amazon.
The pandemic tossed substantial roadblocks in Barnes & Noble’s way. For nearly two years, there were no readings or author signings in most of its stores. Its cafe business is still way down. Many of the chain’s downtown stores in urban areas are still underperforming because of a paucity of tourists and office workers.
Despite all this, sales in Barnes & Noble stores were up 3% last year over their pre-pandemic performance in 2019. The growth came the old-fashioned way, said James Daunt, the company’s CEO: by selling books, which were up 14%.
For many years, hostility toward Barnes & Noble from independent bookstores was entrenched. The American Booksellers Association, which represents independent stores, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Barnes & Noble in the 1990s. A few years before that, the group sued several publishers, saying they had unfairly charged big chains lower prices.
“There was a period where the competition was pretty ugly,” said Oren Teicher, a former CEO of the American Booksellers Association. “Barnes & Noble was perceived as not just the enemy, but as being everything about corporate book-selling that was wrong.”
Over time, however, bookstores developed “a common enemy,” Teicher said: Amazon.
Buying a book you’re looking for online is easy. You search. You click. You buy. What’s lost in that process are the accidental finds, the book you pick up in a store because of its cover, a paperback you see on a stroll through the thriller section.
No one has figured out how to replicate that online. It makes bookstores important not only for readers but also for all but the biggest-name writers, as well as for agents and publishers of all sizes.
Independent shops play an important role in that kind of discovery, but because Barnes & Noble stores are so large, they can usually keep more titles on hand. And in many parts of the country, Barnes & Noble is the only bookstore in town.
For well-known authors, Barnes & Noble is important for its size. An important stop on any major book tour, the chain’s 600 stores can place enormous orders and move a lot of copies.
“It’s funny how the industry has evolved so that they are now a good guy,” said Ellen Adler, the publisher of the independent New Press. “I would say their rehabilitation has been total.”
The chain also keeps publishers invested in distributing physical books around the country, said Kristen McLean, executive director of business development at NPD Books, which tracks the market.